by Donna Warnock and Laura Briggs (From Handbook for Nonviolent Action, published by the War Resisters League)
We live in the wealthiest country in the world, but the greatest percentage of that wealth is in the hands of a tiny percentage of the population. It is environmentally and technically possible for everyone to enjoy a good standard of living if wealth were redistributed, exploitation ceased and the arms race abandoned. The inequitable distribution of wealth prevents the whole society from enjoying the full benefits of people’s labor, intelligence and creativity and causes great misery for working class and poor people.
Classism is the systematic oppression of poor people and people who work for wages by those who have access to control of the necessary resources by which other people make their living. Classism is also held in place by a system of beliefs which ranks people according to economic status, “breeding,” job and level of education. Classism says that upper class people are smarter and more articulate than working class and poor people. It is a way of keeping people down, it means upper-middle class and wealthy people define for everyone else what “normal” or “acceptable” is. Many of us have come to accept this standard as the norm and many of us have bought the myth that most of the country is middle class.
Criteria for determining class identity is subject to debate, being variously defined by origins, workforce status, income and/or outlook. For example, some consider all who derive their income from wages members of the working class; others exclude that percentage of the workforce which constitutes the professionals and managers whose incomes are high enough to provide a stake in the capitalist system. Depending on the breadth of one’s definition, 70-85% of the population can be considered working class. This is true despite the fact that the individuals themselves might identify as or with the middle class. These individuals, however, are not beneficiaries of middle class privileges.
Class affects people not only on an economic level, but also on an emotional level. Classist attitudes have caused great pain by dividing people from one another and keeping individuals from personal fulfillment or the means to survive. Consequently, the process of rejecting such attitudes and their accompanying misinformation is an emotional one. Since people tend to hurt each other because they themselves have been hurt, and since most forms of oppression are accompanied by economic discrimination, class overlaps with many other social issues, all of which move as we unravel how we’ve been hurt.
The stereotype is that poor and working class people are unintelligent, inarticulate and “overly emotional.” A good ally (a non-working-class committed supporter) will contradict these messages by soliciting the knowledge and histories of poor working class people, being a thoughtful listener, trying to understand what is being said, and not criticizing how the message is being presented or responding with automatic defensiveness. Distrust despair and anger are common consequences of oppression; it is the test of a true ally to remain undeterred when these flare up and to refrain from withdrawing support at such points. When targets of oppression believe the lies about ourselves, we are “internalizing our oppression.” To begin to undo the damage caused by classism, it is useful for everyone to examine our own feelings about money, education, privilege, power, relationships, culture and ethnicity. This advice applies to organizations as well.
For general discussion:
As a movement, who are we and who are we trying to reach in terms of class? How? To whom do our literature and events appeal? How are poor people’s needs being met in our organizing? What steps are being taken to change people’s attitudes about classism? Are poor and Third World people invited to participate in organization planning? What is being done to reach and involve organized and unorganized workers? What are we doing to support poor, workingdass and people of color in their struggles?
The situation for poor and workingclass people in our movement and organization:
Is classism evident in who does what work in the organization? Are poor and workingclass people facilitators, spokespeople and/or media contacts and leaders, and not just relegated to cleanup crews and collating mailings? Are organizing expenses paid upfront, or promptly reimbursed?
Meetings and events:
Make meetings and events known and accesssible to poor and workingclass people. Be aware of how the length, time and frequency of meetings affects full-time workers, especially those who parent. Arrange for transportation. Routinely provide childcare and sliding scales. Ask people what they need to be able to attend meetings and events. How does income-level and dass composition affect the development of resources, the dates of demonstrations, the levels of commitment and power working people can have, the events sponsored? What are the cultural offerings? Who are the speakers and entertainers?
Process:
Make sure that process isn’t actually being used to tell poor and workingclass people how to behave by “proper” etiquette.
Is consensus being used so that decisions favor those who can stay the longest, or who are used to getting their own way and will block to do so?
Watch that group hugs and rituals are not imposed–allow people to interact with each other in whatever ways feel comfortable to them.
Civil disobedience (CD):
Does class determine who is able and who is unable to commit civil disobedience? How can we make it economically possible for those who want to commit CD to do so? How do we keep CD from being a movement privilege, with activists who can afford to tally arrest counts granted subsequently more political prestige? How do those who are arrested relate to the regular prison population (taking into account how class figures in their treatment)?
Be aware of how police are dealing with people of color, gay, lesbian, and known movement people during arrest situations. Be prepared to come to the aid of anyone who has been singled out by the police and may be receiving harsher treatment than others.
Realize that during the booking process questions that are being asked to determine whether or not people can be released on their own recognizance, are particularly discriminatory. These questions concentrate on your economic, social, sexual and prior arrest standing.
Realize that bail is the most blatant example of classism. Those who have money get out of jail–those who don’t stay in.
–from articles by Donna Warnock and Laura Briggs
As of 2006, hunger continues to be a worldwide problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “850 million people worldwide were undernourished in 1999 to 2005, the most recent years for which figures are available” and the number of hungry people has recently been increasing. An orange awareness ribbon is used to raise awareness of hunger in the world.[3]
There is a wide range of opinions as to why this problem is so persistent. Organizations such as Food First raise the issue of food sovereignty and claim that every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the “free trade” economic order associated with such institutions as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank prevent this from happening. At the other end of the spectrum, the World Bank itself claims to be part of the solution to hunger, claiming that the best way for countries to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger is to build export-led economies that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market.
