ABSTRACT

Class conflict, frequently referred to as class warfare or class struggle, is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests and desires between people of different classes. The view that the class struggle provides the lever for radical social change for the majority is central to the work of Karl Marx and the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. The Nigerian Festus Iyayi’s novel “Violence” portrays a modern African society in a money economy wherein the possession of the capital is paramount in defining the individual as a member of the community. The characters in “Violence” come into two distinct categories. On the one hand, there are those who own the capital. On the other hand, there are those who do not possess the capital. As a keen observer of the environmental and social changes taking place in Africa since colonisation,bPetals of Blood is a novel written by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and first published in 1977. Set in Kenya just after independence, the story follows four characters – Munira, Abdulla, Wanja, and Karega – whose lives are intertwined due to the Mau Mau rebellion. In order to escape city life, each retreats to the small, pastoral village of Ilmorog. As the novel progresses, the characters deal with the repercussions of the Mau Mau rebellion as well as with a new, rapidly westernizing Kenya.

Key words: Social classes, capital, employment, joblessness, exploitation, poverty, money economy, aesthetics, Marxism.

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION

Class conflict can take many different forms: direct violence, such as wars fought for resources and cheap labor; indirect violence, such as deaths from poverty, starvation, illness or unsafe working conditions; coercion, such as the threat of losing a job or the pulling of an important investment; or ideologically, such as with books and articles. Additionally, political forms of class conflict exist; legally or illegally lobbying or bribing government leaders for passage of desirable partisan legislation including labor laws, tax codes, consumer laws, acts of congress or other sanction, injunction or tariff. The conflict can be direct, as with a lockout aimed at destroying a labor union, or indirect, as with an informal slowdown in production protesting low wages by workers or unfair labor practices by capital. Festus Iyayi’s novel reflects the modern African society in its diverse forms: the urban society, morality, the problematic of development of newly independent African nations, and the attraction of towns and cities on country folks. What does urban life teach us about new social organisations and the relationships between the rich and the poor? This article aims at assessing the above-raised issue in the light of Marxist mode of text analysis in order to enlighten not only the aesthetic value of the novel, but also the sociological relevance of Festus Iyayi’s imaginative writing.

 

• BACKGROUND STUDY

In the past the term Class conflict was a term used mostly by socialists, who define a class by its relationship to the means of production—such as factories, land and machinery. From this point of view, the social control of production and labor is a contest between classes, and the division of these resources necessarily involves conflict and inflicts harm. It can involve ongoing low-level clashes, escalate into massive confrontations, and in some cases, lead to the overall defeat of one of the contending classes. However, in more contemporary times this term is striking chords and finding new definition amongst capitalistic societies in the United States and other Westernized countries.

The anarchist Mikhail Bakunin argued that the class struggle of the working class, peasantry and poor had the potential to lead to a social revolution involving the overthrow of ruling elites, and the creation of libertarian socialism. This was only a potential, and class struggle was, he argued, not always the only or decisive factor in society, but it was central. By contrast, Marxists argue that class conflict always plays the decisive and pivotal role in the history of class-based hierarchical systems such as capitalism and feudalism.[1] Marxists refer to its overt manifestations as class war, a struggle whose resolution in favor of the working class is viewed by them as inevitable under plutocratic capitalism.

 

• Pre-capitalist societies

Where societies are socially divided based on status, wealth, or control of social production and distribution, class structures arise and are thus coeval with civilization itself. It is well documented since at least European Classical Antiquity (Conflict of the Orders, Spartacus, etc.[2]) and the various popular uprisings in late medieval Europe and elsewhere.

One of the earliest analysis of these conflicts is Friedrich Engels’ The Peasant War in Germany.[3] One of the earliest analyses of the development of class as the development of conflicts between emergent classes is available in Peter Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid. In this work, Kropotkin analyzes the disposal of goods after death in pre-class or hunter-gatherer societies, and how inheritance produces early class divisions and conflict.

 

• 21st century USA

Billionaire and friend to Warren Buffett, George Soros addresses the pejorative use of the term by the conservative-right by stating, “Speaking as a person who would be most hurt by this, I think my fellow hedge fund managers call this class warfare because they don’t like to pay more taxes.”

 

Bill Moyers, for example, gave a speech at Brennan Center for Justice in December 2013 which was titled “The Great American Class War,” referring to the current struggle between democracy and plutocracy in the U.S.[5] Chris Hedges wrote a column for Truthdig called “Let’s Get This Class War Started,” which was a play on Pink’s song “Let’s Get This Party Started.”

Historian Steve Fraser, author of The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, asserts that class conflict is an inevitability if current political and economic conditions continue, noting that “people are increasingly fed up… their voices are not being heard. And I think that can only go on for so long without there being more and more outbreaks of what used to be called class struggle, class warfare.”

 

• AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The main aim of this project work is to determine the causes of  class struggle wiith respect to certain factors like labour, personality, economy, government, etc. To achieve this we will be drawing some attension from Petals of Blood by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and  Festus Iyayi’s “violence”.

 

 

• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

At the end of the project work, we should be able to have achieved the following:

1. The causes of Class struggle
2. Factors the flare up class struggle
3. Possible solutions of Class struggle
4. Relationship between Cheap Labor, Government, etc. to class struggle.
5. The impact of corruption in Nigeria to class struggle.

 

• SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is concentrated on class struggle among African countries expecially Nigeria, relationship with crimes and economic development.

 

• LIMITATION OF STUDY

The research was limited to the mentioned department since it has direct concern to the research topic. In summary this project work was faced with a number of restricting factors, which made the work impossible to get beyond this scope. The most pressing factors were:-

1. lack of finance
2. epileptic power supply

iii.      inadequate supply of data

1. Inadequate time for the project work.