ABSTRACT
The most useful of a class is with respect to exploitation, that is, the extraction of surplus labor; a class may be exploited or it may be an exploiter. The Soviet working class presents a wide spectrum of income and status differences, from highly paid artistic and sports stars to very low paid menial workers. The available data are not very clear as to the incomes of the Soviet elite, but there are data as to the incomes of the Soviet working class. The important point about the confrontation between Solidarity and the Polish government is that it revealed a sharp conflict of interests and ideology between the working class and the government. After this violent clash, no one in Poland could believe the myth that the statist government represents the working class; on the contrary, it is clearly a dictatorship over the working class.
