The Middle Strata and the Problem of Class Alliances

At the present stage of the class struggle in Peru, the middle strata,' which have played a relevant political role for fifty years, find themselves in a subordinate position. The profound changes in Peruvian society during the last two decades have eliminated the economic and social base for that role. The alternative presented to them-although they are not yet fully aware of it-is either to serve as the social support for the reinstitutionalization of the bourgeoisie's system of political domination, with all that this implies in terms of the consolidation of the dominance of monopoly capitalism, or to join the new historical bloc led by the working class and oriented toward the destruction of capitalist domination and the installation of socialism. These political tendencies of the middle strata are relatively recent. They constitute the latest cycle in the class struggle. In all of the preceding period, the middle strata played a privileged political role. During the consolidation of the oligarchy's domination, they were relegated to a marginal position in the system of domination; it was not until the 1930s that their more radical sectors came to head a broad front of democratic and nationalist forces which sought to replace the oligarchic-imperialist coalition. The political program proposed by Victor Rau'l Haya de la Torre and the Alianza Popular

Class (philosophy) · Economics · Epistemology · Middle class · Political economy · Political science · Employment, Labor, and Gender Studies · Geology · Latin American socio-political dynamics · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

• Ideas of class

  Open Access•David S Parker•Papeles del CEIC•2023

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