In \u201cThe Communist Manifesto\u201d written by Karl Marx he identifies four social classes, one of them being the proletariat class. The proletariat is a class that was born in the industrial revolution. This is the class that is directly opposite to the bourgeoise class. They are laborers who depend wholly on the existence and the demand for labor, these workers sell their labor to the bourgeoise and live off the capital gained from this. Workers become a part of the means of production owned by the Bourgeoisie, hence losing their freedom. In the beginning, the proletariat was very divided because these workers were directly in the face of the competition generated by the constant development of machinery. With more and more machinery, the workers were rendered useless and their skills and individuality became less and less evident, so they were constantly in competition with each other. These laborers do not own anything but their own labor, they make a living and are barely getting by, just by selling their labor to the higher class, so they are not united. But as the whole industry was in the hands of the Bourgeoise, owned by them, the worker wages were always fluctuating, so little by little the proletariat started creating Trade Union\u2019s with the simple goal of raising their wages to survive. They begin uniting against the exploitation they faced from the Bourgeoisie. This union is a very important part of what makes them a class. The proletariat is the revolutionary class. In the general aspect of it, the proletariat is faced with a constant clash and struggle against the bourgeoisie, and this is what pushes the workers to unite and eventually form a class for itself, that defends political interests and societal ways that are more favorable for them than what is currently the norm. One of the keys and initial material interests of the proletariat class is protecting and raising their wages which were so constantly fluctuating. This is initially what began uniting them and one of the main reasons behind the formation of Trade Unions. This was an interest shared among all the workers because they depended and lived off these wages, without them, they would not survive. After uniting they began communicating through new means of communication and technology that were constantly improving, such as the railroad, and this unification and Unions eventually led to revolts which were founded upon the idea of fighting for the proletariat\u2019s material interests. This ability for communication was also a very important development during this time period because it helped further unite the proletariat class and eventually succeed in overthrowing the bourgeoise class, revolts in the past did not go this far because there was a lack of communication within the classes and the oppressed people. But the proletariat knew they were oppressed people, and they united to fight this. \u201cThe revolutionary point was broken off and a democratic turn given to the social demands of the proletariat; the purely political form was stripped off the democratic claims of the petty bourgeoisie and their socialist point thrust forward.\u201d (18th Brumaire,p.34) Getting rid of property rights is also partly a material interest. The property was what made the bourgeoise class who they were, so powerful. These rights for property protected the bourgeoise, it kept them in power.\u00a0 After being united by their material interests, the proletariat class moved on to more general and wider goals and interests. The most pressing one was abolishing the Bourgeoisie class. Getting rid of their exploitation. This class is what led them to this state of poverty and of having no ownership, and in a further notion what led them to this place was capitalism and the ability to own property and exploit those who worked on that property. The proletariat class sought to displace capitalism and private property, which in turn took away their livelihood. These property rights were what protected the bourgeoise and their exploitation, so the abolition as a whole would end this, the proletariat did not seek to ger private property, they wanted to eliminate it as a whole. \u201cDemocracy would be wholly valueless to the proletariat if it were not immediately used as a means for putting through measures directed against private property and ensuring the livelihood of the proletariat.\u201d (Communist Manifesto, p.24).\u00a0 In turn, they were looking for a society that was free of class distinctions, which is in all its essence communism. The political interests of the proletariat class were to abolish this class system, to abolish the bourgeoisie. Their material interests were truly advanced with these political interests because, in order to achieve these material interests, they needed to fulfill the abolition of property rights and the bourgeoise class. By abolishing this upper class, their wages would no longer be a problem because no one would be in power given the fact that there would be no private property and no one would own anything that kept them in power. This abolition would end this exploitation. In conclusion, Marx views the proletariat as a revolutionary class that facilitates the rise of communism, abolishing classes and more specifically the bourgeoisie class that exploited them as a working class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In \u201cThe Communist Manifesto\u201d written by Karl Marx he identifies four social classes, one of them being the proletariat class. The proletariat is a class that was born in the industrial revolution. This is the class that is directly opposite Continue reading