Class struggle is the active expression of class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Class conflict, also class war or class warfare, is both the friction that accompanies social relationships between members or groups of different Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, leading ideologists of communism, wrote "The [written]^[1] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle". Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895 was a German social scientist and philosopher, who Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based ^[2]

Marx's notion of class has nothing to do with social class in the sociological sense of upper, middle and lower classes (which are often defined in terms of quantitative income or wealth). Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions (or stratification) between individuals or groups in Societies or Cultures. Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Instead, in an age of capitalism, Marx describes an economic class. Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where Membership of a class is defined by one's relationship to the means of production, i. e. , one's position in the social structure that characterizes capitalism. Marx talks mainly about two classes that include the vast majority of the population, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The proletariat (from Latin la ''proles'' "offspring" is a term used to identify a lower Social class; a member of such a class is proletarian Other classes such as the petty bourgeoisie share characteristics of both of these main classes (see below). Petit-bourgeoisie (or petty bourgeois through Folk etymology) is a French term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social-classes

Contents 1 Main class struggle 2 "Minor" classes 3 Class and race struggle 4 Non-Marxist perspectives 5 Notes and references 6 See also 7 External links 7.1 Women and class struggle 7.2 Pro-Marxist 7.3 Anti-Marxist 8 Literature

Main class struggle

• Labour (the proletariat or workers) includes anyone who earns their livelihood by selling their labor power and being paid a wage or salary for their labor time. The proletariat (from Latin la ''proles'' "offspring" is a term used to identify a lower Social class; a member of such a class is proletarian Labour power (in German Arbeitskraft, or labour force is a crucial concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalist Political economy They have little choice but to work for capital, since they typically have no independent way to survive.
• Capital (the bourgeoisie or capitalists) includes anyone who gets their income not from labor as much as from the surplus value they appropriate from the workers who create wealth. Surplus value is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of Political economy, where its ultimate source is unpaid Surplus labor The income of the capitalists, therefore, is based on their exploitation of the workers (proletariat). The term " exploitation " may carry two distinct meanings The act of utilizing something for any purpose

What Marx points out is that members of each of the two main classes have interests in common. These class or collective interests are in conflict with those of the other class as a whole. This in turn leads to conflict between individual members of different classes.

An example of this would be a factory producing a commodity, such as the manufacture of widgets (a standard imaginary commodity in economics books). Some of the money received from selling widgets will be spent on things like raw materials and machinery (constant capital) in order to build more widgets. Constant capital ( c) is a concept created by Karl Marx and used in Marxian Political economy. Similarly, some money – variable capital – is spent on labor power. Constant capital ( c) is a concept created by Karl Marx and used in Marxian Political economy. Labour power (in German Arbeitskraft, or labour force is a crucial concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalist Political economy The capitalist would not be in business if not for the surplus value, i. Surplus value is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of Political economy, where its ultimate source is unpaid Surplus labor e. , the money received from selling the widgets beyond that spent on constant and variable capital. The amount of this surplus value – profits, interest, and rent – depends on how much labor workers do for the wages or salaries they are paid.

This surplus value is higher to the extent that workers spend time at work beyond what they're paid for and to the extent that they exert effort beyond the cost of their labor-time. Thus the capitalist would like as much "free time" (unpaid labor during official lunch breaks, after official closing time, etc. ) and as much worker effort as possible. On the other hand, the workers would like to be paid for every minute they work under the capitalist's authority and would like to avoid unnecessary and unpaid effort. They would also prefer higher wages and benefits (such as health insurance, defined-benefit pensions, etc. ) and less of a dictatorial or paternalistic attitude from employers. A dictatorship is usually defined as an autocratic Form of government in which the Government is ruled by a Dictator. Paternalism refers usually to an attitude or a policy stemming from the hierarchic pattern of a Family based on Patriarchy, that is there is a figurehead Working conditions must be safe and healthy, rather than dangerous.

Not all class struggle is violent or necessarily radical (as with strikes and lockouts). Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal by Employees to perform work. A lockout is a Work stoppage in which an Employer prevents employees from working Class antagonism may instead be expressed as low worker morale, minor sabotage and pilferage, and individual workers' abuse of petty authority and hoarding of information. Petty authority "petty tyranny''Petty tyranny in organizations '' Ashforth Blake Human Relations Vol It may also be expressed on a larger scale by support for socialist or populist parties. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Populism is a discourse which supports "the people" versus "the Elites " Populism may involve either a political philosophy urging social and political On the employers' side, the use of union-busting legal firms and the lobbying for anti-union laws are forms of class struggle.

Not all class struggle is a threat to capitalism, or even to the authority of an individual capitalist. A narrow struggle for higher wages by a small sector of the working-class (what is often called "economism") hardly threatens the status quo. In fact, by applying "craft union" tactics of excluding other workers from skilled trades, an economistic struggle may even weaken the working class as a whole by dividing it. Craft unionism refers to organizing a union in a manner that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular Craft or trade that they work in Class struggle becomes more important in the historical process as it becomes more general, as industries are organized rather than crafts, as workers' class consciousness rises, and as they are organized as political parties. Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral Marx referred to this as the progress of the proletariat from being a class "in itself" (a position in the social structure) to being one "for itself" (an active and conscious force that could change the world).

