lumpenproletariat

plural lumpenproletariats

1. MarxismThe lowest stratum of the proletariat, whose mental and physical health, mores and morale have deteriorated, through exploitation by the bourgeoisie, to a degree where they cannot build class consciousness and hence cannot be mobilized for the revolution.

   I hadn't quite figured her out yet: rude snob or lumpenproletariat?

   2021, Pedro Mairal, The Woman from Uruguay, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 29

   1 more example

   For this reason Marx avoided encouraging the facile but false idea that to abolish exploitation meant simply to strip the rich of their movable possessions: this was contrary to his own theory and only served to foster the envious and predatory mentality of peasant movements and the lumpenproletariat.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 333

2. A social underclass; the riffraff.

   Synonyms: hoi polloi, mob, rabble, riffraff