(Jones, O., 2011. Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. London: Verso)
Polly Toynbee described Owen Jones’ account of the demonization of the working class as “angry.” She was absolutely right. Throughout Jones’ book runs a deep and bitter resentment of the social changes (especially those that came as a consequence of the Thatcher years) that he blames for the poorly-housed, poorly-paid and depoliticized state of the working-class in Britain today. However, through his anger Jones idealizes the working-class in a way that is perhaps dangerous for the success of the very people he hopes to see “humanized” once again. His obsession with factors which he attributes directly to the 1980s, to the expense of other perhaps more enlightening factors such as the globalization of the labour market, does this book a great disservice. At times an increasingly irrelevant political rant instead of a genuine attempt to sketch out a framework of how we can ameliorate the status of the working-class, this is the latest, and amongst the more readable, contributions to a field of books trying to mobilise the working-class to rise up.
What stands out throughout this book is the need for socialists to get over the legacy of Margaret Thatcher. The 1980s continued this country down the road the world also followed, albeit at a quicker pace than before, to the extent that moderate politics cannot undo her legacy. However, for many on the left her years in power remain an obsessive point as they adopt, as Jones does, a rose-tinted image of the working-class pre-1979 translated into a near-apocalyptic view of working-class communities after the election of Britain’s only female Prime Minister. For some communities, especially those that suffered in the aftermath of the closure of the mines in Thatcher’s second term, there is some truth in this. However, the miners’ strike ended over a quarter of a century ago and many working-class communities have moved on in a way the socialist intelligentsia refuse. Inevitably, many of the middle-class socialists forget what many working-class socialists have always known: the current state of the working-class is nothing to be ecstatic about, but a lifetime down the mines was no better a fate.
Whilst the out-dated and polarising anti-Thatcher rhetoric is this book’s biggest failing, it has much to recommend it – especially its analysis of the status and labour patterns of today’s working class. Jones astutely observes that the working-class increasingly works in the low-end service industries and consequently earn less than the country’s median income, £21,000 per annum. For many, this is a trapped state and Jones’ belief in the collective improvement of the working class is a relevant remedy for a society that requires unskilled labour by the working-class for many jobs. However, in encouraging the collective improvement of the working-class and riling against the Conservatives and New Labour for their focus on individual aspiration (i.e. encouraging people to escape the working-class), Jones inevitably walks into the trap of tying people to a destiny shaped by birth. To be unable to leave the condition of selling your labour in a restricted manner, how Jones defines being working-class, is as oppressive a mind-set as any of the reactionary right-wing policies he passionately denounces. For if working-class people are parodied for misconceptions of teenage mums and benefit cheats, such prejudices are best broken down by inter-class mobility rather than static classes. After all, without such social mobility working-class people cannot escape their conditions of regimented labour and there is no hope of their political representation that Jones aspires to. By wanting the working-class to be a homogenous group, he is encouraging less relative mobility for the most talented of the working-class in favour of an inescapable yet unified working-class. For those of us who do not consider meritocratic a dirty word, this is surely not right.
A theme which runs throughout this work is the concept of the white working-class as maligned to a racial minority status. In many respects, this contradicts what Jones says on previous occasions (that the working class is the majority of us) however this argument of how a significant portion of the working-class community have come to think of themselves is a fascinating basis from which to analyse further. For example, in an age of establishment-encouraged multiculturalism for the genuine ethnic minorities of this country, this approach gives credence to the British National Party (BNP) and their claim to be the people standing up for the marginalized working-class. The great lesson of this book for many politicians is that the working-class as a collective must not be maligned. At times, it has been politically expedient (and some may argue socially useful) to divide and rule the working-class into those perceived as individually aspirational and in unemployment, and those not. The very least politicians need to do, this book ably demonstrates, is bring one of those two groups into their tents.
However, we must not fall into the trap that Jones does and try and treat the working-class as a whole. Instead, we must reinstate the importance of the substantive word – working – and recognise the key distinctions that exist amongst the working-class (felt by the working-class as much, if not more, than anybody else). Whilst it is true that in many communities people cannot find a job, Jones’ happily skips over the many who refuse to get a job. In doing so, he demonstrates one of the biggest flaws in this book: its inclination to absolve members of the working-class for personal moral failings. In the area of working and self-sufficiency, and more drastically in the area of drug abuse and anti-social behaviour, Jones is willing to absolve people of responsibility because of external factors (e.g. unemployment and the lack of unifying social institutions such as working men’s clubs). This is always a dangerous road to take and the consequences for the working-class, inevitably some of the most put-upon people in our society, are that there will be a tendency to look to others to blame for their situation and for a way out, collective or otherwise. Instead, Jones must recognise that collective working-class sentiment, which he desires, will not materialise until people’s individual responsibility and aspirations are improved. Without personal ambition, collective conscience amongst the working-class will not lead to collective improvement.
This book is an important contribution to a debate we have often forgot in a country so often defined by its obsession with class. However, whilst our obsession with class is said to have demised in recent years, Jones simply sees this as the triumphalism of the middle-class in its war against the workers. This is a troublesome state and Jones would probably like to be seen as wanting the working-class to retaliate to the middle-class instigated class war against them. However, the case can persuasively be made that the ongoing class war he describes is more perceived than real. Therefore “angry” works such as Jones’, whilst a healthy contribution to the debate, risk demonizing the middle-class and aggressively motivating the working-class, bringing about an actual class-war the working-class is not well-equipped to win.
You can purchase ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class’ here.
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