Nathan Schneider, author of

Nathan Schneider, author of the just-published Thank You Anarchy, Notes From the Occupy Apocalypse http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/19479-the-occupy-movement-continues-in-its-legacy-of-ongoing-resistance MK: What are your thoughts, in retrospect, on how to actively engage the working class in the struggle for economic justice? NS: I think the answer has to begin with more questions: What does “working class” even mean anymore, and who is part of it? Gone are the days of factory workers ready and waiting to be turned into union members en masse. Today we have the not-working-enough class (the main constituency of Occupy), and the working-too-much class (who had to choose between going to the General Assembly and putting food on the table), and the working-under-the-table-with-threat-of-deportation class (who couldn’t risk being arrested at an Occupy march), and the hoping-these-loans-will-pay-off class (who risked financial ruin if they let Occupy distract them from getting good grades) and many more. Gender and race operate in ways that conventional class theory doesn’t take into account. The power of the “99%” meme was in that it elided the unspoken forms of alienation that prevent us from organizing against capitalism today. It was convenient for conveying a sense of unity. But as people doing deep grassroots organizing know, reality is more complicated than that. Strange how Schneider strikes such a “revolutionary” and “progressive” attitude repeating ideas that are 40-50 year old and that are periodically over the years proved wrong. IMHO, the failure of Occupy was the lack of participation of organised wage-workers in the unions and despite Mayday attempts to involve them, they didn’t succeed. I’m not attaching any blame. There were a lot of reasons for this. But there is no point in re-classifying and re-defining what a worker is to explain this failing. (as an aside, i had to look up the dictionary for the meaning of “elided”) The legacy of Occupy according to Schneider – a return to single issue campaigning and perhaps “good neighbourlyness” regards weather disasters. But perhaps i am being unfair from such a limited interview and not having read his book – but his comments echo other Occupy’s  “leading” participants conclusions.