What Is the Proletariat? Marx's Concept

Introduction

The proletariat is one of the most important concepts in Marx's philosophy. It refers to the class of wage laborers in capitalist society who own no means of production and must sell their labor power to the capitalist class in order to survive. For Marx, the proletariat is not simply the poor or the working class in a descriptive sense; it is a concept with a specific theoretical and political meaning. The proletariat is the class that is produced by capitalism, that is exploited by capitalism, and that, according to Marx, has the revolutionary potential to overthrow capitalism. Understanding what the proletariat is, and what its historical role is, is essential to understanding Marx's theory of history, his critique of capitalism, and his vision of human emancipation.

Historical Background

The word "proletariat" comes from ancient Rome, where the proletarii were the lowest class of citizens — those who owned no property and whose only value to the state was their offspring (proles). Marx and Engels adopted the term to describe the working class of modern industrial capitalism, but they gave it a distinctly modern and revolutionary meaning.

The emergence of the proletariat as a distinct social class was the result of the Industrial Revolution and the development of capitalism. The enclosure movements in England, the destruction of feudal agriculture, and the growth of factories and industrial cities created a new class of propertyless laborers who had no choice but to work for wages. The proletariat was, in Marx's words, a class that was "created by" and "called into existence by" capitalism itself.

Key Thinkers

Karl Marx (1818-1883) developed the concept of the proletariat as the central agent of revolutionary transformation. In The Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels described the proletariat as the "gravedigger" of capitalism — the class that would bury the capitalist system and build a new society on its ruins.

The proletariat is defined, in Marx's theory, by its relationship to the means of production. Unlike the bourgeoisie, which owns the means of production, and unlike the petty bourgeoisie, which owns small amounts of productive property, the proletariat owns nothing but its labor power. The proletarian must sell this labor power to a capitalist in exchange for a wage. The capitalist then uses the labor power to produce commodities that are sold for more than the cost of production — including the cost of wages. The difference between the value produced by the worker and the wage paid to the worker is surplus value, which is appropriated by the capitalist as profit. This is the essence of exploitation under capitalism.

The condition of the proletariat under capitalism is one of alienation, immiseration, and dehumanization. The worker is reduced to a commodity, a "cog in the machine," whose labor is controlled by the capitalist and whose creative potential is denied. But Marx also argued that the very conditions of capitalist production create the conditions for the proletariat's liberation. The concentration of workers in factories, the development of communication and transportation, the increasing organization of the labor movement, and the growing contradictions of capitalism all contribute to the development of class consciousness — the recognition by the proletariat of its common interests, its collective power, and its revolutionary mission.

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) contributed to the analysis of the proletariat's condition in his book The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). Engels provided a detailed empirical account of the poverty, disease, and degradation suffered by the working class in the industrial cities of Victorian England. His work was a powerful indictment of capitalism and a call to revolutionary action.

E.P. Thompson (1924-1993) offered a more complex and nuanced account of the making of the working class in his book The Making of the English Working Class (1963). Thompson argued that the working class was not simply the passive product of economic forces but an active agent in its own formation. Class, for Thompson, is not a structure but a "happening" — a process of struggle, organization, and cultural creation that is shaped by the agency of working people themselves.

Contemporary Relevance

The concept of the proletariat has been the subject of extensive debate in contemporary social theory. The decline of industrial manufacturing in the advanced economies, the growth of the service sector, the rise of the "precariat" (workers in precarious temporary employment), and the globalization of production have all raised questions about the continuing relevance of Marx's concept of the proletariat.

Some contemporary Marxists argue that the concept of the proletariat must be expanded to include not only industrial workers but all those who are compelled to sell their labor power to survive — including service workers, gig workers, and the unemployed. Others argue that the traditional concept of the proletariat is no longer adequate and that new concepts are needed to understand the class structure of contemporary capitalism.

The debate about the proletariat is not merely academic. The question of who the revolutionary subject is in the twenty-first century — who has the interest and the power to transform capitalism — is one of the most important questions in contemporary political philosophy. The concept of the proletariat, as developed by Marx, remains a necessary starting point for any serious answer to this question.