[Marxism] Class and Social Conflict Theory

["Calvin Broadbent" <calvinbroadbent@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply Jurriaan. Without wishing to reduce all social
conflict to *direct* conflict of economic interest, is there not a real
sense in which conflict in society around religion, ethnicity, or gender is
not only exacerbated by, but grounded in class society? Were there no, or
relatively less, conflicts around issues of distribution and production to
meet human need, and generalised human happiness was made possible by
rewarding and fulfilling socialist labour relations, would *all* forms of
oppression and exploitation not become superfluous or at least more
nugatory? It is in this sense that the phrase 'all social conflict is a
result of class oppression' is meant.

My original question was posed in response to my reading of the relativistic
philosophy of Isaiah Berlin. Berlin says that since there is no way social
conflict can be resolved, there being a myriad of divergent and
contradictory ethics and belief systems held by different human groups, the
best humans can hope for is a minimal political arrangement which
institutionalises people's freedom from restrictive social norms. I am
interested in the view that it is not, strictly speaking, inter-group
ideational conflict that prevents people from living according to their
esteemed religious or cultural beliefs and traditions, but rather
institutionalised capitalist class hegemony, competition for scarce
resources and limited power, and destitution brought about by the same.

Thanks again for your response.




JURRIAAN WROTE:

> Economic determinism suggests that social conflicts must always be based on
> or reducible to conflicts between economic interests, but that is simply
> false. They could be religious or ethnic or gender conflicts. At best you
> can say that the economic framework sets limits within which social
> conflicts can occur.
>
> So in answer to your question, I would not recommend any literature
> suggesting the thesis that *all* social
> conflict is ultimately the result of class conflict, because that
> literature
> is wrong, and leads to sectarian errors, i.e. class reductionism and
> economic determinism create a malformed, narrow political practice which
> downplays the full action radius that people have.
>
> Jurriaan

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