Marx thought that this conflict was central to the social structure of capitalism and could not be abolished without replacing the system itself. Further, he argued that the objective conditions under capitalism would likely develop in a way that encouraged a proletariat organized collectively for its own goals to develop: the accumulation of surplus value as more means of production by the capitalists would allow them to become more and more powerful, encouraging overt class conflict. If this is not counteracted by increasing political and economic organization by workers, it would inevitably cause an extreme polarization of the classes, encouraging the revolution that would destroy capitalism itself. A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turnaround" is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively

The revolution would lead to a socialist society in which the proletariat controlled the state, that is, "the dictatorship of the proletariat". Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution The " dictatorship of the proletariat " or workers' state is a term employed by Marxists that refers to what they see as a temporary state between the The original meaning of this term was a workers' democracy, not a dictatorship in the modern sense of the word. A dictatorship is usually defined as an autocratic Form of government in which the Government is ruled by a Dictator. For Marx, democracy under capitalism is a bourgeois dictatorship.

Even after a revolution, the two classes would struggle, but eventually the struggle would recede and the classes dissolve. As class boundaries broke down, the state apparatus would wither away. According to Marx, the main task of any state apparatus is to uphold the power of the ruling class; but without any classes there would be no need for a state. That would lead to the classless, stateless communist society. This article is translated from and may fit related articles there better. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based

"Minor" classes

Marx noted that other classes existed, but said that as time (and capitalism) moved forward, these other classes would disappear, and things would become stratified until only two classes remained, which would become more and more polarized as time went on. Other classes are:

• the self-employed (petit bourgeoisie) — these are people who own their own means of production, thus work for themselves. Marx saw these people swept away by the march of capitalism, such as family farms being replaced by agribusiness, or many small stores run by their owners being replaced by a supermarket, and so forth.
• managers, supervisors, white-collar staff, and security officers – these are intermediaries between capitalists and the proletariat. Since they are paid a wage, technically they are workers, but they represent a privileged stratum of the proletariat, typically serving the capitalists' interest.
• the lumpenproletariat – the chronically unemployed. Lumpenproletariat (a German word meaning "raggedy proletariat" is a term first defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in These people have at most a tenuous connection to production. Since Marx, many states have tried to compensate for the difficulties experienced by workers due to cyclical unemployment. Economists distinguish between four major types of Unemployment, i Unfortunately there is also a growing structural unemployment in which people are permanently dependent on welfare programs or employed relatives. Economists distinguish between four major types of Unemployment, i These people form the lumpenproletariat, along with thieves and con artists of various kinds who depend on crime for their income. Marx saw the problem of unemployment growing more acute as capitalism went on, so this class would exist prior to the foreseen revolution. Marx deemed the lumpenproletariat as unimportant, and not playing a major role in the labor/capital class struggle. Since they would benefit in his view from a revolution, they would be on the side of the proletariat. But he saw them as unreliable, since they were likely to be mercenary in their attitudes. This view was revised by some followers of Marx such as Mao Zedong, who saw a greater role for the lumpenproletariat in class struggle. Mao Zedong ( 26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Military and political leader who led
• domestic servants, who often had a better standard of living than the proletariat, but who were considered by society as by nature dependent upon their literal masters, and so male servants were not considered worthy of receiving the vote.
• peasants, who still represented a large part of the population well into the twentieth century. Capital for such workers — for example, a tractor or reaping machine — was in most countries for a long time unthinkable, so they were not considered some sort of rural proletarians. Trotsky's analysis of the peasant demonstrated this class to be divided in loyalty between the capitalist class and the proletariat, in that the wealthier land-owning peasants (Kulak) had an interest in maintaining a capitalist system, while the poor landless peasants had interests more aligned with those of the proletariat; thus is why the peasant class could not lead a revolution. Kulaks ( Russian: кула́к kulak " Fist ", by extension "tight-fisted" were a category of rich Peasants in later Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution called for an alliance of the proletariat and peasant classes, with the proletariat leading the peasants. This article is about the theory See Permanent Revolution (group for the group of the same name and Permanent Revolution (album for the Catch 22 The peasants were to produce more in order to support the proletariat, and in return the proletariat would supply the peasants with farming machinery and equipment. The point was to mechanize farming in order to be able to sustain a higher proletarian population, while destroying the peasant class by turning them into proletariat. The people in charge of growing food were to become farm workers. This was accomplished in the Soviet Union, although brutally, by the Stalinist bureaucratic caste, which contradicted the slower peaceful manner in which collectivization was supposed to occur under the plans of Lenin and Trotsky. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Collective farming is an organization of agricultural production in which the holdings of several farmers are run as a joint enterprise Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij

