The class struggle characterizes the stakes and the tensions in a company divided into social classes, each one fighting for its social situation and economic. This concept appeared at the 19th century is particularly developed in the Marxisme, which distinguishes two fundamental classes: the capitalist Class and the Proletariat. This theory knew a major passion during the 20th century and influenced the destiny of a great number of countries.

Classes

The concept of class struggle can be close to the crises of segmentations of the company which one finds during many cultures and historical time:

  • fight between the slaves and the Masters in the slave companies or wogs and slaves of the ancient companies,
  • fight between the Third state and the nobility the day before the French revolution,
  • fight between the employees and their employers in the capitalist company modern,
  • fight between men and women in the patriarchal companies, where the domestic exploitation is the nerve of the social hierarchy Christine Delphy " The principal Enemy, political economy of the patriarcat"
  • Caste S in India,
  • separation between colonists and natives in the Colonies,
  • international dichotomy between country of the Northern and country of the Southern,
  • racial segregations in the metropolises,
  • well-read man-civils servant in old China, etc

However the concept of class is primarily economic, and the membership of a class is not determined by objective legal criteria, so much so that it can be difficult to characterize. The homogeneity of a class is ensured by an operation of the company where the networks are essential and where the inequalities are durable (one is born in a rich or poor family), like by mechanism social subtle, conscious or unconscious (critical of the Idéologie), and not by explicit legal constraints, like were the states of the Ancien Mode.

Liberal prospect

The liberal theory of the class struggle dates mainly from the French authors of the 19th century inspired by Jean-Baptiste Say or Antoine-Louis Destutt de Tracy. However it draws its origin in older movements like the levellers English at the 17th century or in the writings from Turgot and Jeremy Bentham which was interested in “research of revenue”.

In the line of this work, Charles Count, Charles Dunoyer or François Guizot showed that the State was the seat of the search for revenues financed by the tax. Consequently they distinguish two big classes in the industrial society: producers of richnesses which discharge the tax (Tiers state) and the consumers of taxes (the nobility). Their interests of class are clearly antagonistic, since the first wish being less taxed whereas the seconds are in favor of an increase in the imposition.

Marxist prospect

The Marxisme developed a complex theory in connection with its historical evolution and class struggle, to which the Manifeste of the Communist party provides an introduction. This theory knew a major passion during the 20th century and influenced the destiny of a great number of countries.

Taking as a starting point many philosophical authors, economists or historians, Marx and Engels connect various concepts in order to as well as possible include/understand the company and its structures. The concept of class struggle of the liberals, associated with a criticism of certain aspects of the thought of Hegel as to a design materialist of the history constitute elements contributing to explain the historical movements . The Marxism considers that the exploited class (the Prolétariat) will be émancipera by reversing the domination of the exploiteuse class (the Bourgeoisie) to reach the equality (the Classless society).

According to the Marxist prospect, the history of the company until our days reflects the division of the company in social classes (" free man and slave, plebeian patrician and, baron and serf, Master of jurande and companion, in a word oppressors and oppressed ") who are opposed in an uninterrupted fight, sometimes declared, sometimes larval, peaceful or not. The modern capitalist company, by reversing divisions in orders of the feudal company did not abolish antagonisms of class, but replaced them by the new ones. It also simplified them, and nowadays, the " company is divided moreover into two vast enemy camps, in two big classes diametrically opposite: the Middle-class and the Proletariat "

Marx distinguishes two classes fundamental :

  • capitalist or middle-class man, dominant class which has the Capital and thus has the means of making work the others with its profit by the purchase of its labor force;
  • the Proletariat, gathering the people who do not have a capital and are forced to sell their labor force to remain. It is the paid class.

In addition to it distinguishes sometimes from the subclasses (opponent for example industrial and financial middle-class…) to these two fundamental classes is added an intermediate class, like floating on the level of its intentions of emancipation:

  • the lower middle class, gathering the people who have their own means of subsistence (small shopkeepers, liberal professions, etc), which confers to them a precarious autonomy compared to the capitalists. They do not need to be paid but owners are not themselves, and must work to live.
However, according to him, only the Middle-class and the proletariat can have a really independent policy, the various layers of the lower middle class either being attracted by the proletariat, at the point to confuse its interests sometimes there, or on the contrary respecting and envying the large capitalists, thus confusing his political vision with that of the large-scale employers.

