karl marx: the class struggle

Karl Marx: Historical Materialism and the The Class Struggle

Capitalists are people who own and

operate factories and other businesses in pursuit of

profits. However, capitalism turned most people into

industrial workers, whom Marx called proletarians.

Proletarians are people who sell their labor for wages.

Conflict theories draw attention to power differentials,

such as class, gender and race conflict, and contrast

historically dominant ideologies.

Historical materialism is not the way that human beings gain money and have more material comfort neither the material desires to gain satisfaction. It is the way that human beings produce that determines their thinking and desires.

4. The development of the productive forces periodically produces conflict between forces and relations. At these times the existing productive relations are fetters on the forces—the former hinder the effective utilization and further growth of the latter. A time of social instability ensues. The outcome in the long run is that the existing relations of production adjust to the new forces of production rather than the other way round.

5. “All history is the history of class struggle.” The class that wins the class struggle is the one that in its time is best able to preside over the productive forces.

Marx's analysis of history is based on his distinction between the:

1. means of production, literally those things, like land and natural resources, and technology,

2. that are necessary for the production of material goods,

3.and the social relations of production,

in other words, the social relationships people enter into as they acquire and use the means of production.

What is ‘Historical materialism’?

Class conflict can take many different forms:

1. direct violence, such as wars fought for resources and cheap labor;

2. indirect violence, such as deaths from poverty, starvation, illness or unsafe working conditions;

3. coercion, such as the threat of losing a job or pulling an important investment;

4. Or ideology, either intentionally (as with books and articles promoting capitalism) or unintentionally (as with the promotion of consumerism through advertising).

1. The productive forces tend to develop throughout history

2. The nature of the productive relations of a given society is explained by the level of development of its productive forces (to a far greater extent than the reverse).

3. The character of the noneconomic institutions of society, especially its political-legal order, is explained by the character of its economic structure (to a far greater degree than the reverse).

According to Marx, society evolves through different modes of production in which the upper class controls the means of production and the lower class is forced to provide labor.

The bourgeoisie try to preserve capitalism by promoting ideologies and false consciousness that keep workers from revolting. Marx predicted that class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat would lead to capitalism's downfall.

In order to understand human society and historical development you have to study how humans produce and reproduce the material requirements of life

To successfully produce these material requirements people have to enter into ‘production relations’ – the relationship between those who do the work and those who own the ‘means of production’

REASONS OF THE CONFLICTS

Dominant power is largely in the hands of those who own and control the means of life. Capitalism structures an irresolvable conflict between the two fundamental classes, the working class and the capitalist class. (This is a consequence of the “logic” of capitalist reproduction: It is always in the interest of capitalists to increase surplus value (by extending the working day, reducing wages, introducing labor-saving technology, etc.) and these imperatives are always contrary to the interests of workers: class

struggle.

The Class Struggle ( conflict theory)

Marx further explains his concept of materialism. It means the material base of human living activities; also, it is a way of living, a life process. Human beings’ thinking and ideology—politics, law, religion, art, science, etc. are reflected in their life activities.

“it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness.” (Marx, in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.)

Class conflict, frequently referred to as class warfare or class struggle, is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests and desires between people of different classes.