Class Conflict: An Essay on the theory that surrounds our daily life

Whether it’s in an institution, organisation or group assignment in college, there always existed the concept of hierarchy and class – someone always has more control than the rest of them do. And sometimes these people in control don’t like the idea of sharing that power with those who don’t. This tends to cause unrest and upheaval in the group/organisation/institution/society that could, in turn, lead to a revolution to overthrow this power-hogging figure and ensure the equity and equal distribution of resources.

Something like the end of the movie ‘Mean Girls’ (not the musical, we’re referring to the iconic 2004 film), where Cady Heron breaks the Prom Queen tiara (symbolic of power) and distributes pieces of it into the crowd (people who didn’t have the power) crowning every girl there as a Prom Queen.

This classism we now take for granted as the way of life, didn’t exist forever. If you look at the times of the nomadic caveman, there was a good sense of equality – everyone had similar roles and there wasn’t a particular hierarchy or class established in this society. But as concepts like feudalism approached and integrated itself into society, classism began to exist.

Labour as a concept of ‘work to survive’ was beginning to be seen more often in the lower class that would be recognised as peasants. Meanwhile the higher class, comprising of the nobility, would end up having control over all the resources that labour required and the products of that labour.

According to Karl Marx (a German-born philosopher, economist and revolutionary socialist), he termed these two classes as ‘bourgeoise’ (with power) and ‘proletariat’ (without power). He coined these for the people who owned/had control over the means of production (resources, land, machinery, money, etc) and those who didn’t (labourers who utilised the means of production).

This concept of classism introduced another problem. As mentioned prior, the higher class would enjoy and own the products of labour as well – which meant the lower class was not just doing labour for themselves but also for others; which meant there was a surplus in the products of labour but its distribution was getting unfair and unequal. And not just that, most of the times, their products were worth more than their labour in itself.

This would lead to a capitalist society having too much of product with a good majority unable to afford it since they weren’t even being paid enough for their labour. Which meant the bourgeoise were working in profit while the proletariat in losses as the surplus was only benefiting the bourgeoisie when it was the proletariat that made the surplus in the first place.

According to Karl Marx, the only way to overcome this problem was through class struggle or class conflict which could be described as the process in which forces of production (means of production + labour) and relations of production (who controls the production and distribution) develop until they conflict and the oppressed class demands for a development in the forces of production and complete change in relations of production so that they too, can benefit from their labour and creation of surplus.

This class struggle and conflict can manifest in various ways. If we take in the example of the current doctor’s strike and struggle in South Korea, one can notice the disparity of power and lack of equal distribution of the resources.

The quality of Korean healthcare has been rated one of the best in the world but the same could not necessarily be said for the pay and the doctor-patient ratio (2.6 per 1,000 people which is very low for a developed country).

According to the Korea Intern Resident Association, a trainee doctor earns approximately $1500-3000 a month after working for over 100 hours a week, while a first-year U.S. resident averages about $5,000 a month while working for not more than 60 hours a week.

Moreover, due to South Korea’s national health insurance system, some essential medical fields such as neurosurgery, emergency care and paediatrics are being shunned by doctors due to lack of fees to cover costs, leading to migration towards fields like dermatology and cosmetic surgery where they can make money off procedures that are not insured.

To handle this problem of shortage of doctors, the government has planned on increasing admissions of students by 75% (2000 more students to the already existing seats of 3000) by 2025. First of all, these institutes aren’t currently equipped to handle the influx of a huge number of students in such a short period of time as this means investment in more infrastructure and resources to provide the same opportunities and learning experiences to each student.

Not just that, the government’s plans to increase student admissions does not necessarily solve the lack of doctors in rural areas. Korea Medical Association believes that the root cause of the shortage in medical services is not the lack of doctors, but instead the uneven distribution of medical facilities between urban and rural areas, poor labour conditions, and high litigation risks.

If we look at this from the Marxist perspective, the South Korean Government can be assumed to be the bourgeoise and the doctors, the proletariat. The government has control over the resources and the funds but are issuing for a surplus in doctors that will not address the already existing problems with the lack of fees in essential medical services and uneven distribution of medical facilities in the country (especially rural areas). Thus, due to this conflict, the doctors are partaking in a strike to ensure their demands are met and they too profit off of their labour.

In a society like ours, no matter where we look, we find some sort of class struggle taking place – whether its in a large scale or small. As we continue to grapple with these inequalities and evolving power dynamics, this idea remains an invaluable tool for critical inquiry and advocacy for transformative change. Although not everyone may not know of this theory of class struggle by name, the concept of the same remains burning in the hearts of every activist and oppressed, igniting their flame for revolution and fighting for what they truly deserve.