Class and race struggle

According to Michel Foucault, in the 19th century the essentialist notion of the "race" was incorporated by racists, biologists, and eugenicists, who gave it the modern sense of "biological race" which was then integrated to "state racism". Michel Foucault ( (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984 was a French philosopher, Historian, Intellectual, Critic and Sociologist. In Philosophy, essentialism is the view that for any specific kind of Entity, there is a set of Characteristics or Properties all of which The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing Humans into Populations or groups on the basis of various sets List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that A biologist is a Scientist devoted to and producing results in Biology through the study of Organisms Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship Eugenics is a social Philosophy which advocates the improvement of Human Hereditary traits through various forms of intervention State racism is a Concept used by French Philosopher Michel Foucault to designate the reappropriation of the historical and political Discourse On the other hand, Marxists transformed the notions of the "race" and the "race struggle" into the concept of "class struggle". Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In a letter to Friedrich Engels in 1882 Karl Marx wrote: You know very well where we found our idea of class struggle; we found it in the work of the French historians who talked about the race struggle. ^[3] For Foucault, the theme of social war provides overriding principle that connects class and race struggle. ^[4] Moses Hess, an important theoretician of the early socialist movement, in his "Epilogue" to "Rome and Jerusalem" argued that "the race struggle is primary, the class struggle secondary. Moses (Moshe Hess ( June 21, 1812 – April 6, 1875) was a secular Jewish philosopher and one of the founders of Socialism Rome and Jerusalem The Last National Question (Rom und Jerusalem die Letzte Nationalitätsfrage is a book published by Moses Hess in 1862 in Leipzig . . With the cessation of race antagonism, the class struggle will also come to a standstill. The equalization of all classes of society will necessarily follow the emancipation of all the races, for it will ultimately become a scientific question of social economics. Emancipation is a term used to describe various efforts to obtain Political rights or equality, often for a specifically Disenfranchised group or more "^[5]

Non-Marxist perspectives

Social commentators and socialist theorists had noted the reality of class struggle for some time before Marx, as well as the connection between class struggle, property, and law. The Physiocrats, David Ricardo, and after Marx, Henry George noted the inelastic supply of land and argued that this created certain privileges (economic rent) for landowners. The physiocrats were a group of Economists who believed that the wealth of nations was derived solely from the value of land Agriculture or land development David Ricardo (18 April 1772 &ndash 11 September 1823 was an English political economist, often credited with systematizing economics and was one of the most influential Henry George ( September 2, 1839 &ndash October 29, 1897) was an American Political economist and the most influential proponent of Economic rent is the difference between what a Factor of production is paid and how much it would need to be paid to remain in its current use

Proudhon, in What is Property? (1840) states that "certain classes do not relish investigation into the pretended titles to property, and its fabulous and perhaps scandalous history. What is Property? Or an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government ( French Qu'est-ce que la propriété ? ou Recherche sur le principe du Droit Year 1840 ( MDCCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year "^[6]

Fascists have often opposed Class struggle and instead have attempted to appeal to the working class while promising to preserve the existing social classes and have proposed an alternative concept known as class collaboration. Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology

Notes and references

See also

• Louis Althusser's conceptions of "class struggle in the theory"
• Producerism - an alternate ideology of class struggle advocating the "middle" class
• Dialectic
• Social criticism

External links

Women and class struggle

• Committee for Asian women

Pro-Marxist

• Collective Action Notes
• Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
• Bertell Ollman and Class Struggle Articles on Dialectics
• Communist Manifesto (1848)
• Karl Kautsky The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program) (1888)- contemporary book. Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation altuˡseʁ ( October 16, 1918 – October 22, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. Producerism, sometimes referred to as "producer radicalism" refers to a syncretic ideology of populist In classical Philosophy, dialectic (διαλεκτική is controversy the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating Propositions Social criticism analyzes Social structures which are seen as flawed and aims at practical solutions by specific measures radical Reform or even Revolutionary
• The Marxists Internet Archive
• Class Struggle and Articles on Dialectics
• Karl Marx Wage Labour and Capital
• libcom.org UK based class struggle resource
• Karl Marx Capital, Volume One
• ClassStruggle.Com Critical Articles on Class Struggle
• Secular Stagnation, Keynes and Marx
• Beyond PostCapitalism.Net

Anti-Marxist

• "The Marxian Class Conflict Doctrine" Excerpt from Economic Freedom and Interventionism by Ludwig von Mises
• "Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis", by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
• Post Capitalism and Kondratieff as Alternative to Class Struggle

Literature

• Louis Adamic, Dynamite: The story of class violence in America, Revised Edition (1934)
• Leo Zeilig (Editor), Class Struggle and Resistance in Africa, (New Clarion Press, 2002), (ISBN 1-8737-9734-6)
• Li Yi, The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification, (University Press of America, 2005), (ISBN 0-7618-3331-5)

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (ˈluːtvɪç fɔn ˈmiːzəs ( September 29, 1881 – October 10, 1973) was an Austrian Hans-Hermann Hoppe (born September 2, 1949) is an Austrian school Economist of the anarcho-capitalist tradition and a former economics Louis Adamic (Alojz Adamič ( March 23, 1899 – September 4, 1951) was a Slovene - American Author and Translator

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