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0 O11 a lenin himself deals with cone arpect of the lumpenproletariat quite relevant at the present moment, their tendency to engage in spontcnecus and disorganized armed struggle against the state and "expropriation" of state property. Lenin violently condcmns those Bolsheviks who disassociate themselves from this by " ~oudly and smugly declaring ‘we are not anarchists, thieves, robbers, we ere superior to all this, “ ("Guerilla — Warfare," Collected Yorks, X1, 220) He attacks “the usual appraisal" which secs this ~*" struggle as “mere ly | “anarchism, Blanquism, the old terrorism, the acts of individuals , isolated from the masses, which demoralise the workers, repel wide strata of the | population, disorganise the movement and injure the revolution," (Works, ZI, 216-17) Lenin draws the following keen lesson from the disorganized state of this struggle: it fs not these "actions which disorganize the movement, but the weakness of a party which ~, is incapable of taking such actions under its control." (p. 219) The Eolsheviks must organize these spontaneous acts and “must train and prepare their orgenisstions to be really 2ble to act as a belligerent side which does not miss a single opportunity of inflicting damage on the enemy "s forces," (p, 223) Hao 6 analysis of the jumpenproletariat and of their possibl¢ rolé in the revolution is very clear ang simple: . : Apart from all these other classes , there is the fairly large lumpen-proletariat, made up of peasants who have lost their land and handicraftsmen who cannot get work, They lead the most precarious exisience of all, ,,, Gne of China's difficult problems is how to handle these people, Brave fighters but apt to be destructive, they can becoue a revolutionary force if given proper guidance, (Analysis of the Classes in Chisse Society) Although in Anericen society the lumpenproletariat consists of far more diverse groups than landless pecsants and unewployed handicraftsmen, Mao's final generalization would seem to be as Fitting here as there, Unfortunntely for us, however, Hao does net .- : give any detailed theory on working with this particular almost entirely urban class, Probably the most relevant, and certainly the most extensive, discussicen of the lumpen- proletariat by a Marxist theorist car be found in Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. Fanon, vriting principally abeut African colonies, sees the. lumpenproletariat as made up almost exclusively ef landlcss peasants (p. 90), This is the part of his: analysis least relevant to the U,S_, although, of course, all of the Black and part of the white lumpenproletariat has been driven from the land into the cities, [anon he. no illusions about the dangerous unreliability of this class, But he argues that, for three reasons, the revolution cannot suceced without these people: (1) They are the mos ¢ ready to fight, (2) They therefore provide the way by which the revolutionary forces of the countryside enter the city, (3) If they are not fighting on the side of the revolution, they will be fighting against it. Fancn gives many specific example of the counter-revolutionary role seretimes played by the lumpenproletariat, In Madagascar, the colonialists assisted in “the creation of a party cut of the unorganizc clements of the lumpen-proletariat' and then used "its distinctiy provocative actions". as “the legal excuse to maintein order," (p. 93) In Angola, Algeria, ane the Congo, the colonialists were able to use eleneuts of the lumpenproletariat as soldicrs, agents laborers, and counter-revolutionary demonstrators, Fanon concludes from this not that the lumpcopreletariat should be ignored, but quite the contrary; the real danger lies in dependi ne co Lts snontaneltr: Lire wpe eae Llaieeietelieen” J . Colonialism will also find in the lunpen-proletariat a cousiderczble space for manoewering, For this season auy movement for Freedom ought to give its fullest attention to this Juaper-proletariat, The peasant masses will always ansver the t call ta revellion, but if the rebetliou's leaders think it will be able Lo develop a ae a —- + poco a * asirsigdacts eee Poa sor hee ae ie Ta 9 - 4c «tone reapers 2 wee ee eet hm ee Sar § eR me. ey eR t wee on tee aa “ secant iat Pi oe er ae ~~ mete. By