Ethnic divisions within a working class can be exploited to strengthen capitalist rule

Evidence

But even more to the point, we have seen that the generic terms “the English working class” or “the English proletariat” mask the social and historical realities that accompanied the introduction of industrial capitalism in England and its Empire. Social divisions and habits of life and attitude that predated capitalist production continued into the modern era and extended to the working classes located in Britain specific social sensibilities and consciousness. The English working class was never the singular social and historical entity suggested by the phrase. An even closer study of its elements—for we have merely reviewed the more extreme case with the Irish—would reveal other social divisions, some ethnic (Welsh, Scottish, and more recently West Indian and Asian), some regional, and others essentially industrial and occupational. The negations resultant from capitalist modes of production, relations of production, and ideology did not manifest themselves as an eradication of oppositions among the working classes. Instead, the dialectic of proletarianization disciplined the working classes to the importance of distinctions: between ethnics and nationalities; between skilled and unskilled workers; and, as we shall see later in even more dramatic terms, between races. The persistence and creation of such oppositions within the working classes were a critical aspect of the triumph of capitalism in the nineteenth century. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 267 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Capitalist development required the active re-education and moralization of working-class culture; Third-country nationals form a segregated low-paid workforce sustaining overseas bases; Capitalism triumphed by cultivating divisions rather than erasing them within the working class — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 267 (+12 more)

Related

• Capitalism triumphed by cultivating divisions rather than erasing them within the working class (similarity 0.95)
• Proletarianization created divisions among workers instead of erasing them (similarity 0.94)
• Capitalist proletarianization reproduced internal divisions rather than unifying the working class (similarity 0.91)
• Racial ideology functions as a labor discipline for capital (similarity 0.90)
• Ethnic division between English and Irish workers serves capitalist domination (similarity 0.90)
• Post-1877 capitalism used differential reward by race to stabilize wealth (similarity 0.89)
• English racialism predated ruling class divisions and shaped proletarianization itself (similarity 0.88)
• Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them (similarity 0.86)
• Soviet wage differentials and competition destroyed working-class solidarity (similarity 0.85)
• Modern capitalist societies experience themselves as pluralistic rather than unified (similarity 0.85)
• English racial ideology predated proletarianization rather than being invented to divide workers. (similarity 0.85)
• The Volksgemeinschaft outcompeted communism by promising upward mobility and instant realization (similarity 0.85)
• Racialized division between workers serves capital’s domination over both camps (similarity 0.84)
• Post-1877 racial division of labor was engineered to stabilize capitalist wealth (similarity 0.83)
• Capitalism conserving non-capitalist modes produces racial and colonial ideologies. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Ethnic division between English and Irish workers serves capitalist domination #exemplifies (0.90)
• Capitalism triumphed by cultivating divisions rather than erasing them within the working class #corroborates (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 267
• Post-1877 racial division of labor was engineered to stabilize capitalist wealth #exemplifies (0.85)
• Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them #expands (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205
• Capitalism conserving non-capitalist modes produces racial and colonial ideologies. #expands (0.70)
• Proletarianization created divisions among workers instead of erasing them #corroborates (0.70)
• Racial ideology functions as a labor discipline for capital #expands (0.65)
• Racism and nationalism predate capitalism and shaped its development. #complicates (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 122
• Nationalism proved stronger than the class struggle in the modern world #corroborates (0.55) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 362
• Hegemony explains class rule as cultural and political sway, not just economic interest #complicates (0.50)