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Title: What is Class?
Author: sub.media
Date: 2016
Language: en
Topics: class, primer, video transcription, Breadtube
Source: https://sub.media/video/what-is-class/

sub.media

What is Class?

Class struggle, or the struggle within and against capitalism, is an

intrinsic guiding force of anarchist theory and practice. Nonetheless,

many enduring myths and misconceptions continue to cloud popular

understanding of the social relationship that lies at the root of this

conflict.... namely, class itself.

So.... what is it, exactly? And what do anarchists have against it? Most

people today primarily associate someone’s class with how much money

they make. And while it's true that the size of a person's bank account

is generally a good indication of their class position, this

over-simplified definition tends to obscure the way that class actually

operates, on both an individual and social level, while masking its

inherently antagonistic nature. A more accurate way of defining class

would be to say that it's a hierarchical social relationship

characterized by exploitation, and anchored through an interconnected,

state-based system of laws governing the ownership of property. Or to

put it more simply.... class is a way of organizing people according to

who owns what.

Of course, both hierarchy and exploitation have been around far longer

than capitalism. From the priest-kings of Mesopotamia’s earliest

city-states, to the Roman Empire and its gradual disintegration into

Medieval feudalism, human civilizations have always been ruled by a

small elite, who’ve ensured the highest concentration of wealth and

prestige for themselves. The rise of capitalism displaced early feudal

systems of social and economic control, such as the Divine Right of

Kings in Europe, and the Mandate of Heaven in Imperial China, replacing

these outdated superstitions with new, more sophisticated social myths

based on the sanctity of private property and the unquestioned

domination of the free market.

Back in the mid 19th century, the famous socialist philosopher Karl Marx

carried out an exhaustive exploration at how capitalism worked and the

historical processes by which it had developed. Many prominent

anarchists at the time, such as Mikhail Bakunin, bitterly disagreed with

Marx and his followers on the question of revolutionary strategy,

particularly the role of the state. Overall, however, they agreed with

his description of capitalism as a system characterized by the emergence

and spread of two mutually opposing classes. Those are: the working

class - also known as the proletariat, and the capitalist class - also

known as the bourgeoisie.

Members of the capitalist class are defined by their ownership and

control over capital, while members of the working class are defined by

the fact that we don't own capital and are thus forced into exploitative

relationships with capitalists in order to survive. Capitalists can be

subdivided into three different categories based on the type of capital

they own and how they generate profit. The first of these are industrial

capitalists, who own and control the means of production - a fancy

phrase to describe the tools and equipment necessary to produce

commodities. In earlier stages of capitalism this usually referred to

owners of factories and mines, but nowadays could refer to the owners

and shareholders of a wide variety of businesses - anything from

fast-food restaurants to software development companies. In other words,

an industrial capitalist is your boss. They are someone who makes a

profit by exploiting their workers. Second is landowners - capitalists

who own land and real estate, and who make a profit by exploiting their

tenants, or, as is increasingly common these days, through

gentrification and other forms of real estate speculation and

development. And finally, financial capitalists - who make a profit by

loaning money at interest. This could be anyone from small pawnshops and

payday loan centers, all the way up to the globe-spanning banks who loan

money to other capitalists and even governments.

The shift towards neoliberal capitalism beginning in the 1970s, saw

financial capitalists massively expand their influence over the global

economy. This expansion has allowed them to ramp up their direct

exploitation of the working class through the introduction of new

household debt instruments, such as personal credit cards, student loans

and subprime mortgages. Over the years, the character of class

exploitation has transformed as capitalism has evolved. In spite of

this, many anti-capitalists still cling to narratives from an earlier

era. Even today, the stereotypical image of a member of the working

class tends to be the burly-chested, white factory worker of IWW lore -

whereas the truth is that the majority of the global proletariat are

female, and the overwhelming majority are of non-European descent.

Yet even as capitalism has changed, the essential elements of the class

relationship remain the same. It’s pretty well understood that the

working class and capitalist classes have mutually opposing interests.

The less our bosses pay us, and the more our landlords charge us rent,

the more profit they make, and the poorer we get. What’s less

understood, however, is that capitalist laws of universal competition

and constant growth, create and shape internal divisions within each

class. Capitalists within a certain industry are constantly competing

with rivals over market share, which means that they must maintain a

certain rate of profit, or risk going out of business. And capitalists

from one industry sometimes have interests that run entirely contrary to

those of another. High oil prices, for example, will lead to higher

rates of profit for corporations like BP and ExxonMobil... but they can

be devastating to capitalists in the manufacturing or transportation

industries.

While all members of the working class have a shared interest in ending

capitalism, we are also often blinded by our own competing short-term

interests. Not only do we have to compete with one another over the

scraps capitalists give us to survive... but also, many of our jobs

negatively impact the lives of other working-class people. And on a

broader scale, the lower the wages paid to workers in the Global South,

the cheaper the products on department store shelves. On top of that,

our class is divided into hierarchies based on oppressive systems such

as race and gender. Women, for instance, are often doubly exploited

under capitalism in that we are expected to perform unpaid reproductive

labour, such as cooking, cleaning and raising children, while

simultaneously being paid less than our male counterparts at work. The

role of the state is to manage the economy in a way that balances the

interests of competing segments of the capitalist class, while

protecting them all from the threat of working-class revolution. This is

often achieved by playing up divisions within the working class based on

nationalism, religious sectarianism, white supremacy and patriarchy. It

is only by destroying these oppressive and divisive systems that our

class can come together to wage a unified class war and begin to

liberate ourselves from the shackles of this parasitic system of

exploitation. We will only cease to be slaves when together, we seize

everything.