Lumpenproletariat

LUMPENPROLETARIAT in Marxist terms is the opposite—with a negative meaning—of proletariat. In Marxist theory capitalists and proletarians are distinguished by the ownership and nonownership of the means of production. Whereas nobility in a feudal society was inherited, the status of capitalist and proletarian is in principle “open,” that is, the capitalist losing his ownership of means of production may become a proletarian (and, more seldomly, vice versa). The ownership of means of production is the determinative factor for a categorization into a class within a class society, but class-consciousness also plays a role. A proletarian is defined not only by his nonownership of the means of production, but also by his self-consciousness of his belonging to a certain class, that is, his class-consciousness.

A member of the lumpenproletariat could be described as a proletarian without class-consciousness. Within the large number of Marxist theorists, this is probably the most common denominator for lumpenproletariat. In an early stage of capitalist development, peasants no longer are active as peasants, but are not yet in the workforce within urban industries and might count as lumpenproletariat, too. But as lumpenproletariat always has a pejorative meaning, the simple fact of the economic condition of people would generally not qualify alone for the label lumpenproletariat.

The German Marxist tradition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to the emergence of a large labor movement, both in unions and in a political party (SPD, Social Democratic Party of Germany). Within this tradition the unorganized proletarian could be regarded as a “member” of the lumpenproletariat, as his economic condition should have led to the development of a class-consciousness, which would have forced him to organize. His failure to develop this class-consciousness disqualifies him as a “real” proletarian, and he becomes a “lumpenproletarier” or “lumpenprolet.”

The emerging anti-Semitism in the late 19th century (as opposed to the older anti-Judaism of Catholic origin) was interpreted by many Marxists as a form of propaganda by the capitalists. Nevertheless anti-Semitic opinions were widespread within the labor movement itself, which led some theorists to link the notion of lumpenproletariat with anti-Semitic proletarians (this link was especially outlined by August Bebel, the pre World War I leader of the SPD). In this use of the term lumpenproletariat the failure to develop class-consciousness by some of the proletarians leads to the tortuous path of a racial (supremacy) doctrine instead of a social explanation of economic inequality.

In the Leninist Soviet Union and later within the whole Eastern bloc, the term lumpenproletariat was used as part of the Marxist terminological legacy. Nevertheless the Leninist development of Marxism made the term on some occasions inappropriate, as the Leninist approach to a revolution in a not-yet-industrialized country (Russia) made the whole Marxist notion of proletariat (and hence lumpenproletariat) theoretically problematic.

The Soviet-style revolution of 1917 was made before proletariat in the Marxist meaning had emerged on a large scale in Russia. In the transformation process following the revolution (and not preceding it), millions of people passed through economic conditions that bore a resemblance to the traditional meaning of lumpenproletariat.

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