Class Structure and Class Consciousness in the Current Crisis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to offer an empirical assessment of levels of subjective class consciousness during the current economic slump in a particular advanced capitalist setting, Canada's industrial heartland of Ontario. First, a very brief historical materialist account of the changing class composition of advanced capitalist societies in the twentieth century is offered, objective class positions are outlined in terms of relations of production distinctions, and quantitative estimates of the distribution of such class positions in the Ontario population in 1978, 1980 and 1982 are made. Secondly, the current period is presented as one of organic crisis in which unsettled relations among major class and other social forces are associated with heightened ideological disputes. The general form of current ideological discourse is briefly characterized to contextuate the specific study of expressions of class consciousness. Then a conception of levels of class consciousness is specified, including class identity, opposed class interests, and hegemonic visions. Levels of class consciousness and recent changes therein among both the general adult population and those in different objective class positions are estimated on the basis of views expressed in 1978, 1980 and 1982 opinion surveys.