Class conflict

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"Class struggle" redirects here. For other uses, see Class Struggle.

Class conflict, frequently referred to as class warfare or class struggle, is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests and desires between people of different classes. The view that the class struggle provides the lever for radical social change for the majority is central to the work of Karl Marx and the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. However, the discovery of the existence of class struggle is not the product of their theories; their theories can instead be seen as a response to the existence of class struggles.



In the past the term Class conflict was a term used mostly by socialists, who define a class by its relationship to the means of production — such as factories, land and machinery. From this point of view, the social control of production and labor is a contest between classes, and the division of these resources necessarily involves conflict and inflicts harm. It can involve ongoing low-level clashes, escalate into massive confrontations, and in some cases, lead to the overall defeat of one of the contending classes. However, in more contemporary times this term is striking chords and finding new definition amongst capitalistic societies in the United States and other Westernized countries.

The anarchist Mikhail Bakunin argued that the class struggle of the working class, peasantry and poor had the potential to lead to a social revolution involving the overthrow of ruling elites, and the creation of libertarian socialism. This was only a potential, and class struggle was, he argued, not always the only or decisive factor in society, but it was central. By contrast, Marxists argue that class conflict always plays the decisive and pivotal role in the history of class-based hierarchical systems such as capitalism and feudalism.[1] Marxists refer to its overt manifestations as class war, a struggle whose resolution in favor of the working class is viewed by them as inevitable under plutocratic capitalism.

Pre-capitalist societies

Where societies are socially divided based on status, wealth, or control of social production and distribution, conflict arises. This conflict is both everyday, such as the common medieval insistence on the right of lords to control access to grain mills and baking ovens, or it can be exceptional such as the Roman Conflict of the Orders, the uprising of Spartacus, or the various popular uprisings in late medieval Europe. One of the earliest analysis of these conflicts is Friedrich Engels' The Peasant War in Germany.[2] One of the earliest analyses of the development of class as the development of conflicts between emergent classes is available in Peter Kropotkin's Mutual Aid. In this work, Kropotkin analyzes the disposal of goods after death in pre-class or hunter-gatherer societies, and how inheritance produces early class divisions and conflict.[3]

21st century USA


The term is not always used as a pejorative in modern times. Bill Moyers, for example, gave a speech at Brennan Center for Justice in December 2013 which was titled "The Great American Class War," referring to the current struggle between democracy and plutocracy in the U.S.[5] Chris Hedges wrote a column for Truthdig called "Let's Get This Class War Started," which was a play on Pink's song "Let's Get This Party Started."[6][7]

Historian Steve Fraser, author of The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, asserts that class conflict is an inevitability if current political and economic conditions continue, noting that “people are increasingly fed up… their voices are not being heard. And I think that can only go on for so long without there being more and more outbreaks of what used to be called class struggle, class warfare.”[8]

Capitalist societies

The typical example of class conflict described is class conflict within capitalism. This class conflict is seen to occur primarily between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and takes the form of conflict over hours of work, value of wages, division of profits, cost of consumer goods, the culture at work, control over parliament or bureaucracy, and economic inequality. The particular implementation of government programs which may seem purely humanitarian, such as disaster relief, can actually be a form of class conflict.[9] In the USA class conflict is often noted in labor/management disputes. As far back as 1933 representative Edward Hamilton of ALPA, the Airline Pilot's Association, used the term "class warfare" to describe airline management's opposition at the National Labor Board hearings in October of that year.[10] Apart from these day-to-day forms of class conflict, during periods of crisis or revolution class conflict takes on a violent nature and involves repression, assault, restriction of civil liberties, and murderous violence such as assassinations or death squads. (Zinn, People's History)

Thomas Jefferson, USA

Although Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) led the United States as president from 1801–1809 and is considered one of the founding fathers, he died with immense amounts of debt. Regarding the interaction between social classes, he wrote,