Amartya Sen won his 1998 Nobel Prize in part for his work demonstrating that hunger in modern times was not typically the product of a lack of food; rather, hunger usually arose from problems in food distribution networks or from governmental policies in the developing world.
From: Wikipedia
by Scott Hughes
In respect to hunger & poverty in America, the U.S. people believe in a myth. The real myth is NOT that hunger and poverty don’t exist within America. Albeit, the prevalence of poverty hunger in America is largely downplayed and ignored by the collective American opinion. Regardless, no one can deny the staggering statistics. In the United States, 38.2 million people–including 14 million children–live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. 3.9 percent of U.S. households experience hunger. 8.0 percent of U.S. households are at risk of hunger. Though often ignored, the facts are blatant.
The real myth in America is the myth of meritocracy – the myth that the poor are just lazy and stupid. Most Americans seem to believe that the poor in America deserve poverty. These people believe the United States is a meritocracy, in which wealth and status is determined by merit. These people believe that the wealthy in the United States have earned their wealth through intelligence and hard work. And accordingly, these people believe that laziness and stupidity cause poverty.
The prevalence of this myth shocks some people, who wonder how over 14 million U.S. children could deserve poverty. Children. The non-meritocratic reality is obvious to most anyone who has worked or knows someone who has worked two or even three jobs and barely earns enough to survive. Indeed, many intelligent hard-working American families struggle to feed, house, and clothe themselves.
It seems that the belief in the myth of meritocracy isn’t based on logic or empirical evidence. Rather, it seems the belief in meritocracy is based on desire and cognitive dissonance. Not to say that the majority of non-poor Americans directly want to believe that 38.2 million American people are lazy and stupid. Rather, the majority of non-poor Americans want to believe that they, the non-poor, have earned their wealth and status. The majority of non-poor Americans choose to reject the notion that poverty is unfairly determined by non-meritocratic forces, because they don’t want to accept that their own wealth is equally unfair. The majority of non-poor Americans don’t want to admit that the majority of the poor Americans are unlucky, because that would entail that the majority of non-poor Americans are just lucky. Understandably, Americans want to feel like they are deserving, decent citizens living in a fair meritocracy. They don’t want to feel guilty, lucky or responsible to the poor.
Unfortunately, this pretentiousness and arrogance alone cannot explain the prevalence of the myth of meritocracy, because not only do non-poor Americans believe in the myth of meritocracy, but also poor Americans believe in it! While arrogance and a desire to feel proud could explained the non-poor Americans belief in the myth of meritocracy, it can’t explain why poor Americans believe in this myth. Just like non-poor Americans, poor Americans believe that they are inferior and deserve to be poor. Poor Americans literally have – both collectively and individually – an inferiority complex. Additionally, working-class and middle-class Americans never question their own status in relation to the upper-class. Indeed, working-class Americans don’t avoid poverty with actual wealth, but rather with credit-lines. Their houses, cars, and clothes are all financed with borrowed money. The majority of non-poor working-class Americans are literally on the brink of poverty. Generally, their apparent wealth is just an illusion.
To understand the prevalence of the myth of meritocracy, one must understand the socioeconomic structure of the United States. The true wealth in the United States is in the hands of a few. The top 1% in the United States have more wealth than the lower 95%. Generally speaking, the upper-class doesn’t work or produce. Generally speaking, this upper-class is unproductive and uncreative. Instead of being workers or managers, the upper-class make money by share-holding and banking. Money controls everything, so the richest of the rich don’t need to work. Indeed, the government-sponsored dollar is mightier than the sword.
It’s not in the interest of the richest and most powerful, the true owners of America, to have a rebellious working-class. The powers that be all have a stake in the continuance of the non-meritocratic oligarchy. So, right from the start in the government-run schools, students are taught to believe in the myth of meritocracy. The schools literally teach students blind nationalist patriotism. The entire social system, namely schools, indoctrinate the people to believe that America is completely fair and meritocratic. Any evidence that contradicts the myth of meritocracy is omitted from the courses, whether historical or contemporary. Indeed, even women-oppressing Indian-killing slave-owners are made out to be American heroes.
A very small minority of non-working unproductive people truly run America, and indeed most of the world. A very small minority of people have all the wealth and power. Simple Machiavellian philosophy says that those who benefit from the current social order will do whatever they can to keep that order in place. Simple Machiavellian philosophy says that those whom change would adversely affect will furiously try to stop change. It is no surprise that the very small minority of wealthy and powerful leaders want to keep the current social order; they’re living the good life. Wealth without work.
The main way to keep the masses of people from uprising is by tricking the masses with the myth of meritocracy. Convince the lower and working classes that classism is based on merit, and they’ll keep going to their jobs. Even as more children starve and middle-class debts increase, they’ll keep going to their jobs. So long as the working-classes and lower-classes have an inferiority complex, they’ll keep working. They’ll be depressed, stressed, and hungry, but they’ll keep working. Nothing changes, and those few people with a stake in the oligarchy prevail. The prevalence of the myth of meritocracy guarantees the prevalence of the oligarchy.
And, as long as the oligarchy prevails and nothing changes, 14 million American children go to bed hungry every night. And, 16,000 children die everyday.
About The Author: Scott Hughes has a blog about hunger & poverty at http://millionsofmouths.com/blog/nfblog/. You may republish this article so long as you keep all links intact and include this “about the author” footer.
