Identifying Class Struggle outside Commodity Production

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Abstract
The question addressed in this paper is how to identify class struggle in conflicts outside commodity production in advanced capitalism. The paper has six sections, After a brief introduction (section 1), it is shown in section 2 why it is important to delimit class struggle theoretically and empirically. In section 3, the recent recognition that struggles outside the capitalist workplace can be class struggles is documented. Criteria to identify class struggles in empirical practice are presented in section 4, with the focus on the definition of class struggle as activities which increase class capacity (the capacity of a class to act in relation to other classes), In section 5, three recent conflicts in inner-city Montreal are assessed using the criteria proposed. In each conflict a local community and a working class confronts the state over the form of state-funded housing or health care. In section 6, the conclusion, problems which remain in the conceptual formulation of class struggle in community conflicts are described.

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