Benjamin and the Proletariat

In reading the Benjamin text, the aspect that stood out to me the most was (no surprises here) how he wrote about the working class. I really enjoyed this reading, and I didn’t find it as difficult as Ben had made it out to be. I also really liked Benjamin’s depiction of the working class and his discussions about labor. I thought that it was, unlike many other texts I have read, empowering to the proletariat, but not in a condescending way. The way he writes make me believe that he is actually part of the working class (even if he isn’t), instead of attempting to be an outside savior. In this blog post, “we” refers to the working class, and the “Hitler”, the dangerous force, is the ruling class. The thesis that stood out most to me was number seven: “Not man or men but the struggling, oppressed class itself is the depository of historical knowledge.” (260). The point that Benjamin makes in this thesis is that, through a historicist perspective, the role of the proletariat in the overthrow of the bourgeoisie has not changed necessarily, but the reasons, the cause for revolution, has shifted. Previously, in a Marxist perspective, “[the proletariat] appears as the last enslaved class, as the avenger that completes the downtrodden task of liberation in the name of generations of the downtrodden.” (260). But from the view of the Social Democrats in Germany, a view that is historicist, the working class must complete its mission in order to redeem the future for future generations. Benjamin points out that this effectively takes away the greatest strength that the proletariat holds: “its hatred and its spirit of sacrifice… nourished by the image of enslaved ancestors.” (260). Instead, historicism has retrained the working class to act for its “liberated grandchildren”. By looking to the future, instead of the past, the proletariat has lost its roots. How are we to rally the masses behind a call for a brighter future, when we don’t know what that will necessarily be? But if we look to the past, and keep our roots in the past, the images of the downtrodden masses could reignite the “hatred and spirit of sacrifice”. We must look to the past to remember all who lost their lives at the hands of capitalism, not to a future that seems bleak. We can change the future, but without a memory of past exploitation on the part of the ruling class, we will have no perspective and no fuel for which to complete the mission of the working class. We are in danger of continuing to be in a place where “the ruling class gives the commands” (261), which according to Benjamin is moving forward in the name of “progress”. “Nothing has corrupted the German working class so much as the notion that it was moving with the current.” (258).

I see this issue play out today in the labor movement. The big unions, and indeed many working people, have forgotten their past. We take certain things for granted today, such as workplace safety regulations, but we also assume that these laws are the result of a benevolent government looking out for the safety of all people in the country. But this is just not true. It took the force of a united working class to bring about these changes. Wisconsin, a once-exciting and revolutionary place just two months ago, is now stagnant, and unions and working people are relying on the system to solve their issues. They forget that nothing of merit has ever been solved purely through the bureaucratic system. It takes the strength of masses to make mass change. Perhaps if we were more grounded in our past struggles, things would be different. How many working people in Minneapolis are aware of the 1934 Teamster strike that effectively shut down the entire city? The knowledge and memory of events like these would make more people believe in the power of direct action, instead of dismissing it in favor of going through the legal system of the ruling class. I don't know how this will change, however, since it is in the best interest of the bourgeoisie to keep the status quo.