Dummar ( Arabic : دُمَّر , romanized : Dummar ) is a municipal district of Damascus , Syria , located in the northwest of the city. It is the largest district of Damascus in terms of area.
69-523: The construction of the district was launched in the 1970s, with the first residents moved in during mid-1980s. Today it is a largely middle-class suburb home to many Damascene professionals. The municipality includes the Kurdish neighborhood of Wadi al-Mashari ( Arabic : وادي المشاريع , Kurdish : Zorava , meaning Valley Projects) Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War , it was largely known as
138-463: A working class satisfied with their standard of living and not inclined to proletarian revolution . It is a form of exporting poverty, creating an " exclave " of lower social class. Lenin contended that imperialism had prevented increasing class polarization in the developed world. The concept of a labor aristocracy is controversial between Marxists. While the theory is formally shared by most currents that identify positively with Lenin, including
207-472: A "new working class," which, despite education and a perception of themselves as middle class, were part of the working class because they did not own the means of production, and were wage earners paid to produce a piece of capital. The professional–managerial class seek higher rank status and salaries and tend to have incomes above the average for their country. Modern definitions of the term "middle class" are often politically motivated and vary according to
276-541: A few years [...] we say in our constitution that we are opposed to theorists [...] we are all practical men. Labor historian Melvyn Dubofsky has written the following: By 1896 Gompers and the AFL were moving to make their peace with Capitalism and the American system. Although the AFL had once preached the inevitability of class conflict and the need to abolish ' wage slavery ', it slowly and almost imperceptibly began to proclaim
345-417: A greater rate than the middle class, that rather than growing, India's middle class may be shrinking in size. According to a 2014 study by Standard Bank economist Simon Freemantle, a total of 15.3 million households in 11 surveyed nations of Africa are middle class: Angola , Ethiopia , Ghana , Kenya , Mozambique , Nigeria , South Sudan , Sudan , Tanzania , Uganda , and Zambia . In South Africa ,
414-502: A newly enfeebled economic weapon, the injunction-circumscribed strike. However, the AFL embraced this "businesslike" and "pragmatic" worldview, adopting the motto "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work". The AFL outlived the class consciousness of its own founding Preamble, but the IWW embraced the goal of abolishing wage slavery . In 1908, the IWW responded to what it considered the AFL's class collaborationist tendencies with new wording in
483-583: A regime change. Estimates vary widely on the number of middle-class people in India . A 1983 article put the Indian middle class as somewhere between 70 and 100 million. According to one study the middle class in India stood at between 60 and 80 million by 1990. According to The Economist , 78 million of India's population are considered middle class as of 2017, if defined using the cutoff of those making more than $ 10 per day,
552-538: A report conducted by the Institute for Race Relations in 2015 estimated that between 10% and 20% of South Africans are middle class, based on various criteria. An earlier study estimated that in 2008 21.3% of South Africans were members of the middle class. A study by EIU Canback indicates 90% of Africans fall below an income of $ 10 a day. The proportion of Africans in the $ 10–$ 20 middle class (excluding South Africa), rose from 4.4% to only 6.2% between 2004 and 2014. Over
621-473: A source for the spread of opportunism, was confirmed once again. The new stratum of the worker aristocracy, which increased considerably during this period, began to exert an ever more negative influence in the ranks of the parties and their leaderships by introducing reformist and opportunist views and ideas. Under pressure of these circumstances, the programs of these communist parties were reduced more and more to democratic and reformist minimum programs, while
690-419: A standard used by the India's National Council of Applied Economic Research. If including those with incomes between $ 2 and $ 10 per day, the number increases to 604 million. This was termed by researchers as the "new middle class". Measures considered include geography, lifestyle, income, and education. The World Inequality Report in 2018 further concluded that elites (i.e. the top 10%) are accumulating wealth at
759-463: A tendency to operate as a business, rather than according to "union principles"; enthroning elite hierarchies of leadership which are not easily recalled by the membership; deriving significant income from the sale of insurance or credit cards, arguably leading to conflicts of interest; union leadership compensation levels that are closer to those of corporate executives than of rank and file workers; top-down decision making; and building relationships with
SECTION 10
#1732837993589828-476: A whole, exclusive of Indians, constituted just under 20% of the national society. A 1964 study estimated that 45 million Latin Americans belonged to the urban middle class while 15 million to the urban well-to-do and 8 million to the rural middle class and well-to-do. In Brazil , according to one estimate, in 1970 the lower middle class comprised 12% of the population, while the upper middle class comprised 3%. In
897-663: A working paper by the OECD asserted that 1.8 billion people were now members of the global "middle class". Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report 2014, released in October 2014, estimated that one billion adults belonged to the "middle class," with wealth anywhere between the range of $ 10,000–$ 100,000. According to a study carried out by the Pew Research Center , a combined 16% of the world's population in 2011 were "upper-middle income" and "upper income". An April 2019 OECD report said that
