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“The concept of
social class is absolutely central to Marxist theory. The communist Manifesto
(written by Marx and Engles) states that, “The
history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle”.
By this they highlight the fact that the whole of human history is seen within the Marxist framework as the history of the oppressed fighting the oppressors.
The aim of Marxist sociology is to highlight the existence of this class
struggle: to bring attention to the vast inequalities that exist in society.
If the whole of social history is seen as a history of class forces, the end of history will only be reached with a revolution to a classless society: communism, where the forces or means of production will be collectively owned. This final stage will only be reached after an initial ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ where the working classes will take over the state and economic bureaucracies already previously established under capitalism. In basic Marxist theory, there exit only two classes, defined by their relationship of ownership to the means or forces of production. In each social type in history, or rather, in each mode of production, the means of production are owned by the dominant class, the ruling class. Under capitalism, the fourth mode of production in history, the means of production are owned by the bourgeoisie. The proletariat are left to sell their labour power for wages. This social relation of production is based, however, on exploitation since the ruling class keep the surplus value of the power of labour (profit) for themselves. For Marx, the masses are in a state of alienation, that is, they are isolated from the product of their own labour power. Alienation and exploitation are hidden by false consciousness: the masses are controlled, through capitalist ideology into believing that society is fair, just and that this status quo is inevitable. The change from false consciousness to true consciousness will only occur once the masses are aware of their exploitation and seek to take control of their own social situation. As Marx wrote, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains”. Revolution will only take place once the masses have developed from a class in themselves to a class for themselves.” Taken from WS4b, Stratification, Philipallan Publishers The two main elements
1. Capital = Any asset, including money, machines, or even factories, which can be used or invested in future assets
2. Wage-labour = the pool of workers who do not own the means of thier livelihood but live because of the employement 'provided' by the owners of capital ![]()
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