Speaking from experience here. They have enough time. Most of them are completely politically uninvolved, but the ones who do know about politics are very frequently conservative, so i’m not entirely sure how to go about this.
It would make a lot of sense for rightwingers to mobilize the homeless and it probably won’t be as difficult considering homeless people get a huge amount of aid from churches.
This is why Marxists keep telling socialists to read theory and organize. I don’t want to come down too hard on you, but to my knowledge a successful mass action of homeless people, part of the lumpenproletariat, has never been seen, let alone an actual revolution. This is why socialists organize around the workers. Workers can go on strike and the elite of society must eventually hear their demands. They have no interest when lumpen protest, because why would they? What can a mass action of the lumpenprol do even if it could happen?
Rightwingers don’t mobilize lumpenprol because they know better
but to my knowledge a successful mass action of homeless people, part of the lumpenproletariat
1932?
I think they rolled tanks over them. Not exactly the US government’s proudest moment. The homeless can basically be murdered en masse, and no one’s going to move a finger to help them. Completely on their own.
Though maybe OP has a point… maybe if the GOP organized it, maybe they’d have enough value to them that they’d prevent the worst sort of reprisals. Then again, Trump could’ve pardoned all of the Jan. 6th imbeciles and didn’t, so if I were homeless I definitely wouldn’t accept any Republican promises at face value.
They have no interest when lumpen protest,
I worked for a university a few years back. And our particular department was off-campus at the time, some donated building downtown. One day I get an email sent to the entire department, asking if anyone had seen a homeless family (with kids) living out of a car in our parking lot or nearby. The police had come by, asking our office manager, who had it forwarded to everyone. Ostensibly it was “so they could get them help”.
I can’t imagine living like that, don’t want to. But if that life could possibly be worst, like if I were writing some mind-breaking dystopian story, I think I’d add “not only homeless, but being chased off by the police where ever they go”.
So I contend that if 50,000 smelly homeless people were to march on DC, that yes, people would notice. And people would be interested (note, not the positive sort of interest… the same way you’re interested when the exterminator informs you that you have the most roach-infested home he’s ever seen).
What can a mass action of the lumpenprol do even if it could happen?
Why, they could get themselves murdered. By the truckload. I can’t claim to have any true insight as to the false justifications given after the fact, or who might get volunteered for scapegoat duty if the public has remorse. The former is likely to be some claim that they were terrorists with a dirty bomb, but the latter… woo boy, it would’ve been convenient if Trump were still in office.
See, that’s the thing I don’t get. For people who claim to be compassionate, why are they always asking for other people to suffer? Even I don’t want to see thousands of homeless people mowed down by machine gun fire, or hauled off to some desolate dungeon after being beaten half to death. Do “compassionate” people just not understand what it is they’re asking for?
lumpenprol
includes criminals. Criminals afaik have riots in prison to improve circumstances. Criminals are frequently (depending on region) recruited into firefighting forces. Mobilizing lumpenprol with other facets of society would help increase numbers.
Gandhi mobilized some very poor people successfully.
No it doesn’t include criminals, it can’t. Because a criminal is someone who breaks the law, they can belong to any class. This includes ex big pharma exec Martin Shkreli, drug lords like Pablo Escobar, etc.
I think there’s potential there, but it’s hard to ask people that can barely sustain their existence to spend time they could be using to earn money is a bit complicated, if there were some true promise of true economical compensation, maybe, but for that you need to expropriate some land which would never happen in the US because their military industry is too big, that generally happens like in countries with heavy levels of peasantry.
expropriate some land
This happened vaguely during blm with a police station. Mobilize the homeless and convince them they can stay in a police station, which would benefit somehow or something… not sure.
A handful of homeless/very poor come out during protests already about housing rights or to increase welfare. At least 1 homeless guy i met goes out to every antimask protest. A lot of them go out to church services on sunday, even the church services that are not in a shelter.
Or if a riot has like the promise of seizing a target again, that’s something. But i wouldnt recommend a riot.
What about trying to promote some anti work shit on /r/homeless plus trying to create groups of like minded people who are in the same situation? It may be a better way to try to start something than in person.
I think thats a good idea compared to in person. Unforunately, I largely agree with other posters here in that the average homeless person is too pre-occupied to have any kind of class consciousness, but online its easier to find the more class conscious individuals
Unfortunately, from what i’ve seen, if the venue being seized has a lot of cigarettes, that would also maybe convince some homeless
I would most certainly join the revolution if they promise me free cigarettes.
hey por ultima vez se llaman piqueteros!!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquetero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUUk0zj9JDw
Mobilise for what?
