Class reductionism

Class reductionism is the belief that all current social struggles are reducible to class struggle, usually with the conclusion that class struggle should be prioritised to the exclusion of other struggles. When the term is used pejoratively, it implies that the class reductionist downplays non-economic aspects of oppression due to personal bias against them.

Beliefs associated with class reductionism include,

• oppressive structures like patriarchy, white supremacy and heteronormativity are historically grounded in economic class;
• these oppressive structures persist because of class;
• fighting these structures without first addressing class is futile;
• abolishing class will necessarily resolve these other problems;
• focusing on there problems rather than class is a sign of liberal identity politics, only serves to divide the oppressed, and has no place in the left.

Opposition to class reductionism is associated with intersectionality, which proposes that dimensions of oppression will intersect in unique ways in different individuals.

Criticism of the term

Professor Adolph Reed has argued that class reductionism is "a caricature rooted in hoary folk imagery, likely as not originating in tales of late-1960s debates during the raucous disintegration of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), as a clutch of nominal socialists insisted that any distinct focus on racial and gender injustice would undermine the greater political goal of working-class unity."

It can be argued that due to the methods used to intentionally divide the working class, and because systemic oppression often involves the economic deprivation of the targeted groups, it is necessary to abolish capitalist oppression before racism, sexism, and so on can be truly tackled.

See also

• Tankie
• Radical liberal, the opposite of a class reductionist