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1、TrashingIdentityPolitics:DoesItReallyGetUsBacktoClass?NelsonLichtensteinUniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbaraAbstractVerityBurgmanncreatesanunnecessaryandahistoricaldistinctionbetweenthepoliticsofclassandthatofthevariousidentitiesthroughwhichthecontemporaryworkingclassdefin
2、esitself.Indeed,hervisionofaself-consciousproletariatseemstoomaleandtoomusty.Racialandgenderidentitieshaveachievedaprivilegedstatus,comparedtothatofclass,butthishaslesstodowiththeoutlookoftheleft-wingacademythanwiththelatetwentieth-centurytransformationoflaw,politics,and
3、socialpolicy,bothintheUSandothermulticulturalnations.TheproblemwithVerityBurgmann’sessayisthreefold.Shecreatesanunnec-essaryandahistoricaldistinctionbetweenthepoliticsofclassandthoseof“iden-tity”inthefirstinstance,andinthesecond,whenshedoesprojectanewclasspolitics,itseems
4、hopelesslyoutofcinchwiththetextureandcontoursoftwen-ty-firstcenturysocialstructureandculturalimagery.Finally,shetargetsthewrongculpritsinthecreationofthisdisjuncturebetweenclassandidentity.Whiletheoristsofthe“newsocialmovements”haveindeedsoughttoprivilegeracialandgenderid
5、entities,orperhapsovercompensatefortheirneglectduringearlierdecades,themarginalizationofclass,asalegalandideologicalconstructislargelyafunctionoflaw,legislation,andsocialpolicy,farmorethanitisoneofleft-wingintellectualsenamoredbynewsocialmovementscholarship.Tradeunionsar
6、eindeclinethroughoutmuchoftheworldtoday,andclassasacategoryofanalysisisdifficulttooperationalize,butthisishardlybecausewehavemovedfromaworldofdichotomousclassestoaworldinwhichethnicandracialidentitieshavesuddenlyintrudedthemselvesintooursocialandpo-liticalconsciousness.If
7、thereisonethingthatthelastgenerationoflaborandsocialhistoryscholarshiphasdemonstrated,itisthatintheUnitedStates,andcertainlyelsewhere,aconsciousnessofethnicity,race,andclasscanhardlybedivorced.InUnitedStateshistory,ethnicityreinforcesasmuchasitdivorcesclass.Indeed,onemig
8、htwellarguethatduringthehundredyearsthatpreced-edtheSecondWorldWar,classrhetoricwasasmuchthelanguageofe