Received wisdom holds that history has proven Marx’s theory of the working class to be wrong. This claim hinges on the so-called gravedigger thesis.

According to leading industrial-relations scholar Paul Edwards, central to Marx’s theory of the working class is the prediction that “that there is an inherent tendency for the working class to identify and struggle for specific class interests, in particular, the overthrow of capitalism.” For Edwards, “any proper Marxism” must endorse this thesis.

Similarly, sociologist Paul Thompson, whose innovative research on work and employment draws heavily on Marx’s concepts and categories, insisted his theory is not Marxist because it does not hold that “the proletariat would be compelled to challenge and transform class society by virtue of its objective location in the system of production.”