Concerning Global Class Analysis

attached please find some observations concerning global class analysis (htm format)

GK

Title: How to get 1 trillion dollars for the global majority

Concerning Global Class Analysis
 

The data (below) suggest that the global class structure does not correspond to a simple dichotomy workers - bourgeoisie, but rather to the description of a feudal society as given by Marx/Engels (from CM quoted in Kamenka p 203-4): "In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank ...". “Manifold gradation of rank” is actually a very fitting description of the present class structure of world society. Given this quasi-feudal world-class structure, class conflicts in world society are "complicated" and have "many gradations", instead of being simple and dichotomous. If "globalization from above" is pursued by the top world-class, "globalization from below" consists (potentially) of activities by 12 other world-classes, rather than of activities by a single world-class (industrial proletariat) as in standard socialist theory. Given the “manifold gradation of rank” (here: 13 world-classes), there are numerous conflict formations along class lines rather than a single one, including, probably, a class conflict between the capitalists of the periphery and the capitalists of the center (world-classes No. 1 and 2 below) and class conflict between the working classes of the periphery and the center (world-classes No. 4, 6, 9 below).

 

Samir Amin (1980) reported some data on the "Class structure of the imperialist system" for the year 1975. When we re-arrange Amin's data by income level, we obtain 13 global classes (world-classes), as follows.

 

Class Structure of the Imperialist System (1975)
Amin (1980: 11)	(1)	(2)*	(3)	(4)
Amin’s categories:	Location	Active members, % of world total – year 1975	Average income per active member – year 1975 (US $)	World-Class rank
Middle strata and bourgeoisie	Center	7%	12,000	1
Middle strata & bourgeoisie	Periphery	1%	6,800	2
Proletarianized petty bourgeoisie	Center	8%	5,200	3
Working class - “superior” category	Center	4%	4,500	4
Peasantry	Center	3%	4,300	5
Working class - “inferior” category	Center	4%	3,000	6
Peasantry - Landowners & capitalists	Periphery	4%	1,000	7
Proletarianized petty bourgeoisie	Periphery	6%	800	8
Working class	Periphery	4%	600	9
Peasantry – Middle	Periphery	11%	400	10
Peasantry – Poor and exploited	Periphery	44%	200	11
Unemployed	Center	2%	-	12
Urban unemployed	Periphery	4%	-	13
Total Center	C	27%	6,000
Total Periphery	P	73%	460
World total	C+P	100%	1,950

(*) Percent figures include some rounding error

 

In this reading the world has 13 global classes (world-classes).

The largest global class is the peasantry of the world-periphery (44% or 55%).

The world's working class is rather small (12% = 4+4+4).

 

Reference:

Amin, S. (1980) "The Class Structure of the Contemporary Imperialist System", Monthly Review (USA), 31 (1980), 8: 9-26

 

With greetings from Canada,

Gernot Kohler

gkohler@accglobal.net