ECONOMIC CLASS, SOCIAL CLASS AND POLITICAL FORCES

The class concepts of economic classes, social classes and political forces all have an important role to play in advancing the theoretical understanding necessary for achieving progress in the socialist project. The “new class analysis” is a series of attempts made since the 1960s by a number of Marxist writers to orient the political forces of socialists by providing analyses of the changing class structure of the advanced capitalist formations. Many of these contributions have been flawed. An account of class is made which shows the naivety of these views. It is put forward that it is necessary to make use of the three class concepts and that there is no a priori necessary association between the membership of these variously conceptualised groups — they can cut across one another in various ways. Each of the concepts is outlined. In contrast to stock Marxist conceptions, this approach may be more fruitful.