Thomas JeffersonLetter to Edward Carrington - January 16, 1787

Warren Buffett, USA

The investor, and billionaire , and philanthropist Warren Buffett, one of the 10 wealthiest persons in the world,[12] voiced in 2005 and once more in 2006 his view that his class – the "rich class" – is waging class warfare on the rest of society. In 2005 Buffet said to CNN: "It's class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn't be."[13] In a November 2006 interview in The New York Times, Buffett stated that "[t]here’s class warfare all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."[14] Later Warren gave away more than half of his fortune to charitable causes through a program developed by himself and computer software tycoon Bill Gates.[15] In 2011 Buffett called on government legislators to, "...stop coddling the super rich."[16]

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky, American linguist, philosopher, and political activist has criticized class war in the United States:


The enormous benefits given to the very wealthy, the privileges for the very wealthy here, are way beyond those of other comparable societies and are part of the ongoing class war. Take a look at CEO salaries.... -- Noam Chomsky in OCCUPY: Class War, Rebellion and Solidarity, Second Edition (November 5, 2013)[17]

Max Weber, Germany

Max Weber (1864–1920) agrees with the fundamental ideas of Karl Marx about the economy causing class conflict, but claims that class conflict can also stem from prestige and power.[18] Weber argues that classes come from the different property locations. Different locations can largely affect one's class by their education and the people they associate with.[18] He also states that prestige results in different status groupings. This prestige is based upon the social status of one's parents. Prestige is an attributed value and many times cannot be changed. Weber states that power differences led to the formation of political parties.[18] Weber disagrees with Marx about the formation of classes. While Marx believes that groups are similar due to their economic status, Weber argues that classes are largely formed by social status.[18] Weber does not believe that communities are formed by economic standing, but by similar social prestige.[18] Weber does recognize that there is a relationship between social status, social prestige and classes.[18]

Arab Spring

Numerous factors have culminated in what's known as the Arab Spring. Agenda behind the civil unrest, and the ultimate overthrow of authoritarian governments throughout the Middle-East included issues such as dictatorship or absolute monarchy, human rights violations, government corruption (demonstrated by Wikileaks diplomatic cables),[19] economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, and a number of demographic structural factors,[20] such as a large percentage of educated but dissatisfied youth within the population.[21] Also, some, like Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek attribute the 2009 Iranian protests as one of the reasons behind the Arab Spring.[22] The catalysts for the revolts in all Northern African and Persian Gulf countries have been the concentration of wealth in the hands of autocrats in power for decades, insufficient transparency of its redistribution, corruption, and especially the refusal of the youth to accept the status quo.[23][24] as they involve threats to food security worldwide and prices that approach levels of the 2007–2008 world food price crisis.[25] Amnesty International singled out Wikileaks' release of US diplomatic cables as a catalyst for the revolts.[26] One additional issue is the financing and arming of rebels by western, non-Arab countries, as well as favourable media coverage and intense propaganda campaigning by using social networks.

The Soviet Union and similar societies


Marxist perspectives

Karl Marx, 1875

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a German born philosopher who lived the majority of his adult life in London, England. In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx argued that a class is formed when its members achieve class consciousness and solidarity.[18] This largely happens when the members of a class become aware of their exploitation and the conflict with another class. A class will then realize their shared interests and a common identity. According to Marx, a class will then take action against those that are exploiting the lower classes.


Marxist analysis of society identifies two main social groups:




Marx largely focuses on the capital industrialist society as the source of social stratification, which ultimately results in class conflict.[18] He states that capitalism creates a division between classes which can largely be seen in manufacturing factories. The proletariat, is separated from the bourgeoisie because production becomes a social enterprise. Contributing to their separation is the technology that is in factories. Technology de-skills and alienates workers as they are no longer viewed as having a specialized skill.[18] Another effect of technology is a homogenous workforce that can be easily replaceable. Marx believed that this class conflict would result in the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and that the private property would be communally owned.[18] The mode of production would remain, but communal ownership would eliminate class conflict.[18]


Non-Marxist perspectives


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."[30] While Proudhon saw the solution as the lower classes forming an alternative, solidarity economy centered on cooperatives and self-managed workplaces, which would slowly undermine and replace capitalist class society, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin while influenced by Proudhon, insisted that a massive class struggle, by the working class, peasantry and poor, was essential to the creation of libertarian socialism. This would require a (final) showdown in the form of a social revolution.


