Collective worker

Summary

Dominique Pagani takes up the notion of the collective worker from Michel Clouscard. He defines it as a unity of action in the production process, yet one unable to recognise itself politically as class consciousness, and negated by the consumerism of libertarian liberalism. He links it to the alliance of the proletariat and the middle strata1, while noting that some parasitic occupations within these strata live at its expense2. He often returns to Clouscard's proposal to replace the Senate with a parliament of the collective worker, where the producers of wealth would decide the destiny of the community, sheltered from formal law and lobbying3. In 2018, however, in discussion with Bernard Friot, he presents this parliament as a concession dating from the Trente Glorieuses4. He also holds that the collective worker can act on the State by taking advantage of its decay. He sees in the self-organisation of workers during the crisis proof that a society in which they take charge of themselves is feasible5.

1. 1Clouscard: The metamorphoses of class struggle2 Sept 2024 · 1:27:54
2. 2#15 Return to the logics of the subject23 Jul 2020 · 1:01:00
3. 3Everything's allowed, but nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68, French theory and capitalism14 Jul 2021 · 52:21
4. 4In conversation with Bernard Friot (1 June 2018)12 Jun 2018 · 2:21:42
5. 5#15 Return to the logics of the subject23 Jul 2020 · 48:36

Summary produced automatically from 11 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.