Lumpenproletariat

The Lumpenproletariat, alternatively called lumpenprole or lumpen, refers a marginalized and impoverished social group that includes people who may be unemployed, homeless, or engaged in informal and illegal activities. They do not have a clear role in the Capitalist mode of production and are often considered to be outside the traditional working class. The lumpenproletariat is (but not always) exploitable by reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces. The term was coined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Marx defined the lumpenproletariat as a dangerous class and "passively rotting mass" thrown off the lowest layers of the old society.^[1] He and Vladimir Lenin dismissed the revolutionary potential of the lumpenproletariat. However, Mao believed that the lumpenproletariat could be revolutionary with the correct guidance.^[2]

A notable attempt at utilising the lumpenproletariat was with the Black Panther Party (BPP). In 1969 Eldridge Cleaver claimed that Huey P. Newton had transformed the black lumpenproletariat into the "vanguard of the proletariat".^[3] However, in actuality the lumpen sections of the BPP were more a small section of the party associated with a lack of disclipine and a criminal mindset that provided bourgeois media more opportunities to slander the BPP than they would otherwise have.^[4]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

Lumpen was a prefix for "rag"; therefore Lumpenproletariat literally means "rag proletariat".

Instances[edit | edit source]

Prostitutes
Criminals (tramps, vagabonds, homeless persons)

Unemployed workers[edit | edit source]

Unemployed workers can turn into lumpenproletarians a result of being barred from employment by capitalists.

Unemployed workers typically consist of:

Blacklisted workers
Disabled persons

References[edit | edit source]

↑ “The "dangerous class", [lumpenproletariat] the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society, may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.”

Karl Marx. Communist Manifesto: '1' (p. 15). [MIA]
↑ Mao Zedong (1926). Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society. [MIA]
↑ “Essentially, what Huey did was to provide the ideology and the methodology for organizing the Black Urban Lumpenproletariat. Armed with this ideological perspective and method, Huey transformed the Black lumpenproletariat from the forgotten people at the bottom of society into the vanguard of the proletariat.”

Eldridge Cleaver (1969). "On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party" (pp. 2-11). Oakland: Black Panther Party.
↑ Sundiata Acoli (2008). "A Brief History of the Black Panther Party and Its Place In the Black Liberation Movement" Red Sails. Archived from the original on 2025-05-18.

[1] “The "dangerous class", [lumpenproletariat] the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society, may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.”

Karl Marx. Communist Manifesto: '1' (p. 15). [MIA]

[2] Mao Zedong (1926). Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society. [MIA]

[3] “Essentially, what Huey did was to provide the ideology and the methodology for organizing the Black Urban Lumpenproletariat. Armed with this ideological perspective and method, Huey transformed the Black lumpenproletariat from the forgotten people at the bottom of society into the vanguard of the proletariat.”

Eldridge Cleaver (1969). "On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party" (pp. 2-11). Oakland: Black Panther Party.

[4] Sundiata Acoli (2008). "A Brief History of the Black Panther Party and Its Place In the Black Liberation Movement" Red Sails. Archived from the original on 2025-05-18.

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