New Society 29 November 1985

(72

et~ s

-fl
I
I

38
ter associated with exploitative ecanomic
relationships.
Re first at all makes a distinction between
the struciural basis at ciass divisions, and the
torms at arganisation and consciausness
which may develop fram it. The structure at
ciasses is a series at empty places, inta
which individuals for one reasan ar anather
became slotted. Ciass structure canstrains,
but does not fully determine. patterns otclass
tormation. This is true. Wi-ight prapases. not
just on the level at general analysis, but an
that at history. Ciass structure defines the
averall form at differing types at saciety and
also long-term patterns at social change.
Marxists have traditionally bad a great deal
at trauble with the question otwhether ar not
a new middie class exists in capitalist
societies. One at Wrights awn cantributians
in previous publicatians was the attempt ta
cope with this issue in terms af the notian at
what he called cantradictary class loca
tions Managers, and thase in ather white
callar accupations, are neither fish nar tawl
but a bit af bath. That is ta say. they share
certain characteristics with the awners at cup
ital, because they participate in a hierarchy ot
contral; an the ather hand, they are praperty
less, like the mass at the working class.
Many critics (including myseif) were nat
particularly happy with this farmulatian.
Wright now accepts the farce at at least same
at the criticisms attered against his earlier
standpoint. lite middie class is now seen as
not just an unhappy amalgam at traits
belonging primarily to the two major ciasses,
but as having capacities atits own in relatian
ta torms at production. Capitalists awn
means af productian; workers awn and atter
an the market their labaur pawer; white-col
lar workers have administrative capabilities
ar pratessional credentials which they are
able to employ ta situate themselves dit
terently fram the other two ciasses within the
averall class structure.
According to Wright. the ditterenrial pas
sessian at skilis ar credentials may be a basis
tar explaitation just as ather assets are. He
seeks to link this phenomenan ta an explica
tian at the explaitative relations invalved in
state socialist sacieties. In such sacieties,
there cames into being a dominant class at
bureaucrats, whose rule is tounded nat upon
owqership at private property but upon
monapaly at certain credentials and
organisational assets. Wright gives over a
gaod deal at his baok subsequently ta dis
cussing the empirical implicatians at this
tramewark at analysis.
Notwithstanding the interest at same
Wrights discussion, on the whale I faund this
a disappainting baok. Apart trom the pre
face, which is engagingly intormal and enter
taining, the work is heavily abstract and
typalagical. In spite at the tairly trequent
reterences to class struggle and con
scio.usness, theres very lade lite ar move
ment in the material that constitutes che bulk
at the text.
Moreover. same at the main arguments
seem to mc peculiarly unconvincing. Wright
asserts the primacy at ciass both in the struc
turing at sacieties and in the trajectories at
histary. I simply da not see any way in which

*
BOOKS

Inpaceof
emptiness
CLASSES
Erik Olin Wright
Verso/NLB 7.95 paperback2o hardback

ANTHONY GIDDENS
Over the past few years Erik Wright has
establisheci himseif as ane at the leading writ
ers on prablems at ciass structure. His is a
marxist standpoint, but his work is
undoctrinaire and be has been consistently
concerned to capnect issues at cla~s theory to
modes at quaptitative social research. I-le
does not share the scepticism which rnany
leftish authors have bad tawards survey
research and towards the use at sophisticated
techniques at data analysis.
In these respects his new baok is much the
same inixtur as before, but is perhaps rather
more ambitious in intent than his earlier writ
ings, because here Wright seeks to develop a
cornprehensive theoretical statement, backed
by empirical work, an the nature at ciass and
ciass divisjon. If Wright is a radical, be is a
very respectable ane, whose style tends to be

samewhat dryly pedantic rather than

exhortatory.
Wright wastes little time discussing non
marxist approaches to ciass. The main issue
for him is how to adapt Marxs writings in
such a way as to produce an interprctation ot
ciass that is both true to the main themes at
marxism, yet able to cope satistactorily with
the institutional framework at prtsent-day
sacieties.
In Wrigbts view the concept ot surplus
value, which many have regarded as the
lynchpin at anything which could be justiti
ably called marxist class analysis, has to be
discarded more ar less in its entir.ety. But we
shauld nonetheless accept chat the existence
ot ciass presumes exploitation, and Wright
therefore seeks to rebuild the notian at class
on the basis at a navel account of the charac

384

New Society 29 Nov

this can be squared with what we now know

about the development of pre-capitalist types
of society, and if it is in some respects more

o
o
m

plausible iii respect of modern societies, il is

surely very much more contentious than
Wright seems prepared to acknowledge.
The reliance which the author places upon
distinguishing class structure from class for
mation also seems more than merely
dubious. The idea that there are empty
places, which define the elass structure, sep
arate from the individuals who occupy them,
has been substantially challenged in the
recent literature. Whether people begin their
careers as, for example, clerical workers,
then move up a job hierarchy, as compared
with being stuck in cierical occupations for
most of their lives, might substantially influ
ence what the definition of clerical work
actually is.
Finally, Wright goes through all sorts of
conceptual contortions in order to show that
the characterisation of ciass strueture which
he defends is remote from that set out by Max
Weber. But is is difficult to see that it really is
all that different, since exactly the three com
ponent elements most stressed by Weber
property, labour power and possession of
skills or credentialsare those that have now
hecome central to Wrights analysis. In the
interpretation of class structure, as in so
many other areas of modern sociology,
Weber insinuates himself into the con
clusions even of those who on the face of
things are most hostile to his ideas.

