What is a 'Lumpenproletariat'?
In the Marxist ideology, ‘Lumpen’ are considered to be the lowest group in society, “so oppressed by the capitalist system” including prostitutes, vagabonds, degenerates, swindlers, gamblers, pickpockets, brothel keepers, beggars, convicts and criminals or “devoid of class consciousness” as Marx put it. Marx, Engels and Trotsky all believed they were useless for their ‘revolutionary’ agenda.
“They belonged for the most part to the lumpenproletariat…a recruiting ground for thieves and criminals of all kinds, living on the refuse of society, people without a fixed line of work.” – Karl Marx, The Class Struggles in France, 1848–1850
Marx even noted the “Chief of the Lumpenproletariat” (Napoleon III) bought votes from the lumpenproletariat with “gifts and loans.” – Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, 1852
While Lenin and Trotsky agreed with Marx that the Lumpen were not useful, it was Mao Zedong who argued that “proper leadership” could utilize it.
After the Chinese Civil war when the communists seized power, Mao had over 500,000 Lumpenproletariats put into government-run reeducation camps by 1953.
Later, the Socialist Democratic Party of Germany figured out a way to make use of the ‘Lumpen’ by enabling their degenerate behavior ie lawlessness, drug use, prostitution, etc in order to further advance their agenda.
By the 1970’s, socialists began to divert from the Marxist viewpoint. Herbert Marcuse, an American philosopher and sociologist at the Frankfurt School, where the basis of CRT was conceived, hoped for a revolution of the lumpenproletariat—the social outcasts— but led by intellectuals.
The co-founder of the Black Panther Party Huey P. Newton, a radical socialist in the 1960’s, “thought of their following as lumpenproletariat” and believed in the “revolutionary potential” of the group. Newton theorized they could organize the “unemployable elements” of society and “could not wait” to expand the Lumpen by depleting the middle class through an envisioned technocratic state.
Meaning all the ways the radical left is working to push their chaotic lawlessness will further benefit their agenda, specifically through our judicial system.
We see it happening from the Left today from the progressive, George Soros-funded, soft-on-crime DA’s across the country who are degrading our judicial system with reform policies that ultimately undermine public safety. We’ve added some headlines for examples below.
“Marxism convinces men that nothing is evil, which answers the call to expediency, he has released himself from all the constraints of honor and ethics which mankind has previously used as harmonious relations.” - W. Clean Skousen, The Naked Communist, 1958
While the Left talks about their social justice reforms, gender theory, CRT, DEI, and overall radical agenda being the “moral” and “compassionate” thing to do, it is also true that their agenda intentionally leads to destruction, confusion and chaos.
So, was Mao right when he believed the Lumpenproletariat could be weaponized into authoritarian force to further advance his communist agenda?
Is this happening in America today?
After all, to legalize lawlessness, by encouraging criminal behavior, furthers their agenda to destroy not only the foundation of a free market and our capitalist country but our entire American way of life.