Dictionary

aristocracy of labor en · NOUN

Etymology

While Mikhail Bakunin is credited with coining this term, it is in fact found in Sam Dolgoff's loose translation [1971] of a fragment [c. 1872], which Bakunin wrote in French and contains no word translatable literally as aristocracy of labo(u)r. In an unsent letter to the journal La Liberté in Brussels [5 October 1972], Bakunin used the wording: “a new aristocracy, that of the urban and industrial workers”. For further etymology, see labo(u)r aristocracy.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of labour aristocracy.
   alt of labour aristocracy
   • The more such an aristocracy of labor leaves the unskilled, unprotected, unorganized parts of the proletariat to shift economically for themselves, the more these come to be the breeding centers of scabs who stab organized labor in the back on every occasion and thus paralyze every decided action. April 1901, Karl Kautsky, “Trades Unions and Socialism”, in Eugene Dietzgen, transl., International Socialist Review, volume 1, number 10, page 595:
   • Despite all the appearances of class struggle, such an aristocracy of labor enjoys, even in times of war, privileged access to the means of political communication and organization. 1970 April 7, Martin Nicolaus, “The Theory of the Labor Aristocracy”, in Monthly Review, volume 21, number 11, page 97 of 91-101:
   • He was content to create an aristocracy of labor, a trade union trust, as it were, indifferent to the needs of the rest of the workers outside of the organization. March 1925, Emma Goldman, “Samuel Gompers”, in Road to Freedom, volume 1:

Forms

wikipedia: Sam Dolgoff · wikipedia: Morning Star (British newspaper) · wikipedia: Mikhail Bakunin