"Does the Concept of Class Struggle Make Sense in the Age of Neoliberalism?"

The abundant literature that has accumulated in recent years, particularly after the recent global economic crisis, regarding the extent of forms, criticism of and action to combat the growing inequalities, has brought to the attention of the public ideological perspectives (Marxism) and concepts (class struggle) that seemed to have been permanently abandoned. There is a growing opinion that in fact considers inequalities associated with the current capitalist phase to be a factor of the restructuring of classes, and protests against inequality as opposition between classes. The present paper aims to investigate, in the context of the Western democracies: 1) how and to what extent the concept and forms of protest in the transition from fordism to neoliberalism have changed; 2) whether the social conflict and protests emerged since the economic crisis of 2008 could be interpreted through the re-enactment of the concept of class struggle. Furthermore, the paper identifies which forms of protest focus on questioning the hegemonic neo-capitalist model and which are ancillary instead. The argument is that while in the past the concept of class struggle was associated with the radical opposition between two ideologies and two worldviews, now the protest is largely subsumed within the neoliberal paradigm: people do not challenges the social-political-economic model but rather claims a full inclusion in its frame.

L’articolo analizza il mutamento del concetto e delle forme di protesta nel passaggio dal fordismo al neoliberismo. Ci si interroga sul concetto di lotta di classe muovendo dalla considerazione che il periodo considerato sancisce il passaggio da una coincidenza fra lotta di classe e protesta a una divaricazione fra i due concetti. Mentre il concetto di lotta di classe era associato alla contrapposizione radicale fra due visioni della giustizia e del mondo, oggi la protesta è stata prevalentemente sussunta all’interno del paradigma neoliberista. Le proteste antisistemiche, le uniche che contrastano il modello egemonico sia sul versante economico-sociale sia sul versante politico, sono invece stigmatizzate dalla rappresentazione della classe dominate in un range di opzioni che va dal naif al sovversivismo.