Chapter 3 of Class Consciousness and the Revolutionary Party, In Defence of Trotskyism No 3, Winter 2011

The class as we encounter them at any given point is
becoming more class conscious or is retreating from it depending on the booms
and slumps of the system and their understanding of why. This depends on what
political influences they come under, the presence or absence of reformist or
revolutionary parties, whether these are moving to the left or to the right,
etc. We stress ‘class consciousness’ because this is the understanding that
workers develop of their separate class interests and the need to fight with
class struggle methods (strikes, pickets to stop scabbing, etc). The vast
majority of workers with this understanding still have a reformist class
consciousness. Sectarians deny the mass parties of the working class, Labour
and Stalinists, are part of the class or at least deny the need to relate
seriously to them and work within…