3. Theory of Marxism
Marxism is a theory originally proposed by Karl Marx and Friederich Engel. This theory focuses on the condition of the society and the struggle of the
people within it. The aim of this theory itself is to generate world without class or quoting what Barry
says on his book, “The aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society based on the common ownership of the means of production,
dist ribution and exchange.” 2002: 156. Moreover he adds,
Marxist sees progress as coming about through struggle for power between different social classes. This view of history as class struggle instead of,
for instance a succession of dynasties, or as a gradual progress towards the attainment of national identity and sovereignty regards it as „motored‟ by
the competition for economic, social, and political advantage. The exploitation of one social class by another is seen especially in modern
industrial capitalism, particularly in its unrestricted nineteenth-century form 2002: 157.
In other words, class struggle in the context of Marxist is considered as a competition for economical, social and political advantage. The aspect that
triggers this struggle is certainly the condition of economical, social and political that is unfair for one class in such industrial society.
Alfred G. Meyer writes that in Marxism all relationships between classes are necessarily exploitative relationship; there is a division where some classes
will always carry the main burden of labor while getting the smallest share of the social product while other classes are the opposite of it, living in comparative
leisure and getting the most of all benefits. Meyer also emphasizes the aspect that enables one class to maintain its position of dominance and conducting this kind
of exploitative relationship is power. Power of the ruling class in Marxian view,
he writes, is the “control it wields over the essential means of production and
communication.” 1954: 19-20.
The focus of this study is the class struggle as the impact of the unequal treatment performed by the ruling class; hence there are six theories of many
theories in Marxism that will be employed in this study. They are theory of social class, panopticon, interpellation, class consciousness and class struggle.
a. Theory of Social Class
Nikolai Bukharin defines class as “a category of persons united by a common role in the production process, a totality in which each member has about
the same relative position with regard to the other functions in the production process
” 1969: 278-279. Meanwhile social class is “the aggregate of person playing the same part in production, standing the same relation toward other
persons in the production process, these relations being also expressed in things instrument of labor” 1969: 276. In other words the members of social class
consist of the people who bear the same relation in the society. For example, the textile workers and mine workers are in the same class because they share the
same relation to certain persons the owner that control their work. Likewise, for the owners of textile and mine, they are in the same class because of the common
position they have as the owner of textile and mine factories. According to Ralf Dahrendorf in Class and Class Conflict in Industrial
Society, The deter
minant of classes is “property”. Property, however, must not be understood in terms of purely passive wealth but as an effective force of
production as “ownership of means of production” and its denial to others 1966:20-21.
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