aristocracy of labor

English

Alternative forms

• labour aristocracy, (US) labor aristocracy
• aristocracy of labour

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.

For further etymology, see labo(u)r aristocracy.

Noun

aristocracy of labor (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of labour aristocracy
   • April 1901, Karl Kautsky, “Trades Unions and Socialism”, in Eugene Dietzgen, transl., International Socialist Review‎^[3], volume 1, number 10, page 595:

     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.

   • March 1925, Emma Godman, “Samuel Gompers”, in Road to Freedom‎^[4], volume 1:

     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.

   • 1970 April 7, Martin Nicolaus, “The Theory of the Labor Aristocracy”, in Monthly Review‎^[5], volume 21, number 11, page 97 of 91-101:

     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.