In Classical Marxism the enemy is the Bourgeoisie because owning the means of production they are the oppressor class to the oppressed proletariat. As such the workers of the world must unite to throw off the economically forged chains of the bourgeoisie. Said action, if successful, brings in Utopia where all are economically equal.
In Gramscian Marxism (Cultural Marxism) the enemy is not only the bourgeoisie but is also inclusive of those who are cultural creators or gatekeepers as together they own not only the means of production but also they have the hegemonic power to create and sustain the narrative that keeps the oppressed, oppressed. In Gramscian Marxism hegemony is gained and maintained primarily, not by the bourgeoisie using violence or even economic pressure. For Gramsci hegemony is maintained by the creating and securing of a subjective ideological transcendence which in turns creates culture. This is what Christianity, as carried by the White European, had achieved and if the human race was to enjoy Marxist Utopian-ism, then the hegemony of ideological transcendence as defined by Christianity must be scrubbed clean off the mind of the Western proletariat. To do this required then the now famous long march through the Western Institutions, stripping them of their former subjective ideological transcendence as created by the Christianity of the White European Christian. We might say it this way; ” Gramscian Marxism holds that Christianity is the enemy of Gramsci’s utopian new world order.”
In Gramscian Marxism the proletariat is comprised of all those who, not only are deprived the means of production, but also of all those who are in rebellion to the narrative that the oppressors use to oppress them in their defiance. We might style this new proletariat as “the grievance class.” These are those who have comprised the counter-cultural flotsam and jetsam who have lived in defiance of the culture created by the largely (though not exhaustively) Christian, White, Patriarchal, and morally traditional, cultural creators and gatekeepers.
Classical Marxism and Gramscian Marxism both attacked the foundation of Christianity as the cornerstone problem they believed they needed to rid themselves of. Classical Marxism focused on economic Christianity as its enemy. Gramscian Marxism’s assault was and is much broader, much more inclusive compared to the much narrower proletariat in Classical Marxism, and much more comprehensive in terms of all it stands opposed.
Gramscian Marxism is, by all accounts of Classical Marxism, contradictory because Gramscian Marxism (Cultural Marxism) holds that which is not material to be the chief problem. Classical Marxism, being materialistic, believed that everything was to be understood by the very material economic means of production. However, the Gramscians come along and now appeal to a thing called “culture” as the chief problem that must be conquered. However, culture is the product of man’s spiritual non-material existence. To concede that culture must be the primary obstacle is to concede that the cornerstone of Classical Marxism — dialectical materialism — was an error. Gramsci believed that the dialectical materialism was really positing a god inasmuch as it held to a objective universe outside human history was in point of fact serving as a belief in god. Gramsci exchanged this idea of a transcendent objective universe outside human history for inter-subjective Historicism where truth and meaning are shaped and formed by a history that is self-originating and self-defining that has become absolutized.
This give explanatory power then to who comprises the new proletariat. The new proletariat is comprised of minorities who have been convinced that the European Christian White who uniquely oppressed them in their origins, the pervert who has been convinced that sexuality is not a matter of the structure of the Cosmos, and the female who has been convinced likewise that gender is not a matter of the structure of the Cosmos, together with the remaining Classical Marxist economic proletariat. Throw in the guilt ridden white man and woman conditioned by the cultural zeitgeist, Academia which seems to believe that there is forgiveness to be found for the past in fanning the flames of envy, and now Corporate America which sees dollar weight shifting in favor of the triumph of Gramscian Marxism and one discovers that the new proletariat is the voting base of the Democratic party.