Egypt: The Lumpen Rise From The Dead

[Rakhmetov]

“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.”

http://www.marxist.com/egypt-battle-tahrir-square.htm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt

[Sentinel]

It's indeed almost scary how spot on Marx and Engels were on the role of the lumpenproletariat in a revolutionary situation, I was thinking about that too. The fact that what they wrote so long ago still applies today, is proof of the fact that Marxism isn't a mere 'ideology', but a science which accurately describes human society and it's development.

[RED DAVE]

It's indeed almost scary how spot on Marx and Engels were on the role of the lumpenproletariat in a revolutionary situation, I was thinking about that too. The fact that what they wrote so long ago still applies today, is proof of the fact that Marxism isn't a mere 'ideology', but a science which accurately describes human society and it's development.This was a fundamental, and conscious, mistake that the Black Panthers made. As a result, at the party reeled from police attacks, internally there was behavior that could be called gang-like, including internal assassinations.

RED DAVE

[Patchd]

Just curious about some of your views on the lumpenproletariat, do you seem them as a distinct class of its own?

[Rakhmetov]

This was a fundamental, and conscious, mistake that the Black Panthers made. As a result, at the party reeled from police attacks, internally there was behavior that could be called gang-like, including internal assassinations.

RED DAVE

I agree. You could say that the leaders Newton and Cleaver suffered from this view. Each of them was eloquent and capable as working class leaders but they felt they should incorporate lumpen "values" and attitudes which ended in---along with FBI raids--- helping self-destruct the Panthers.