Proletariat vs. Lumpenproletariat — What's the Difference?

The proletariat ( from Latin proletarius 'producing offspring') is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian.

Lumpenproletariat () refers – primarily in Marxist theory – to the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society exploited by reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces, particularly in the context of the revolutions of 1848.

The class of industrial wage earners who, possessing neither capital nor production means, must earn their living by selling their labor.

The lowest stratum of the proletariat. Used originally in Marxist theory to describe those members of the proletariat, especially criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed, who lacked awareness of their collective interest as an oppressed class.

The poorest class of working people.

An underclass.

The propertyless class of ancient Rome, constituting the lowest class of citizens.

(Marxism) The lowest stratum of the proletariat, whose mental and physical health, mores and morale have deteriorated, through exploitation by the bourgeoisie, to a degree where they cannot build class consciousness and hence cannot be mobilized for the revolution.

The lowest class of society; also, the lower classes of society generally; the masses.

A social underclass; the riffraff.

(Marxism) Wage earners collectively, excluding salaried workers; people who own no capital and depend on their labour for survival; the working class, especially when seen as engaged in a class struggle with the t=the capital-owning class.

The lowest level of the proletariat, comprising unskilled workers, the unemployed, and the dispossessed, alienated from the class with with they would normally identify and having little or no class solidarity; - an important element in Marxist theory.

The lowest class of citizens, who had no property and few rights, and were regarded as contributing only their offspring to the state.

The indigent class in the State; the body of proletarians.

A social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages;