Which non-proletarian non-grand bourgeois classes have revolutionary potential?

[Jose Gracchus]

In parallel to the other thread:

For heterodox Marxists (students of Shanin, "Late Marx", "libertarian Marxists", Maoists, etc.), or the various species of anarchist, how do you identify non-proletarian revolutionary classes? The most obvious examples would be the a.) peasantry, and b.) the lumpenproletariat.

Why is this the case? Why theoretically? What responses do you have to Orthodox Marxist political economy and other criticisms of non-proletarian revolutionary politics?

What political policies do you uphold to bring non-proletarians along into socialism, and how to end propertyholding while advancing the productive forces? How are political and democratic questions to be settled across a revolutionary class front that contains non-proletarians alongside proletarians?

[Die Neue Zeit]

In parallel to the other thread:

For heterodox Marxists (students of Shanin, "Late Marx", "libertarian Marxists", Maoists, etc.), or the various species of anarchist, how do you identify non-proletarian revolutionary classes? The most obvious examples would be the a.) peasantry, and b.) the lumpenproletariat.

By "lumpenproletariat" you mean the proper lumpenproletariat, right (illegal prostitutes, rank-and-file gangsters), and not lumpenbourgeoisie (pimps and the like) or lumpen (beggars and the like)?


Why is this the case? Why theoretically? What responses do you have to Orthodox Marxist political economy and other criticisms of non-proletarian revolutionary politics?

There are strains in Orthodox Marxism that do identify non-proletarian "revolutionary classes," but only in the political and not social sense.

I would also identify a coordinator class-for-itself as being politically and socially revolutionary to a certain extent, despite the legacy of you-know-what-and-whom.


What political policies do you uphold to bring non-proletarians along into socialism, and how to end property-holding while advancing the productive forces? How are political and democratic questions to be settled across a revolutionary class front that contains non-proletarians alongside proletarians?

Strictly speaking on the question of property relations and vulgar views on generalized commodity production (i.e., only selling for a profit), income multiples should be propagated towards a coordinator class-for-itself. The peasantry can be tackled with by the two-fold approach of sovkhozization and "food sovereignty" populism. The proper lumpenproletariat can be given more socially dignifying jobs.

The third class is the easiest class to deal with, while the first one is ironically the hardest one, when thinking beyond mere property relations and vulgar views on generalized commodity production.