“The world has changed hugely since his day. But if Engels came back today, I am sure he would still see the old dialectic at work. The old system still prevails, only in a new shape.”
Jon Trickett
Jon Trickett MP writes on giving the recent inaugural Engels Lecture
It was a huge privilege to present the Engels Lecture, marking 180 years since he started writing one of the most important books of his time: the “Condition of the Working Class in England”.
In developing how his thoughts retain contemporary relevance today, I set out to develop the idea that the working class had a kind of agency. By that I mean “the capacity of human beings to effect change”.
I worked in the building industry and in some of the great clothing factories of Leeds. I consider myself fortunate to have done so, just as Engels had been a witness to the industrial age at its inception. The women clothing operatives at the huge Burtons clothing factory led a major strike in 1970 which brought the whole industry in the city to the verge of closure.
For me, this shows we had a kind of agency then.
Engels helped identify the key antagonism which drives much of capitalist development as well as the key to understanding human agency – in the shape of the working class and their struggle for economic and social justice.
Obviously, the world has changed hugely since his day. But if Engels came back today, I am sure he would still see the old dialectic at work. The old system still prevails, only in a new shape.
The demographic and economic composition of the ‘working class’ has changed almost beyond recognition, but this has not undermined the ruthless economic dialectic contained within capitalist structures.
The richest 1% in Britain hold more wealth than 70% of the rest of us, and the richest 1,000 increased their wealth by £843bn between 2009 and 2020. By contrast, the incomes of working people fell by £433 billion between 2008 and 2018. In the recent budget the OBR estimated that wages and salaries won’t achieve pre banking crash levels until 2026.
As Engels said, the wealth of the largest corporations and the super-rich is accumulated on the backs of the rest of us.
There are now 14 million people in poverty and millions more in or on the edge of destitution. Engels said the existence of poverty is an inbuilt attribute of the whole economic system. Attacks on the incomes of employees, large scale poverty, destitution alongside the explosion of wealth – Engels saw these in abundance.
Towards the end of his life Engels noted, and celebrated, a wave of resistance amongst working people with the outbreak of strikes, led by what he called the New Unions.
Today, we’ve seen a wave of strikes. Workers in what are regarded as ‘middle class’ occupations have been out. This says two things: the term ‘working class’ cannot simply be applied to those in manual trades and the squeeze on all these sections of the workforce has been ferocious, brought about by the huge transfer of wealth and income into the pockets of the wealthiest.
The fact is that our politics isn’t working and needs profound change. Most people know it. We need a democratic revolution en route to wider emancipation.
- You can watch the full lecture here and keep an eye out for its future publication as a pamphlet too.
- Jon Trickett is the MP for Hemsworth and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook. You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram and twitter.
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