Social Bases of Class Consciousness: A Study of Southern Textile Workers with a Comparison by Race

Abstract

This paper is an empirical study of class consciousness among a random sample of textile workers in a small North Carolina city. Following the theoretical-methodological assumption that one can profitably study wvorking class consciousness during relatively quiescent periods of capitalist development by examining its components, working class consciousness is operationalized as the ordinal variable, JJclass conflict The social bases of class consciousness are investigated for the sample as a whole and for subsamples divided according to race. Regression analysis identifies personal income, union membership, race, and job dissatisfaction as significant predictors of class conflict consciousness. Compara