Karl Marx’s Class Struggle

Class struggle is the central theme of the writings of Marx. In fact Marx’s sociology is
sociology of the class struggle. He believes that the history of the hitherto existing society
is a history of class struggle. However, the parties involved in class struggle differ in
different stages of human history depending on the peculiar mode of production of that
period. But the antagonism between the exploiters & those who are exploited is the
distinctive feature of all stages of human history. The exploiters have control over the
forces of production and oppressed are deprived of it. Therefore, another phase ‘haves’ &

‘have nots’ is used to characterize these two classes.           

Marx defines class in terms of people’s relationship to the means of production and their
class consciousness. These relations are independent of individuals will. Individuals class
is determined not on the basis of his occupation but on the basis of position relative to the
means of production. He divided the population or society into those who owned
property/means of production (’haves’) and those who were property less or deprived of
means of production (’have nots’). In a capitalist society, the means of production and
distribution are in the hands of ‘bourgeoisie’ and ‘proletariat’ does not own means of
production. Proletariats are referred to as working class people who sell their labour.
Marx does not deny the existence of other classes such as small capitalists, the petty
bourgeoisie & the lumpen proletariat, but suggested that these were hangovers of the pre
capitalist economy which would vanish with the maturation of the capitalist system.
Class was more than just a way of describing economic position of different groups.
Marx saw classes as tangible collectivities & as real social forces with the capacity to
change society. The incessant drive of capitalists to create profit led to the exploitation or
the proletariat in work and to its increasing pauperization. In these circumstances workers
would develop class consciousness and the proletariat would grow from being a “class-
in-itself’ (i.e. an economically defined category with not self-awareness) to become a
“class-for-itself’, made up of workers with a class – conscious view of the world and
ready to pursue class conflict against the capitalists.