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{{redirect|Proletarian|the British communist magazine|Proletarian (magazine)}}
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The '''proletariat''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|p|r|oʊ|l|ɪ|ˈ|t|ɛər|i|ə|t}} from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|proletarius}} "producing offspring") is the [[Social class|class]] of [[Wage labor|wage-earner]]s in an economic society whose only possession of significant material value is their [[labour-power]] (how much work they can do).<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/proletariat proletariat]. Accessed: 6 June 2013.</ref> A member of such a class is a '''proletarian'''.

In [[Marxist theory]], a [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] is for the proletariat, of the proletariat, and by the proletariat. On the Marxist view, this will endow the proletarian with the power to abolish the conditions that make a person a proletarian and, thus, build [[communism]].

== Proletarii of the Roman Republic ==
{{See|Constitution of the Roman Republic}}
The ''proletarii'' constituted a [[Social class in ancient Rome|social class of Roman citizens]] owning little or no property. The origin of the name is presumably linked with the [[census]], which Roman authorities conducted every five years to produce a register of citizens and their property from which their military duties and voting privileges could be determined. For citizens with property valued 11,000 ''[[As (Roman coin)|asses]]'' or less, which was below the lowest census for military service, their children—''proles'' (from Latin ''prōlēs'', "offspring")—were listed instead of their property; hence, the name ''proletarius'', "the one who produces offspring". The only contribution of a ''proletarius'' to the Roman society was seen in his ability to raise children, the future Roman citizens who can colonize new territories conquered by the [[Roman Republic]] and later by the [[Roman Empire]]. The citizens who had no property of significance were called ''[[capite censi]]'' because they were "persons registered not as to their property...but simply as to their existence as living individuals, primarily as heads (''caput'') of a family."<ref>Adolf Berger, ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law'' (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society 1953) at 380; 657.</ref><ref>[[Arnold J. Toynbee]], especially in his ''[[A Study of History]]'', uses the word "proletariat" in this general sense of people without property or a stake in society. Toynbee focuses particularly on the generative spiritual life of the "internal proletariat" (those living within a given civil society). He also describes the "heroic" folk legends of the "external proletariat" (poorer groups living outside the borders of a civilization). Cf., Toynbee, ''A Study of History'' (Oxford University 1934–1961), 12 volumes, in Volume V ''Disintegration of Civilizations, part one'' (1939) at 58–194 (internal proletariat), and at 194–337 (external proletariat).</ref>
[[File:Working man-obrero 2.jpg|thumb|left|150px|A [[manual labor]]er at work in [[Venezuela]]. Manual laborers are generally considered to be part of the proletariat.]]
Although included in one of the five support ''[[centuria]]e'' of the [[Comitia Centuriata]], ''proletarii'' were largely deprived of their voting rights due to their low social status caused by their lack of "even the minimum property required for the lowest class"<ref>Berger, ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law'' (1953) at 351; 657 (quote).</ref> and a class-based hierarchy of the ''Comitia Centuriata''. The late Roman historians, such as [[Livy]], not without some uncertainty, understood the ''Comitia Centuriata'' to be one of three forms of popular assembly of early Rome composed of ''centuriae'', the voting units whose members represented a class of citizens according to the value of their property. This assembly, which usually met on the [[Campus Martius]] to discuss public policy issues, was also used as a means of designating military duties demanded of Roman citizens.<ref>Titus Livius (c.59 BC-AD 17), [[Ab Urbe Condita (book)|''Ab urbe condita'']], 1, 43; the first five books translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt as Livy, ''The Early History of Rome'' (Penguin 1960, 1971) at 81–82.</ref> One of reconstructions of the ''Comitia Centuriata'' features 18 centuriae of cavalry, and 170 centuriae of infantry divided into five classes by wealth, plus 5 centuriae of support personnel called ''[[adsidui]]''. The top infantry class assembled with full arms and armor; the next two classes brought arms and armor, but less and lesser; the fourth class only spears; the fifth slings. In voting, the cavalry and top infantry class were enough to decide an issue; as voting started at the top, an issue might be decided before the lower classes voted.<ref>[[Andrew Lintott]], ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University 1999) at 55–61, re the ''Comitia Centuriata''.</ref> In the last centuries of the [[Roman Republic]] (509-44 B.C.), the ''Comitia Centuriata'' became impotent as a political body, which further eroded already minuscule political power the ''proletarii'' might have had in the Roman society.

Following a series of wars the Roman Republic engaged since the closing of the [[Second Punic War]] (218–201 B.C.), such as the [[Jugurthine War]] and conflicts in Macedonia and Asia, the significant reduction in the number of Roman family farmers had resulted in the shortage of people whose property qualified them to perform the citizenry's [[Political history of the Roman military|military duty to Rome]].<ref>Cf., [[Theodor Mommsen]], [[History of Rome (Mommsen)|''Römisches Geschichte'']] (1854–1856), 3 volumes; translated as ''History of Rome'' (1862–1866), 4 volumes; reprint (The Free Press 1957) at vol.III: 48–55 (Mommsen's Bk.III, ch.XI toward end).</ref> As a result of the [[Marian reforms]] initiated in 107 B.C. by the Roman general [[Gaius Marius]] (157–86), the ''proletarii'' became the backbone of the [[Roman Army]].<ref>H. H. Scullard, ''Gracchi to Nero. A History of Rome from 133 BC to AD 68'' (London: Methuen 1959, 4th ed. 1976) at 51–52.</ref>

[[Karl Marx]], who studied [[Roman law]] at the [[University of Berlin]],<ref>Cf., [[Sidney Hook]], ''Marx and the Marxists'' (Princeton: Van Nostrand 1955) at 13.</ref> used the term ''proletariat'' in his socio-political theory of [[Marxism]] to describe a [[working class]] unadulterated by [[private property]] and capable of a revolutionary action to topple [[capitalism]] in order to create [[classless society]].

