新马克思整理(英文)

1 "The Communist Manifesto" published in 1848, which marked the birth of Marx's class theory. Since Marx's class theory began its course for a half century of history.

2 Although Marx and Engels created a great class doctrine in the 19th century, they did not make clear statements to "what is class" and "how to divide the class".

3 Engels gave the definition of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat respectively, which further clarified the Marxist concept of class. Engels said:" the bourgeoisie refers to the modern capitalist class who possesses the means of production and uses hired labor while the proletariat refers to the modern wage-workers that doesn't have their own means of production, and thus they have to rely on selling their labor to maintain the life. So Marx and Engels believed that class was social group that was divided by the different relations of production.” Thus, the class is essentially an economic category.

4 Marx and Engels argued that class is an economic category. The occupation relation of production materials is the inherent qualitative prescription of class which is the most essential feature of class. "These social classes struggled against each other at any time are the product of the relations of production and exchange. In a word,they are the product of economic relations of their own age." Class is a historical category. Marx believed human society is not always existed,but is the product of the development of human society to a certain historical stage, which is corresponding with the productivity has a certain development but not fully appropriate. In addition, class also is a wider social category. The nature of the class is an economic category, but once the class formed, the presence and growth, development of which will not only show the economic relations,but show the political, ideological and social relations based on the economic relations.

5 Marx and Engels never made clear statements to the class division standard as the same to never defining the concept of class. Traditionally believed that the occupation and exploitation of production materials is the Marxist class division standard.

6 Marx and Engels considered the class division from two thinking routes. One is the track of theoretical thinking, the other is the track of practical analysis. On the track of theoretical thinking, they used the abstract thinking method to analyze the developing process of the human society, the productive forces, the social division of labor, the ownership of the means of production, and formed the theoretical criterion and mode of class division. The theoretical criterion is that the controlling right of the means of production and surplus labor. The theoretical model is the ternary division mode of polar class and middle class. On the track of practical analysis, they insisted on the thinking method of concrete analysis of specific issues. They divided the classes in the society of private ownership and formed the practical analyzing criterion of class division. The practical analyzing criterion is that dividing classes according to the occupation and exploitation of the means of production.. But because of the complexity of the particular social form and the particular class structure of the country, it does not form and there isn't practice mode of class division in practice. In the practical analyzing criterion of class division, Marx and Engels didn't simply consider the occupation and exploitation of the means of production as the possession of the means of production. Although they frequently used the word of "possession", they also used a large number of "dominance", "monopoly ","leadership" or other terms to state.