Start Date
2-10-1999 1:30 PM
End Date
2-10-1999 2:00 PM
Description
The recent publication of Michael Thompson's Labor Without Class and Katherine Betts' The Great Dividel has re-focussed attention upon claims that there exists a powerful "new class" in Australian society comprised of tertiary-educated, left-wing activist intellectuals, trade unionists, public servants and lobbyists. This paper provides a background to the thesis of the new class, arguing that it constitutes the central organising idea of a new class discourse, which encompasses such ideas as 'political correctness', 'special interests' and the 'guilt industry'. Both the thesis of the new class and new class discourse are key discursive and conceptual features of contemporary right-wing political thought in Australia. As rhetorical devices employed in the context of the hegemonic struggles within Australian society of the 1990s, new class discourse de-legitimates the interests of the labour movement and other social movements, thus working to exclude these groups from the sphere of public discourse and the legitimate political community.
The Australian Right's New Class Discourse and the Construction of the Political Community
The recent publication of Michael Thompson's Labor Without Class and Katherine Betts' The Great Dividel has re-focussed attention upon claims that there exists a powerful "new class" in Australian society comprised of tertiary-educated, left-wing activist intellectuals, trade unionists, public servants and lobbyists. This paper provides a background to the thesis of the new class, arguing that it constitutes the central organising idea of a new class discourse, which encompasses such ideas as 'political correctness', 'special interests' and the 'guilt industry'. Both the thesis of the new class and new class discourse are key discursive and conceptual features of contemporary right-wing political thought in Australia. As rhetorical devices employed in the context of the hegemonic struggles within Australian society of the 1990s, new class discourse de-legitimates the interests of the labour movement and other social movements, thus working to exclude these groups from the sphere of public discourse and the legitimate political community.