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replacing these outdated superstitions with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.