966-425: Is impossible to distinguish clearly among the multiple dimensions of inequality and the various mechanisms at work." In February 2009, The Economist asserted that over half the world's population now belongs to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of discretionary income , so that they do not live from hand-to-mouth as
1035-567: Is unfortunately only too deeply saturated with all the political and social prejudices and all the narrow aspirations and pretensions of the bourgeoisie. Of all the proletariat, this upper layer is the least social and the most individualist." In the United States and Britain, the term "aristocracy of labor" is used as an implicit criticism of labor unions that have organized high-salary workers and have no interest in unionizing middle-income and lower-income employees—even in cases where organizing
1104-780: The Air Line Pilots Association , the Screen Actors Guild and a handful of other AFL–CIO unions conform to the labor aristocracy model of trade unionism. At the beginning of the 20th century in the United States, "most American Federation of Labor (AFL) unions did not admit unskilled mass-production workers". Selig Perlman wrote in 1923 that skilled workers organized into craft unions were more interested in trade separatism than in labor solidarity. The craft workers were capable of demanding more from their employers due to their skills and preferred to fight separately from unskilled or semiskilled workers. In Perlman's words,
1173-643: The Communist International , few organizations place the theory at the center of their work. The term is most widely used in the United States, where it was popularized in the decade prior to World War I by Eugene V. Debs 's Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World . In Britain, those who hold to this theory include the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist) and
1242-554: The Revolutionary Communist Group . Many Trotskyists , including Leon Trotsky himself and the early congresses of the Fourth International , have accepted the theory of the labor aristocracy whereas others, including Ernest Mandel and Tony Cliff , considered the theory to have mistaken arguments or " Third Worldist " implications. Albanian leader and Marxist Enver Hoxha gave the following explanation for
1311-513: The bourgeoisie ; later, with the further differentiation of classes as capitalist societies developed, the term came to be synonymous with the term petite bourgeoisie . The boom-and-bust cycles of capitalist economies result in the periodic (and more or less temporary) impoverishment and proletarianization of much of the petite bourgeois world, resulting in their moving back and forth between working-class and petite-bourgeois status. The typical modern definitions of "middle class" tend to ignore
1380-405: The safest area of Damascus, and was the site of a charity marathon for children with cancer . Middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy , often defined by occupation , income, education, or social status . The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for
1449-435: The status quo , or to recognize the necessity of building structural relationships, promoting education and engaging in solidarity activities with the specific intention of translating gains into an effort to enhance the status of all working people. In his 1983 book Settlers , J. Sakai argues that the class system in the United States is built upon the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans and that
SECTION 20
#17328379935891518-681: The "middle class" which stands between the ruling capitalist "owners of the means of production" and the working class (whose income is derived solely from hourly wages). Pioneer 20th century American Marxist theoretician Louis C. Fraina (Lewis Corey) defined the middle class as "the class of independent small enterprisers, owners of productive property from which a livelihood is derived". From Fraina's perspective, this social category included "propertied farmers" but not propertyless tenant farmers . Middle class also included salaried managerial and supervisory employees but not "the masses of propertyless, dependent salaried employees. Fraina speculated that
1587-558: The 1990s as "New Labour" , a party competing with the Conservative Party for the votes of the middle-class as well as those of the Labour Party's traditional group of voters – the working-class. Around 40% of British people consider themselves to be middle class, and this number has remained relatively stable over the last few decades. According to the OECD , the middle class refers to households with income between 75% and 200% of
1656-505: The 19th and early 20th centuries was also a phrase used to define better-off members of the working class (as used for example by Jack London in The People of the Abyss ). In Marxist theory , those workers ( proletarians ) in the developed countries who benefit from the superprofits extracted from the impoverished workers of developing countries form an "aristocracy of labor". The phrase
1725-466: The Chinese middle class differs substantially from its Western counterparts. Despite its growth, it remains a relatively small group profoundly joined with the Chinese state. This unique relationship challenges assumptions about its role in political change. Criticisms from this demographic often center on improving efficiency and social justice within the existing political framework, rather than advocating for
1794-467: The Chinese population were considered middle class as of 2017. China's middle class represents a significant market force with effects extending beyond its borders. The promise of increased prosperity and a consumer society has been a driving force behind this growth, while also suggesting the potential for political changes similar to those seen in Europe and North America. However, it's important to note that
1863-471: The IWW Preamble: Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe upon our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system." [...] The army of production must be organized, not only for the every-day struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. The IWW saw itself as the answer to
