Class conflict
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Proletarian violence, carried on as a pure and simple manifestation of the sentiment of class struggle, appears thus as a very fine and heroic thing; it is at the service of the immemorial interests of civilization; it is not perhaps the most appropriate method of obtaining immediate material advantages, but it may save the world from barbarism." --Reflections on Violence, Georges Sorel, p.85 Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989) by Paul Bartel |
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Class conflict (also class warfare and class struggle) is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society consequent to socio-economic competition among the social classes.
The forms of class conflict include direct violence, such as wars for resources and cheap labor and assassinatons; indirect violence, such as deaths from poverty and starvation, illness and unsafe working conditions. Economic coercion, such as the threat of unemployment or the withdrawal of investment capital; or ideologically, by way of political literature. Additionally, political forms of class warfare are: legal and illegal lobbying, and bribery of legislators.
The social-class conflict can be direct, as in a dispute between labour and management, such as an employer's industrial lockout of his employees in effort to weaken the bargaining power of the corresponding trade union; or indirect, such as a workers' slowdown of production in protest of unfair labor practices, such as low wages and poor workplace conditions.
In the political and economic philosophies of Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin, class struggle is a central tenet and a practical means for effecting radical social and political changes for the social majority.
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Chronology
Riots with a basically nationalist background are not included.
Classical antiquity
Middle Ages
Modern era
- German Peasants' War since 1524
- English Civil War (1642–1651) (Diggers)
- French Revolution since 1789
- Canut revolts in Lyon since 1831 - often considered as the beginning of the modern labor movement
- Revolutions of 1848 France (et al.)
- Paris Commune 1871
- Donghak Peasant Revolution in Korea 1893/94
- 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt
- Mexican Revolution since 1910
- October Revolution in 1917
- Spartacist uprising in Germany 1919
- Seattle General Strike of 1919 in Seattle
- General Strike of 1919 in Spain
- Winnipeg General Strike 1919
- Ruhr Uprising in Germany 1920
- Kronstadt rebellion 1921
- Hamburg Uprising 1923
- 1926 United Kingdom general strike
- 1934 West Coast waterfront strike
- Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
- Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
- Cuban Revolution 1953-1959
- Hungarian Revolution of 1956 - foundation of worker's councils
- Poznań 1956 protests
- Mai 68 in France
- Battle of Valle Giulia 1968 Italy
- Wild cats in Western Germany in 1969
- Winter of Discontent 1978/79
- UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
- 1993 Russian constitutional crisis
- 2006 Oaxaca protests in Mexico
- 2008 Greek riots
- 2010 Kyrgyzstani uprising
- Egyptian Revolution of 2011
- 2011 England riots
See also
- Class consciousness
- Classism
- Classless society
- Conflict of the Orders
- Deformed workers state
- Degenerated workers state
- Economic inequality
- Economic stratification
- Exploitation
- Johnson County War
- Labor union
- No War But The Class War
- Popular revolt in late medieval Europe
- Revolution
- Sharecropping
- Slave rebellion
- Social class
- Socialist Harmonious Society
- Taxation
