Re: Characteristics of slums - urban poor?

[Zeynep Tufekcioglu <zeynept@xxxxxxxx>]

Hugh;

>I think this is a good position to start from. The best way to keep things
>in perspective is to use the class category 'proletariat' in the sense of
>those who only have their labour power to sell - regardless of whether they
>get to sell it or not, or on a regular basis or not. This avoids a lot of
>crap about 'underclass' unemployed and 'middle class' people with factory
>jobs.

Glory be. We agree.


>The most significant and useful distinction concerns the
>'lumpenproletariat' -- those members of the proletariat who act against
>their class interests by running criminal errands for the bourgeoisie or
>robbing and terrorizing their class brothers and sisters. One of the best
>embodiments of this crowd I've seen was in Costas-Gavras's film 'Z - he
>lives' about the Lambrakis affair in the run-up to the Greek dictatorship.

That is very very true. Another favorite saying of mine:
"Revolution and counter-revolution sleep in the same bed". The rise of
fascism is in many instances due to a revolutionary situation in which the
left is defeated.

>Given the right lead by those organized in an effective revolutionary
>workers' party (including of course members of the urban poor), the urban
>poor will provide high-octane fuel for the revolution.

Do you accept the term, urban poor? What does it mean for you?

>Maybe the agitation will centre on something like:
>
>Food, Flats, and Freedom from Crime.
>
We *are* the criminals.

Seriously, the youth from the slums, unemployed most of the time, facing no
future have already burned the bridges. They are organising very fast, and
if you say "food, flats and freedom from crime", they'll ask if you are a
government agent. They are already directly organising in revolutionary
organisations, frankly demanding to overthrow the state. The problem is they
are becoming isolated within the working class movement as a whole. They are
an inseparable part of the whole movement, while they do not take the
problems of the movement as a whole on their agenda. They do not think of
their actions in terms of politicizing (have I made up the word?) the
working class movement, but act in a "let's get even with the police" mode.
I was wondering, as it must be a similar situation in especially Latin
America, what has happenned in those places?

In solidarity,
Zeynep





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