A reminder, via this quote posted at Mike’s in a post you should read in its entirety, why I like Harry Cleaver so much.
In Reading Capital Politically Cleaver contends that: “The alternative to ideological critique, whether of the political economy or the philosophical variety, is to begin from a strategic analysis of the pattern of development of working-class power as the only possible ground for answering the question of how that power can be increased. Such an analysis requires starting from an examination of workers’ actual struggles: their content, how they have developed, and where they are headed. By this I mean the struggles of the workers themselves, not of their “official” organizations (trade unions, parties, etc.). The actions of these organizations may accurately express the struggles of the workers themselves, or they may not. They are often completely at odds with them. It is because of this that we must begin with the unmediated struggles themselves. Since the class is not monolithic but is divided — capital rules by division — the examination of such struggles necessitates an analysis of the different sectors of the class and their interrelations, especially how the struggles of one sector are, or are not, circulating to other sectors. It is only through a circulation of struggles, in which those of various sectors of the class interlink to become complementary, that real unity against capital is achieved. Without such complementarity, “class consciousness” is only an ideological gloss; with it, “class consciousness” is superfluous. Therefore, it is essential for an assessment of present working-class power to clearly perceive both the divisions within the class — which must be understood as basically hierarchical divisions of power vis-a-vis capital — and the degree to which those divisions are being overcome. It is only within this framework that we can correctly situate the role of the “official” organizations of the class.” (2nd edition, p. 58)]