Posted on 16/05/08
U.S. race hasn't been a class act
The class question - whither the workers - has been mesmerizing during the Clinton-Obama battle in the United States, far more than the horse race itself.Class issues never go away, yet rarely rise to view politically; in the 1990s, they virtually vanished under a blanket of identity politics. But candidates turn to workers when they need votes, often by dividing them rather than uniting them. In the 1930s, for example, populists such as Huey Long appealed to poor American whites. In Quebec, fascist Adrien Arcand used anti-Semitism to attract French-Canadian workers at a time when there were also many Jewish workers in the province. The rule: Divide workers even as you acknowledge them, then forget them once the election is over.
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