Class struggle

In political science, the terms class struggle, class conflict, and class war refer to the economic antagonism and political tension that can arise between social classes due to clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequalities of power within a socioeconomic hierarchy. Commonly cited historical examples of class antagonists include slave masters and slaves, feudal lords and serfs, landowners and tenants, and capitalists and workers. The writings of several leftist, socialist, and communist theorists portray class struggle as a core tenet and a practical means for effecting radical sociopolitical transformations for the majority working class. It is also a central concept within conflict theories of sociology and political philosophy. Class struggle can reveal itself through: Direct violence, such as assassinations, coups, revolutions, counterrevolutions, and civil wars for control of government, natural resources, and labor; Indirect violence, such as deaths from poverty, malnutrition, illness, and unsafe workplaces; Economic coercion, such as boycotts and strikes, the threat of unemployment and capital flight, the withdrawal of investment capital; Political machinations through lobbying (legal and illegal), bribery of legislators, voter suppression and disenfranchisement; Ideological struggle by way of propaganda and political literature. In the economic sphere, class struggle is sometimes expressed overtly, such as owner lockouts of employees in an effort to weaken the bargaining power of the employees' union; or covertly, such as a worker slowdown of production or the widespread, simultaneous use of sick leave (e.g., "blue flu") to protest unfair labor practices, low wages, poor work conditions, or a perceived injustice to a fellow worker.