Q.Critically evaluate the Marxian theory of class struggle.
Ans. Marxian theory of class struggle is the very creed of Marxism. It occupies a central position in Marxian scientific socialism. It is used to explain how the evolution of society has been realty taking place. It postulates a total commitment to the perception of each society as a society of two economic classes-Haves and Havenots, and the eternal presence of struggle between them. The nature and structure of these two economic classes have been different in different periods of social evolution, yet these have always been there and class struggle has always characterised their relations.
Marxian theory of the class struggle, also known as the class war, which according to some is a misnomer, is a natural corollary of the materialistic interpretation of history. It is also related to the theory of surplus value, Marx believes that value is created by labour but he gets onty a part of it. The rest of it, which is a major pan, goes to the capitalists or to the owners of the forces of production, which he calls surplus value. This, according to him, is nothing else but sheer exploitation. This type of phenomena leads to the division of the society into two hostile classes which he calls the class struggle or class antagonism.
1. Class Struggle characterises all societies at all times:According to Marx, every system of production, that has been evolved, gives rise to a number of economic classes which are broadly divided into the dominant or the privileged or the rich class and the poor class or the exploiters and the exploited. There is no love or co-operation between these two classes, because of their divergent interests. In other words, the interest of these two classes, also known as 'The haves' and "The have-nots" clash with each other. Therefore, there is a feeling of bitterness and enmity among these classes. They fight against each other for the protection of their divergent interests. This struggle or war between these two classes, is what Marx calls the class struggle or the class war. According to Marx, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and the serf, guild master and the journeyman, in a word the oppressor and the oppressed stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an un-interpreted, now hidden now open fight, a fight that each time ended either in revolutionary reconstruction of the society at large or in the common ruin of the contending classes."
The capitalist stage came in when the bourgeoisie pulled down the feudal class and it became the dominant or the ruling class in the society. Capitalism gave birth to what can be termed as industrial capitalism. Industrial capitalism, in its own turn gave birth to the working class or the proletariat which is the new exploited class. There is a conflict between the interests of bourgeoisie and the proletariat. This conflict is certain to end with the down-fall of the exploiting bourgeoisie or the capitalist class.
2. Class Antagonisms as the Reality of life in Society: Elaborating his views further, Marx says that the economically dominant class has been exploiting the working class. He believes that at first the landed aristocrats or feudalists were in possession of the political power. But with the passage of time the lever of power was shifted to the new class known as the bourgeoisie. In other words the landed aristocracy had to yield to the bourgeoisie, that is, the middle class which remained in power for many decades. Marx saw that the further development of this evolutionary growth is in the direction of the domination of the proletariat. Out of feudalism came the capitalist bourgeoisie, and out of the latter arose the proletariat. The capitalists are creating, organising and disciplining the proletariat, either directly or indirectly. This class will be destroyed by the working class. The exploiters will be expropriated. The Communist Manifesto, issued in 1848, was designed as a programme of action for the Communists who were to galvanise the workers into a self conscious class for the coming struggle against the bourgeoisie.
Marx further explains that after the downfall of capitalist class, the capitalist system will be replaced by the socialist system of production and the bourgeoisie democracy will be replaced by the proletarian democracy. Under socialism human life and social motivation will undergo fundamental changes and the age of socialism will merge into the age of, communism, where there will be no class and no state. Thus socialism and proletarian dictatorship will come in between capitalism and communism.
3. A Social Class is an ideologically committed Collective Entity: Marx holds the view that the behaviour of classes in society presents some pecularities. In the words of Prof. Sabine, "A social class is for him (Marx) a collective entity, as nations were for Hegel and their members can be treated as personifications of economic categories, representations of special class relations and class interests." As a rule, therefore, a social class acts competitively in its own interest. But the dialectic requires that its ideology should be also at some point self-contradictory and its behaviour suicidal." So the beliefs of members of one class are the reflections of the class to which they belong, which at various occasions go contrary to the interests and beliefs of the other social classes. At times one class produces 'unusual individuals who break loose and provide a new ideology for a rising class that will supplant the old ruling class'.
4. Class Struggle is the driving force of the political process: Marx explains that the source of struggle between the social classes is the desire for power. Discussing this aspect of Marx's class struggle, Prof. GH. Sabine writes, "The struggle for power between social classes provides the driving force of politics, because as Marx understand political organization, some class must at any given time be dominant. It will use its superior power to exploit classes with less power, and the state is merely the apparatus of power which it uses for exploitation, 'a committee for managing the common affairs' of the dominant classes. The law is a body of rules that upholds what the exploiting class calls its 'rights'. The key to successful political leadership is the understanding that politics is merely a conventinalized kind of warfare, that a party is the general staff which plans and directs the strategy of whatever class is represents".
Critical Evolution: Marxian theory of class struggle has been subjected to strong criticism by a host of critics. Even some of the followers of Marxism admits its limitations. We can point out its following limitations:
1. Factually Incorrect: Marx was interested only in one phase of history and preserted an analysis of the events of the past to which he refers, for the fact do not always support his theory.
2. All Social Classes are not economic classes: The history hitherto has not been a history of class war, as Marx asserts. It is not possible to endorse the marxian view that "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle". No one can deny the existence of classes in society, but it is wrong to identify these classes with the economic factors only.
3. Struggle in society has not always been between Haves and Havenots: It is not correct to say that the struggle between the classes in history has always been between the exploiters and the exploited. Moreover within each main class there are numerous groups, which clash with each other. It is difficult to point out any priod in history when the society was divided into two clear cut classes. 4. Marxian Predictions have not been valid: The theory
of class war may be criticized from the view-point that the capialist
system has not developed along the lines anticipated by Marx while
there has been a trend towards large enterprises and concentration
of wealth.
5. Dangerous Theory: It is both a bad as well as a harmful doctrine. It teaches the hymn of sympathy and fellow-feelings. It is a battle cry which is at once 'causeless and abominable".
6. Unhistorical: Marxian concept of clas war is also not supported by history. To say that the entire history of mankind is full of class struggle is not correct. It is a too pessimistic and over-dramatic view of history.
7. Marxian analysis of capitalism as the basis of his theory of class struggle has been unsound: The Marxist analysis of the laws of capitalist developed based on the class struggle has been found to be largely incorrect. Marx had predicted that in the capitalist societyp the rich get richer, the poor become increasingly poorer. This has not turned out to be true in all cases.
