The Working Class and Solidarity

[Note: The following short article was originally written as part of a zine that was distributed at demonstrations on May Day 2025 which were organized by a coalition of organizations which included Maine Democratic Socialists of America, the Revolutionary Communists of America, the Independent Socialist Group, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Communist Party of Maine (CPUSA), and several Maine branches of AFL-CIO affiliated unions. Though it has been several months since those demonstrations, and the article was not meant for The Revolutionist, we have decided to publish it as supplemental material for a forthcoming critique of the senatorial candidate Graham Platner, who is running to take the seat currently head by Susan Collins. The draft of that critique will be published soon in order to begin its circulation within Maine DSA as it simultaneously goes through Cosmonaut Magazine’s editorial process. Graham has reached national progressive audiences since launching his campaign, and we are only about 1 degree of separation from him, so we are expecting that our critique may get some attention once officially published in a magazine with relatively wide reach like Cosmonaut. It is for this reason that we want as much material clarifying our positions to be available in advance. If our readers find utility in this article we’ve written here, they are free to print and distribute it as they see fit. that was the purpose for which it was originally written after all. — Bluebird, September 2025]

There can sometimes be confusion about what the working class is and who gets to be part of this class. In some cases, this takes the form of small business owners trying to claim a place within the working class while continuing to be quite antagonistic to actual working class people. In other cases, it takes the form of working class people self-excluding themselves from the working class because they believe they perform a fundamentally different kind of labor.

This mystification can happen for a lot of reasons. Being part of the working class can carry a lot of social capital because society would not be able to operate without workers. This can lead some people to try and claim this social capital for their own personal gain. On the other hand, some people may self-exclude from the category of working class because they feel that their labor is more or less legitimate than other kinds of labor, something we see in discussions about skilled and unskilled labor.

So who is actually working class? Put simply, the working class consists of those individuals who have nothing to sell but their ability to work. This is why one’s specific trade or employment status does not determine whether or not they are part of the working class. Skilled laborers, unskilled laborers, and even the unemployed are all part of the working class as long as they have nothing to sell but their ability to work.

Business owners, however, do not belong to the working class.

Take the example of a small business owner. Even if they are their business’s sole employee, they do not survive by selling their ability to work. This is true even if they are selling a service instead of a physical product. Why? Because they own all the necessary technical means to profit on their own terms from their own labor; they are consumers of labor power, rather than sellers of it. This gives them a different relationship to labor, which also gives them a different incentive structure from the working class. For example, as soon as their business grows, they will designate more and more jobs to hired laborers until the owner plays no actual role in production and profits simply by their ownership of the business.

This is very different from the situation of a working class person. If the working class was paid the full value of what its labor produced, it would be mathematically impossible for their employers to turn a profit. This exploitative situation does not exist for small business owners because they are consumers of labor power rather than sellers, even when the labor power they consume is their own. As such, small business owners are able to appropriate the full value of their labor and potentially profit from the labor of others, whereas the working class is only able to appropriate a fraction of the value it produces.

Some more skilled laborers, such as doctors or tradesmen, might get offended by the suggestion that they belong to the same class as low wage service workers. But personal biases do not change material facts. Furthermore, it is incorrect to think that a given profession is less legitimate because it is less technical than another profession. Ask yourself how many of your coworkers get breakfast or lunch from McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts multiple times a week? If you do this, ask yourself how your life would change if you had to make your own breakfast or lunch every day? How much earlier would you need to wake up in the morning? How would that change your ability to do your job? An economic sector like the construction industry would become much less productive if the fast food industry were to disappear, and those who argue otherwise have never seen the inside of a construction worker’s vehicle.

Furthermore, the working class has no race, gender or nationality. A carpenter is what a carpenter does. It makes no difference whether they are black or white, man or woman; whether they do their work in Ireland or Japan. In all cases they do the same job, with the same tools, and the same materials.

Despite the international and intersectional nature of the working class, it’s unfortunately common to hear many working people express bigoted sentiments towards other workers, especially immigrant workers. “They’re stealing our jobs” they say. Working class people must combat these negative sentiments. It is incredibly common for people to move to different towns, states, and countries for work. It is doubtful that those who accuse immigrants of stealing jobs would say the same thing about a Floridian that moves to Georgia for work, yet that is essentially the argument that is being made when workers accuse immigrants of stealing jobs. If, however, immigrant workers were members of the same unions as American workers, and therefore subject to the same collective bargaining agreements, it would be impossible for businessmen to undercut American labor with immigrant labor.

In order for workers to protect their own interests, they must unite with their fellow workers, regardless of race, gender, or nation of origin. Whenever workers fight amongst themselves or compete with each other, all workers lose and the businessmen rejoice. This is the meaning of solidarity and it’s what unions are built on. But in order for unions to be strong, and for the working class to be strong by extension, solidarity must be practiced consistently.

Bluebird,

May, 2025