I did read the article. I found the part about the lumpenproletariat quite amusing, since I taught their kids for many years. The idea that they have useful skills, but aren’t using them to make a living but will use them for some revolution is pretty absurd. If you want poor people to do any work, you have to pay them. Especially poor people, and who can blame them? Attending a meeting counts as work by the way, just as it does for everyone else. Old time political machines had the right idea. If they wanted people to turn out for an election or a demonstration, they laid on plenty of free food and beer, and even some dance music. Of course that takes money, and it is just for that day. Most of the demonstrators I saw last summer were white suburban kids getting their “Look how cool I am!” cred. They’ll be telling that story about flipping over a police car to the other Citibank employees at happy hour for the rest of their lives.