It occurred to me this morning when reading Iowa voters using words like „socialism“ and „communism“ in connection with Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren that neither Sanders nor Warren is saying anything at all about worker control of the means of production. What is being discussed are Democratic Party candidate proposals for health care and student debt. Both of these are issues of worker care, and nothing to do with ownership of capital. The image that appeared to me is that of a line of laborers trudging down into a mine, an asbestos mine perhaps, out of misplaced pride rejecting the proposition that they should be physically protected or their illnesses seen to. Another vision, that of a field slave rejecting a bandage meant to be applied to a cut inflicted while picking tobacco: (best Stepin Fetchit voice here) „Oh no sah, I ain’ts be needin‘ no bandage, nah sah! I ain’t be one o‘ dem house niggas, wurkin‘ up ta da Big House – I jus‘ be regula ol‘ Stepin. Dem bandages ’n tings, dey be too gud fer da likes o‘ me!“
In rejecting health care, workers aren’t simply incredibly distant from discussions of social ownership of production. Here in Germany Kevin Kühnert can be interviewed about propositions as to nationalizing the German auto industry. The US isn’t beginning to have any sort of inkling of conversations like this. In the US workers are questioning even their right to maintain their ability to think about such conversations. In rejecting education, or health care, they are rejecting their right to mere existence as citizens who might consider questions of social ownership. These are people insisting on their proud identity as serfs.