==Marxist theory==
{{Marxism |Concepts}}
In [[Marxism|Marxist]] theory, the proletariat is the [[social class]] that does not have ownership of the [[means of production]] and whose only means of subsistence is to sell their [[labor power]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Marx|first=Karl|title=Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie|trans-title=Capital: Critique of Political Economy|year=1887|publisher=Progress Publishers|location=Moscow|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch06.htm|authorlink=Karl Marx|editor=Frederick Engels|accessdate=10 February 2013|chapter=Chapter Six: The Buying and Selling of Labour-Power}}</ref> 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 workers automatically wish their wages to be as high as possible, while owners and their proxies wish for wages (costs) to be as low as possible.

[[File:Pyramid of Capitalist System.jpg|thumb|left|200px|A 1911 ''[[Industrial Worker]]'' publication advocating industrial unionism based on a critique of capitalism. The proletariat "work for all" and "feed all".]]
In Marxist theory, the borders between the proletariat and 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 the [[lumpenproletariat]], 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. Marx makes a clear distinction between proletariat as salaried workers, which he sees as a progressive class, and [[Lumpenproletariat]], "rag-proletariat", the poorest and outcasts of the society, such as beggars, tricksters, entertainers, buskers, criminals and prostitutes, which he considers a retrograde class.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049344/Lumpenproletariat Lumpen proletariat –  Britannica Online Encyclopedia]</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Marx|first=Karl|title=Manifesto of the Communist Party|date=February 1848|publisher=Progress Publishers|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm|accessdate=10 February 2013|chapter=Bourgeois and Proletarians}}</ref> [[Socialism|Socialist]] parties have often struggled over the question of whether they should seek to organize and represent all the lower classes, or just the wage-earning proletariat.

According to Marxism, [[capitalism]] is a system based on the [[Exploitation of labor|exploitation]] of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. 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 living. 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 costs), another part to renew the means of production (constant costs) while the third part, [[surplus value]] is split between the capitalist's private takings (profit), and the money used to pay rents, taxes, interests, etc. Surplus value is the difference between the wealth that the proletariat produces through its work, and the wealth it consumes to survive and to provide labor to the capitalist companies.<ref>Marx, Karl. The Capital, volume 1, chapter 6. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch06.htm</ref> A part of the surplus value is used to renew or increase the means of production, either in quantity or quality (i.e., it is turned into [[Capital (economics)|capital]]), and is called capitalized surplus value.<ref>Luxemburg, Rosa. [[The Accumulation of Capital]]. Chapter 6, Enlarged Reproduction, http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1913/accumulation-capital/ch06.htm</ref> What remains is consumed by the capitalist class.

The commodities that proletarians produce and capitalists sell are valued for the amount of [[labor (economics)|labor]] embodied in them. The same goes for the workers' [[labor power]] itself: it is valued, not for the amount of wealth it produces, but for the amount of labor necessary to produce and reproduce it. Thus the capitalists earn wealth 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 to the means of production. Marxists argue that new wealth is created through labor applied to [[natural resource]]s.<ref>Marx, Karl. [[Critique of the Gotha Programme]], I. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm</ref>

Marx argued that the proletariat would displace the capitalist system with the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], abolishing 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".<ref>Marx, Karl. [[The Communist Manifesto]], part II, Proletarians and Communists http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm</ref>

==Prole drift==
Prole drift, short for proletarian drift, is the tendency in advanced industrialized societies for everything inexorably to become proletarianized, or to become commonplace and commodified. This trend is attributed to mass production, mass selling, mass communication and mass education. Examples include best-seller lists, films and music that must appeal to the masses, and shopping malls.<ref name="class">{{cite book|last=Fussell|first=Paul|authorlink=Paul Fussell|title=Class, A Guide Through the American Status System|publisher=Ballantine|date=October 1992|location=New York|isbn=0-345-31816-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPbF1kuayJYC}}</ref>

==See also==
{{colbegin|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Bogan]]
* [[Blue collar]]
* [[Consumtariat]]
* [[Folk culture]]
* [[Laborer]]
* [[Lumpenproletariat]]
* [[Peasantry]]
* [[Precariat]]
* [[Prolefeed]]
* [[Proles]]
* [[Proletarianization]]
* [[Proletarian internationalism]]
* [[Proletarian literature]]
* [[Slavery]]
* [[Vulgarism]]
* [[Wage slavery]]
{{colend}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite news|title= Why workers can change the world |url=http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=11839|last= Blackledge, Paul |year= 2011 |journal= Socialist Review ''364'' |location= London }}
* [[Hal Draper]], ''Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Vol. 2; The Politics of Social Classes''. (New York: Monthly Review Press 1978).

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|proletariat}}

{{Marxist & Communist phraseology}}
{{Social class}}

[[Category:Working class]]
[[Category:Socialism]]
[[Category:Marxism]]
[[Category:Marxist theory]]
[[Category:Measurements and definitions of poverty]]