The Concept of Social Class

THE concept of social class is something more than one of the fundamental concepts of Marxian doctrine. It has in a certain sense become the symbol of his whole doctrine and of the political program that is derived from it. This concept is expressed in the terms “class standpoint” and “class point of view,” which in Marxist circles used until recently to be synonymous with “Marxist standpoint” or “Marxist point of view.” In this sense “class standpoint” simply meant the opposite of “bourgeois standpoint.”