Karl Marx, the author of “The Communist Manifesto”, was a German philosopher, historian, and political theorist from the nineteenth century. In Karl Marx’s analysis of class conflict in his political pamphlet, “The Communist Manifesto”, he identifies four classes in European society and politics; the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, the proletariat, and the peasant class. Each class was made up of different individuals that shared similar social and socioeconomic status. The bourgeoisie controlled everything in the proletariat and owned the means of production. They also had immediate power over everyone that worked under them. The petty bourgeoisie were the constituent assembly and the class was made up of shopkeepers and merchants. The next class is the proletariat, the working class, this was the largest class in population size but also held the smallest amount of power in society. This class made extremely small wages that just allowed them to survive and to be able to purchase basic necessities and nothing else. The proletariat class was made up of manual laborers and industrial workers. The bourgeoisie fully controlled the proletariat, making the proletariat extremely reliant on the jobs provided by the bourgeoisie. The peasant class had a small advantage over the proletariat class due to being granted small plots of land as a payment for their labor. On their plot of land, they would grow their own produce, which gave them a stronger sense of freedom than the proletariat class. The proletariat class was paid minimal wages and the majority of the class conflict revolved around political recognization and better treatment of the proletariat class.

The proletariat, working class, is the only class that is unable to own land. Which Marx sees as a very important class inequality. The proletariat use no other resources than their hands, bodies, and minds. They manned the machines, producing most of the goods for Europe. Marx argued that the proletariat became a class due to everyone having similar jobs and working in factories together. Majority of the individuals in Europe fell into the proletariat, due to similar jobs and relying on jobs from factories that were owned by the bourgeoisie. Since these workers were unable to own their own property, their only way to obtain an income to provide for themselves and their families was to find work from an employer. The bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie owned all means of production and were typically always the employers of the proletariat class. The bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie did not pay their workers well, they paid very minimal wages that were just enough for their workers to get by and buy their basic needs like food and shelter, but generally the proletariat lived in poverty. 

Marx thought that the political interests of the proletariat were extremely crucial because of their large class size that didn’t hold much power. They had little to no power compared to the upper classes, the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie. But the population size of the proletariat was much larger than the bourgeoisie. During the industrial revolution, several of the jobs of the proletariat were replaced by machinery, which reduced the number of workers that were employed by these large scale factories owned by the bourgeoisie. Members of the proletariat suffered greatly during this time due to the immediate reduction of income from their unemployment. Proletariat members were unable to obtain the basic necessities for themselves and their families because their wages were on longer obtainable. Due to the vast number of proletariat members out of work, the proletariat began demanding for change. As many workers were laid off the proletariat grew in size. Marx writes, “with the development of the industry, the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more,” (Marx, 19). As the proletariat grew, they began to realize the strength of numbers and how many people were in the same situation due to the increase in industrialization. The members of the proletariat formed unions and demanded for higher wages and to get their wages back for the bourgeoisie. In fighting with the bourgeoisie, the proletariat started a revolution and showed society that the economy could not function anymore if the bourgeoisie had all of the control over property and the economy. Marx noted that the proletariat did not want a capitalist society anymore, but instead wanted a communist society in which there were no classes and everyone had the same opportunities. The proletariat class was very powerful in this movement because of the power they held in Europe, working all of the factories and producing the majority of goods for Europe. The proletariat worked together to overthrow the bourgeoisie and were able to express their desolation, fighting for higher wages and the abolishment of the class system.