This one is pretty straightforward.
If you live in a large urban area you see human misery that can be pretty disturbing. The people walking the streets donβt just make it difficult to reconcile with Victorian narratives about The Deserving Poor and Fallen Women, they also make a joke out of contemporary positive, affirmative language surrounding Sex Work.
Itβs also pretty grim seeing their physical deterioration, and I canβt help but feel that once started on that trajectory, reintegration into society is not just a matter of being clothed and housed, but almost requires resocialization.
So, once someone is out of the workforce, separated from family, using narcotics and engaging in street level prostitution, what can be done?
Can the Lumpen be organized and mobilized, or is that a distraction from The Work of Socialism?
Came across a term recently that sort of led me down a road of research... ending up with very few answers but a lot of questions (and some frustration). Of course this is the Lumpenproletariat. It took a while before I ended up with a somewhat clear definition of the word: [see here](https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/l/u.htm)
What baffles me however is how these lumpenproletariat are looked at by many communists. Seen as anti-revolutionary and a waste of time by most communists I've seen talking about them. The reason why I am baffled by this is because from my interpretation, they are also victims of capitalist society.
" beggars, prostitutes, gangsters, racketeers, swindlers, petty criminals, tramps, chronic unemployed or unemployables "
Why do comrades look down on them? I'd love to be granted some clarity on the matter, thank you in advance.
This is an interesting book excerpt I found that was first published in 2002 that y'all should read. It argues that fascism isn't a tool of the bourgeoisie anymore. Modern fascism is "rooted in populist nationalist anti-capitalism and [has] an intransigent hostility to various state and supra-state institutions." It's anti-capitalism is virulently against the bourgeoisie, but will not rid the world of capitalism. The fascist's goal is to dethrone the bourgeoisie and take their position in society, while retaining the class system and maintaining it with brutal repression.
>Fascism is not a paper tiger or a symbolic target but a real and immediate danger both in this country and around the world. However, the nature of this danger is not self-evident. It requires clear explanation and it requires the rejection of some conventional wisdom. Fascism is not a danger because it is ruling class policy or is about to be adopted as policy. Not even because it could have major influences on this policy. Nor is it a danger because of the βrahowaβ, racial holy war, that is advocated by some fascist factions. The policies of official capitalism carried out through the schools and the criminal justice and welfare systems are both a far greater and a more immediate threat to the health and welfare of people of color than fascist instigated racial attacks and their promotion of racialist genocide. The real danger presented by the emerging fascist movements and organizations is that they might gain a mass following among potentially insurgent workers and declassed strata through an historic default of the left. This default is more than a possibility, it is a probability, and if it happens it will cause massive damage to the potential for a liberatory anti-capitalist insurgency.
What is your interpretation of Lumpenproletariat? Marx called the Lumpenproletariat as a "dangerous class" that consists of groups that don't have stake in capitalist mode of production. Examples of Lumpens during Marx's time are often beggars, pimps, thieves, vagabonds, racketeers, prostitutes, escaped slaves, smugglers, discharged soldiers, unemployed sailors.
Most Marxists have critical view of this class because their lack of class consciousness and broader political awareness and thus are susceptible to be manipulated for reactionary ends.
The concept of Lumpenproletariat was further developed in the rise of Fascism, as it is recorded that fascist paramilitaries often consists of discharged soldiers and military veterans that are unemployed.
The Black Panther Party on the other hand see the Lumpenproletariat differently than other socialists. They argue that the African American or Black Working class is considered the Lumpenproletariat because in addition to being exploited by capitalist ruling class, they are often further marginalized because of white supremacy which resulted in ghettoization, incarceration and economic exclusion more-so than white workers.
Mao during his guerilla years as a revolutionary believes that Marxist revolutionaries could recruit the Lumpenproletariat if they provided them with sufficient political education and literature thus raising their class consciousness.
What the title says.
βlumpenproletariatβ can be loosely translated to: βsocial scum,β βdangerous class,β βunderclass,β βragamuffin,β βriff-raff,β βragged-proletariat,β etc.
>βThe lumpenproletariat is passive decaying matter of the lowest layers of the old society, is here and there thrust into the [progressive] movement by a proletarian revolution; [however,] in accordance with its whole way of life, it is more likely to sell out to reactionary intrigues. β The Communist Manifesto
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> βThey belonged for the most part to the lumpenproletariat, which forms a mass clearly distinguished from the industrial proletariat in all large cities, a recruiting ground for thieves and criminals of all kinds, living on the refuse of society, people without a fixed line of work.β β The Class Struggles in France 1848β1850
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> Marx writes the βChief of theΒ Lumpenproletariatβ (Napoleon III) bought votes from the lumpenproletariat with βgifts and loans, these were the limits of the financial science of the lumpenproletariat, both the low and the exalted. Never had a President speculated more stupidly on the stupidity of the masses.β β βThe Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon,β 1852
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>Marx describes the lumpenproletariat in the following manner: βAlongside ruined rouΓ©s with questionable means of support and of dubious origin, degenerate and adventurous scions of the bourgeoisie, there were vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged convicts, runaway galley slaves, swindlers, charlatans, lazzaroni, pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, procurers, brothel keepers, porters, literati, organ grinders, rag-pickers, knife-grinders, tinkers, beggars; in short, the entirely undefined, disintegrating mass, thrown hither and yon, which the French call la bohΓ¨me.β β βThe Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon,β 1852
I very interested in what Ε½iΕΎek thinks of the lumpenproletariat and their role in society.
