The proles or proletariat are the working class in many of Orwell's books. In 1984 the proles take up much of the majority of the population. The Brotherhood keeps the proles on constant surveillance using the telescreens. Since the proles take up the majority wouldn't they easily be able to overthrow the Brotherhood? George Orwell wrote 1984 based on past events then used that to write a book to picture how the future might look. the working class has easily been able to overthrow governments before such as the French Revolution. Sure the Brotherhood has weaponry and then could easily take out the rebellion, but the Brotherhood couldn't eliminate their working class because then there is no structure in the government and then it would just collapse in on itself.