Classes and class struggle
This article, the
first in our series on socialism, will look at the concepts of dialectical and historical
materialism. This series is based on the COSATU-SACP training manual
called Building
Socialism Now – Preparing for the New Millenium.
There are two basic aspects of Marxist analysis:
Dialectical materialism
Dialectical materialism is a general approach to reality and to our thinking about it. It is a general Marxist philosophy.
Materialism
We often use the word "materialism" to describe the vulgar pursuit of money and material comforts, without any morality or sense of values. That is not the Marxist definition of materialism.
Materialism, in the Marxist sense, is an approach that says that we must seek to explain nature, history and society in terms of material realities. Material realities, and not ideas are primary. This kind of materialism is in contrast to philosophical idealism, which argues that ideas are the main explanation for things.
What is dialectics?
Marxism argues that material reality must be understood as a dynamic, contradictory and changing process. Moreover, most change is propelled by the internal contradictions of that reality.
Marxism has suggested several "laws" of dialectics, which help to illustrate the basically dynamic and contradictory character of real processes.
This law reminds us that the increase in the quantity of something can radically change the nature of that reality. A political example is the reaction of the apartheid regime to the Durban strikes of 1973 and the student uprising in 1976. In both cases the regime reacted with repression, but the sheer quantity of the strikes and other protest actions through the 1970’s and early 1980’s led to a qualitative change. The regime was forced to combine its usual repression with some partial reforms (the Wiehahn Commission and the 1984 Tricameral an Black Local Authority measures). While these reforms did not change South Africa, they opened more space for the liberation movement, and began to qualitatively change the balance of forces. This was the beginning of the end of apartheid. It was the sheer quantity of thousands and thousands of mass actions that produced a qualitative change.
The contradictory forces at work in a dialectical process are often not accidental or external to each other. They are usually united together in the same process. In a real sense, they often define each other. The one exists because of the other.
This basic "law" of dialectics can be illustrated by capitalism. The two main "opposites" in capitalism – the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – exist because of each other. The bourgeoisie came into existence by forcing independent producers (peasants on their own farms) into capitalist controlled mines and factories. But the making of this proletariat was also the making of the bourgeoisie itself. Day-to-day the bourgeoisie only exists because workers are involved in productive labour in factories, mines and shops.
The existence of two mutually reproducing realities (for example, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat) does not mean that this has to go on forever. Historically, it was the emerging bourgeoisie that created a proletariat. Now, in order to survive as a bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie needs a proletariat. But the reverse is no longer true. The proletariat can abolish the bourgeoisie and assume control over the economy itself. In this way, the proletariat will end capitalist exploitation and build a society based on social needs, not private profits. This is an example of the "negation of the negation". Capitalism negates the freedom of working people, working people negate the capitalist system of exploitation.
Theory and practice
We must avoid the idea that dialectical materialism is some magic formula that provides all the answers. No set of ideas, including dialectical materialism, has all the answers ready-made. Dialectical materialism provides us with some general ways of approaching reality. It reminds us that reality is complex, contradictory and changing.
Historical materialism
Dialectical materialism is a general approach to reality. Historical materialism is the more specific study of societies and of human history. It is based on the understanding that our history is the history of classes and class struggle.
The most basic idea of Marxism is that societies must be understood from a class perspective. Economic policy, or the kind of democracy that exists, or how schooling is organised – all of these things, and many more – must be assessed from a class perspective. A policy that is good for the bourgeoisie is not necessarily good for working people.
But what are classes? In general discussion we often refer loosely to the poor and the rich, to middle classes and so on. The fact that there are poor and rich people is an indication of the existence of classes. But for Marxism it is important to develop a more precise understanding of what we mean by classes.
Classes are the result of the ways in which production is organised in societies. All forms of production involve two basic things:
In the course of history there have been several different ways in which production has been organised. These different ways of organising production are referred to as modes of production. Capitalism and socialism are, for instance, two different modes of production.
Capitalism
Capitalism is rooted in exploitation through production. This exploitation is based on two main classes – the bourgeoisie and the workers.
However, in any society, including in modern capitalist societies, there are usually other classes and social strata. A class approach to capitalism means that we seek to understand the main dynamic of capitalism in terms of the contradiction and struggle between capitalists and workers. But this does not mean that we can reduce everything to this contradiction. The existence of other classes in capitalism is connected to several realities:
Capitalism typically involves high levels of unemployment and massive rural marginalisation. Capitalism everywhere produces huge inequalities. Alongside the modern proletariat there is also a large mass of unemployed people, of those scratching a living from the "informal" sector. Again, this mass of impoverished people is available to many different political projects. Living close to the employed working class (often related directly through family ties) the mass poor in capitalist societies are often part of the broader working class movement. But these strata are also often forced out of desperation into crime, or into tribal, ethnic and demagogic politics.
When Marxism argues that the employed proletariat, the working class in this sense of the word, is the revolutionary vanguard class force, it is not arguing that workers are necessarily the poorest of the poor. In South Africa this is clearly often not the case. However, the working class is exploited by capitalism, but it also occupies a critical strategic place within modern production itself. The working class is united and disciplined by capitalist production, and it is a unity and discipline that can be turned strategically against capitalism for thorough transformation.
This is why we say that the two key class forces in capitalism are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. It is only these two contradictory forces that can strategically lead other social forces. The job of workers is to provide leadership to the widest range of social forces in South Africa to ensure revolutionary transformation of our society.
COSATU and the SACP have developed a training manual on socialism for all Shopstewards and union officials
