Radnika dilema: zajedničke ruševine ili vjetar iz raja?
The Workers’ Dilemma: The Common Ruin or the Whirl from Paradise

Author(s): Vjeran Katunarić
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Sociology, Marxism, Labor relations
Published by: Durieux
Keywords: workers’ dilemma; Marx; Engels; Benjamin; capitalism; Croatia; religiosity; trade-unions; church;
Summary/Abstract: The expression ’workers’ dilemma” refers to a controversial place in Marx’s and Engels’ Communist Party Manifesto. The authors argue that the final defeat of the proletariat in its struggle against the bourgeoisie will result in »the common ruin”. A similar motif appears in Walter Benjamin’s note known as »The Angel of History”. He understands progress as the result of the intervention of God («the whirlwind from Paradise”). Several intermediary topics are elaborated in the next: from early forms of capitalist exploitation over trade-union confrontation against workers’ democracy to workers’ sadness. The last sections bring empirical insights into the religiosity of workers in Croatia. The first insight is based on quantitative analysis of large samples. The second insight is based on the author’s interviews with two retired workers, examining, among others, their attitudes toward Church and trade unions in Croatia. In place of a conclusion, the author argues that the major advantage of defeats of both the proletariat and the left thought is cognitive, rather than moral-political. There is a big accumulation of knowledge of what was right and what went wrong, respectively, in the workers’ movement and socialism on the whole. Still, there is perhaps some room for theoretical (non-linear development) and practical optimism within the workers’ dilemma. The latter might be noticed in our interlocutors’ optimism in the sense that a more just society is possible, although they could not elaborate on this. The author could not either accrue more grounds for the principled optimism among workers. Instead, he put forward three remarks. One is that the future children cannot be born or survive based on the devastating pessimism of their ancestors. The other remark stays in the line with Marx’ and others’ contentions with utopian socialism, i.e. confined to rare local communities, while the power of the hegemonic capitalism, is overwhelming, capable of destroying any power that is all too small (like the former Yugoslavia which besides was left without international allies). The last remark concerns religious and non-religious worldviews that are mutually compatible only provided that they support peace and, respectively, deny the need to wage wars in the name of God or any other ideological fetish. Essentially, durable peace is unbearable to capitalism and other non-democratic governments, whereby the question of who or what exactly created the world becomes largely irrelevant.

• Details
• Contents