Argentine workers

by Peter Ranis

This provocative study, based on intensive interviews that include questions not always asked by political scientists, offers a revisionist interpretation of the Marxist conception of class consciousness. Avoiding the conventional picture of workers either as helpless victims of society or revolutionary actors-in-waiting, Peter Ranis seeks to redress such approaches with empirical insights into the day-to-day experience of actual people living on wages and salaries. He shows workers beyond the factory walls and office windows: as citizens, parents, consumers, and homeowners. In the context of workers' private lives, their larger political opinions are better understood and interpreted. Argentine Workers provides an insightful analysis of the complex combination of values and attitudes exhibited by workers in a heavily unionized, industrially developing country. These textured views are depicted against the backdrop of traditional Peronist ideology as it is challenged by competing democ