working masses
Ordinary toiling people
The working masses are laborers considered as a collective social force, especially in socialist and Marxist contexts where they represent the exploited proletariat.
The phrase carries revolutionary overtones, evoking class consciousness and collective struggle against capitalism: The working masses will rise up against their oppressors.
Outside political rhetoric, the term sounds dated or deliberately dramatic.
- workersPeople doing jobs
- laborersWorkers doing physical tasks
- crowdLarge public gathering
- peasantsLow-ranking agricultural workers
- blue-collarManual labor workforce
factory floor · serfs · hands · plebeians · salt of earth · proletariat · employees · solidarity · workforce · May Day · workers' rights · bread and roses · general strike · Marxism · jobs · labor movement · trade union · folk songs
working masseselite
Superior select group
ruling class · upper class · bourgeoisie · aristocracy · oligarchy
working massesprivileged few
Advantaged minority
ruling elite · select few · the few · individual · power brokers
working massescapitalists
Owners of productive wealth
owners · employers · proprietors · bosses · industrialists
working, masses, work, mass, worker, works, worked, workable, unworkable