Hello everyone :) "Bourgeoisie" is the word used by Marx and Engels to speak about the dominant class in the capitalist mode of production. I guess "upper class would be a more appropriate word, but I've read somewhere that "middle-class" was a synonym to "bourgeoisie"... So I'm quite confused. According to them, the bourgeois owns the whole means of production under the laws of private property. They draw their income from the capital they own and they put in the capitalist production. The proletariat is the class of those who owns nothing but their labour-power and who are compelled to sell it to the bourgeois to earn money and to live. According to Marx and Engels, this division leads to the exploitation of the proletariat. The latest sells its labour-power to its exchange-value (under the form of a wage), but it produces more than this value. The difference between this use-value of labour-power and its exchange-value is called surplus-value. This surplus-value, although it was produced by workers, is extorted by the bourgeois under the form of a profit. The domination of the bourgeoisie is economic, but also political. Even if the proletariat has won democratic rights by fighting, the state and the laws, the army and the police, are oppressive instruments used by the dominant class, and the parlementary democracy is a big joke that hides the truth the economic exploitation. To Marx and Engels, the historic role of the proletariat is to get rid of this system and to build socialism, ie a society without any classes and any kinds of discrimination and oppression, a society without any kind of division of labour, a society without state and government that would be ruled by a direct democracy -- a society such as the one John Lennon sings about in "Imagine" : a brother/sistehood of men/women that would share the world together in love, peace and harmony (which are the common goal, whatever Morrissey can say). The rise of a middle-class, the economic changes during the 20th century and the fall of stalinism haven't changed many things, finally. The sociologic composition of the working-class has changed a lot, but I think that social classes and exploitation still remain and will remain as long as the capitalist mode of production exist. This system creates unemployment, poverty, huge unequalities, competition, wars and needs to create and to increase all these things to survive. But by doing this, odds are that it will destroy the whole mankind. The present world crisis shows us that. The idea of socialism has been betrayed by Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot and many more who have turned it into uglies dictatorships, but I don't think it is an utopy. Capitalism isn't a "natural" system. It's the result of an history that can be changed. Everything is to be imagined ! Byebye, Julien. Christa, I miss you. == "Je ne remets jamais � demain ce que je peux faire le surlendemain" ** Alphonse Allais ** _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". For list archives and searching, list rules, FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +---+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" +---+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+