How does class conflict affect society and what are its consequences?
As Karl Marx once said:
‘In class society, everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand of a class.’
In this essay we will be discussing the affect class conflict has on society from the 1600’s up until the modern world today. We will be discussing how Karl Marx developed his theory of class conflict and look at the different areas of society and how it effects individuals.
To define it, class conflict is a tension or strain among individuals in society due to socio-economic interests between different socio classes. In can take on several different forms within society; violence (take for …show more content…

‘With the formation of the industrial working class or proletariat, workers begin to struggle against their employers, first in the factory then in the trade or locality’.This causes major rifts between the classes; however it allows the working class to work together to from unions to protect oneself from discrimination. ‘They direct their attacks not against the bourgeois conditions of production, but against the instruments of production themselves, they smash to pieces machinery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished status of the workmen of the middle ages.’
The effects of this is that, these classes begin to form unions, which expand and grow powerfully and affect the workers’ salaries and working conditions and lead to mass strikes and boycotts. The workers begin to realize they are not fighting their employers, but the class of employers everywhere. ‘This struggle becomes one of the working class against the bourgeoisie; it becomes a political as well as an economical struggle’
Marx states that a class is formed when its individuals achieve class consciousness and peace. This takes place when a class become aware of each other’s shared interests and identities and realises its exploitations within its society. A common identity within this society will then be formed. A class therefore can take action against others who are taking advantage of the lower