View source for Social:Proletarian revolution

{{short description|Social revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie}}
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A '''proletarian revolution''' or '''proletariat revolution''' is a [[Social:Social revolution|social revolution]] in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie and change the previous political system.<ref>{{cite web |first=Vejas |last=Liulevicius |title=Russia: The Unlikely Place for a Proletarian Revolution |url=https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/russia-the-unlikely-place-for-a-proletarian-revolution/ |date=13 July 2020 |access-date=19 January 2022 |website=The Great Courses Daily |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119121206/https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/russia-the-unlikely-place-for-a-proletarian-revolution/ |archive-date=19 January 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Vladimir |last=Lenin |chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch01.htm |chapter=Chapter I: Class Society and the State |title=The State and Revolution |date=1918 |via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref> Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by [[Social:Socialism|socialists]], [[Social:Communism|communists]] and [[Social:Anarchism|anarchists]].

== Interpretations ==
The concept of a revolutionary [[Social:Proletariat|proletariat]] was first put forward by the French revolutionary socialist and radical Auguste Blanqui.<ref name="Blake1939">{{cite book |first=William James |last=Blake |title=An American Looks at Karl Marx |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iPnTAAAAMAAJ |year=1939 |publisher=Cordon Company |page=622 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The Paris Commune, contemporary to Blanqui and Marx, being viewed by some as the first attempt at a proletarian revolution.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Maurice |last=Spector |author-link=Maurice Spector |title=The Paris Commune and the Proletarian Revolution |date=15 March 1934 |magazine=The Militant |volume=III |number=11 |page=3 |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/spector/1930/03/commune.htm |via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref>

[[Philosophy:Marxism|Marxists]] believe proletarian revolutions can and will likely happen in all [[Philosophy:Capitalism|capitalist]] countries,<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/i97/articles/robin-blackburn-marxism-theory-of-proletarian-revolution |title=Marxism: Theory of Proletarian Revolution |first=Robin |last=Blackburn |journal=New Left Review |date=May–June 1976 |volume=I |issue=97}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Friedrich |last=Engels |author-link=Friedrich Engels |title=The Principles of Communism |date=October–November 1847 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm |via=Marxists Internet Archive |quote=Further, it has co-ordinated the social development of the civilized countries to such an extent that, in all of them, bourgeoisie and proletariat have become the decisive classes, and the struggle between them the great struggle of the day. It follows that the communist revolution will not merely be a national phenomenon but must take place simultaneously in all civilized countries – that is to say, at least in England, America, France, and Germany.}}</ref> related to the concept of [[Social:World revolution|world revolution]]. The objective of a proletarian revolution, according to Marxists, is to transform the bourgeois state into a [[Earth:Socialist state|workers' state]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Alexander |last=Goichbarg |author-link=:de:Alexander Grigorjewitsch Goichbarg |title=Revolução Proletária e Direito Civil |trans-title=Proletarian Revolution and Civil Law |url=http://www.scientific-socialism.de/PECAP2.htm |language=pt}}</ref> The traditional Marxist belief was that a proletarian revolution could only occur in a country where capitalism had developed.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lane |first=David |title=Revisiting Lenin’s theory of socialist revolution on the 150th anniversary of his birth |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2020/04/22/revisiting-lenins-theory-of-socialist-revolution-on-the-150th-anniversary-of-his-birth/ |date=22 April 2020 |website=European Politics and Policy |publisher=[[Organization:London School of Economics|London School of Economics]]}}</ref><ref name="PSTU">{{Cite web |first=Almir Cezar |last=Filho |url=http://www.pstu.org.br/teoria_materia.asp?id=6448&ida=0 |title=Moreno e os 80 anos do debate sobre a Revolução Permanente |language=pt |trans-title=Moreno and the 80 years of the debate on the Permanent Revolution |access-date=20 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071216032718/http://www.pstu.org.br/teoria_materia.asp?id=6448&ida=0 |archive-date=16 December 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[Social:Leninism|Leninist]] branch of Marxism argues that a proletarian revolution must be led by a [[Social:Vanguardism|vanguard]] of "professional revolutionaries", men and women who are fully dedicated to the communist cause and who form the nucleus of the communist revolutionary movement. This vanguard is meant to provide leadership and organization to the working class before and during the revolution, which aims to prevent the government from successfully ending it.<ref>{{cite book |first=Vladimir |last=Lenin |date=1918 |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/prrk/index.htm |title=The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky}}</ref> [[Biography:Vladimir Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]] believed that it was imperative to arm the working class to secure their leverage over the bourgeoisie. Lenin's words were printed in an article in German on the nature of pacifism and said "In every class society, whether based on slavery, serfdom, or, as at present, on wage-labour, the oppressor class is always armed."<ref name="Dunayevskaya, 2017">{{cite book |chapter=Lenin on Self-determination of Nations and on Organization After His Philosophic Notebooks |first=Raya |last=Dunayevskaya |author-link=Raya Dunayevskaya |date=5 June 2017 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004347618_005 |title=Russia: From Proletarian Revolution to State-Capitalist Counter-Revolution |editor-first1=Eugene |editor-last1=Gogol |editor-first2=Franklin |editor-last2=Dmitryev |pages=125–141 |publisher=[[Company:Brill Publishers|Brill]] |access-date=21 April 2022 |doi=10.1163/9789004347618_005 |isbn=978-90-04-34761-8}}</ref> It was under such conditions that the first successful proletarian revolution, the Russian Revolution, occurred.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/i43/articles/isaac-deutscher-the-unfinished-revolution-1917-67.pdf |title=The Unfinished Revolution: 1917–67 |first=Isaac |last=Deutscher |author-link=Isaac Deutscher |journal=New Left Review |date=May–June 1967 |volume=I |issue=43}}</ref>{{r|Dunayevskaya, 2017}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Chácon |first=Justin Akers |title=Radicals in the Barrio: Magonistas, Socialists, Wobblies, and Communists in the Mexican American Working Class |chapter=Introduction |publisher=[[Company:Haymarket Books|Haymarket Books]] |location=Chicago, IL. |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-60846-776-1 |pages=38}}</ref>

Finally, there are [[Social:Social anarchism|socialist anarchists]] and [[Philosophy:Libertarian socialism|libertarian socialists]]. Their view is that the revolution must be a bottom-up [[Social:Social revolution|social revolution]] which seeks to transform all aspects of society and the individuals which make up the society (see Asturian Revolution and Revolutionary Catalonia). Alexander Berkman said "there are revolutions and revolutions. Some revolutions change only the governmental form by putting a new set of rulers in place of the old. These are [[Social:Political revolution|political revolution]]s, and as such they often meet with little resistance. But a revolution that aims to abolish the entire system of [[Social:Wage slavery|wage slavery]] must also do away with the power of [[Social:Class conflict|one class to oppress another]]. That is, it is not any more a mere change of rulers, of government, not a political revolution, but one that seeks to alter the whole character of society. That would be a social revolution."<ref>{{cite book |first=Alexander |last=Berkman |date=1929 |title=Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism |chapter=25}}</ref>

== See also ==
* Communist revolution
* Free association of producers, the ultimate goal of communist and anarchist revolutions
* Labour revolt
* October Revolution
* Asturian miners' strike of 1934
* Revolution of 1934
* Proletarian Revolutionary Organisation, Nepal
* [[Social:Social revolution|Social revolution]]
* [[Social:World revolution|World revolution]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}


[[Category:Socialism]]

{{Sourceattribution|Proletarian revolution}}