marxist strategies for organizing the unemployed lumpenproletariat?

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

Have you ever read anything on the subject? There seem to be a lot of openly homeless people where i live, which got me thinking about marxist historical strategies to organize the unemployed.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

I'm not sure about Marxist approaches. But alot of progressive organizations have tried to get the homeless politically involved by getting them involved in journalism. Here's an article on wikipedia that might be useful for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_paper

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

I'm not sure about Marxist approaches. But alot of progressive organizations have tried to get the homeless politically involved by getting them involved in journalism. Here's an article on wikipedia that might be useful for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_paper

Interesting. Here (http://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/red-papers-2/franklin.htm) is what i have been reading through on the subject.

[GoddessCleoLover]

IMO the majority of the unemployed and/or homeless are proletarians, not lumpen. Marx and Engels referred to the unemployed as the reserve army of the proletariat.

Bruce Franklin has an engaging writing style, but to my mind his analysis is badly dated at best and not an accurate description of the unemployed or homeless today.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

IMO the majority of the unemployed and/or homeless are proletarians, not lumpen. Marx and Engels referred to the unemployed as the reserve army of the proletariat.

Bruce Franklin has an engaging writing style, but to my mind his analysis is badly dated at best and not an accurate description of the unemployed or homeless today.

Very engaging indeed. Care to comment on my flyer here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/propaganda-flyer-psl-t177059/index.html?t=177059) btw?

[Delenda Carthago]

I think the Black Panthers have a lot to teach on the issue.

[Ravachol]

There is an article on the relationship between the German communist movement (from the Spartacists to the KPD) with (semi-criminal) gangs of red lumpen youth (known as 'klicken') taken from the book "The German Working Class" by Richard J. Evans that appeared in Collective Action Notes:

ORGANISING THE 'LUMPENPROLETARIAT': CLIQUES AND COMMUNISTS IN BERLIN DURING THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC (http://www.redemmas.org/collective_action_notes/evans1.htm).

Another example (though anarchist, not Marxist) would be the Dutch 'Moker Groep' (Sledgehammer Group) which was, in contemporary terms, an insurrectionary anarchist affinity organisation composed of roughly 500 mainly lumpen proletarian youth who engaged in propagandist actions, 'proletarian shopping', etc. One of the most well-known texts associated with the 'Moker' periodical is 'Work is a crime' (http://www.principiadialectica.co.uk/blog/?p=255) by Herman Schuurman.

[Lord Daedra]

I'd think using favela like block parties and prodding the herd to riot over a certain cause should do the trick.

[Fruit of Ulysses]

This is dipping into more supposed "anarchist" territory but squatting is a great way to organize and unite lumpen/homeless youth, your squatspot can serve as a base of operations (an office for a street paper perhaps?).

I would suggest gathering clothes, canned food,basic hygenic items like q-tips to distribute alongside pamphlets,leaflets containing both addresses and phone numbers for charity organizations and quotes from revolutionary theoretical works. IF YOU DONT RECYCLE SAVE YOUR CANS AND GIVE THEM OUT IN BAGS. Cans = Free Money. The more you give to them and help them the more leverage you'l have, the more they'l listen. The language of the literature should be simple but emotional-they dont want to be forcefed more of someones gospel- so select a text that will resonate with their specific condition. Make a facebook/tumblr/twitter page for it, contact your local IWW, OCCUPY chapter or ANSWER coalition.

In LA county I know the homeless can get a shopping cart registered as a legal business, I googled it but couldn't find anything. But I've seen them, they have plaques issued by the city or something that they attach to the shopping carts. Dig into that and maybe you can find something worthwhile. When I was a squatter we had a shopping cart we called our "pirate ship", it had a red flag and was filled with miscellaneous items for sale/trade/distribute.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I'd say the best strategy for organizing homeless folk begins with having an authentic relationship to them. Rather than thinking of them as subjects of organization, make some friends. The best organizing I've ever done with at risk or homeless youth involved living in a tent city for a month and a half, becoming friends, and providing my input on decision making as a radical, rather than by preaching/flyering, etc. Eventually, some folk appreciated my contributions and wanted to talk politics. Some folk didn't, but, whatever - it was still valuable, and we still learned from each other.

[GoddessCleoLover]

I still maintain that the distinction between unemployed proletarians and the lumpen proletariat is important, given the level of deindustrialization occurring in the USA. IMO the homeless and unemployed ought to be considered presumptively proletarian and victims of the system. Glorification of hustle and jive of the lumpen, whether from Bruce Franklin, Huey P. Newton or whoever was counter-productive back in the day. The only lessons taught by Professor Franklin and Defense Minister Huey P. Newton were bad lessons. Those teachings violate basic principles of Marxism.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Glorification of hustle and jive of the lumpen, whether from Bruce Franklin, Huey P. Newton or whoever was counter-productive back in the day. The only lessons taught by Professor Franklin and Defense Minister Huey P. Newton were bad lessons. Those teachings violate basic principles of Marxism.

Ermm... The black panthers had 250,000 members at their height. Those are real numbers. So clearly they are doing something right by going to the "hardcore" of the proletariat rather than organizing middle class labor aristocracy, which is the strategy of most other socialist parities that have about 100 members each. That's not to say that we shouldn't engage the Labor aristocracy, it's just that there is a dogmatic insistence on winning over the labor aristocracy that simply hasn't been effective, while Huey's approach clearly was.


And what's wrong with the Lumben? I feel like you are employing a vulgar materialism to denounce an entire layer of society. Sure they may not be proletarians in the traditional sense, but who has less to lose than the Lumben black folk of America?

[GoddessCleoLover]

Ermm... The black panthers had 250,000 members at their height. Those are real numbers. So clearly they are doing something right by going to the "hardcore" of the proletariat rather than organizing middle class labor aristocracy, which is the strategy of most other socialist parities that have about 100 members each. That's not to say that we shouldn't engage the Labor aristocracy, it's just that there is a dogmatic insistence on winning over the labor aristocracy that simply hasn't been effective, while Huey's approach clearly was.


And what's wrong with the Lumben? I feel like you are employing a vulgar materialism to denounce an entire layer of society. Sure they may not be proletarians in the traditional sense, but who has less to lose than the Lumben black folk of America?


I am unsure whether we fundamentally disagree with each other or don't understand each other. My understanding of Marxism that the lumpen proletariat consists of hustler, criminal, and hooligans who disdain work as a concept and prefer to lie, cheat, and steal. That is why I distinguish between unemployed proletarians and lumpen. Concretely, if a poor person gets by by hustling the system that is proletarian, if he sells dope on the corner he is lumpen.

This is not a moral issue. One problem with lumpen is that is that they glorify individualistic criminality rather than mass action. IMO the Panthers earned the love and respect of the African-American community by serving the people, for example the breakfast program. In other words, they were better in practice than they were in theory. That is preferable to the reverse isn't it?