I keep getting different definitions of lumpenproletariat every time I look it up.

  • Soviet Snake
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    112 years ago

    Lumpen means rags in German, so it would be something poorer than the proletarian, e.g.: prostitutes, vagabonds, thiefs, (small) drug dealers and so on. Basically what Marx called the "reserve army of the unemployed who live in the worst conditions and whose, by existing in such a poor material reality do not have the resources to be properly class conscious. This is not to say that some individual in this condition can’t have a good understanding of Marxism, but rather than because of their status they cannot have a proper organization as a movement, one of the main reasons being the state of illegality of their respective labours.

  • @CommunistWolf@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    👋

    IAMA lumpen by birth; AMA. Or whatever the lemmy equivalent is.

    From a technical point of view, lumpen survive and reproduce their class differently to proletarians. So their class interests differ to those of proletarians, in ways that mean they can’t be relied upon in a revolution. In many ways, they prey on the proletariat to survive (theft, vice, etc), although they prey on the bourgeoisie as well, when they can.

    The rise of communism eradicates their sociological niche, so to speak. As a result, any random lumpen is more likely to oppose it than to support it.

    Incidentally, peasants also got short shrift for the same reason, although the niche they occupy happens to be a different one.

    edit: forgot to mention the “reserve army” aspect of the lumpen, which is that their mere existence weakens proletarian class power. In a labour dispute, for instance, the bourgeoisie can go to the lumpen to find strike-breakers or scabs.

  • Ratette (she/her)
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    62 years ago

    If the proletariat are the workers with class consciousness who organise together, then the lumpen proletariat are the uneducated (on class dynamics and labour) and propagandised proletariat without class consciousness and revolutionary potential.

    Is how I understood it.