Class Struggle is a satirical political board game designed by Marxist professor Bertell Ollman, first published in 1978. Players take on the roles of different social classes — Workers, Capitalists, Farmers, Small Businesspeople, Professionals, and Students — and navigate a board collecting strengths and weaknesses, forming alliances, and engaging in class confrontations. The game’s explicit goal is to teach Marxist concepts of class conflict through gameplay.
Components
1 game board with a circular track
Class cards (Workers, Capitalists, Farmers, Small Businesspeople, Professionals, Students)
Chance cards for each class (Capitalist Chance, Worker Chance, etc.)
Alliance cards
Strength and Weakness chips
“Genetic” dice (for class assignment)
Standard dice for movement
Rule booklet with political commentary
Setup
Place the board in the center.
Each player rolls the “genetic” dice to determine their class. The two highest rollers become the Capitalist and the Workers; remaining players are assigned minor classes.
Each player takes the corresponding class card and starting assets as specified.
Place class tokens on the starting space.
Shuffle the Chance card decks.
Turn Structure
On your turn:
Roll the dice and move your token around the board.
Land on a space and follow its instructions (draw Chance cards, gain/lose strengths or weaknesses, trigger confrontations).
Form or break alliances with other classes when opportunities arise.
Actions
Draw Chance Cards
Landing on designated spaces requires drawing a Chance card for your class.
Chance cards reflect real-world class dynamics (e.g., workers may lose turns due to unemployment; capitalists may gain extra resources from stock market gains).
Cards can give strengths, impose weaknesses, or trigger special events.
Collect Strengths and Weaknesses
Various spaces and cards award Strength chips (beneficial) or Weakness chips (detrimental).
Strengths and weaknesses accumulate and determine the outcome of class confrontations.
Form Alliances
Minor classes (Farmers, Small Businesspeople, Professionals, Students) may form alliances with either the Workers or the Capitalists.
Alliances add the minor class’s strengths to the major class’s total during confrontations.
Alliances can shift during the game.
Class Confrontation
At certain points, the Workers and Capitalists engage in confrontations.
Each side totals their strengths (including allied classes) minus weaknesses.
The side with the higher total wins the confrontation.
Confrontation results determine game progression.
Scoring / Victory Conditions
Workers win if they successfully unite enough allied classes and accumulate enough strength to overcome the Capitalists in the final confrontation (representing revolution).
Capitalists win if they prevent the Workers from uniting and maintain dominance through accumulated wealth and power.
The game ends in a final class confrontation. The side with the greater total of strengths minus weaknesses wins.
Special Rules & Edge Cases
Class assignment is random: The initial dice roll determines class, satirizing the “accident of birth” in real class systems.
Asymmetric gameplay: The Capitalist player has inherent advantages in early game (more starting resources, favorable Chance cards), while Workers must organize and build alliances.
Political satire: The game’s cards and rules are intentionally loaded with political commentary and humor.
Minor class dilemma: Minor classes must decide which major class to ally with, as their fate is tied to the winning side.
Nuclear war: Some editions include a “Nuclear War” ending if confrontation escalates beyond certain thresholds, in which case everyone loses.
The game is as much a teaching tool as entertainment; the rule book includes essays on class theory.