I am new to Marxism and when I discovered what Marx wrote about the lumpenproletariat I was shocked and bitterly disappointed. I didn't know whether to read into this in an ironic way where Marx's description might have several means, or if he really is just horrible. From what I've researched so far it really does seem as though it might be the latter.
On the other hand I'm a fan of Ε½iΕΎek, and I think he has an interesting take on some things. I'd like to know if he ever addressed the topic of lumpenproletariat and what he said about it. Thanks for any help or links!!
The Lumpenproletariat were the unemployed underbelly of a capitalist society, which were born into or fired into ganghood, prostitution and many other anti-social aspects of society. They were not class-conscious, so Marx didn't think they could play a positive role in the revolution. There were many leftist groups which tried to mobilise the lumpens for their gain, before the reactionary and counter-revolutionary groups tried to recruit them to fight against the true proletariat.
The League of Villains is an organisation controlled by power hungry maniacs to rule over the mentally ill, the homeless and the oppressed peoples of the current hero-centric society. The League is by no means trying to improve the living standards of the villains, they are merely exploiting them to do their dirty work. They have successfully mobilized the Lumpenproletariat to fight against their fellow oppressed peoples. The League recruits it's members by lulling them in with a false sense of inclusion, however that is merely an advertisement to justify that they will need to commit heinous antisocial crimes against society. Kinda like how Nazi groups recruit THEIR members.
The League pretends to be a safe space for the outcasts of society however they are no different from a normal capitalist construct. They oppress their members, and leave no sympathy if they get in trouble. The least they could do is send more backups and if they still lose, the only thing the controllers of the League cares about is how their a step further from controlling the world.
Sorry if my English was a bit wobbly, I don't know how to write big sentences. It's been a long time since I went to school lol
I just remember laughing my ass off about it but can't find the video.
Looking for either Marxist / ML /MLM analysis of the lumpenproletariat class in the US in the past fifty years.
I have heard many different descriptions of the Lumpenproletariat in a few different contexts, but was wondering if there were any good readings on exactly which groups fall into this category, and at what points? (i know that there is also debate as to the revolutionary capacity of the lumpen as a group, any resources on that I would love as well!)
Can someone explain to me what the Lumpenproletariat is. Are they e.g. the masses in Orwellβs 1984? And who are they today? I am grateful for any answers.
The general definition of them is an underclass devoid of class consciousness. Usually people labeled this are criminals, stock investors, the homeless, mentally unstable people, sex workers, and conservatives. Bussard called them a parasitic group who would be manipulated by reactionary forces.
My issue with the term is its definition only feels about 80% there and I'd also challenge that these people are devoid of class consciousness and lack any revolutionary potential. Granted, I'd say some lack revolutionary potential, but I'd also argue others wouldn't. But this isn't about me, this is about you. What do you think about it?
Listening to the Red Menace talk about The Wretched of The Earth, I found Fanon's thoughts on how race and class struggle being inseparably linked interesting. To be rich is to be white, and to be white is to be rich. Really, I'm wondering if I am using Fanon's method of marxist analysis correctly when applied to the US.
Even before its official inception, America had already clearly demonstrated the link between class and racial struggle. It spent the entirety of its early history genociding the native population in standard settler colonialist fashion, while at the same time importing its own slave labor force from Africa. It is impossible to say there is a group of people more clearly oppressed by white colonial capitalism than the brown and black peoples of the world. And even after the release of their physical chains through emancipation, America restricted them to membership of the peasantry and lumpenproletariat (Defined by Fanon as the peasantry in colonial societies of the Third World not involved in industrial production who are unaware of the dominant colonial ideology, and defined by orthodox marxists as those members of the proletariat, especially criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed, who lacked awareness of their collective interest as an oppressed class), with little hope to ever reach even the level of the average proletarian. America was forced to eventually allow the entry of racial minorities into the proletariat and on rare occasion the bourgeoisie, but clearly still does its best to oppress them as a whole.
I think itβs fair to argue that the class most influential on popular American music and culture throughout its entire history has been the lumpenproletariat. Looking at the material and cultural conditions of today, this is increasingly true as the contradictions within the imperial core has grown larger. A huge portion of novels, tv shows, movies revolve around lumpenproletariat protagonists; and rap, blues, and rock both exist and thrive thanks to the stories and creativity of the lumpenproletariat by both class definitions.
According to the podcast, Fanon disagreed with orthodox marxism on the usefulness of the lumpenproletariat in the revolution. Lenin called their recruitment opportunism and as far as I can tell most orthodox marxists believe them to not have revolutionary potential. Fanon disagreed (at least in the case of colonized societies) and believed them to have some of the strongest revolutionary potential. In
... keep reading on reddit β‘
