This might be the first time you have ever heard the term class collaboration, but you are probably already familiar with it.
Class collaboration is when social classes come together—or collaborate—for a common good. While that might seem like as a positive thing on the surface, it is based on the ideology that having social classes in the first place is good.
Well, now we need to define what social classes are: the categorized into groups based on common goals or interests.
These classes can often be delineated dichotomously, such as black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, and so on; however, there can be some fluidity in social classes: white vs. people of colour, for example.
For the purpose of this article, I am interested in the two primary social classes created via capitalism: the owning class and the working class.
Some people prefer the term “capitalist class”, but to me a capitalist can also be used to refer to someone who supports capitalism. I prefer the term “owning class” because it more directly ties its members to their relationship to the means of production.
You see, the delineation between the two classes comes down to the relationship each class has to the means of production, that which is used to produce goods or services. In economics, these are referred to as the four factors of production: land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship.
Those who own and control the means of production—primarily land, labour, and capital—belong to the owning class. They own and control the land where the production occurs, as well as the natural resources in and on that land. They own and control the labour used to convert raw materials from the land into goods and services. They own and control the capital that the labour uses—tools, factories, machinery, money, etc—to convert raw materials from the land into goods and services. And of course, they own and control the entrepreneurship, that which brings land, labour, and capital together to produce goods and services.
The working class is pretty much all those who don’t own the means of production, who don’t own the land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurship that creates the goods and services. Often they comprise the labour factor of production. But sometimes they don’t.
For example, stay-at-home parents don’t provide labour that the owning class then owns and controls. People who are disabled and can’t work are part of the working class even though they don’t work at a paid job. Same with retirees. Post-secondary students are another example of working class, regardless of whether they are holding down a part-time job while in school. Self-employed people are part of the working class despite not having an employer.
While most people who belong to the working class hold down a job, working for a paycheque isn’t what makes you working class. Your relationship to the means of production does. If you don’t own or control the means of production, then you’re working class.
In this case, class collaboration is when the owning class and working class collaborate on a shared goal.
Patriotism or nationalism are great examples of this.
If one country threatens the sovereignty of another country, for instance, politicians in the second country might rally the general public to show their national pride, maybe even asking everyone to make some sacrifices to save the country.
You might also see it with unions who collaborate with business owners to undermine labour power in those workplaces.
A good example of this is when, in 2018, Christian Labour Association of Canada teamed up with the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, an employer lobby group, and an open shop industry association to sue the BC government for favouring building trades unions in public infrastructure projects.
Or perhaps a union might agree to never strike if the employer agrees to never lockout, something commonly found in collective agreements in Alberta.
But how capitalism that produces the owning class and working class is anything but natural. This dominant economic system requires class struggle: the working class must produce enough labour value to generate not only their own wages but also profit for the owning class to accumulate. Without this class distinction, it is not capitalism.
The working class should be fighting or changes that benefit the working class, not that benefit capitalism. Anything that benefits capitalism will benefit the owning class more than it will benefit the working class.
The working class should be advocating for the abolition of the capitalist class system, not trying to work together with the owning class to generate more revenue.
The working class should own the means of production. Anything less than that is, at the very least, enriching the owning class and, at most, collaborating with them.
Since the working class produces the profit, they should own the profit. As long as the means of production is owned by the owning class, however, this will never happen.
Any attempt to undermine this class conflict inherent to capitalism is antithetical to the working class.
When workers accuse temporary foreign workers, for example, of stealing their jobs and driving down wages, rather than blaming the business owners for wanting to keep wages low through lobbying governments to bring in foreign labour, they buy into the racism and xenophobia created by the working class. They bypass class solidarity in favour of class collaboration.
Instead of standing in solidarity with their fellow workers to oppose the exploitation of the working class, they stand in solidarity with the owning class to uphold racism and xenophobia.
When workers accept employment at a jobsite where the workers on strike, they bypass class solidarity in favour of class collaboration.
Instead of standing in solidarity with their fellow workers to oppose the exploitation of the working class, they are thinking only of their own paycheque, not realizing that the cause of their financial precarity is the same cause for which the workers are on strike: exploitation by the owning class.
When workers buy into the grind mindset—coming in early, leaving late, taking their work home, being available on weekends and holidays—perpetuated by the business owners, they bypass class solidarity in favour of class collaboration.
Instead of standing in solidarity with thei fellow workers to reduce unpaid labour, they pressure their fellow workers to sacrifice their own health, peace, and comfort to accept more unpaid labour from their bosses.
In the long run, class collaboration does not benefit the working class. Instead, it benefits the owning class. Maintaining the status quo will always benefit those who already benefit from it. And that will not be the workers.
