Marx's Use of "Class"

We attempt to derive Marx's theory of class through the way he uses the terms, rather than through an interpretation of his most general statements on the subject, which is how class has usually been approached. "Class" is seen to refer to social and economic groupings based on a wide variety of standards whose interrelations are those Marx finds in the real society under examination. By conceptualizing a unity of apparently distinct social relations, "class" in Marxism is inextricably bound up with the truth of Marx's own analysis. Its utility is a function of the adequacy of this analysis.