Sociaiists for
peace
BRITISH LABOUR, EUROPEAN SOCIALISM AND
THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACE, 18891914
Dauglas J. Newton
Oxford University Press 2750
KENNETH 0. MORGAN
I am an inveterate peacemonger, Michael
Foot proudly declared when he was leader of
the Labour Party, Yet issues of peace and war
have seldom brought out the best in the Brit
ish labour movement. From the evasions of
the left during the appeasement years in the
thirties, through Bevins cold war postures
after 1945, down to the curious attachment to
a so-called independent nuclear deterrent in
recent years (from which Neil Kinnock now
seems to have rescued us) Labours contribu
tions to world peace have been ambiguous at
bst.
/But perhaps the most damaging phase of
all was the first, the years down to August
1914, when Labour failed to deflect the
nation from war and eventually joined the
wartiine coalition itself. Even while Keir
Hardies anti-war rhetoric was ringing
around Trafalgar Square on 2 August 1914,
his party was already moving to a commit
ment to fight if Belgium were invaded. The
peace crusade of the prewar socialists might
never have been, and intense and lasting dis
illusion ~vithin the British left resulted.
Et is a crucial aspect of the early history of

the Labour Party; yet only now, with Douglas

Newtons important and fascinating new
study, has it been properly illuminated.
Calmly and without frills, this young Aus
tralian scholar takes us through the trials of
the left, from the imperialist crises of the
nineties and the Boer war, through the cam
paign against the build-up of armaments and
alliances and the attempt to combat popular
fears of the German menace, down to the
final tragedy of the first days of August 1914.
Both as a study of British Labour and of the
Second Socialist International, it is of the first
importance.
As Newton shows, much of the time British
socialists were more preoccupied with politi
cal rivalries at home than with the external
scene. For 20 years, the marxist sor, led by
Hyndman and Quelch, fought bitterly with
Hardie, MacDonald and the ILP over who
should properly speak for British socialism.
In addition to this, a most remarkable part of
the book lies in Keir Hardies attempts, along
with the Frenchman Vaillant, and to some
extent with the blessing of the great Jaurs
and even Rosa Luxemburg, to commit the
International to a general strike against war
before a crisis broke out finally. Down to late
July 1914, this remained a possible strategie
option for European socialists. Only the
breakneck pace of events after the breach
between Austria and Serbia left the general
strike high and dry as the pathetic illusion it
always was.
The relations of British Labour to the
International and to a credible peace cam
paign were always plagued by insuperable
problems. There was always the long-running
battle with the marxists (who eventually
turned into anti-German jingoes). There was
deep reluctance among the trade unions,
especially those concerned with the navy or
the manufacture of armaments. Without
doubt, there was abiding suspicion among
British socialists, howeverfraternal their pro
fessions, of the views of their continental
comrades. In particular, the German sin
were always feared for doetrinal rigidities and
for harbouring a basic nationalism.
Beyond that, British Labour was shot
through with deep-seated ambiguities
towards peace and defence issues. The party
could never commit itself to a totally pacifist
position. Even Hardie and MacDonald,
brave anti-war rebels in 1914, were com
pelled to admit that national security was a
concept admissible for socialists. Even in the
socialist commonwealth, the arbitrament of
force had its grim place.
The collapse of dreams of workers soli
darity in 1914, however, should not diminish
the seriousness of Labours involvement in
the peace movement in its early years. Men
like Hardie felt a deep sense of kinship with
comrades abroad like Jaurs, Bebel, Adler,
and Debs, a real dedication to the solidarity
of the workers of the world. In the years since
then, Labour has too often pursued the path
of introspection and insularity. The Second
International, with its mighty congresses, is
one with Nineveh and Tyre. But perhaps in
the fluid, less monolithic world of the 1980s,
the idealism and fraternalism of the pioneers
go marching on.

Snapper w[
heart
ROBERT CAP A BIOGRAPI~
Richard Whelan
Faber 15
ROBERT CAP PHOTOGRAPI
Cornell Capa and Richard Whelan
Faber 15
ROSERT HAAS
If the by now rather romantic
Robert Capa had still been alive at
he would have leant back in his
laughed at the suggestion that he
master craftsman of the art of phc
I-le would have preferred to be thoi
snapper with a heart, to whom
came first and the picture afterwa
This is what sets Robert Capa ap!
times quite characteristic photogr
tender moment matters to him as n
face of the young boy in the fu
cession in Mexico, his arm resti
shoulder of the preceding bearer
tory sequence, as it does in t
crouched and crushed figure of a
woman in Hankow, whose house i:
wreckage about her.
Capa was first and foremost a do
photographer, a journalist as sucF
pose was to record the most vital r
he saw it and it is strictly unrealisti
of him within the context of art.
not lessen his stature. Ris was just
job.
Capa himself acknowledged ti
clarity in his images from time to
slightly out of focus aspect, and
esting that two of his most famot
one of Trotsky delivering a I
Copenhagen and the other of ti
landing, owe their effect to a physi
eration of the film emulsion. The
become famous substantially bec
mysterious quality imposed upon
accident or technical hitch.
On the other hand, in its absolt
tion and severe sense of urgenc
group of a man, two women and
Barcelona during the general mobi
haunting. This must be an archety
that will go into history ifit hasnt al
sculptor hasnt had a go at this on
should. It wont be the first time th~
graph has raised a monument. Jr
thals epic photograph of the raisi
American flag on Iwo Jima is in its
of sculpture, as well as being the ij
for an actual structure at a later da
Capas camera, like no other, cl,
its subject. We know instinctively ti
in the middle of the action. There at
that cause us to respond with the
sense of being there. Being close
touch those newly shaved head
women collaborators as they are jee
streets of Chartres. Close enough t
incessant bawl of a child at an ir
camp penetrate you, stomping
ground with bare feet and, as if in