Intermediate strata.

While in modern society the great majority of people are members of either the working class or the capitalist class, there are also those whose relation to the means of production places them in an intermediate position.

Middle-grade management and the middle ranks of the state apparatus act to a considerable extent as agents of the capitalist class, but the degree to which they exercise control over the means of production is often limited.

Furthermore, their income is derived mainly from selling their labour power for a salary. They may, therefore, be considered part of the intermediate strata between the capitalist class and the working class.

Members of family businesses, small shopkeepers, working farmers and small firms which employ little or no labour are another such group. So are those among professional sections like architects, lawyers, doctors, writers and artists who are self-employed.

They are all affected by the social and economic crisis of capitalism, and by the ways in which it holds back progress in spheres in which they may be particularly concerned, such as housing, health, interest rates, disarmament, culture and the environment.

Policies need to be advanced by the working class and progressive forces which will win as many as possible among these sections for a broad alliance against the capitalist monopolies.