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The Lurpenproletariat and the’ Revolutionary Youth Movement by Bruce Franklin CALif The first major Black rebellions since 1943 broke out in several Jarge cities in the suriner of 1964, That fall, the Free Speech Movement erupted at Rerheley, Since tien, it has become increasingly ebvious that the Black Libcration Movement has a leading role in revolutionizing large sections of white youth, and recently we have come to see a Khevolutionary Youth Movewent in the mother country dialectically related to the struggle of the internal Black nation, Clearly it is of crucial importance that there be for those engaged in both struppler a correct theoretical understauding of the relation between the two, In trying to arrive at this understanding, some people vith both the black and youth movements have started relying on the term "lunpenprolctariat."_ ee The reasons fer this are clear, A section of white youth has dropped ovt of its privileged position and consciowsly ascwaed a sub-proletariat mode of existence, These "strect people” now live a life at least superficially similer to that into whicl a large section of Bleck youth has been forced, Black and white youn street people wn nd property, rarely sell their labor (in one case because they cannot, in the othe: because they will not), bustle aud driit; they despise an¢ are despised Lee. bourgeoisie, petit bourgeoisic, and privileged sectors of the working cless alike Their resemblance to each cther has noz been driven home by the police, who have begun to use oa the white drop-outs the kind of systematic terror and brutality usually reserved for Black and Brown people and the poorest whiics, All this has led scwe to theorize that the principal class struggle in the United ftutes is not thit between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat but that between the Juspenp reletarjat and all other classes, whe are scen as more or less bourgeoisificd, They visualize an anarchic force, made up of the most desperate and alienated sub- proups iu society, ripping the vitals out of the Fupire and @rageing the rotting corpse te some fiery Armageddon, Since tiis idea has becn advanced by some people etyateootcally enouch nlared in the movement to be able tn put it into practice, we SyCaALL C MOVES .8F et mesh bts Pn 2h ASS 2GGCieL ies s OLe of PNM EE paca a rite a pad that must seriously analyze both its theoretier] foundations and practical consequences , To do this, we must answer two very large and difficult guest sons : What precisely is the lumpenproletariat? What are its possible rojes in the Anerican revoluticn? \ Marxist-Leninist Theory and the Lurpenproletariat Yoo luepenproletariot is a cluss that has reecived extrenely little attention in cinssjeo) Marxist-Leuinist tieory, and what little attention it has received gomechet puzzling, is ase Marx and zneels were writing «t a time when most other uriters about the history ef revolutionory strugple toch consistently beurg ois viewposue, "o thes> cther writers, revolutfons--and for them of course the French evolution vas the archetyper were acde Ly a mob, aa undifferentiated wiser, Je Fru. eis and Enechs, in sins ling out the industrte) proletariat as the vargecrd uf ccehalist revolution, were anxious to distinguish ft fron that urban rob of the bourpcois wiiters, This way help arcount © both fox the certempe they express for the luwpenproletariat and for their lack of : detailed anelysis of its conditions: of Mfe, its conncincsness, ere its rolatians te capitulict production, 1 > o . wa com . = ” aay . rm mae ns Segee ey cee Low et wo el, teres oot, erie he tet J Posiaudt i Ietlecs mata ra 7 patent EO Ot aT ek a EF wnt nt RE TLE WEE ate ae on Ol vr, rsa her: