Classes and Relations of Production

In Chapter 5 of PCMP on the ‘feudal’ mode we extended and developed the concepts of ‘possession of’ and ‘separation from’ the means of production as they applied to this mode, although we did not fully recognise the consequences of our position. Similarly, whilst we distinguished between mode of production and social formation and argued that the concepts of modes of production did not represent sub-unities of being of the greater unity of the formation, we did not attempt any analysis of the conditions of existence of economic class relations other than those represented in the concepts of modes of production themselves. As a result of this limitation we neglected to investigate the problems of conceptualising the conditions of more complex forms of class relations and we concentrated instead on relations between a single class of possessing agents and a single class of non-possessing direct producers. In this chapter, drawing on work in process,17 we attempt to remedy some of the effects of the limitations of our analysis of classes in PCMP.