Skip to main content
Does a ‘ruling class’ still exist?
This week, the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY explains that, while the ruling class might look somewhat different from Marx’s day, its fundamental nature remains unchanged

YES, it does, though it’s changed a bit since Marx’s time. Most industrial and commercial capital — factories, machinery, distribution and communication systems — the means whereby wealth is created (with a little help from workers, of course) is rarely any longer owned directly by individuals but by companies.

Though most land is still privately owned (and that’s excluding the house and garden that you and I may own — land becomes “capital” only when it can be used to make a profit) increasing amounts are held as investment by financial institutions.

However despite the significant sums that are held by pension funds, local authorities, universities and other institutions that you and I may feel we have a stake in, capital — stocks, shares, bonds and other “investments” — are overwhelmingly in the hands of a relatively small number of individuals.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves speaks with the media at the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby, following the announcement from the Office for National Statistics that the UK economy grew by 0.7% between January and March, May 15, 2025
Editorial: / 15 May 2025
15 May 2025
Kashmiri villagers are escorted by police as they walk after they are evacuated from their village following overnight shelling from Pakistan in Uri district, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, May 9, 2025
Editorial / 9 May 2025
9 May 2025
Similar stories
MONEY TALKS: A general view of City workers on Bank Street a
Full Marx / 6 April 2025
6 April 2025
Labour’s fiscal policy is already in trouble. But simply printing money is not a solution, says the Marx Memorial Library and Workers School
Disabled people protesting in 2015 against government polici
Book Review / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
RICHARD CLARKE recommends a hugely valuable text for those seeking theoretical analysis and practical action to defend public services
CORPORATE OVERLORDS: Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves host an
Features / 3 December 2024
3 December 2024
The left must call out the fact that BlackRock and private billionaires have merged with the state apparatus as our leaders abandon any pretence of there being a ‘free market’ for direct and overt corporate control, writes JOE GILL
Features / 8 July 2024
8 July 2024
The fight to defend public services is as important as the struggle over wages, but presents different challenges to workplace organising — especially with regards to bourgeois propaganda and conditioning, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY