“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”
-Marx and Engels
(Communist Manifesto)
What are Classes?
“Classes are large groups of people differing from each other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation to the means of production, by their role in the social organisation of labour, and by the share of social wealth of which they receive and the mode of acquiring it. Classes are groups of people one of which can appropriate the labour of another owing to the different places they occupy in a definite system of social economy.” – V.I. Lenin
What constitutes and distinguishes classes, is not primarily differences in income, mentality or habits, but the places they occupy in the social organisation of production and the relations in which they stand to the means of production. This is what determines their differences in income, habits, mentality, and so on. The fundamental divide lies between those who own the means of production and those who do not, leading to inevitable exploitation.
The Emergence of Class Society
Prerequisites for the emergence of classes :
- Generation of surplus
- Emergence of Private Property (in the means of production)
- Existence of groups of people
without any means of production.
By the end of primitive society, as productive forces advanced, surplus production enabled certain individuals, such as clan leaders and religious figures, to separate themselves from labour and live on others’ labour. This led to the formation of class divisions based on private ownership, replacing the earlier communal way of life. Society split into two primary groups: those who controlled the means of production, exploited others’ labour and lived in luxury, and the labouring class subjected to the exploitation of labour and oppression.
Class Societies across Historical Epochs
The class composition of society always relates to a particular historical period. With the development of new forces of production, new classes and new class divisions arise within society. With the change in the mode of production and socio-economic system, the position of the classes changes. Among the classes in society, the classes that form the basis for the existence of the prevalent mode of production are known as basic classes. Among these basic classes, while one has ownership of the means of production and becomes the exploiting class, the other is exploited. That means the contradictions between these classes will be antagonistic. The production relations themselves instil hostility between two fundamental antagonistic classes – the exploiters and the exploited.
The class society and its basis the private ownership of means of production took different historical forms in different epochs and different places, yet they have all been based on the exploitation of labour. The history of class society can be divided into distinct stages, from Slavery to Capitalism. Each stage is characterized by a unique mode of production and class structure :
- Slavery – Slaves and slave owners were the basic classes. Traders, handicraftsmen etc., were other classes.
- Feudalism – Feudal lords and serfs (peasants) were the basic classes. Bourgeoisie, handicraftsman, artisans, manufactory workers etc., were other classes.
- Capitalism – Bourgeoisie (capitalist class) and proletariat (working class) are the basic classes. Landowners, peasants, etc., are other classes.
In a semi-feudal, semi-colonial society like ours, the proletariat, peasantry (agricultural workers, poor and middle peasantry), and urban petty-bourgeoisie, bureaucratic comprador bourgeoisie are the basic classes in our society.
Class Struggle: The motive force for the development of the society
“The history of all past society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed different forms in different epochs. But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all past ages, namely the exploitation of one part of the society by the other.”
– Marx and Engels (Communist Manifesto)
In a class society, the contradiction between the productive forces and production relations is reflected as the class contradiction. The relations between exploiters and the exploited are inevitably antagonistic because one class obtains and augments its share of social wealth only at the expense of another. Class struggle emerges from this inherent antagonism between the classes: the exploiters (those who control the means of production) and the exploited (those who perform labour). The main forms of class struggle are economic, political, and ideological struggle against the exploiters. Class struggle is the motive force for the development of society.
Social Revolutions: The intense form of class struggle
Antagonistic class contradictions inevitably result in revolutionary struggles. Social revolutions are the result of quantitative shifts (increased class contradictions) that result in a qualitative leap – the overthrow of the old order. Society develops only through social revolutions, the intense form of class struggle. Whenever revolutionary changes are needed in production relations, new production relations will come into existence through social revolutions. Since the disintegration of the primitive society, society has progressed only because of class struggles.
Historically, the transition from one mode of production to another has never been smooth. Only through social revolution were the outdated modes of production replaced by new ones and productive forces developed. Social revolutions are always nothing but the dethroning of one class by the other. The old ruling class seeks to maintain its dominance by preserving the existing outdated relations of production using massive state machinery, while the oppressed class strives to overthrow these relations to achieve its own emancipation. This struggle is not merely a conflict of ideas or moral values but a material necessity rooted in the economic interests of different classes. The nature of social revolution depends on the phase of the historical development of that particular society. For example, the bourgeoisie’s rise to power during the transition from feudalism to capitalism was driven by its need to dismantle feudal restrictions that hindered industrial growth. Similarly, the working class’s fight against capitalism is propelled by the need to eliminate exploitation and establish collective ownership of production.
Towards a Classless Society
“The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence : Abolition of private property.”
– Marx and Engels (Communist Manifesto)
Class division is the direct expression of the mode of production. The evolution of the classes is directly related to private property. With the end of private ownership over the means of production, which facilitates the exploitation of one class by another, and the establishment of collective ownership, it is certain that classes will also disappear.
The inhuman social system based on the exploitation of man by man is still continuing today. In capitalism, the class society and its basis, the private ownership of means of production reached the last stage and the material conditions for the abolition of private property and classes matured. The private property that came into existence by negating the primitive communal property has reached the stage of its own negation, and it is bound to transform into modern communal property. The course of history is inexorably progressing towards the modern classless society – modern communism (through the transition phase – Socialism). The working class, through organized struggle, is the force that will bring this change.