This fight would embrace all the fields of the social life, economic, political and ideological and would be an engine with the social evolution, and thus of the history. The Capitalisme would exert a pressure to decrease the share of the production intended for the Prolétaire S, resulting in increasing the exploitation of the workers and their impoverishment, and increasing the capital, masses richnesses which are consumed in the fight (or Concurrence) which opposes the capitalists between them. The Labor movement (in particular the trade-union fight), opposed force, tends to increase the share of the richnesses collected by the working class, while establishing their claims in the strict one tallies of the Salaire. The Social skills represent the share which the capital allocates with the proletariat to preserve the stability of the peace of the company (which is always favorable for him), often after major upheavals such as the spontaneous general strike of 1936. The lower middle class, on its side, would be condemned has to regress ( to be proletarianized ) because of its incapacity to support competition with the capitalists.

For the Marxists, except notable for the Maoists, the class struggle gives a direction to the Histoire and explains the dynamics which moults the companies, “the history of any company until our days was only the history of class struggles” Karl Marx , the class struggle will stop when a proletarian Révolution world leads to a company where, after a time when the dominant class would be also the working class (" Dictatorship of Prolétariat"), the differences in classes will be definitively abolished, thus leading to a " Classless society " and thus with the Equality. According to this prospect, if the social organization itself encourages the cohesion of the proletariat, then the produced richnesses could be employed in an optimal way to improve the fate of humanity; the production will be able to answer a request exclusively (and not with a need to conquer Marché S), and the political power will not be more one instrument with the service of the capitalists but the true expression of a Démocratie. The revolution Communiste would thus make it possible to put an end to the division of the company in classes.

To achieve this goal, the Marxists consider that the Prolétariat must acquire a Class consciousness (i.e. must become aware of what it is , such as conceives it the Marxist theory, within the general framework of the company), and take confidence in its capacity to organize the company in an interdependent way, without more subjecting to the capitalist Classe. That would have occurred on several occasions during the history, in particular during the Commune of Paris (1871) and the Russian revolution in 1917 (even if, on this last event, the opinions are very divided between the various Marxist currents).

Contemporary class struggle

The class struggle would appear formally today by the social movements like the strikes or the demonstrations. The principal reasons for the strikes are: to require employers of pay rises; to prevent dismissals; against the painful terms of employment.

However, some other signs structural of opposition if not fight are observable: they are concretized in particular by the system of the Paritarisme instituted in various organizations where one finds on the one hand the Employeur S and on the other hand representatives of the Salarié S (Organizations for professional training, Collective agreement, Court of arbitration…).

The rise in the average Standard of living is general and world, but the difference between rich person and the poor does not cease increasing. According to a study of the Research institute on the economy of the development of UNO, in 2000 the richest 2% had 50% of the richnesses, when the poorest 50% had only 1% of the richnesses.

Social classes and vote

Since the years 1970 one observes according to the statistics and the surveys a correlation limited between social class and electorate.

In France, many executives vote for the left with legislative of 2002. The working world would evolve/move in the other direction, according to Le Monde: “ In May 1981, the Socialist party gathered 74% of the working vote; in April 2002, it collected nothing any more but 13% of them. The parliamentary line hardly benefits from this rejection: the vote of the popular classes initially nourished the rise of the abstention and, in the second place, the vote for the extremes. At the time of the presidential election of 2002, nearly one the third of the skilled workers and the foremen voted for the extreme line. ” (i.e. makes some nearly the third of those which voted, and not nearly the third to the total).

At the time of the regional elections of 2004, “ the rejection of the right-hand side to the capacity was marked definitely more in the communes where the proportions of workmen, employees and intermediate occupations (technicians, foremen, teachers, nurses, etc) are strongest. ” Contrary, “ the executives also voted on average on the right than the remainder of wage-earning. ” and “ it is among the non wage-earning persons that the line with the capacity moved back the least and that the extreme line best resisted. ”

With the presidential election of 2007, the candidate having received the most votes of workmen would be according to a survey (contradicted by two others: “ For LH2, Sarko clearly carried it in the working class. According to SCUMS, it was Ségo and, with saying of Ipsos, Le Pen… ”) Jean-Marie Le Pen (23% of expressed), preceding slightly Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy (21% each one) while at the same time her score collapsed compared to the preceding polls (10,44% of popular vote in 2007 compared with 16,86 in 2002).

In May 2007, the popular districts of Paris clearly voted on the left (XVIIIe, XIXe, XXe), and contrary the middle-class districts (XVe, XVIe, VIIe) largely voted on the right.

Others

According to the analysis and the terms of Joel de Rosnay, we have attended for a few years the development of a new class struggle between the " infocapitalistes" , which holds the contents and the distribution networks of mass, and " Pronétaire s".

Sources

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