WikipediaExtracts:Proletariat

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The proletariat (; from Latin proletarius 'producing offspring') is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a proletaire. Marxist philosophy regards the proletariat under conditions of capitalism as an exploited class,⁠ deprived of their own means of production and thereby forced to operate industrial means of production held as private property by the bourgeoisie, receiving wages which represent less than the value their labour produced, the remainder appropriated by the bourgeoisie as profits.

Karl Marx argued that the conflicting inherent interests between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie gives the proletariat common economic and political interests that transcend national boundaries, impelling them to unite and assert their sovereignty over the capitalist class, and eventually to create a socialist society free from class distinctions.