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In Marxist analysis, the proletariat is the working class that must sell their labor in order to survive because, unlike their counterpart (the bourgeoisie), they do not own property. Césaire follows Marx in arguing that the proletariat’s destiny is to seize power from the bourgeoisie through a political revolution, but he also emphasizes that the relationship between bourgeoisie and proletariat is inseparable from that between Europe and the peoples it colonized. Namely, he argues that colonialism’s central purpose was to give the European bourgeoisie access to even more resources and low-cost labor, which means that it incorporated most of the non-European world into the global proletariat. While Césaire argues that Europe has created both “the problem of the proletariat and the colonial problem,” meaning that Europe has both forced the world to become its laborers and taken political control over it, he emphasizes that these are different aspects of the same history and political struggle. In turn, the revolution to overcome bourgeois rule and establish “a new society” must be at once a revolution of the proletariat and a revolution of colonies against the colonizer.
Proletariat Quotes in Discourse on Colonialism
The Discourse on Colonialism quotes below are all either spoken by Proletariat or refer to Proletariat. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Section 1
Quotes
A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization.
A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a sick civilization.
A civilization that plays fast and loose with its principles is a dying civilization.
The fact is that the so-called European civilization—“Western” civilization—as it has been shaped by two centuries of bourgeois rule, is incapable of solving the two major problems to which its existence has given rise: the problem of the proletariat and the colonial problem; that Europe is unable to justify itself either before the bar of “reason” or before the bar of “conscience”; and that, increasingly, it takes refuge in a hypocrisy which is all the more odious because it is less and less likely to deceive.
Europe is indefensible.
Apparently that is the conclusion the American strategists are whispering to each other.
That in itself is not serious.
What is serious is that “Europe” is morally, spiritually indefensible.
And today the indictment is brought against it not by the European masses alone, but on a world scale, by tens and tens of millions of men who, from the depths of slavery, set themselves up as judges.
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Section 6
Quotes
The salvation of Europe is not a matter of a revolution in methods. It is a matter of the Revolution—the one which, until such time as there is a classless society, will substitute for the narrow tyranny of a dehumanized bourgeoisie the preponderance of the only class that still has a universal mission, because it suffers in its flesh from all the wrongs of history, from all the universal wrongs: the proletariat.
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Proletariat Term Timeline in Discourse on Colonialism
The timeline below shows where the term Proletariat appears in Discourse on Colonialism. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Section 1
...or stick up for its principles. Specifically, elite-ruled Europe must confront “the problem of the proletariat and the colonial problem,” which are both of its own creation. Despite praising “reason” and...
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Section 2
...cooperated with them to further oppress the population. Rather than providing “civilization,” Europe has provided “proletarianization and mystification.”
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Section 6
...Saving Europe requires “the Revolution,” which promises to create “a classless society” led by the proletariat, rather than the bourgeoisie.
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