Proletariat

For other uses, see Proletariat (disambiguation).
"Proletarian" redirects here. For the British communist magazine, see Proletarian (magazine).
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The proletariat (/ˌproʊlɪˈtɛəriət/; from Latin proletarius 'producing offspring') is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work).[1] A member of such a class is a proletarian or a proletaire. Marxist philosophy regards the proletariat under conditions of capitalism as an exploited class[2]⁠ forced to accept meager wages in return for operating the means of production, which belong to the class of business owners, the bourgeoisie.

Karl Marx argued that this capitalist oppression gives the proletariat common economic and political interests that transcend national boundaries,[3] impelling them to unite and to take over power from the capitalist class, and eventually to create a socialist society free from class distinctions.[4]

  1. ^ "proletariat". Retrieved 2013-06-06 – via The Free Dictionary.
  2. ^ Screpanti, Ernesto (2019). "Measures of Exploitation". Labour and Value: Rethinking Marx's Theory of Exploitation. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. p. 75. doi:10.11647/OBP.0182. ISBN 9781783747825. Retrieved 24 July 2023. Marx's value theory is a complex doctrine in which three different kinds of speculation coalesce: a philosophy aimed at proving that value is created by a labour substance; an explanation of the social relations of production in capitalism; and a method for measuring exploitation.
  3. ^ Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (2009) [1848]. "Proletarians and Communists". The Communist Manifesto. The Floating Press. pp. 28–29. ISBN 9781775412434. Retrieved 24 July 2023. The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties [...]: [...] In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality.
  4. ^ Aron, Raymond (2017) [1955]. "The Myth of the Revolution". The Opium of the Intellectuals (reprint ed.). London: Routledge. p. 56. ISBN 9781351478120. Retrieved 24 July 2023. [...] Marx offered the classless society as the solution to the enigma of history.