I just watched Office Space

[Ownthink]

I just watched one of my all time favorite movies again -- Office Space. While watching it, I was thinking, are these types of workers part of the Proletariat, or working class? I would say yes, but I was just wondering on others opinions.

[Clarksist]

The do not own the means of production, and are exploited by the bourgeois. They seem proletariat enough.

Luckily, the movie kicks so much ass it doesn't matter. I mean no other movie in recent times has been as funny as Office Space.

And the anti-capitalist message is pretty cool too. ;)

[YKTMX]

They are not proletarians, they are working class.

The proletariat are the large scale industrial workforce.

[KC]

The proletariat are the large scale industrial workforce.


Where'd you get that definition from?

[YKTMX]

I think the first person I heard evince it was Terry Eagleton (a British Marxist and academic). I'm trying to look for the article.

He basically said although the large scale industrial workforce (the proletariat) is declining in the West, they have been replaced by an expanded and amorphous "working class".

I think it's a useful distinction.

[STI]

From the Marxist Internet Archive (http://www.marxists.org/glossary/frame.htm):

"The proletariat is that class in society which lives entirely from the sale of its labour power and does not draw profit from any kind of capital; whose weal and woe, whose life and death,whose sole existence depends on the demand for labour..."

It doesn't say "... as long as they work in factories" or "...but not counting office drones".

The guys in "Office Space" did live only from the sale of their labour power, did not draw profit from any kind of capital, and their weal/woe, life/death, their sole existence depended on the demand for labour.

Yes, they're proletarians, and are therefore working class.

Terrific movie, too. I loved it before I was politicized, and now that I am, I have sex with it.

[bolshevik butcher]

I think they are, if someone works in an office then they are selling there labour. And they dont own the means of production, also they have trade unions and a lot of them seem to be very badly treated. You are't all of a suddne 'middle class' becuase you dont do 'dirty' work.

[Oldergod]

if you break your back for nothing than your a comrade of mine

[which doctor]

They are part of the exploited working class.

Wonderful movie too. One of my all time favorites.

[kurt]

They are proletariat. You don't have to work in a factory to be proletarian, and industry is not solely confined to factory work.