Class Follow

Cliff was a founder member of the Socialist Workers' Party. In the Thick of Workers' Struggle is the second volume of his selected writings published since his death two years ago. Marxism's core principle — that working class emancipation can only be won by the action of the working class itself — was always central to Cliff's Marxism, but with a crucial emphasis.

Yasser Arafat's story mirrors that of the Palestinian people. He was born in 1929 into a middle class Palestinian family and spent his early years in Jerusalem which, like the rest of Palestine, was then under British rule. Jews and Arabs had long lived in Palestine, but tensions were increasing as the Zionist movement, which wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine, grew in strength.

PAUL ROBESON Jr is presenting a new series, Lena Horne: A Force of Nature, on Radio 2. It looks at the black woman described as a living legend. The programme is great-a real musical feast, and much more. It describes the life of Lena Horne, the performer, artist and singer. There are real gems of information about the influence of the organised black middle class in the US.

Previous columns in this series looked at the major classes in society. They considered the two major groups in advanced capitalism - the working class and the capitalist class. Between them stands the "traditional middle class" - layers of shopkeepers, small businessmen (such as pub landlords), and some professionals who run their own practices, such as most GPs, dentists and high street lawyers.

THE peasantry is a major social class in large parts of the world. Peasants are not simply farmers. Farming in Britain and other advanced capitalist countries is a capitalist enterprise. Most of agriculture is dominated by large landowners who run major businesses, employing workers just as the owners of factories and multinationals do.

In our recent series on class we argued that the vast majority of people are working class. So who are the minority in the ruling class? Most of us rarely have any contact with this group of people. The papers run articles about the lifestyles of the super-rich.

We can tip the balance I've been out with the Anti Nazi League (ANL) canvassing against the British National Party (BNP) in Oldham. We campaign in so called "white areas" such as Hollingwood and South Chadderton. Nazis from the BNP are targeting these working class areas. They have some of the most run down estates and deprived streets of terraced homes. You can see the years of neglect.

Middle Class is a term that is used a lot, but it has a multitude of meanings. In this column two weeks ago (23 February) we argued that it is often used wrongly about people in "white collar" jobs, like office staff, teachers and many health workers.

Thousands of students showed their anger at the government this week. They are furious that promised reforms of the fees system have been blocked. The eventual outcome may be even worse than what went before. At present many students leave college with debts of over £15,000. Many working class school leavers are put off going to college.

Are children only drudges? The government's latest education proposals will be a disaster for working class children. They will be a big step backwards towards the old way of having a proper education for the middle class and a very basic one for working people's children.

"We are all middle class now." That's what politicians and media pundits would have us believe. Gone forever are the days of the real workers-the miners and the engineers. Instead we have the new middle classes-the computer operators and public servants.

Why do socialists always go on about the working class? After all, workers are not always the poorest people in society-small farmers in the Third World are worse off than skilled workers in Britain. Neither are workers always militantly rejecting capitalism-many ordinary people read the Sun and seem to care more about football than politics. Workers are not even the majority of the world's population. But the working class is unique. Karl Marx called it the "special and essential product of capitalism".