Karl Marx and the Basic Classes of Society

Today I want to talk about the class structures of society in Marxism. There are 3 classes at the very basis of society: the bourgeois class, the working class and the landowners. The bourgeois class owns the means of production and profits from it. The proletariat (worker) class owns the labor power. It receives wages in return. The 3rd community is the landowners. They earn rent. Apart from these, there are other strata of society. There are also various groups such as peasants, civil servants, professionals, etc. Karl Marx was not very interested in these classes. Karl Marx was particularly interested in 2 class clusters of society: The bourgeois class and the working class. According to Karl Marx, he stated that a certain segment must first be able to separate its own interests, lifestyle, livelihood, and culture from other segments of society. And it must be able to separate itself from other segments of the same society and become able to take part in the conditions of economic existence, only in this way can it become a social class. In this context, according to Karl Marx, the working class is a class by itself. It is positioned against the bourgeoisie. Only when members of that class come together with a certain awareness of a struggle, only then they can become a class.

The person who has no other means of earning a living than selling his labor power actually becomes a member of the working class, even if he is unemployed. Karl Marx says that class struggles are social movements. It does not have to be a political movement. He emphasizes that if ideological currents are added to the struggle between the working class and the bourgeois class, then it can become not only a social movement but also a political movement.

According to Karl Marx, societies show a historical progression. First, a slave society was formed. Then it was replaced by a feudal society. And this social structure also remained behind and the capitalist system emerged and it appears in its final form, that is, as a socialist society. All of these are a mode of production.

1- Mode of Production: Describes what and how production is done in a society.

2- Powers of Production: What is done with what is called the forces of production. What is a production made with? People, raw materials, land, and factories.

3- Relations of Production: How it is done is explained by this concept. Collective agreements, individual labor contracts, trade unions, rights, law and legislation, the processes of relation within production, and the relations that exist for the progress of production. Mode of production is a concept that combines the forces of production and the relations of production. Capitalism is a mode of production. This mode of production is problematic. Because it contains inequalities. 

4- Means of Production: Owning and controlling the means of production or being deprived of them determines a lot. The means of production are the means of all kinds of production, such as land and raw materials used in concrete and unmanned production. The bourgeois class owns the means of production. The working class does not own the means of production. It makes production within the rules set by those who own them. And in this sense, it cannot use the control power of the class that owns the means of production. Because it does not own them, it can participate in production within the rules set by the bourgeois class. According to Karl Marx, the main inequality between the working class and the bourgeois class is that one has the means of production while the other lacks them.