1932-438: The IWW, all the union bureaucracy of the AFL functioned pretty much as a "labor aristocracy". In that regard, the IWW's views have not changed much over the years. Mainstream unions have evolved, embracing some of the principles of industrial unionism and (in many cases) opening their doors to a greater spectrum of the working class. However, there are many aspects to business unionism that solidarity unionists still find suspect–
2001-463: The Wobblies, differed from the AFL in significant ways: From its inception in 1905, the IWW criticized existing craft unions for creating a "labor aristocracy". Eugene V. Debs wrote that "seasoned old unionists" could see that working people could not win with the labor movement they had. Debs believed the AFL practiced "organized scabbery" of one union on another, engaged in jurisdictional squabbling,
2070-435: The beginning of the technical and scientific revolution, and the full employment of the work force, opened the way to the flowering among the unformed opportunist element of views about the development of capitalism without class conflicts, about its ability to avoid crises, the elimination of the phenomenon of unemployment etc. That major teaching of Marxism-Leninism, that the periods of peaceful development of capitalism becomes
2139-479: The city. In France , the middle classes helped drive the French Revolution . This "middle class" eventually overthrew the ruling monarchists of feudal society, thus becoming the new ruling class or bourgeoisie in the new capitalist-dominated societies. The modern usage of the term "middle-class", however, dates to the 1913 UK Registrar-General's report, in which the statistician T. H. C. Stevenson identified
Dummar - Misplaced Pages Continue
2208-420: The conservatism of the AFL. The IWW developed a variety of creative tactics in its effort to "build a new world within the shell of the old". Because the AFL declined to act as an ally in such a cause, the Wobblies sought to develop solidarity with all rank and file workers while criticizing or spoofing AFL union leadership. AFL union "bosses" were (and still are) referred to by the Wobblies as " piecards ". To
2277-510: The developed one, since their money incomes do not match developed country levels, but the percentage of it which is discretionary does. By this definition, the number of middle-class people in Asia exceeded that in the West sometime around 2007 or 2008. The Economist 's article pointed out that in many emerging countries, the middle class has not grown incrementally but explosively. The point at which
2346-442: The development of the labor aristocracy following World War II : The development of the economy in the West after the war also exerted a great influence on the spread of opportunist and revisionist ideas in the communist parties. True, Western Europe was devastated by the war but its recovery was carried out relatively quickly. The American capital which poured into Europe through the ' Marshall Plan ' made it possible to reconstruct
2415-453: The driving force for sustainable development. This assumption, however, is contested (see below). As the American middle class is estimated by some researchers to comprise approximately 45% of the population, The Economist 's article would put the size of the American middle class below the world average. This difference is due to the extreme difference in definitions between The Economist 's and many other models . In 2010,
2484-402: The entire category of salaried employees might be adequately described as a "new middle class" in economic terms, although this remained a social grouping in which "most of whose members are a new proletariat." In 1977, Barbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich defined a new class in the United States as "salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in
2553-436: The exigencies of political purpose which they were conceived to serve in the first place as well as due to the multiplicity of more- or less-scientific methods used to measure and compare wealth between modern advanced industrial states, where poverty is relatively low and the distribution of wealth more egalitarian in a relative sense, and in developing countries, where poverty and a profoundly unequal distribution of wealth crush
2622-599: The fact that the classical petite-bourgeoisie is and has always been the owner of a small-to medium-sized business whose income is derived almost exclusively from the employment of workers; "middle class" came to refer to the combination of the labour aristocracy , professionals , and salaried, white-collar workers . The size of the middle class depends on how it is defined, whether by education, wealth , environment of upbringing, social network , manners or values, etc. These are all related, but are far from deterministically dependent. The following factors are often ascribed in
2691-411: The factories, plants, transport and agriculture so that their production extended rapidly. This development opened up many jobs and for a long period, not only absorbed all the free labour force but even created a certain shortage of labour. This situation, which brought the bourgeoisie great superprofits, allowed it to loosen its purse-strings a little and soften the labour conflicts to some degree. In
2760-543: The first sense, it is used for the bourgeoisie (the urban merchant and professional class) that arose between the aristocracy and the proletariat in the waning years of feudalism in the Marxist model. Vladimir Lenin stated that the "peasantry ... in Russia constitute eight- or nine-tenths of the petty bourgeoisie". However, in modern developed countries, Marxist writers define the petite bourgeoisie as primarily comprising (as
2829-567: The flower of the proletariat is not, as it is to the Marxists, the upper layer, the aristocracy of labor, those who are the most cultured, who earn more and live more comfortably than all the other workers. Precisely this semi-bourgeois layer of workers would, if the Marxists had their way, constitute their fourth governing class. This could indeed happen if the great mass of the proletariat does not guard against it. By virtue of its relative well-being and semi-bourgeois position, this upper layer of workers
