ABSTRACT
In the Marxian variant, capitalism results in the relentless intensification of class exploitation; those dispossessed of the means of production are increasingly homogenised and proletarians become revolutionaries. Though fractions of unorganised labour have a more militant past, their actions have been comprehensively suppressed; and as a class they appear too weak and fragmented to successfully challenge the balance of class power. Compared to caste, religious or linguistic identities, class has had little political valence. This is because organised labour and private capital do not squarely confront each other since both are subordinated to the state. A class division within the ranks of manual labour has made a material difference to the prospects for establishing a substantive democracy. The phrase ‘classes of labour’ is misappropriated from Bernstein and others influenced by him. Lerche is explicit that formal sector workers belong in this general category of ‘classes of labour’, which he sees as united in its political impotence.
