Definition of Class Struggle

In historical terms the conflict between the different social groups it has presented different names. Thus, there has been talk of the division between rich and poor, oppressors and oppressed, masters and slaves, commoners and nobles, peasants and feudal lords, wage earners and bourgeois, etc. The confrontation between two antagonistic groups has been described by the Marxism with one term, class struggle.

From the perspective of Marxism

Society is divided into groups or social classes, which are confronted by the means of production and the division of labor. Marx comes to this conclusion after analyze the mechanisms of the capitalist system of its time and its historical antecedents. For Marx the conditions of production and working conditions in general are based on the tension between two sectors of society, the oppressors and the oppressed.

In other words, the production of goods within the capitalist system should not be interpreted as a purely matter economic, since within it there is a conflict between the bourgeoisie who own the means of production and the labor force of the workers.

The capitalist system fosters social division and class struggle

However, for the workers to consider that they are in a struggle, they need to be aware of their situation, what Marx called class consciousness.

For Marx, the opposing social classes and the exploitation of human beings are realities that exist because the capitalism has legitimized private property and inequality between individuals.

The class struggle becomes the engine of the history of humanity. And so that the confrontation between human beings does not continue, it is necessary that a communist system be imposed in which social classes disappear.

In Marxism a classless model of society is defended

The proletariat is the social class who must lead the confrontation against the oppressive class of the bourgeoisie. The aim of the proletariat has to be the revolutionary struggle in order to establish a society in which the social classes cease to exist. In the approach of Marxism, the social revolution will impose a new system (the communism) that will put an end to the mechanisms of exploitation of capitalism.

The thinkers of ideology Marxists consider that the current capitalist system maintains a system of class struggle. On the one hand, the ruling class, the institutions that have the power and the lobby and, on the other hand, wage earners and all those groups that try to defend themselves from the different forms of oppression.

Photos: Fotolia - philllbg / nanmulti