Dummar - Misplaced Pages Continue
2898-430: The idea of the revolution and socialism became ever more remote. The major strategy of the revolutionary transformation of society gave way to the minor strategy about current problems of the day which was absolutized and became the general political and ideological line. The term was originally coined by Mikhail Bakunin in 1872 as a criticism of the notion that organized workers are the most radical. Bakunin wrote: "To me
2967-525: The leadership of corporations or political parties that the rank and file may view with suspicion. All union movements function in some fashion to raise up workers in social or economic status or in union privilege. The significant difference between a union movement with a labor aristocracy and a union movement based upon class solidarity is how and to what extent the structure, bureaucracy and in particular policies and practices of that union movement function, either to leave that level of increased privilege as
3036-465: The literature on this topic to a "middle class:" In the United States, by the end of the twentieth century, more people identified themselves as middle-class (with insignificant numbers identifying themselves as upper-class). The Labour Party in the UK, which grew out of the organised labour movement and originally drew almost all of its support from the working-class, reinvented itself under Tony Blair in
3105-426: The median national income. Marxism defines social classes according to their relationship with the means of production . The main basis of social class division of Marxism: the possession of means of production, the role and position it plays in social labor organization (production process), the distribution of wealth and resources and the amount. Marxist writers have used the term middle class in various ways. In
3174-570: The mid-1970s it was estimated by one authority that the Brazilian middle class comprised between 15 and 25% of the population. A 1969 economic survey estimated that 15% of Brazilians belonged to the middle class. By 1970, according to one study, the middle class of Argentina comprised 38% of the economically active population, compared with 19% in Brazil and 24% in Mexico . A 1975 study on Mexico estimated that
3243-461: The middle class as those falling between the upper-class and the working-class . The middle class includes: professionals, managers, and senior civil servants. The chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class is control of significant human capital while still being under the dominion of the elite upper class, who control much of the financial and legal capital in the world. Within capitalism, "middle-class" initially referred to
3312-452: The middle class in 1968 (defined as families earning between 2,000 and 5,000 pesos annually) comprised 36.4% of the population, while the upper class (defined as families earning over 5,000 pesos annually) comprised 9.4% of the population and the lower class (defined as families earning less than 2,000 pesos annually) comprised 53.9% of the population. According to a study by the World Bank ,
3381-569: The middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories like "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class. Terminology differs in the United States , where the term middle class describes people who in other countries would be described as working class . There has been significant global middle-class growth over time. In February 2009, The Economist asserted that over half of
3450-640: The millennial generation is being pushed out of the middle class throughout the Western world. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China 's middle class has grown by significant margins. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies , by 2013, some 420 million people, or 31%, of the Chinese population qualified as middle class. Based on the World Bank definition of middle class as those having with daily spending between $ 10 and $ 50 per day, nearly 40% of
3519-428: The name implies) owners of small to medium-sized businesses, who derive their income from the exploitation of wage-laborers (and who are in turn exploited by the "big" bourgeoisie i.e. bankers, owners of large corporate trusts, etc.) as well as the highly educated professional class of doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers, university professors, salaried middle-management of capitalist enterprises of all sizes, etc. – as
SECTION 50
#17328379935893588-589: The number of Latin Americans who are middle class rose from 103 million to 152 million between 2003 and 2009. In 2012, the "middle class" in Russia was estimated as 15% of the whole population. Due to sustainable growth , the pre-crisis level was exceeded. In 2015, research from the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated that around 15% of the Russian population are "firmly middle class", while around another 25% are "on
3657-433: The periphery". Labour aristocracy Labor aristocracy or labour aristocracy (also aristocracy of labor ) has at least four meanings: (1) as a term with Marxist theoretical underpinnings; (2) as a specific type of trade unionism ; (3) as a shorthand description by revolutionary industrial unions (such as the Industrial Workers of the World ) for the bureaucracy of craft-based business unionism ; and (4) in
3726-412: The poor do, and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter. This allows people to buy consumer goods, improve their health care, and provide for their children's education. Most of the emerging middle class consists of people who are middle class by the standards of the developing world but not
3795-491: The poor start entering the middle class by the millions is alleged to be the time when poor countries get the maximum benefit from cheap labour through international trade , before they price themselves out of world markets for cheap goods. It is also a period of rapid urbanization, when subsistence farmers abandon marginal farms to work in factories, resulting in a several-fold increase in their economic productivity before their wages catch up to international levels. That stage
