The word proletariat derives from proletariat, which has its origin in Latin coming from the ancient Roman Empire . The proletarians were men without possessions, who had their children (their offspring, hence the origin of the word proletarian) as the only thing to offer the Empire to serve in the imperial army.
In the 19th century, the term was reframed . The German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx used the term proletariat as we understand it today: the wage worker , poor, who tends to remain in this condition because of the little he receives.
Read also: Marxism – philosophical and political doctrine created by Marx and Engels
Meaning of proletariat in the dictionary
According to the Aurélio Online dictionary, proletariat means:
- The class of the proletarians;
- State or condition of proletarian;
- Social layer formed by individuals who are characterized by their permanent quality of wage earners and by their ways of life, attitudes and reactions resulting from such a situation.
The film “Modern Times”, directed and starring Charles Chaplin, shows the life of a typical proletarian.
Synonyms of proletariat
We can choose some words as synonyms for the proletariat. Among them are:
- worker,
- worker,
- factory worker,
As the Aurélio dictionary points out, in addition to the condition of wage earners (who depend on their wages to survive), the proletariat is also identified by their habits and attitudes, normally attributed to low-income people .
Don’t stop now … There’s more after the publicity;)
Antonym of proletariat
The best antonym for the term proletariat can be taken from Marx’s work: bourgeoisie . But it was not the German philosopher who invented the word, it was used from the end of I ity M ean to designate the merchant class in its rich majority , which stemmed from the boroughs, old trade areas in the medieval towns.
Bourgeois grown economically from trade, founded the first banks and the R evolution Industrial , became the owners of industries and, therefore, employed the workers. We can also use the word boss as a antonym of proletarian .
Proletarians in an old French iron foundry.
How did the proletariat come about?
In addition to the origin of the term in the Ancient Roman Empire, we can find the origin of the proletariat even in the Middle Ages among the poor and exploited by the system of the time. In the feudal period , the nobles were those who owned land, they were the feudal lords, owners of fiefdoms in Europe. They, in turn, had servants, who worked for them inside the fiefs in exchange for food and housing.
In addition to these classes, within the feuds, there were still peasants, who planted and raised animals. These workers were obliged to pay taxes and serve their master in exchange for the right to use the land and protection.
When the feuds unified into kingdoms and, later, into National States, there was a tendency to maintain the prevailing social order : the poor remained poor, and the rich, as always, rich. The courts maintained the nobility, holding titles and land, living in luxury, while the descendants of serfs and peasants remained in the same position as their ancestors.
With the rise of the bourgeoisie and the growth of cities , between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many peasants abandoned the difficult life in the countryside to try a job in the city. Arriving there, especially in the industrial regions of England, the old peasants were employed in factories belonging to the bourgeois, thus initiating the proletarian class.
What are the living conditions of the proletariat?
Since the 19th century, the living conditions of the proletariat have been the worst possible . Many advances have been achieved through the struggle of the unions, recognizing workers’ rights in many parts of the world. However, social inequality , exploitation and poverty of the proletariat remain.
In the 19th century , the situation of English factory workers was assisted and denounced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (journalist and intellectual companion of Marx). Workers had exhaustive hours , with at least 12 hours a day of almost direct work and easily reached 15, 16 and sometimes even 17 hours a day. There was no paid weekly rest and, much less, holidays for workers. The salary was so short that they could barely buy food and pay for housing.
The proletariat’s diet was based on the cheapest carbohydrate in England: the potato. Usually, they ate potato soups sometimes with the possibility of a protein coming from pig skin.
Women were not entitled to maternity leave , often gave birth in factories, and there was no health leave. The bill was simple: the remuneration was daily. The person worked that day, was entitled to a meager salary. It didn’t work, it didn’t get paid.
Children also worked from an early age, sometimes as young as five or six years old, which encouraged people to procreate to put children to work and increase family income.
Another thing, perhaps the most cruel: there was no social security system . Life expectancy was not very high, and the proletariat reached a state of health that simply incapacitated them from working after years of physical abuse in factories. What was the way out? Depend on children.
That word proletariat that in the Roman Empire designated people who had only their offspring again made sense. Having many children was a supposed guarantee of care during old age.
See also: Class consciousness – union of the working class motivated by the end of exploitation
Chinese workers and those from other developing countries with few labor laws are the most exploited workers today. [1]
Dictatorship of the proletariat
According to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the proletariat, being a numerical majority, would have an immense hidden capacity to revolt against bourgeois oppression and succeed. For thinkers, if workers came together, they could rebel against the system of exploitation and take over the means of production (take over the factories).
The aim would be to create a socialist system in principle , called the dictatorship of the proletariat, which would establish a political system in which all private property would be nationalized. Outside personal property (home and individual means of work), everything would be nationalized.
The socialist government should be a strong government , a real dictatorship, which should last long enough to close the social class gap . As soon as there were no more social classes, the dictator socialist government could be dissolved, giving way to a communist government.
