Class Conflict

In modern terminology when we hear the term "class" we often think of lower, middle, and upper economic classes. While these are indeed classes that we exist within, they are economic classes and not the same thing as class when viewed through the lens of Marxist thought.

For Karl Marx, and thus Marxism, class refers to any particular individual's relation to the mode of production currently being utilized by society. In our modern times, Marx would say that there are two broad classes; the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. He would further argue that these two classes, as the classes that came before them, are bound to struggle against one another until a large enough conflict arises to remove both classes. This is what Marxists mean when they talk about class conflict.

Class conflict definition

Now that we have a working definition of the idea, let us unpack it a bit!

Class conflict Karl Marx

The idea of class conflict emerges most clearly from the work of Karl Marx. Before Marx, French theorist Henri de Saint-Simon had discussed the idea, but it was Marx who took the concept and placed it as the driver of social revolution and political struggle. For Marx, living and working in the mid-19th century, he needed a way to describe how and why revolutions happened to better theorize about how to get society past the undesirable conditions brought on by capitalism.

Fig. 1 Karl Marx

Marx turned to history as a guide and began noticing the largest societal shifts were brought on when the mode of production (how Marx refers to economic systems) switched and restructured class within the society. He realized that each time one of these shifts happened a new political and social order would be established to benefit the minority who owned land and did not work, over the majority who spent most of their time laboring for the benefit of the land-owning class, which was also the ruling class.

Class conflict theory

Class conflict theory argues that conflict between the producing class and the owning class is bound to erupt because the interests of the two classes act in opposition against each other. The worker, whether it be slave, vassal, or employee is always attempting to acquire more free time, better working conditions, and increased pay; while the land owner/employer is constantly trying to increase the length of time the worker works and decrease the cost out of their own pocket to fund the work. These two opposed objectives permeate throughout the rest of society and drive most, if not all of the conflict in which the society finds itself.

Fig. 2 Pyramid of Capitalist System

The theory also says these relationships establish the ways in which individuals will act within the world by determining their consciousness; this is referred to as class consciousness. Class consciousness, as it relates to class conflict, can be seen as establishing the battle lines between "us and them" where the non-land-owning/employee class (proletariat) sees itself as being constantly held to the demands of the land-owning/employer class (Bourgeoisie).

If you have ever looked at the life of a billionaire and been hit with a sense of jealousy, resentment, injustice, or anger; Marx would say this is a result of your awareness (your consciousness) being forced to observe a reality where the material restraints you face are not a factor. This jealousy, resentment, injustice, and anger from the lower class builds over time and begins to produce conflict within the society. Similarly, the upper class looks at the lower class and sees them purely as workers and objects who need to be utilized. Their class forms a type of consciousness that necessarily sees humans in terms of use-value as opposed to intrinsic value.

Politics as class conflict

This struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie plays out in the realm of politics. The political debates of our time are centered around economics, wealth inequality, homelessness, healthcare, immigration, social justice, housing, minimum wage, and other similar themes. Marx would argue these topics being at the center of the discourse is no surprise as they are a direct reflection of the power struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

Politics and government, especially in a liberal democracy, are the battlegrounds where the proletariat fight for better conditions, better wages, and better opportunities, and the bourgeoisie fight to keep wages down, labor cheap, and laws governing corporations to a minimum.

In Marxist thought, there is the idea of "base and superstructure" with the base being the economic system and superstructure consisting of things such as law, culture, religion, and politics. The base determines what the superstructure looks like and while the superstructure has some bearing on the base, its ability to alter the base is ultimately limited to the constraints of production established by the base. Because the base determines the boundaries of the superstructure, the politics always reflect the class conflict that appears in the economic system established by the base.

Fig. 3 Illustration of the Base-Superstructure model

Historical examples of class conflicts

Before classes, there was a period of time Marx refers to as "primitive communism" which is the time of hunters and gathers. This is the only period of time that did not include distinct classes for Marx. The rest of history consisted of the following class conflicts:

1. Slavery (Master-enslaved conflict)
2. Feudalism (Lord and vassal conflict)
3. Capitalism (Bourgeoisie and proletariat conflict)

As Marx's theory goes, capitalism is followed by socialism which then leads the way to communism, which is the final mode of production.