“Conflict theory” refers to a particular view of society in which different social groups are engaged in an intrinsic struggle for societal resources.241 Conflict theories view society as an inherent zero-sum struggle between groups, with one group typically portrayed as the “privileged oppressor” and all others as the “marginalised oppressed”.
The founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, saw the struggle of the proletarian working class against its economic exploitation by the capitalist bourgeoisie as the core conflict of society. The resolution of this economic conflict was to lead, in classical Marxism, to the utopia of a classless society.242 However, when classical Marxist ideologies led to the terror of Leninism, Stalinism, and finally Maoism, and all proletarian revolutions in capitalist countries had already failed in the 1920s, many Marxists increasingly realised that the original Marxist theory must be flawed. Although they were frustrated by societal developments, these Marxists could not imagine at the time that their Marxist ideology as a whole was wrong. Therefore, they sought possible explanations to still realise their communist utopias.
Neo-Marxist theorists now criticised in particular Marx’s deterministic view of history: Marx had mistakenly believed that the proletariat would unite through a common identity, as Marx had demanded with his famous slogan: “Workers of all countries, unite!”243 To correct Marx in this respect, explanations were developed for how oppressed people are manipulated by false consciousness. Instead of completely discarding Marx’s conflict theory, it was further developed in critical theories. In addition to economic exploitation, it was now primarily cultural factors that maintained the capitalist system (see Socialisation and New Left). Newly developed conflict theories, usually based on identity-based conflicts, were eventually summarised by the CRT activist Kimberlé Crenshaw in the concept of intersectionality.244
Today, this identity-based, intersectional perspective has almost completely replaced the classical Marxist perspective. Only rarely does the Marxist class question still play a role through lip service to so-called “classism”. Liberation from allegedly intrinsic conflicts is now promised by the ideology of social justice. For liberation, all persons are to commit to solidarity.245
The woke critical theories are structured almost identically to the original Marxist theory. As a schematic example, the parallels between classical Marxism and woke antiracism may serve. With the help of this scheme, all new-left theories can be understood as new variants of neo-Marxist conflict theory (see Postcolonialism, Climate Justice, Queer Feminism, Post-Migrant Society, Islamophobia, Critical Pedagogy):
The privileged class of (bourgeoisie/whites…) adheres to an ideology regarding (class/race…): whoever is part of the privileged class because he is (bourgeois/white…) thereby gains special access to (capital/privileges…), from which the oppressed class of (workers/BIPOCs…) is excluded. To maintain this privileged access, the privileged class of (bourgeoisie/whites…) justifies itself with an ideology called (capitalism/racism…). This ideology determines the entire structure of society. Everything a person can be depends on their position in the (class-based/racist…) structure and is completely determined by (class/race…). This (capitalist/racist…) ideology is disseminated everywhere in society as the dominant narrative. In this way, the privileged class of (bourgeoisie/whites…) is led to believe that they have earned their special access to (capital/privileges…). The oppressed class of (workers/BIPOCs…) has no power to directly influence society. The goal of (Marxism/antiracism…) is to awaken consciousness in society so that a revolution can occur, through which the inequality of the (class-based/racist…) social order is overcome.