Class vs. race struggle

Jobless Black workers in the heat of the Philadelphia summer, 1973



In modern times, emerging schools of thought in the U.S. and other countries hold the opposite to be true.[34] They argue that the race struggle is less important, because the primary struggle is that of class since labor of all races face the same problems and injustices.


Riots with a basically nationalist background are not included.

Classical antiquity

Middle Ages

Modern era

The rebellion of György Dózsa in 1514 spread like lightning in the Kingdom of Hungary where hundreds of manor-houses and castles were burnt and thousands of the gentry killed.

See also


  1. ^ Marx, Karl; others (1848). The Communist Manifesto. [1]: 
  2. ^ Frederick Engels, The Peasant War in Germany,
  3. ^ Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid
  4. ^ Sahadi, Jeanne (April 12, 2012). "Soros: Why I Support the Buffett Rule". CNN. Retrieved 24 May 2012. 
  5. ^ Moyers, Bill (12 December 2013). The Great American Class War. Brennan Center for Justice. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  6. ^ The Pathology of the Rich - Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1 The Real News. 5 December 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  7. ^ Hedges, Chris (20 October 2013). Let’s Get This Class War Started. Truthdig. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  8. ^ Full Show: The New Robber Barons. Moyers & Company. December 19, 2014.
  9. ^ Greg Palast, Burn baby burn
  10. ^ Kaps, Robert W. (1997). Air Transport Labor Relations. Section 3: Major Collective Bargaining Legislation: Southern Illinois Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-8093-1776-1. 
  11. ^ Jefferson, Thomas. "Letter to Edward Carrington - January 16, 1787". 
  12. ^
  13. ^ Buffett: 'There are lots of loose nukes around the world'
  14. ^ Buffett, Warren (Nov 26, 2006). "In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class is Winning". The New York Times. 
  15. ^ "Warren Buffett Gives Away Fortune". Huffington Post. 4/12/2012. Retrieved 16 May 2012.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Buffett, Warren (Nov 2011). "Stop Coddling the Super Rich". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 May 2012. 
  17. ^ Chomsky, Noam (2013), OCCUPY: Class War, Rebellion and Solidarity, Second Edition (November 5, 2013), Zuccotti Park Press, retrieved October 14, 2014 
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Blackwell Reference Online.[2]. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  19. ^ Cockburn, Alexander (18–20 February 2011). "The Tweet and Revolution". 
  21. ^ "Demographics of the Arab League, computed by Wolfram Alpha". 
  22. ^ "Ahmadinejad row with Khamenei intensifies". Al Jazeera. 6 May 2011. 
  23. ^ Ecker, Al-Riffai, Perrihan. "Economics of the Arab awakening". International Food Policy Research Institute. Retrieved 25 May 2012. 
  24. ^ The Other Arab Spring April 7, 2012 Thomas L. Friedman New York Times Op Ed
  27. ^ Đilas, Milovan (1983, 1957). The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System (paperback ed.). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-665489-X.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ Augustin Thierry: Recueil des monuments inédits de l'histoire du Tiers état
  29. ^ Toynbee, Arnold (1947). "The Nature of Disintegration". In Dorothea Grace Somervell. A Study of History: Abridgment of Volumes I - VI. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 365. ISBN 0-19-505081-9. 
  30. ^ Pierre Proudhon, What is Property?, chapter 2, remark 2.
  34. ^ Eastwood, John H. (1995). "Chapter 3: Ye Are the Salt of the Earth". The Wonder of Grace. Shippensburg, Pennsylvania: Companion Press. p. 18. ISBN 1-56043-572-0. The system that was supposed to treat all men equally actually created a class society. 
  35. ^ see Daniel Guérin, Class Struggle in the First French Republic, Pluto Press 1977

Further reading

External links