Class struggle

In political science, the idea of class struggle talks about the problems that can happen between different social classes. This happens because these groups often have different goals and fight over things like money, jobs, and power. Some clear examples from history include slave owners and slaves, lords and their workers, and factory owners and their employees.

Many thinkers who support leftist, socialist, and communist ideas see class struggle as very important. They think it can help change society so that more people, especially the working class, have a better life. This idea is also a big part of studying how societies and governments work.

Class struggle can show up in many ways. Sometimes it leads to big events like revolutions or fights for control. Other times it is more quiet, like workers going on strikes or people not buying things from certain companies (boycotts). It can also involve politics, like trying to change laws, or using ideas to persuade others (propaganda). Even small actions, like workers slowing down their work, can be a part of class struggle.

Usage

When Marxists talk about class struggle, they look at classes based on how people relate to things that are made or grown, like factories or farms. Anarchists, such as Bakunin, think about classes in a wider way, including how some groups have more power over others in politics and culture, not just money. Bakunin thought that if these less powerful groups worked together, they could change society to remove ruling groups and create a world without governments or libertarian socialism.

Marx's theory of history says that in different economic systems like capitalism and feudalism, the fight between different classes is the most important part of how society changes. In the Communist Manifesto, it says that the story of all societies so far is the story of these class fights. Many Marxists believe that, under plutocratic capitalism, the working class will eventually win.

Oligarchs versus commoners in Ancient Greece

Where societies have differences in wealth, status, or control over resources, classes form and often lead to conflict. This pattern has been seen since ancient times, like in the story of the fight between common people and wealthy rulers.

The writer Thucydides told about a big fight in the city of Corcyra between ordinary people who supported Athens and wealthy people who supported Corinth. The wealthy people, fearing they would be attacked, set fire to buildings to stop the others.

The philosopher Socrates was one of the first to talk about class conflict. He said that every city is really two cities: one of the poor and one of the rich, and they are often at odds. He did not like systems where only rich people held power.

Aristotle studied why classes clash, noting that rich people are usually few, while poor people are many, leading to tension. He suggested treating enslaved people with fairness to avoid anger and rebellion.

Plutarch shared stories of Greek leaders who tried to help ordinary people but faced danger from powerful wealthy families.

Patricians versus plebeians in Ancient Rome

Keeping peace between the upper-class patricians and the lower-class plebs in Ancient Rome was very difficult. After the king was removed, tensions grew even more. The lower-class people felt they had too little say in government and were treated poorly.

Some leaders tried to help the lower classes. One man named Tiberius Gracchus spoke up for ordinary soldiers, saying they had no homes and were forced to move around with their families. He changed laws so that judges came from a different group, not just the wealthy class. Another leader, Julius Caesar, was seen as helping common people, though some rich people opposed him.

The rich patricians sometimes tried to keep all the power for themselves. A man named Coriolanus stood against giving grain to the poor, which made many people angry at him. These struggles between the rich and poor classes caused a lot of conflict in Ancient Rome.

Enlightenment era

Many smart thinkers from long ago talked about how different groups of people sometimes have problems because of money and power. For example, in Europe before factories and big businesses, people like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and James Madison wrote about how rich people and poor people didn’t always get along well.

Rousseau believed that leaders should help poor workers and not let rich people take advantage of them. Thomas Jefferson, another important American leader, worried that big differences between rich and poor could hurt new countries like the United States. He thought free news could help reduce these problems. James Madison also wrote about how differences in wealth could cause groups in society to clash.

Capitalist societies

Class conflict often happens in societies where there are groups with different levels of wealth and power. This conflict shows up in arguments between those who own and run businesses and those who work for them. These arguments can be about how long people work, how much they are paid, how profits are shared, and many other issues.

Some thinkers, like Adam Smith and Karl Marx, talked about how these conflicts happen. Smith thought that when a few people own a lot of property, it can create problems and unfairness. Marx believed that workers would eventually realize they were being treated unfairly by those who owned the businesses and would work together to make changes. Other writers have also shared their ideas about how these conflicts develop and what might happen because of them.

Twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Soviet Union and similar societies

Some thinkers believe that in societies like the Soviet Union, a new group of leaders formed a class by controlling important resources. They were part of the ruling political party and were different from the rest of society. These ideas were discussed even before the Soviet Union began in 1917.

United States

Class conflict has been part of the United States since its early days, especially between those who owned slaves and the slaves themselves. After slavery ended, class conflict often showed up in fights between workers and their bosses. Some people, like investor Warren Buffett, have said that wealthy people are winning these conflicts.

Post-2008 financial crisis

After the financial crisis in 2008, class conflict grew stronger. This led to many protests around the world, like the Occupy movement, which said "We are the 99%" to show they were against the rich and powerful.

Arab Spring

The Arab Spring, a series of protests starting in 2011, was also influenced by class conflict. People were unhappy with leaders who kept most of the wealth and did not share it fairly. Young people especially wanted change.

Relationship to race

Main article: Intersectionality

Some ideas in history suggest that differences like race or gender can take away from the main fight between groups of people who have more and less power. These differences might stop people from working together for common goals. However, others believe that race, gender, and class are all connected.

Some thinkers think that race is the biggest issue, while others say that class is more important because people of all races face similar problems at work. There is still much discussion among scholars about how these ideas relate to each other.

Chronology

Nationalist movements are not included.

Classical antiquity included events like the Gracchi Tribuneship, the Social War from 91–88 BC, the Gallic Wars and the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Conflict of the Orders, the Roman Servile Wars, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion from 184–205 AD.

The Middle Ages saw movements such as the Popular revolt in late medieval Europe, the Ciompi in Florence in 1378, the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381, the Jacquerie in 14th-century France, and the Saint George's Night Uprising.

The modern era includes many events like the German Peasants' War starting in 1524, the Shimabara Rebellion from 1637–1638, the English Civil War from 1642–1651, and the French Revolution beginning in 1789. Other notable events are the Old Price Riots in 1809, the July Revolution in 1830, the Canut revolts in Lyon from 1831, often seen as the start of the modern labor movement, and the June Rebellion in 1832. The list continues through many years, including the American Civil War from 1861–1865, the Taiping Rebellion from 1850–1864, and the Paris Commune in 1871.

Later events include the Johnson County War from 1889–1893, the Coal Wars from 1890–1930, the Donghak Peasant Revolution in Korea from 1893–94, and the 1905 Russian Revolution. The 20th century saw numerous uprisings and revolutions, such as the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt, the Mexican Revolution from 1910–1920, and the Revolutions of 1917–1923, including the 1917 Russian Revolution and the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Other key moments were the Limerick Soviet in Ireland in 1919, the Seattle General Strike of 1919, the General Strike of 1919 in Spain, the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919, the Ruhr Uprising in Germany in 1920, the Kronstadt rebellion in 1921, the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, and the Hamburg Uprising in 1923.

The list also covers the 1926 United Kingdom general strike, the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike, the Spanish Civil War from 1936–1939, the Land Reform Movement (China) from 1947–1950, and the Communist insurgency in Myanmar from 1948–1988. More recent events include the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany, the Telangana Rebellion, the Cuban Revolution from 1953–1959, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Poznań 1956 protests, the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency from 1967–present, and the Protests of 1968, including May 68 in France and the Prague Spring.

The chronology continues with the Hot Autumn in Italy from 1969–70, the Communist rebellion in the Philippines from 1969–present, and several strikes by coal miners in the United Kingdom. Events from the late 20th century and early 21st century include the Winter of Discontent from 1978–79, the Nicaraguan Revolution, the Poll tax riots in 1990, the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, the 1999 Seattle WTO protests, the 2006 Oaxaca protests in Mexico, the Bolivarian Revolution, the 2008 Greek riots, the Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010, the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the World Social Forum, the World Economic Forum, Occupy Wall Street in 2011 and the Occupy movement, the Jasic Incident, the Rojava Revolution, Protests against Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines from 2016–2022, Protests against Bongbong Marcos in the Philippines from 2021–present, the Yellow vests movement in France from 2018–2020, and the 2019–2020 Chilean protests.