Re: the injuries of class

This was a useful piece on a very important topic, about which socialists 
should be saying much more. Michael is right to highlight the destructive 
effects of 'dependence, fear, and insecurity-in a system where workers are 
bombarded with the message that they and they alone make the decisions that 
determine their circumstances'.

It brought to my mind this quote from Lenin, regarding religion:

'The deepest root of religion today is the socially downtrodden condition of 
the working masses and their apparently complete helplessness in face of the 
blind forces of capitalism, which every day and every hour inflicts upon 
ordinary working people the most horrible suffering and the most savage 
torment, a thousand times more severe than those inflicted by extra-ordinary 
events, such as wars, earthquakes, etc. "Fear made the gods." Fear of the 
blind force of capital-blind because it cannot be foreseen by the masses of 
the people-a force which at every step in the life of the proletarian and 
small proprietor threatens to inflict, and does inflict "sudden", 
"unexpected", "accidental" ruin, destruction, pauperism, prostitution, death 
from starvation-such is the root of modern religion ...' (From 'On the 
attitude of a worker's party to religion,' 
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm).

Paula 

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