Document:
Denmark Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark – APK
T he W or
king Class and La
bour Aristocr
ac
y in Denmar
k T oda
y
orking
Labour
Aristocrac
acy
Denmark
oday
Reformists and revisionists
agree with the bourgeoisie and
well-paid bourgeois scientists that
the working class is heading for
extinction, and that it has outplayed
its historical role in a complex
modern society.
Social democrats have
persistently claimed that classes,
class society and class struggle
would disappear with the so-called
‘state of general welfare’ as seen
in the Nordic countries. Capitalism
could be made human and almost
social just following the line of class
collaboration and reformism.
According to the widespread
theory of the ‘middle class society,’
the working class will gradually
become smaller and be educated
and transformed into a growing
middle class that will be the most
important social force. According to
this theory, the population of a
given society is often described as
one large middle class, except for
some marginalised groups of rich
and poor at each end of the scale.
Another version is the idea
that the working class has been
incorporated into one large group
of wage earners and has common
class interests with employed
leaders and high ranking
functionaries.
At the present juncture of
acute class contradictions, some
reformists have rediscovered the
working class – but as a class with
new characteristics, that has
shrunk to a minority of the working
population, in Denmark 47 percent.
They have reduced the working
class to comprise only people
employed as skilled, semi-skilled or
unskilled workers, while everyone
thrown out of the labour market as
unemployed – or as a conse-
Feb, March - 2019
quence of neoliberal ‘reforms’ -
now supposedly belongs to
another class – the underclass –
comprising 20 percent of the
population.
In fact the working class still is
the largest and most important
class force. But the working class
of today is – due to objective
developments – much more
complexly composed and with a
wider range of living conditions. We
must study these changes In order
to develop our politics and tactics
as the communist party of the
working class.
The working class and
‘neoliberal’ imperialism
The division of labour in
‘neoliberal’ imperialism and its
‘globalisation’ has meant a higher
level of education of both skilled
and semi-skilled workers in the
high-tech part of production that is
left in Denmark.
The technological development
of the means of production with its
increased digitalization and
industrial robots has made many
jobs outdated and redundant and
created a number of new labour
functions, especially consisting in
supervision of production, which
demand other capacities than
before.
At this time we see a massive
demand from the bourgeoisie for
changes in the educational system
through a series of reforms,
streamlined to fit the needs of the
corporations.
The working class itself and its
various groups and strata are thus
differently composed from some
years ago. We also notice
increasing differences between the
living and working conditions and
wages of these different groups
By Dorte Grenaa
and strata. The divide-and-rule
policy of the capitalists has meant
paper fortunes for some in the
shape of pension systems, home
ownership and tax benefits, while
others have lost their income,
pension and home with the reforms
of the unemployment system and
others.
The semi-skilled and unskilled
workers have been and remain the
most class conscious group. It is
probably the group that has
changed most dramatically during
the neoliberal European Union
governments of Fogh Rasmussen,
Thorning Schmidt and the present
one of Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
Several hundred thousand
unskilled jobs have been moved to
countries with greater super-
profits, notably in Asia and Eastern
Europe, or they have been solicited
in the ‘open market’ of the EU to
foreign subcontractors, bringing
their own cheap labour.
More than a quarter of all semi-
skilled and unskilled jobs have
disappeared since 2000. In
industry alone these account for
more than half of the semi-skilled
and unskilled jobs. The massive
unemployment caused has
especially been felt among women
workers.
The semi-skilled and unskilled
workers are under heavy pressure
by the social dumping of cheap
labour by the European Union and
the tax-financed social dumping of
the public sector in the shape of
different workfare systems, where
you work for the small social
benefits you may receive.
More than one third of all
industrial jobs of both skilled and
unskilled workers have dis-
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