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lumpenproletariat vs. unproductive labour (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by birdcat@lemmy.ml to c/communism101@lemmygrad.ml

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I provide a service for direct use (forgot the real term).

as an independent worker with my own business I am not an organized worker and have no solidarity with ppl who do the same job. true lumpen.

but then learned about the whole concept of unproductive labour. there is no capitalist who steals my surplus value. true unproductive worker?

what am I?

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[–] sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seconded. I believe categorizing freelancers as petty bourgeois is going for the letter instead of the meaning of the term. A youtuber with no editor may own the means of production (his camera and computer) but ultimately depends on Google in order to be able to work. Similarly, freelancers may own their respective means of production, but they may be dependent on platforms like fiverr or corporations hiring them as contractors.

[–] davel@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That’s fair: it depends on the specifics of the freelancing. A lot of US 1099 workers, practically speaking, are proletarians with even fewer rights than W-2 employees. I’ve been in that situation, but I’ve also been “lower” petit bourgeois self-employed, and I’ve been “upper” petit bourgeois employing workers myself.