lumpen

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Sam:
>> Justin:
>> ><< The "underclass" is not a valid category for leftist social analysis
>>either
>> > (unless one examines it only to point out how the concept is used by
>> > ideologues).  That is an ideological category employed in racist and often
>> > anti-urban discourse and stands in sharp contrast to the Marxist
>> > understanding of class. >>
>> >
>> >"The 'dangerous class,' 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." --Marx & Engels, The Manifest of the Communisy Party, Part I.
>> >
>> >But what do you expect from a couple of German intellectuals, anyway?
>> >Ideologues all, with no grasp of the "Marxist understanding of class."
>>
>> I think that given the war on crime, etc. in the USA, it is best to drop
>> the concept of "lumpenproletariat" out of Marxist theory -- it occupies
>> little weight in Marx's work to begin with and has no political utility
>> now, only the danger of misuse.
>
>A bit harsh on the lumpen. Sure, the lumpen by definition play no role
>in Marxist theory, other than as the reserve army of labor but what
>about reality? In Canada at least, about 20% of the population are
>lumpen, mostly whites and natives. In some countries it would be 60-70%
>of the population.

Do the unemployed & the informally employed -- in some countries 60-70% of
the population as you note -- equal "lumpen" in Marx's terminlogy?  I don't
think so.

Anyhow, I'm saying that the word "lumpen" is not necessary while the
concept of "the reserve army of labor" is necessary for a Marxist analysis
of class.

Yoshie