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| Class Against Class | |
|---|---|
| Name | Class Against Class |
| Abbreviation | CAC |
| Type | Political organization |
Class Against Class is a far-left political organization that emerged within twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century Marxist, Trotskyist, and Maoist currents. It has been associated with militant labor activism, street-level agitation, and polemics against reformist socialist formations. The group developed theoretical positions emphasizing class struggle, internationalism, and opposition to conciliatory currents within labor movements.
The formation drew on influences from figures and movements such as Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Antonio Gramsci, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Grigory Zinoviev, Ernest Mandel, James P. Cannon, Clara Zetkin, Georges Sorel, Max Shachtman, Pierre Broué, Leninism, Trotskyism, Maoism, Council communism, Left Communism, Italian Communist Party, French Communist Party, Socialist Workers Party (UK), Communist Party USA, International Committee of the Fourth International, Fourth International and events such as the Russian Revolution and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The intellectual genealogy incorporated critiques of parliamentary socialism associated with the Zimmerwald Conference and polemics against the Second International, asserting the primacy of direct class confrontation and worker self-organization.
Historically the organization participated in industrial disputes, solidarity actions, and urban demonstrations, intersecting with episodes like the General Strike of 1926, May 1968 events in France, Polish Solidarity movement, and later anti-globalization mobilizations around the World Trade Organization protests. It produced leaflets, broadsheets, and theoretical journals patterned after publications such as International Socialism and The Militant (US), and engaged in student struggles comparable to those at University of California, Berkeley, École Normale Supérieure, and University of Oxford. In various countries members took part in factory committees, tenant unions, and picket lines inspired by historical precedents including the Paris Commune, Haymarket affair, Pullman Strike, and the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Organizationally, the group favored cadre-based formation with local cells, rotating spokespeople, and democratic-centralist practices traceable to models used by the Bolsheviks, Chinese Communist Party, and sections of the Fourth International. Membership often included industrial workers from plants like those once operated by General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Siemens, alongside students linked to campuses such as Columbia University, Université de Paris, and University of Buenos Aires. Internal documents invoked networks comparable to those of the Industrial Workers of the World, Trade Union Solidarity Committee, and factions within the Labour Party (UK) and Socialist Party (France).
Politically, the organization championed demands including workplace control, expropriation of key industries, and anti-imperialist solidarity with movements such as Vietnam War protests, Anti-Apartheid Movement, and opposition to interventions like the Iraq War. Campaigns ranged from supporting strikes tied to unions such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations to backing municipal rent strikes and anti-eviction campaigns reminiscent of actions in Madrid, Athens, and Buenos Aires. Electoral strategy varied from abstentionism to forming tactical fronts similar to the alliances seen in the history of the United Left (Spain) and New Left tendencies.
Relations with contemporaneous organizations included contentious debates and splits with formations like the Socialist Workers Party (U.S.), British Socialist Workers Party, Communist Party of Great Britain, Social Democratic Party of Germany, Syriza, Die Linke, Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and anarchist federations such as the Federación Anarquista Ibérica. Alliances and rivalries were shaped by disagreements over united-front tactics, entryism, and responses to global events like the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Arab Spring. At times coordinated campaigns were mounted with groups akin to International Socialist Organization (US) and Solidarity (US), while other interactions ended in polemical schisms.
The organization’s legacy is visible in militant labor organizing, theoretical interventions in journals comparable to Monthly Review and New Left Review, and influence on activist milieus in cities such as London, New York City, Berlin, and Buenos Aires. Its approaches informed direct-action methodologies used during demonstrations against institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as seen in major protests in Seattle and Prague. Alumni have gone on to participate in parliamentary and extra-parliamentary politics, trade-union leadership, and cultural production associated with movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Indignados movement.
Critiques from figures and organizations such as the Communist Party USA, Labour Party (UK), Socialist Party (Ireland), and commentators in outlets like The Guardian and Le Monde accused the group of sectarianism, disruption, and ultra-left adventurism. Controversies included clashes with police during demonstrations in locales like Paris, Athens, and Genoa (2001 protests), internal purges resembling disputes in the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and debates over tactics during major strikes such as the UK miners' strike (1984–85).
Category:Far-left organizations