The 6000 year history of Class Warfare

This video is a history of class warfare in the Marxist view.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
3:09 Primitive Communism
4:23 Slavery
7:15 Feudalism
11:37 Capitalism
14:48 Socialism
19:22 Post Socialism

Transcript:
“The history of all hitherto existing human society is the history of class struggles.” You probably heard that before, it is the start of chapter one of the communist manifesto. But what does it mean? What is a class struggle and why would it be affecting every human society so far? And why use a word as complicated "hitherto" in a manifesto for the hole world? Great questions, time to answer most of them.
If you like this video or are interested in political and historic topics from a leftist point of view you should subscribe because I do that once a week. And if you are really interested there is a patreon page that lets you join my discord server.
Anyways, throughout history many people found things they called a class war and wrote about them, in this video, since I am an evil commie I will only look at the marxian concept of class warfare.
Now you wonder what marxists mean by class. Nowadays if we divide people into classes it's usually 3. Upper class, middle class, lower class, based on wealth. This is not how marxism defines it. Marx did not care about how wealthy you are but how you relate to the economy. Picking the 21st century, marx would have made a distinction between employees and employers.
The employer owns the factory and they can hire and fire people at will while the employees just have to take it. So in marxism, even if you area multi millionare, if you work for someone else, like a producer you are in the same class as factory workers, and if you have your own shop where you sell things with 2 employees you are the same class as bezos. It depends on whether you own your workplace, aka your relation to the economy and the machines that run the economy.
And if we look into the past there were more classes than the ones we have now, the past economy was so different it would not make sense to use our modern conception of workers and bosses to explain it. Historical production modes which were also based on classes had more classes.
Marx is using dialectics, this means he seeks irreconsilible conflicts between classes, usually two classes. For example you as a worker want high pay and few hours and your employer wants the opposite. That is an irreconsibale conflict, only one of you can get what they want. And eventually according to marx this conflict will lead to the destruction of one of these classes, which makes a new economic system which eventually creates it's own classes and conflict. So class conflict is seen as inevitable under any previous system.

[AsiniusNaso]

Some more details:
The plebeians of Rome had moments of class consciousness - They even went on city-wide strike several times!
Also, the fall of Rome didn’t always mean the end of the old rulers - many of the patrician families wound up becoming the new feudal lords, with their fortified estates becoming feudal castles.

[joshuastueckle]

I’d like to recommend the book “The Dawn of Everything” by David Wengrow and the late David Graeber about early human history/how society was structured. It challenges all popular modern notions of early history, including the existence of primitive communism or the influence of agriculture on societal structuring. it’s an incredibly interesting read, and it comes to very anarchist conclusions

[donovantownshend]

post-socialism is probably the biggest question in the world

[canalsincontenido]

The big thing about clergy in the middle ages was the international aspect. Combine that with the morality of concentrating money and you have the basis for neoliberalism

[leninbilalexander]

You still haven't answered the most fundamental of the questions asked at the start: who even uses hitherto?

[MidiX]

Stimme ich mit dir überein, es gibt leider kein anderen weg als es Gewaltsam zu nehmen. Die werden es nicht Freiwillig, ganz im gegenteil sogar, hergeben. Schade, werde da auch mal ein Video darüber machen . Danke für dein Beitrag!

[rowbot]

I got an ad for an online casino just before this lmao

[doromiert]

the history of class struggles is a true statement, just not in the way you think

it's not bourgeoisie vs proletariat but government vs productive people

[adamjones]

Please would you consider making a video on Irish socialisim and the troubles if you haven't already

[michaelpudney]

I'd imagine future class structures to be based on "essential" workers, and "non-essential" workers, this is actually something Marx did touch on. Their is allot of extremely important work out their, but only some of it is valued, whilst others are not, this as discussed by Marx can be seen in parenthood, something that takes allot of work, time and effort, and plays a pivotal role in the future of every aspect of society, yet it is a form of unrecognized labour in society. Here in Aotearoa we do have some services available to supplement the unrecognized labour of parenthood, such as the Working for Families Tax Credit, that's still just supplementing the work done, not a full payment, and this is only available to parents doing other work on top of this unrecognized form of labour. This prediction was further realized back in 2020, where people operating in services not seen as essential, were at not at risk of losing their jobs. I definitely don't want a future class structures to look like this (although it is better then the one we currently have), but feel it's important to analyze what could happen, so that we could help make the changes needed to prevent the worst possible outcomes.

[Maggie-ijvv]

Great video Viki, amazing work as always!

[howenator]

A minor issue I have here is the somewhat reductive view of the class structure of capitalist society. While it is true that in developed capitalist countries, the bifurcation of class is more or less as complete as it will get, even in the most developed European capitalist country, there is still a a size-able petit-bourgeoisie, albeit consistently being proletarianized. Luxemburg used an analogy comparing it to grass being constantly mowed down, yet still regrowing.

(Random Althusserian rant incoming)
Here is where an analysis of capitalist ideology is relevant imo. There are advanced, average, and backwards sections of the working classes, which aren’t really determined by their direct exploitation by capitalists, as much as the level of superstructural oppression that they face. There is often a dialectical relationship between actual exploitation and consciousness, which is why certain segments of the working class in core and especially settler colonial countries are labor aristocracy. While they may be scientifically exploited, they have enough material incentives to side with the ruling class and most of them are pacified.

This is because, to maintain the exploitative relations between the capitalist and the working masses, a hierarchical ideological superstructure is propped up, even more so than in past societies, because the capitalist mode of production dissolved many of the strict bonds and property rights of the feudal order. Racism, bourgeois nationalism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, etc. are all inextricably linked with modern capitalism and were intensified as a result of the capitalist mode of production.

Anyways keep up the great work, awesome video!

[rinsimon]

The only problem I have with historical development from a Marxist perspective is that it is most definitely euro-centric and does not work when looking at Indigenous cultures

[Dianasaurthemelonlord]

"Evil Commies" for life, Comrades, "Evil Commies" for life.

[comradefreedom]

I think if the state still exists, then that would kind of be a class in the sociological sense.

[randnew]

You remaned the video.
I caught it.
Me is smart cookie.

[Lilith]

Might be that under socialism and communism the new class antagonism would be between the machines/AI against primarily humans. Though this mostly based on the idea that machines/AIs would become sentient and replacing human labour.

[colbymcarthur]

One modern issue with Marx’s idea of class is that the barrier has muddled. The petit bourgeois has grown to encompass a huge proportion of the population. as stock market participation has risen by so much over the last century. Many people are both bourgeois and proletariat

[jorgeguerra]

It is impossible to have private property without exploitation. If workers are well payed that does not mean there is no exploitation. The surplus value production is usually taken to be quantitative. But Marx description of exploitation is not about money itself. Its about the purchase of labor power that is used by capiitaliista to extract the surplus. The iimportant aspect is qualitative rather then quantiitative. Since is impossible to produce surplus without buy the labor power, it is impossible to have private property without exploitation. Even if everybody is well payed

[shuvari]

A decent video explanation of the Marxist view of class warfare :D