Culture Serves the Ruling Class

Written by: Duncan B. on 1 September 2024

 

("Creativity belongs to the working class" courtesy of Earth Liberation Studios)

 

Marx wrote in his Preface and Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy, “In the social production of their existence, men enter into definite, necessary relations, which are independent of their will, namely, relations of production corresponding to a determinate stage of development of their material forces of production.

 

The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation on which there arises a legal and political superstructure and to which there correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life-process in general.”

 

Culture, being part of the intellectual life-process is part of the superstructure of a class society. The dominant culture in class society is the culture of the dominant class. Under capitalism, the dominant culture is capitalist culture. Under socialism, the dominant culture is socialist culture.

 

As Mao Zedong wrote in Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art, “In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is no such thing as art for art’s sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or is independent of politics.”

 

Mao pointed out that revolutionary literature and art are an indispensable part of the revolutionary cause. He said, “If we had no literature and art even in the broadest and most ordinary sense, we could not carry on the revolutionary movement and win victory.”

 

In Australia the capitalist class is the dominant class, and the dominant culture is capitalist culture, in particular the culture of US imperialism. For nearly 100 years Australia has been bombarded with US culture, through Hollywood, American music, streaming services and social media.

 

Australia has long had its own vibrant culture which is continually being swamped by US culture. We have over 60,000 years of indigenous culture expressed through art, music and dance. We have a proud working class culture, further enriched by the migrants from many countries who have brought their culture to Australia.

 

Marx and Engels wrote in the Manifesto of the Communist Party, “The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science into its paid wage-labourers.”

 

This is true in Australia, not only for poets but for other creative people. Very few Australian actors, writers, artists or musicians are able to make a living from what they create. They often live in poverty, holding precarious casual jobs in order to survive and continue creating. Writers often lead a hand-to-mouth existence while living in hope of winning a literary prize to boost their meagre earnings. Many artists are also struggling to survive while trying to get their works seen by the public.

 

In Australia nearly half of Australian musicians earned less than $6000 a year from their talents, according to a poll conducted by the Media and Entertainment Arts Alliance. Only about one in five musicians are able to make a living from their music.

 

Sixty-four percent of musicians earned less than $15,000 a year, while median earnings for musicians who mainly draw their income from music are from $48,000 to $60,000 a year. This is poor recompense for the hours spent on the road and rehearsing on top of the actual performance. The lockdowns during COVID made the situation worse as actors and musicians were unable to perform during that time.

 

The very existence of writers, artists and musicians is coming under threat from Artificial Intelligence. We are already seeing works of art, music and literature created by AI. Musicians and songwriters are concerned that tech companies are using their creations to train AI without payment, causing them financial loss. Actors fear being replaced by AI-generated clones.

 

Under socialism actors, writers, artists, musicians and other cultural workers would be valued and respected and provided with the means and resources to contribute to enriching society without having to worry where their next meal is coming from.