The dialectics of unity and difference in the constitution of wage-labour: On internal relations and working-class formation

Abstract

This article seeks to dialecticise the debate between the ostensible politics of class and those of identity. It mobilises the Hegelian-Marxian conception of ‘unity of the diverse’ against abstract conceptions of both universality and difference, in order to demonstrate how working classes are constituted in and through (i.e. internally related to) multiple social differences. In contrast to bad essentialism, the dialectical-Marxist concept of working class self-emancipation is thus shown to necessitate conscious struggle and self-organisation against all forms of social oppression.