[lbo-talk] Lumpen

Eric Beck rayrena at realtime.net
Sat Jan 21 16:10:12 PST 2006


Yoshie wrote:


>The fuzziest of all categories must be "lumpen." [...]
>
>What are lumpen? Who are they? How many lumpens exist in the USA
>in particular and the world in general? Are they growing in number?
>It seems impossible to answer such questions at all. About workers,
>capitalists, etc., you can attempt definitions and answers, based on
>your political perspective and social theory, however contradictory
>and unsatisfactory to others, but "lumpen" seems to defy any such
>attempts, and in truth, few have and would bother. I propose that
>the category be retired from use.

Nicholas Thoburn makes pretty nice use of it in his book on Marx and Deleuze: <http://libcom.org/library/deleuze-marx-politics-nicholas-thoburn-3>



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