Method of Class Analysis

The fundamental method for observing, analyzing and studying all phenomena of class society by applying Marxism’s fundamental point of view of class and class struggle and for revealing their social essence and laws of development. The method of class analysis is closely connected with class society, class contradictions and class struggle, and is the fundamental method for the proletariat and its political parties to study the history of class society.

The method of class analysis is a scientific method to study complex class relations and class phenomena in class society. In class society, people belong to a certain class and are in certain class relations. There are no supra-class people. People’s political standpoints and intellectual views are deeply imprinted by classes, and the social relationship of man to man also has a class nature. Therefore, we must apply the method of class analysis to know social phenomena and the essence of man. Moreover, the interests and demands of different classes and different strata are different, giving rise to complex and even intense social contradictions, fierce confrontation and conflict. In class society, class contradictions and class struggles are inevitable, and they are the immediate driving force of the development of class society. Therefore, by applying the method of class analysis, we can know the essence of classes and the laws of social development through complex class conditions and social phenomena. The method of class analysis is the fundamental method for studying the history of class society and to know class society. It requires a comprehensive analysis of the class situation, the economic status, political standpoint and ideology of each class, so as to comprehensively and dynamically grasp the class relations as a whole and the comparison of class forces. In The Communist Manifesto, by applying the method of class analysis, Marx and Engels have explained the fundamental contradictions and the class antagonism in the capitalist society and put forth the inevitability of proletarian revolution and the historical mission of its party. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the laborers, due to competition, by the revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of large-scale industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own gravediggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. Lenin pointed out that Marxism provides a guiding clue that enables us to find laws in this seemingly confusing and chaotic state. This clue is the theory of class struggle.

The method of class analysis is the theoretical ground for proletarian political parties to formulate their strategy and tactics for class struggle and is the fundamental armor for the victory of class struggle. Lenin pointed out that only an objective consideration of the sum total of the relations between absolutely all the classes in a given society, and consequently a consideration of the objective stage of development reached by that society and of the relations between it and other societies, can serve as a basis for the correct tactics of an advanced class. In the course of the struggle of the new-democratic revolution, the Communist Party of China has laid formulated the correct path for the revolution precisely on the basis of the method of class analysis. Mao Zedong pointed out: Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This is a question of the first importance for the revolution. To distinguish real friends from real enemies, we must make a general analysis of the economic status of the various classes in Chinese society and of their respective attitudes towards the revolution. To solve this primary problem, only by applying the method of class analysis, conducting research on the economic status of the various social classes and their political attitudes, and making a correct estimation of the contrast of forces among the various classes and its trend of development, can we distinguish between enemy and friend, determine the forces to rely on, the forces to unite and the targets to fight, and formulate correct lines, guidelines and policies.

To analyze complex questions of class society with the method of class analysis, we must uphold the principle of seeking truth from facts and concrete analysis of the concrete situation. To be more concrete, we must start out from a certain historical environment and strictly distinguish social phenomena with and without class nature, class contradictions and non-class contradictions, fundamental classes and non-fundamental classes, class antagonisms and class distinctions, different classes and different strata, and international class struggle and domestic class struggle. We should not simplify and vulgarize the method of class analysis, and stick it everywhere as a label and misuse it as a catchphrase; nor can we magnify the method of class analysis and use it for observing classless society and questions that do not belong to a class.

Classes and class struggle in the primary stage of socialism has particularities. On the one hand, the fundamental classes of the socialist society are the working class and the peasantry, and there is a certain number of individual workers. The broad masses of intellectuals are part of the working class. The exploiting class no longer exists as a whole class, and class contradictions chiefly manifest themselves as the contradiction between the broad masses of workers and the few remnants of the exploiting classes and their reactionary elements. Class contradictions no longer predominate in social life, but only exist in a certain range, and their role is gradually weakening. Class struggle is no longer the principal contradiction of society. Contradictions among the people and non-class contradictions reign in social life, and the way to solve them is different from the situation in which there are two completely antagonistic classes. Therefore, we must not simply use the method of class analysis to handle these social contradictions. On the other hand, due to the existence of hostile forces at home and abroad, class struggle will still exist for a long time to a certain extent. Therefore, it cannot be denied that class struggle and the method of class analysis exist in the primary stage of socialism.