proletariat
Wage-earning masses
The proletariat is the working class, especially industrial wage earners who lack ownership of the means of production.
The term is central to Marxist theory, where the proletariat stands opposed to the bourgeoisie—the capitalist class.
The proletariat has nothing to lose but its chains.
Outside political theory, proletariat sometimes refers loosely to ordinary working people or the masses.
Capitalist ownership class
- working classManual laborers collectively
- underclassLowest socioeconomic group
- lower classLowest socioeconomic stratum
- commonersOrdinary citizens, untitled
plebeians · peasantry · hierarchy · stratification · caste · rank · status · estate
Capitalist ownership class
- class consciousnessAwareness of economic group identity
- means of productionTools and facilities for manufacturing
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- surplus valueProduction minus wages paid
alienation · communism · socialism · revolution · Das Kapital · Marx · Engels · Leninism
Conflict between economic groups
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
- uprisingOrganized resistance to power
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- oppressionUnjust exercise of power
exploitation · protest · strike · rebellion · dissent · agitation · unrest · barricades
Work exchanged for payment
- factoryIndustrial production facility
- manufacturingIndustrial product creation
- industrialOf factories and production
- blue-collarManual labor workforce
assembly line · sweatshop · toil · drudgery · exploitation · shift work · wage slavery · manual labor
Jointly organized group
- unityWholeness through cohesion
- unionJoining into one
- brotherhoodKinship among men
- sisterhoodBond among women
mutual aid · cooperation · organizing · strike · picket line · labor movement · trade union · syndicalism
bourgeoisie
Capitalist ownership class
- working classManual laborers collectively
- underclassLowest socioeconomic group
- lower classLowest socioeconomic stratum
commoners · plebeians · peasantry · hierarchy · stratification · caste · rank · status · estate · stratum
bourgeoisie
Capitalist ownership class
- class consciousnessAwareness of economic group identity
- means of productionTools and facilities for manufacturing
- exploitationSelfish use of others
surplus value · alienation · communism · socialism · revolution · Das Kapital · Marx · Engels · Leninism · ideology
class struggle
Conflict between economic groups
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
- uprisingOrganized resistance to power
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
oppression · exploitation · protest · strike · rebellion · dissent · agitation · unrest · barricades · general strike
wage labor
Work exchanged for payment
- factoryIndustrial production facility
- manufacturingIndustrial product creation
- industrialOf factories and production
blue-collar · assembly line · sweatshop · toil · drudgery · exploitation · shift work · wage slavery · manual labor · mill
collective
Jointly organized group
- unityWholeness through cohesion
- unionJoining into one
- brotherhoodKinship among men
sisterhood · mutual aid · cooperation · organizing · strike · picket line · labor movement · trade union · syndicalism · internationalism
- Marxist WorksCommunist Manifesto, Das Kapital, The Holy Family, Holy Family, Collected Works
- workersworkers, employee, employees, laborers, wage earner
- Dystopia1984, Nineteen Eighty-Four, dystopian fiction, totalitarianism, Brave New World
- human groupstribe, clan, class, caste, crowd
- populacethe masses, common folk, ordinary people, general public, hoi polloi
- social classupper class, middle class, lower class, working class, social class
proletariataristocracy
Rule by hereditary elite
nobility · upper class · ruling class · elite · gentry
proletariatbourgeoisie
Capitalist ownership class
capitalists · capital · industrialists · employers · investors
proletariatruling class
Dominant governing stratum
establishment · ruling elite · power elite · oligarchy · political class
- the proletariatWage-earning labor class
- proletarian revolutionWorkers overthrowing the ruling class
- dictatorship of the proletariatLaboring class governing authority