POL 315
THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MARXISM
Classes did not exist during the era of primitive communism, when
societies were based on a socialist mode of production. In hunting and
gathering band, the earliest form of human society, the land and its
products were communally owned. The men hunted and the women
gathered plant/food, and the produce was shared by members of the
band. Classes did not exist since all members of society shared the same
relationship to the means of production. Every member was both
producer and owner; all provided labor power and shared the products of
their labor. Hunting and gathering is a subsistence economy, which
means that production only meets basic survival needs.
Classes emerged when the productive capacity of society expanded
beyond the level required for subsistence. This occurred when
agriculture became the dominant mode of production. In an agricultural
economy, only a section of society is needed to produce the food
requirements of the whole society. Many individuals were thus freed
from food production and are able to specialise in other tasks. The
rudimentary division of labor of the hunting and gathering band is
replaced by an increasingly more complex and specialized division. For
example, in the early agricultural villages, some individuals became fulltime
producers of pottery, clothing and agricultural implements.
As agriculture developed, surplus wealth - that is goods above the basic
subsistence needs of the community - were produced. This led to an
exchange of goods, and trading developed rapidly both within and
between communities. This was accompanied by the development of a
system of private property. Goods were increasingly seen as
commodities or articles of trade to which the individual rather than the
community had right of ownership.
Private property and the accumulation of surplus wealth, form the basis
for the development of class societies. In particular, they provide the
preconditions for the emergence of a class of producers and a class of
non-producers. Some people are able to acquire the means of
production, and others are therefore obliged to work for them. The result
is a class of non-producers which owns the means of production, and a
class of producers which owns only its labor.
4.0 CONCLUSION
From a Marxist perspective, the relationship between the major social
classes is one of mutual dependence and conflict. Thus, in capitalist
society, the bourgeoisie and proletariat are dependent upon each other.
Wage laborers must sell their labor power in order to survive, as they do
not own a part of the means of production and lack the means to produce
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