Petit-Bourgeoise

[Pirate Utopian]

my questions are:
1.is the petit-bourgeoise exploited?, i know they arent like proletarians and lumpens but are they?

2. what is their role in the revolution?

3. what sort of jobs/occupations are in the petit-bourgeoise nowadays?

4. can you recommend me some writings on this?

[Raúl Duke]

I'm not an expert marxist; but I'll give it a shot.

1# No, they own their own means of production or have a small business

2# Most likely side with the bourgeoise, since their material interets/perspective is simmilar to theirs.

Some might ally with proletarians, specially those who before worked along side their hired workers

3#Small business owners (who either don't work or work alongside with the employess), mostly. People who own their own means of productions (self-employed; yet not an employer)
I think people have theorised new visions of the petit-bourgeoisie, including more people.

4# Don't know....The communist manifesto I suppose?

[apathy maybe]

http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/p/e...tit-bourgeoisie (http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/p/e.htm#petit-bourgeoisie)
http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/p/e...tty-bourgeoisie (http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/p/e.htm#petty-bourgeoisie)

They are people who own some means of production, but still have to work to live.

I don't like the term personally, because it includes, both those who employ others and those who don't.

I would imagine that people who worked in a cooperative (all owning equal shares) could be considered to be petit-bourgeoisie, which is more reason not to use the term.

[Vargha Poralli]

1.is the petit-bourgeoise exploited?, i know they arent like proletarians and lumpens but are they?

No. They are in the other corner. They are exploiters in some cases too.


2. what is their role in the revolution?

Sometimes it will be negative. Sometimes it micght be positive. Historically it had either helped the reaction(Nazism,Fascism) or it had contributed to the degeneration of revolution(Soviet Union) or degeneration of a workers party(CPC).


4. can you recommend me some writings on this?

Read communist manifesto. Marx and Engels had written bout them often. But it might not be clear.

[Janus]

1.is the petit-bourgeoise exploited?, i know they arent like proletarians and lumpens but are they?
They work for themselves and thus by definition aren't exploited by anyone.


2. what is their role in the revolution?
As a class, they will probably lean towards the counter-revolutionary forces.


3. what sort of jobs/occupations are in the petit-bourgeoise nowadays?
Any business owner, entrepeneur, managers, farmers, etc.

[bezdomni]

Petit-bourgeois people are alienated by capitalist production, but they are not exploited by capitalist production...at least not to the same degree as proletarian people.

The important thing to know about the petit-bourgeoisie is they can have a revolutionary outlook, but only the proletarian class can establish communism.

However, during the socialist phase, many petit-bourgeois revolutionaries would become proletarianized in material interest.

The question that gets raised frequently is if the petit-bourgeoisie can play a leadership role in socialist revolution.

[Sonnie]

I think that everyone under the capitalist system is exploited by some means. I don't see anything wrong with someone who gets treated like shit at work, so they start their own (fairly run) business.
They're jsut as much pushed around by big corporations/unfair social hierarchies as any of us.
I think that in the revolution, they would most likely join the working class, as they do struggle and probably aren't big fans of the system.