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The lumpenproletariat (German Lumpenproletariat, "rabble-proletariat"; "raggedy proletariat") is a term originally defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The German Ideology (1845), their famous second joint work, and later expounded upon in future works by Marx. In Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), the term refers to the 'refuse of all classes,' including 'swindlers, confidence tricksters, brothel-keepers, rag-and-bone merchants, organ-grinders, beggars, and other flotsam of society.'. See criminality.
In the Eighteenth Brumaire, the lumpenproletariat were a 'class fraction' that constituted the political power base for Louis Bonaparte of France in 1848. In this sense, Marx argued that in the particular historical events leading up to Louis Bonaparte's coup in late 1851, the proletariat and bourgeoisie were productive and progressive, advancing the historical process by developing society's labor power and its capabilities, whereas the 'lumpenproletariat' was unproductive and regressive.
Issues
Engels wrote about Swiss mercenaries during the end of the 1848 July monarchy rule of revolutionary Naples: "This action of the Neapolitan lumpenproletariat decided the defeat of the revolution. Swiss guardsmen, Neapolitan soldiers and lazzaroni combined pounced upon the defenders of the barricades."http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/06/01d.htm
In his ancillary writings Marx also saw little potential in these sections of society. When speaking of those working in arguably the most unsafe, alienating work environment - the battlefield , he said: "A motley crew of mutineering soldiers who have murdered their officers, torn asunder the ties of discipline, and not succeeded in discovering a man on whom to bestow supreme command are certainly the body least likely to organise a serious and protracted resistance." K.Marx, The First Indian War of Independence 1855-59. Moscow, 1960, p. 42. This perhaps shows similarities with the thinking held by early middle-class radicals such as the Fabians, that resistance and revolution are to be an orderly, disciplined affair. However, in Marx's time, some of the most vocal and anti-establishment voices were the terroristic Nihilists, who revelled in crime, adventurism and apparent sociopathy, and did not seem to get any closer to their aims or widespread working-class adoptation of their methods or objectives. The Nihilists wanted to provoke the state and championed the propaganda by the deed using "terroristic" methods such as bombing and assassination.
Marx's description of mutineers as being unreliable could be argued upon at length. Russian Army mutineers and their soldiers committees were critical to the overturning of the Tzarist regime during the Russian Revolution. Yet that particular revolution is often seen as having failed the Russian proletariat in its ultimate conquest for power by continuing militarism and allowing the formation of a new social class of Bolsheviks and apparatchiks. There was little effective resistance during Stalin's brutal purge of the Soviet armed forces in the late 1930s.
According to Marx, the lumpenproletariat had no real motive for participating in revolution, and might have in fact an interest in preserving the current class structure, because members of the lumpenproletariat often depended on the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy for their day-to-day existence. In that sense, Marx saw the lumpenproletariat as a counter-revolutionary force.
Marx's definition has influenced contemporary sociologists, who are concerned with many of the marginalized elements of society characterized by Marx under this label. Marxian and even some non-Marxist sociologists now use the term to refer to those they see as the victims of modern society, such as welfare recipients, beggars, and homeless people, who exist outside the wage-labor system, or people who make their living through disreputable means (prostitutes and pimps, swindlers, drug dealers, bootleggers, and operators of illegal gambling enterprises), but depend on the formal economy for their day-to-day existence.
Used as a pejorative
In modern Russian language, "lumpen", the shortened form of "lumpenproletariat", is sometimes used to refer to lower classes of society. The meaning of the term is roughly analogous to chav, scanger, white trash, or yobbo. See http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/361/14486_homeless.html as an example of such use.
Notes
Further reading
- Eric Hobsbawm, Bandits. London, New Press, 2002.
- Friedrich Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 Oxford Paperbacks, 1999.
See also
External links
Social classes | Social groups | German loanwords | Poverty
Subproletariat | Lumpenproletariat | Lumpenproletariaat | Lumpemproletariado | Sous-prolétariat | Lumpenproletariat | Trasproletariat | 流氓无产阶级
"Lumpenproletariat"