3864-612: The same period, the proportion of " upper middle class " income ($ 20–$ 50 a day) went from 1.4% to 2.3%. According to a 2014 study by the German Development Institute, the middle class of Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 14 million to 31 million people between 1990 and 2010. Over the years estimates on the size of the Latin America 's middle class have varied. A 1960 study stated that the middle strata in Latin America as
3933-692: The social division of labor ... [is] ... the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations;" the Ehrenreichs named this group the "professional–managerial class". This group of middle-class professionals is distinguished from other social classes by their training and education (typically business qualifications and university degrees), with example occupations including academics and teachers , social workers , engineers , accountants , managers , nurses , and middle-level administrators. The Ehrenreichs developed their definition from studies by André Gorz , Serge Mallet, and others, of
4002-418: The social field, in such matters as social insurance, health, education, labour legislation etc., it took some measures for which the working class had fought hard. The obvious improvement of the standard of living of the working people in comparison with that of the time of the war and even before the war, the rapid growth of production, which came as a result of the reconstruction of industry and agriculture and
4071-513: The trade unions declared that their purpose was "to protect the skilled trades of America from being reduced to beggary". In 1905, many existing unions actively lobbied for racist and anti-immigration policies through the creation of the notorious Asiatic Exclusion League . That same year, a new union called the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was formed in Chicago. The IWW, also known as
4140-404: The unorganized would strengthen the unions involved. These unions, it is argued, are content to remain a "labor aristocracy". Examples might include the unions of professional athletes, which have raised the wages of a certain class of already highly paid workers—professional athletes—but refuse to organize other workers, including other employees of the teams they work for. It commonly charged that
4209-567: The vast majority of the population. Many of these methods of comparison have been harshly criticised; for example, economist Thomas Piketty , in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century , describes one of the most commonly used comparative measures of wealth across the globe, the Gini coefficient , as being an example of "synthetic indices ... which mix very different things, such as inequality with respect to labor and capital, so that it
SECTION 60
#17328379935894278-417: The virtues of class harmony and the possibilities of a more benevolent Capitalism. The AFL therefore preached "pure and simple" trade unionism. The AFL concerned itself with a "philosophy of pure wage consciousness", according to Selig Perlman , who developed the "business unionism" theory of labor. Perlman saw craft organizing as a means of resisting the encroachment of waves of immigrants. Organization that
4347-433: The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. [...] Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers [...] take and hold that which they produce by their labor through an economic organization of the working class. In contrast, the AFL declared: We have no ultimate ends. We are going only from day to day. We are fighting only for immediate objects—objects that can be realized in
4416-590: The world's population belonged to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of discretionary income and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter. The term "middle class" is first attested in James Bradshaw's 1745 pamphlet Scheme to prevent running Irish Wools to France. Another phrase used in early modern Europe
4485-414: Was "the middling sort". The term "middle class" has had several and sometimes contradictory meanings. Friedrich Engels saw the category as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry in late-feudalist society. While the nobility owned much of the countryside, and the peasantry worked it, a new bourgeoisie (literally "town-dwellers") arose around mercantile functions in
4554-461: Was based upon craft skills granted control over access to the job. While craft unions provided a good defense for the privileges of membership, conventions such as time-limited contracts and pledges not to strike in solidarity with other workers severely limited the ability of craft unions to effect change in society at large, leaving only the ineffectual means granted by a business-dominated elite society, i.e. electoral politics, lobbying congress and
4623-650: Was dominated by an autocratic leadership and the relationship between union leaders and millionaires in the National Civic Federation was much too cozy. IWW leaders believed that in the AFL there was too little solidarity and too little "straight" labor education. These circumstances led to too little appreciation of what could be won, and too little will to win it. Animated by a class philosophy that saw capitalism as an economic system dividing society into two classes—those who own, manage, or rule; and those who have only their labor to sell—the IWW declared: [...]
4692-469: Was popularized by Karl Kautsky in 1901 and theorized by Vladimir Lenin in his treatise Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism . According to Lenin, companies in the developed world exploit workers in the developing world where wages are much lower. The increased profits enable these companies to pay higher wages to their employees "at home" (that is, in the developed world), thus creating
4761-461: Was reached in China sometime between 1990 and 2005, when the Chinese "middle class" grew from 15% to 62% of the population and is just being reached in India now. The Economist predicted that surge across the poverty line should continue for a couple of decades and the global middle class will grow exponentially between now and 2030. Based on the rapid growth, scholars expect the global middle class to be
#588411