p In contrast to the Marxist theory of classes and the class struggle, bourgeois ideologists preach class peace under capitalism. They especially persist in denying the existence of classes and the class struggle in contemporary bourgeois society.

p Some bourgeois sociologists declare that in present-day capitalist society there is neither exploitation nor hostile classes, that there are only social groups according to profession, education, income, age, religious and political views and a number of other features. No property relations apparently connect people belonging to these groups, and relations between them are completely harmonious. A man can easily move from one group to another at will.

p Other bourgeois sociologists admit that classes exist, but maintain that in modern bourgeois society class distinctions 249 are being eliminated and classes are gradually converging into one huge “middle” class. They say, for example, that very shortly everyone in the United States will belong to this “middle” class, and that in present-day America it is difficult to find any difference between exploiters and exploited.

p The ideologists of the bourgeoisie claim that the workers are no longer proletarians, that their standard of living is high, they have savings and buy shares, and therefore, like the factory owners, get the profits. On the other hand, the rights of employers are supposedly becoming more and more restricted by the state, as a result of which they play a smaller part in production.

p The fables that there are no classes and no class struggle in contemporary bourgeois society invented by capitalism’s apologists are echoed by reformists and revisionists who insist that there are no classes in the present-day capitalist society, that “all are workers" there, and that in the final analysis the interests of the farmers, industrial workers, businessmen, office employees and intellectuals all coincide.

p They brand Lenin’s definition of classes as “obsolete” and replace it by concepts like “group”, etc. People, they maintain, unite in groups not according to their relation to the means of production, but according to other, secondary considerations. By denying the existence of classes, the revisionists renounce the class struggle and believe that workers should not fight against the bourgeoisie in our day and age but must promote technical progress which will supposedly place power in the hands of the people automatically without the class struggle and revolution.

p The apologists of the bourgeoisie and their reformist yes-men spread fraudulent theories about the absence of classes and the class struggle in contemporary bourgeois society and proclaim an era of “class peace”, “social partnership" and “harmony of labour and capital”, in order to mislead the working class, make the workers think that the class struggle against the bourgeoisie is futile and direct the working-class movement along the reformist path.

p What is the actual state of affairs?

p It is quite true that the standard of living of some workers in the US, above all the upper section, is high, particularly in comparison with that of the working class in other 250 capitalist countries. But we must not forget that far from all American workers enjoy this high standard.

p In the USA in 1975 an estimated 33.2 million Americans, or 17.3 per cent of the population lived below the official “poverty line”. At the same time one per cent of the population accounted for 25 per cent of the national wealth. Forty people had capitals ranging from $200 million to $1,500 million.

p Some American workers have savings. But what is their share in the total savings? Half of the population owns only one per cent of the savings, while the other half owns the remaining 99 per cent.

p Some American workers own shares as well But the market value of all the shares they own only amounts to 0.2 per cent of the value of all the shareholdings in the United States and is only one-tenth of the value of the shares owned by one family of the financial oligarchy, the Du Ponts.

p In the face of these facts, how can they speak of the disappearance of classes, of the “great American middle class”! The United States is a country of vast social contrasts and deep social contradictions. In most of the other capitalist countries the working people are in a much worse position than in the United States and the contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are deeper and sharper.

It is beyond doubt that capitalist ownership prevails in contemporary bourgeois society; consequently there exist antagonistic classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and the fierce struggle between them continues.