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gq _ © lumpen--3 * But this is all very confusing, because in the Manifesto the paragraph which, immediatel, follows the sentence condemning the lumpenproletariat describes the pauperization of the proletariat in these terms" a -In the conditions of the proletariat, those of the old society are already . svamped, The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois fumily-relation, «.. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind whic) lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests. (Selected Works, I, 4a) A few paragraphs later, it states that "the modern laborer .,, sinks deeper aud decper below the conditions of his own class"; “He becomes a pauper, and pauperism deve lops mere rapidly than population and vealth," Well, then, if this is true, what happens to the pauperized proletariat? How do they manage to live? Why is a knife grinder or a tinker or a porter or a beggar or a discharged soldier or even a discharged jailbird a member of some other class, the lumpenproletariat, "sharply differentiated from the industria] proletariat"? It cannot be just a question of valucs, because to the true proletarian "law} morality, religion" ace just "bourgeois prejudices." And it cannot be a question of personal reJation to the means of production, because in that case any worker who becomes unemployed would autonatically Lecome a member of the lumpen- prolctariat and the industrial reserve army would be @ lumpen army, “JY would iike to draw the following working conclusions: Marx and Engels, perceiving the existence of an important but ill-defined social class and angered by the treacheror role of{tcn played Ly that class, tended to make an ethical judgment rather than a Marnie aunlysis of its iole in capitalist society and revolutionary struggle, This clees may be defined as follows: It does not engage in productive labor, and is therefore not exploited in industry, (The bourgecisic, however, does utilize it as police, army or agents.) Its principel means of support is the Jabor of the productive class, and its relationship to the proletariat is therefore inherently parasitic, Its members have come from all classes, and they have ceased to be members of those other classes because of a combination of two conditions, one objective, the other subjective--they no longer have the same relationship to the means of production and they no longer have any loyalty to their former class, From this it follows that the lumpenproletariat vill contuin more varied forms of consciousness than any other class in socicty, for the previons experience of the individvals within it will be most varied and their present precarious means of existence will throw them into many different forms of contact with all the ether classes (the prostitute providing the most striking example of this). the role of the lumpenproletariat is inherently unpredictable beth strategically a at each and cvery moment, If this ic true, we should be keenly aware of the unreliability of the lumpeuproletariat but we msi reject Engels! condexmation of them as completely worthless and werely dangerous, Marx provides a key insight in a passage which foreshadovs the analysis of Yao and Fanon end relates directly to the deve inp: went of the Revolutionary Youth Moveman At a “youthful age,“ he says in ihe Class in ice, the lumpenproletariat is "thoresghly mallechle, as capable of the most heroic deeds and the most exalted sacrifices as of the basest bauditry and the foulest corruption,” (Seiected Yorks, 1, 155.) If so, at least the youth of the luupenproletariat shou-: be e able t play an extremely important role in revolutionary struggle, because they are the only group to combine this potentiality for heroism with an intimate daily knowledge ef how to cope with the police and to enguge in untergrouud activities as a way of Life, And remember that in What Is To Ba Pone? Lenin makes the mastery of these ekills the priwary requirce nt of the professional revelutionery and of the revolutionary party as a whole, primary because these skills are needed ta survive, i = f ae