Workers of the World, Enjoy!: Aesthetic Politics from Revolutionary Syndicalism to the Global Justice Movement (Politics History & Social Chan)

225 Pages·2010·1.18 MB·English

by  Kenneth H. Tucker Jr.

Workers of the World, Enjoy!
In the series Politics, History, and Social Change,
edited by John C. Torpey
Also in this series:
Ernesto Verdeja, Unchopping a Tree: Reconciliation in the Aftermath
of Po liti cal Violence
Rebecca Jean Emigh, The Undevelopment of Capitalism: Sectors and
Markets in Fifteenth- Century Tuscany
Aristide R. Zolberg, How Many Exceptionalisms? Explorations in
Comparative Macroanalysis
Thomas Brudholm, Resentment’s Virtue: Jean Améry and the Refusal
to Forgive
Patricia Hill Collins, From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism,
Nationalism, and Feminism
Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider, translated by Assenka Oksiloff,
The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age
Brian A. Weiner, Sins of the Parents: The Politics of National
Apologies in the United States
Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley, Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking
Between Israelis and Palestinians
Marc Garcelon, Revolutionary Passage: From Soviet to Post- Soviet
Rus sia, 1985–2000
Götz Aly and Karl Heinz Roth, translated by Assenka Oksiloff, The
Nazi Census: Identifi cation and Control in the Third Reich
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Uncertainties of Knowledge
Michael R. Marrus, The Unwanted: Eu ro pe an Refugees from the
First World War Through the Cold War
❖
Workers of the
World, Enjoy!
Aesthetic Politics from
Revolutionary Syndicalism
to the Global Justice Movement
Kenneth H. Tucker, Jr.
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia
Temple University Press
1601 North Broad Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
www .temple .edu/t empress
Copyright © 2010 by Temple University
All rights reserved
Published 2010
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Tucker, Kenneth H.
Wokers of the world, enjoy! : aesthetic politics from revolutionary
syndicalism to the global justice movement / Kenneth H. Tucker, Jr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59213-764-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Popular culture—History. 2. Art—Political aspects—History.
3. Social movements—History. I. Title.
HM621.T83 2010
306.4'709—dc22
2009046953
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48- 1992
Printed in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
❖
Contents
Ac know ledg ments vii
Introduction 1
Part I Theoretical Refl ections
1 Public Life, Aesthetics, and Social Theory 15
2 Social Movements and Aesthetic Politics 43
3 Identity, Knowledge, Solidarity, and Aesthetic Politics 63
Part II History and Social Movements
4 The World Is a Stage and Life Is a Carnival: The Rise of the 91
Aesthetic Sphere and Pop u lar Culture
5 Labor and Aesthetic Politics: French Revolutionary 121
Syndicalism, the IWW, and Fascism
6 The Flowering of Aesthetic Politics: May 1968, the New 153
Social Movements, and the Global Justice Movement
Conclusion 179
Notes 185
Index 209

❖
Ack now ledgm ents
W
orkers of the World, Enjoy! refers to graffi ti from the May
1968 protests in France, and encapsulates many of my
ideas about aesthetic politics. Just as this title did not origi-
nate with me, so there are many people who either directly or indirectly
helped me formulate my ideas. Of course none of them are responsible
for the use that I made of their comments, and I am sure that many of
them would disagree with several aspects of my argument. I would like
to thank Ron Lembo for suggesting this project and Micah Kleit of
Temple University Press for overseeing the production of the book.
Special thanks also to Bob Dunn, who read several chapters and made
insightful suggestions. For helpful comments on various aspects of the
text or ideas related to it, I thank Jeffrey Alexander, Debbora Battaglia,
Tony Lee, Ron Lembo, Jean- Frédéric Monod, Steven Seidman, John
Torpey, Eleanor Townsley, and Sherry Silveus Tucker. Barbara Tucker
offered emotional and intellectual support. Finally, I am grateful to and
for Sherry in every way, as always.

❖
Introduction
P
aris, August 1908. Emile Pataud of the Electricians U nion dra-
matically darkens all of Paris during a strike, illuminating only
the Bourse du Travail, the headquarters of the revolutionary syn-
dicalist Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), the largest u nion
org an iz at ion in France. Pataud, donning his working-c lass beret to full
effect and appearing every bit the working-c lass revolutionary, cor-
dially received journalists during the blackout, demonstrating the
power of the CGT. Two years earlier, on May 1, 1906, syndicalist dem-
onstrators engaged in a general strike, covering the streets of Paris,
singing the proletarian anthem the “Internationale,” throwing rocks
at police, and fl aunting their working- class roots.1 As a major player in
an incipient proletarian public sphere different from its more staid
bourgeois counterpart, the CGT combined socialism and anarchism
with popu lar traditions of carnival and an avant- garde concern with
individual authenticity and freedom through autonomously controlled
labor unions. Syndicalists in France, like the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW), their counterparts in the United States, cultivated
a distinctive working-c lass culture, integrating politics and aesthetics
through their proletarian dress, playful and colorful demonstrations
in the streets, and a language of labor based on personal fulfi llment at
the workplace. In opposition to reformist socialism or state- centered