A book of theoretical and political clarity that will help all of us think through the political and economic striation of the petty bourgeoisie.”– Catherine Liu, author of Virtue Hoarders Some writer, I forget who, says that Holland is no longer a nation but a great shop and I begin to think it has no other principles or sentiments but those of a shopkeeper. Reappropriation [ edit ]

The “Network” model of Industrial Unionism was developed during the IWW’s foray into organising Deliveroo and JustEat riders in 2017-2018, through the IWW Couriers Network. These gig-economy workers were technically “self-employed” and thus had no trade union rights and competed against one another for work. The Network was a way to bring these atomised workers together into an Industrial Union to develop common demands that would make work-life better for them all. It had lots of local successes in various cities (particularly Cardiff and Glasgow) and culminated in the large #FFS410 strike in October 2018. Though the project unfortunately derailed, for reasons that can be found in this piece by FW Pete Davies, it is a model that could be adapted and practiced in different circumstances.The North America-based IWW Freelance Journalists Union is a similar project aiming to unite isolated workers, and there are conversations in UK and Ireland to form an organisation by and for freelance artists.It sounds like a terrifying leap to make. But then, as Dan Evans would argue, there is so much to gain. The petty bourgeoisie — the insecure class between the working class and the bourgeoisie — is hugely significant within global politics. Yet it remains something of a mystery. After all, imperialism is a capitalist imperative that benefits not only the ruling classes, but every class in the imperial core, even the most exploited ones. Perhaps because he is British, he is unaware of how strongly the desire to attain and retain the objective and subjective power of being an American motivates people’s politics. Even the working class in the imperial core *does* have something to lose — the massive privilege and power that simply being a part of the empire affords us. This fuels reactionary politics across all classes as strongly as domestic conditions do, if not even moreso. (For instance, the traditional petite bourgeoisie in the US has long identified China as a source of competition, which leads them to support right-wing politicians who are more willing to engage in openly racist denunciations of China, which in turn prompts the Democrats to try to match their “tough on China” rhetoric, thus ratcheting the entire Overton window even further towards racist, imperialist reactionary politics).

In the UK, we have a pretty appalling understanding of class, even in the workers movement. Class is all too often viewed in solely cultural and aesthetic terms, such as having a regional accent or having a great-grandparent who worked in a mine. You can be a ‘working class’ landlord from Rotherham leasing a flat to a ‘middle class’ tenant who graduated from university five years ago and works behind a till. This mode of thinking tells us nothing about the economic aspects of class. As Evans writes: Thought this was great until the conclusion, at which point Evans made a few claims that were larger than justified or poorly argued. Remarks after speaking to National Chamber of Trade, Margaret Thatcher Foundation https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102496 Benjamin Franklin used a similar idea about Holland in a letter to Charles W. F. Dumas on 6 August 1781: Evans argues that we should treat class as “active relationships” within capitalism and the “function” that different workers and agents play in the system. For example, the function of a low-paid supervisor is to discipline the workforce, giving them proximity to management and alignment with their interests. This helps to reproduce cultural, social, and ideological positions – such as anti-collectivism, opposition to trade union organising, rugged individualism, promotion-seeking and upward mobility.At least eight members of the 1945 Labour cabinet were Left Book Club authors, including Clement Attlee. Another famous club author was George Orwell, as it published the original edition of The Road to Wigan Pier. In any case the phrase did not originate with Napoleon, or even Barère. It first appears in a non-pejorative sense in The Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith, who wrote: Dan Evans knows his readers are probably members of the ‘new’ petty bourgeoisie (he remarks that he has spent most of his adult life among them). As such, the book’s political message feels directed at them. Evans exhorts his young, left-wing readers to stop playing to Labour’s culture of ‘moralizing and careerism’ and instead to seize the initiative. He calls on them to begin building political alliances with their ‘traditional’ petty bourgeois counterparts, based on a shared interest in redrawing economic structures to end precarity. Criticising the new petty bourgeoisie’s preoccupation with US-imported identity politics and cultural snobbery (the book’s garish cover makes a wonderful guilt trap for judgemental hipsters, as I discovered…), Evans insists that embracing structural politics is the only way to unite the fractured petty bourgeoisie – and the working class – behind a progressive vision. A Nation of Shopkeepers explores the class structure of contemporary Britain and the growth of the petty bourgeoisie following Thatcherism. It shows how the rise of home ownership, small landlordism and huge changes to the world of work have promoted individualism and conspicuous consumption – and what this means for the left.

Initially identified as a powerful political force by theorists like Marx and Poulantzas, the petit-bourgeoisie was expected to decline, as small businesses and small property were gradually swallowed up by monopoly capitalism. Yet, far from disappearing, structural changes to the global economy under neoliberalism have instead grown the petty bourgeoisie, and the individualist values associated with it have been popularized by a society which fetishizes “aspiration”, home ownership and entrepreneurship. So why has this happened? Reading this book was a bit like marking a mathematical solution where the pupil gets every step wrong but somehow gets to the right answer at the end. Evans does this in a storming final chapter that excoriates Labourism and left wing activism - for both their disconnect from and contempt for working class people - and ultimately suggests a return to the workplace.A fascinating and accessible account of a social class that is too often neglected or misunderstood. This book powerfully makes the case for a sociologically informed analysis of the capitalist class structure today.”– Tom Mills, author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service A later, explicit source is Barry Edward O'Meara, who was surgeon to Napoleon during his exile in St. Helena. [3] If O'Meara is to be believed, Napoleon said: This exhibition showcased the collection (transferred from OUP in 1968) to the world. The catalogue remains the standard work on the collection and its formation, and is available online (PDF, 1.6MB). A Nation of Shopkeepers, 2001 With every gift membership this Christmas the Left Book Club will send you – the gift buyer – a set of three foiled bookmarks. Plus, if you choose to pay annually, new members will also receive an extra free book and membership pin in their first parcel.