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The proletariat (from Latin prollees, "offspring") is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons. The term was initially used in a derogatory sense, until Karl Marx used it as a sociological term to refer to the working class.

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Contents 1 The Proletariat in Marxist theory 2 Other Uses 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] The Proletariat in Marxist theory

In Marxist theory, the proletariat is that class of a capitalist society which does not have ownership of the means of production and whose only means of subsistence is to sell their labor for a wage or salary. Proletarians are wage-workers, while some refer to those who receive salaries as the salariat. For Marx, however, wage labor may involve getting a salary rather than a wage per se.

Marxism sees the proletariat and bourgeoisie (capitalist class) as occupying conflicting positions, since (for example) factory workers automatically wish wages to be as high as possible, while owners and their proxies wish for wages (costs) to be as low as possible.

In Marxist theory, the borders between the proletariat and (1) some layers of the petite bourgeoisie, who rely primarily but not exclusively on self-employment at an income no different from an ordinary wage or below it; and (2) the lumpen proletariat, who are not in legal employment; are not necessarily well defined. Intermediate positions are possible, where some wage-labor for an employer combines with self-employment. Socialist political parties have often struggled over the question of whether they should seek to organize and represent the entire proletariat, or just the wage-earning working class.

According to Marxism, capitalism is a system based on the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie (the "capitalists", who own and control the means of production). This exploitation takes place as follows: the workers, who own no means of production of their own, must use the means of production that are property of others in order to produce, and, consequently, earn their life. Instead of hiring those means of production, they themselves get hired by capitalists and work for them, producing goods or services. These goods or services become the property of the capitalist, who sells them at the market. One part of the wealth produced is used to pay the workers' wages (variable capital), another part to renew the means of production (constant capital) while the third part (surplus value) is split between the capitalist's private takings (profit), and the money used to pay rents, taxes, and interests, etc. A part of the surplus value is also used to increase the means of production, either in quantity or quality (ie, it is turned into capital), and is called capitalised surplus value^[1]. The commodities proletarians make, and capitalists sell, are valued for the amount of labour embodied in them. The same goes for the labour force itself: it is valued, not for the amount of wealth it produces, but for the amount of labour necessary to produce and reproduce it. The difference between the wealth the proletariat produces through its work, and the wealth it consumes in order to survive and provide labour force to the capitalist companies, is called surplus value^[2].

Thus the capitalists earn money (profit) from the labor of their employees, not as a function of their personal contribution to the productive process (which may even be null), but as a function of the juridical relation of property of the means of production. Marxists argue that new wealth is created through labor applied to natural resources^[3]; therefore, if someone gains wealth through the monopoly of means of production, then those who work to produce that wealth do not not receive the full wealth created by their labor, nor do they have a say in the use of the wealth appropriated by the proprietors of means of production. In other words, the workers are exploited. Thus, Marxists argue that capitalists make a profit by exploiting the proletariat.

Marx himself argued that it was the goal of the proletariat itself to displace the capitalist system with socialism, changing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a communist society in which: "..the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all" (Communist Manifesto)^[4].

Marx makes a clear distinction of proletariat as salaried workers, which he sees a progressive class, with Lumpen proletariat, "rag-proletariat", the poorest and outcasts of the society, such as beggars, tricksters, entertainers, buskers, criminals and prostitutes, which he considers a retrograde class^[5][6].

[edit] Other Uses

Arnold J. Toynbee uses the term "internal" and "external proletariat" in his monumental "A Study of History" to describe the groups within and external to the frontiers of the state, who during the time of troubles, the World Empire and the decay of a civilization, are progressively disenfranchised, and come to have little loyalty to the survival of that civilization.

[edit] See also

• Bourgeosie
• Blue collar
• Folk culture
• Laborer
• Lower class
• Lumpenproletariat
• Patrician
• Peasantry
• Plebs
• Prole drift
• Prolefeed
• Proles
• Proletarianization
• Proletarian internationalism
• Slavery
• Working class
• Wage slavery

[edit] References

• Hal Draper, Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Vol. 2; The Politics of Social Classes. Monthly Review Press.

[edit] External links

• A critique of "workerism" with a Marxian definition of proletariat
• Communism.org - informal communist discussion

Look up proletariat in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

v • d • e Social stratification: Social class
Bourgeoisie	Upper class	Ruling class	Nobility	White-collar
Petite bourgeoisie	Upper middle class	Creative class	Gentry	Blue-collar
Proletariat	Middle class	Slave class	Nouveau riche/Parvenu	Grey-collar
Lumpenproletariat	Lower middle class	Lower middle classes	Old Money	Gold-collar
Peasant/Serf	Working class	Underclass	Lower class	Pink-collar
			Classlessness	Green-collar