Class Struggle

Class struggle — the concept that society is fundamentally divided between economic classes with opposing interests — is the central idea in Marxist theory. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels declared in The Communist Manifesto (1848) that 'the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles': freeman and slave, lord and serf, bourgeois and proletarian.

In Marx's analysis, industrial capitalism created the starkest class division yet. The bourgeoisie owned the factories, mines, and land. The proletariat owned only their labor, which they were compelled to sell for wages. The surplus value created by workers' labor was appropriated by capitalists as profit. This exploitation, Marx argued, was not an aberration but the fundamental mechanism of capitalism.

The concept of class struggle profoundly influenced 20th-century politics. It provided the theoretical framework for the Russian and Chinese revolutions. Labor movements, trade unions, and socialist parties across the world drew on class analysis to demand better wages, working conditions, and political representation. Even in non-Marxist societies, the recognition that economic interests often divide along class lines has shaped social policy, progressive taxation, and welfare state provisions. The debate about whether class remains a primary category of social analysis or has been superseded by identity, culture, and other factors continues today.