CLASS WARFARE IS OLD, REALLY, REALLY OLD

I was impressed with Aristotle's description of class warfare circa 300 BC but that's new compared to the Sumerian leader Urukagina of Lagash. Urukagina instituted...

THE FIRST recorded social reform took place in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash in the twenty-fourth century It was directed against the abuses of "former days" practiced by an obnoxious and ubiquitous bureaucracy, such as the levying of high and multifarious taxes and the appropriation of property belonging to the temple. In fact, the Lagashites felt so victimized and oppressed that they threw off the old Ur-Nanshe 'tasty and selected a ruler from another family altogether. It was this new ishakku, Urukagina by name, who restored law and order in the city and "established the freedom" of its citizens. (Kramer, page 45)

This is probably the first mention of class warfare in human history:

But removing the ubiquitous revenue collectors and the para officials was not Urukagina's only achievement. He also put stop to the injustice and exploitation suffered by the poor at he hands of the rich. For example, "The house of a lowly man next to the house of a 'big man,' and the 'big man' said to him , 'I want to buy it from you.' If, when he (the 'big man') as about to buy it from him, the lowly man said, 'pay me as much as I think fair,' and then he (the 'big man') did not buy it, that 'big man' must not 'take it out' on the lowly man."

This antedates Aristotle by some 2,000 years.