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A] e luapen--2 In the Communist Manifesto, they refer to the lempenproletariat as "the ‘dangerous -elass, the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society," and claim that although it "may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution, its conditions of life prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue. " (Selected Works, I, 44}, In The Cless Strupgles in France, 148-1850, Marx says that the lumpenproleteriat "in all b: big. touns forms a muss sharply ‘differentiated from the industrial proletariat," and analyzcs it as “a recruiting ground for thieves and criminals of all kinds, living on the crumbs of society, people without a definite trade, vagabonds, gens sans fev et sans aveu, varying according to the degree of civilis. ‘ation ef the nation to which they belong, but never renourcing their } character." (Selected Works, I, 155) The most Savage passage comes in Engels ry Note to the Peasant War in Germany” The lurpenproletariat, this scum of the depraved elements of all classes, which estobliched headquarters in the big cities, is the worst of all possible allies, This rabyle is absolutely venal and absolutely brazen, If the French workers, in every revolution, inscribed on the houses: Mort aux voteurs! Death to thieves! ay! even not some, they did it, not out of enthusiasm for property, but because y considered it necessary above ali to keep that gang at a distance, rx of the workers who uscs these scoundrels as guards or relics on pport proves himself by this action alone a traitor to the movement, I, 646). ‘sis passage, taken with the contexts of the others, presents some apparent + tlons , First :° all, what do Marx and Engels see as the elass background of the Luirpen- int? This is not an jdle or academic question, Class background should have sencthing te do with deteruining conscfourness, both actual and poten! . And recently it has become feshoinalle in some quarters to write off the strest people es not even lumpenproletariat but "Lumpenbourgevisie," or fake lumpen- proletariat, In Lhe previous passage from [ngele he claims thet they come from “the depraved elcments of all classes," But the H sto says that they come only frem "he Tovest layers of old society," And in the very passage in which Narx says that the lumpenproletariat is “sharply differentiated from the industrial proletariat," he alsc indicates that it cores directly from only one class, thet same proletartat, ("and so the Parfs proletariet was confronted with an army, drewn frem its own midst... Yet in The E nm Bruratye of Touts Napoleon, Marx is quite explicit in stating that the luapenproletariat cones from all classe: Alongside decayed routs vith dubfous means of, subsistcnee and of dubious origin, alongside ruined and adventurcus offshoots of the bourgesisie, were vag2bonds, discharged suldiers, discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers, mourtebanks , tee ets, tricksters, ganblers, naquereous (pimps), i, ovgan-grinders, rag-pickers, knife grinders, bathe ex aad thither, vbich the Preuch term la bebtag from this kindred element Konaparte formed the core of the Society of December LO, A “benevolent socinty"+- in ko for as, Vike Bonaparte, all its menhers feJt the need of benefiting then- selves at the expense of the Inbouricg nation, This Bonaparte, who constitutes H we. bere clone discovers in mass fori pe cS, ,., recognizes in this scum, offal, the only clase upon which he can bese himse)£ uncondition- sks, 1, 295), (t