Germany and England objectified class struggle through different institutional routes

Evidence

In Germany, this objectification was started more nearly by means of theory, in as much as the personal and individualistic nature of antagonism was overcome by the more abstract and general character of the historical and class movement. In England, it was launched by the trade unions and was furthered by the rigorously supra-individual unity of their actions and those of the corresponding federations of entrepreneurs. The violence of the fight, however, has not decreased for that. On the contrary, it has become more pointed, concentrated, and at the same time more comprehensive, owing to the consciousness of the individual involved that he fights not only for himself, and often not for himself at all, but for a great super-personal aim. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 307

Categorization

• XREF: The England-vs-Germany institutional contrast (unions vs. theory) echoes how different urban cultures produce different modes of depersonalized interaction. — connects to: Racially conscious working-class nationalism emerged from English class formation — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 234; Nationalism proved stronger than the class struggle in the modern world — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 362; English nationalism displaced class solidarity after Chartism’s defeat. (+7 more)

Related

• British socialism’s unique history shaped its trade-unionist character (similarity 0.85)
• World War I revealed nationalist loyalties overriding international worker solidarity (similarity 0.84)
• English nationalism displaced class solidarity after Chartism’s defeat. (similarity 0.83)
• Supranationalist class identity among English workers retreated before nationalism (similarity 0.83)
• Nationalism proved stronger than the class struggle in the modern world (similarity 0.81)
• Racially conscious working-class nationalism emerged from English class formation (similarity 0.81)
• English workers’ racialized consciousness gave no objective basis for universal class politics (similarity 0.81)
• English racial order prevented workers from separating class universality from racial particularism (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalism triumphed by cultivating divisions rather than erasing them within the working class (similarity 0.79)
• English racialism predated ruling class divisions and shaped proletarianization itself (similarity 0.79)
• The gulf between class struggle and anti-imperialist struggle began to close (similarity 0.79)
• Proletarianization created divisions among workers instead of erasing them (similarity 0.78)
• Capitalism’s global unification paradoxically generated nationalism as fragmentation (similarity 0.78)
• Free-trade agitation united British working and middle classes across class lines (similarity 0.78)
• Culture acquires class meaning only through present political struggle (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Racially conscious working-class nationalism emerged from English class formation #corroborates (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 234
• English nationalism displaced class solidarity after Chartism’s defeat. #corroborates (0.60)
• English racial order prevented workers from separating class universality from racial particularism #corroborates (0.60)
• English racialism predated ruling class divisions and shaped proletarianization itself #complicates (0.55)
• Nationalism proved stronger than the class struggle in the modern world #corroborates (0.50) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 362
• Marxism is a Western construction rooted in European historical experience #responds-to (0.45)