The Problem with the ‘Class First’ Leftists
Cultural issues exist and can’t simply be ignored
As someone who writes extensively about the ‘woke vs anti-woke’ drama, I often receive comments from people who say that the culture wars are a distraction manufactured by the wealthy, so that the 99% fight among ourselves, and ignore the fact that the 1% are profiting at the expense of the rest of us. This kind of critique (of ‘both sides’ of the culture wars at the same time) is actually quite prevalent in the so-called ‘class first left’, and I think it merits proper attention, and a proper response from writers like myself.
On one hand, I do agree that the culture wars are often manufactured by the rich to distract from economic inequality and other structural economic problems. This is simply a fact. However, the problem with ‘class first’ leftists is that they think cultural issues and conflicts can just be ignored or imagined away. They can’t. While the culture wars are often artificially manufactured by those with money, once a cultural rift has been made, it is a very real thing, and can’t be imagined away. Work needs to be done to actively repair the rift first, before solidarity of any kind can even be imagined. This is why telling people to focus on the economics, and ignore passionately felt cultural issues, simply won’t work. The fact that ‘class first left’ circles often discourage any talk of cultural issues is therefore basically counterproductive.
I think there are two reasons ‘class first’ leftists take this counterproductive approach to cultural politics. The first reason is that they see the world primarily through their theory, rather than objective reality. If their theory tells them that the economic structure determines everything, then that is the way they are going to approach politics. However, even if this is ultimately true to some extent, human beings and society don’t work this way. This is why even the reactionary ‘populist’ right has had much more success in attracting working class supporters. They don’t ignore the cultural issues. Even if the ‘fixes’ they propose are not the right ones, at least they appear to have answers to some of society’s most prominent controversies.
The second reason why ‘class first’ leftists insist on ignoring cultural issues is because they think they have to be in a coalition with the ‘woke’ left, electorally speaking. Therefore, even though they certainly don’t agree with the culturally divisive ‘woke’ ideology, they think just ignoring it would be the best path to get to their destination. This line of thinking was most prominent during the late 2010s, when the movements of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn were at their peak. However, the ultimate failure of these movements actually proves that this is not going to work at all. Most working class voters simply decided to choose Joe Biden and Boris Johnson instead, and this is a fact that the whole left, including the class first left, must face.
The fact is, if the ‘left’ is perceived as consisting of a passionately ‘woke’ component and a culturally-agnostic ‘class first’ component, then people are going to rightly see that wokeism is the unchallenged cultural default within the left. If the ‘class first’ left is not going to do anything about cancel culture, for example, then they are basically complicit in its normalization. This, I believe, is the fundamental reason why the left has had such a difficult time attracting working class supporters, who have instead become fuel for the growth of the populist right across both America and Europe. The result is the enactment of climate denialist, anti-choice and anti-LGBT policies in many states and countries, as well as economic inequality not getting any better.
Ultimately, the ‘class first’ left knows that the divisiveness of ‘wokeism’ makes their most cherished goal, working class solidarity, impossible to achieve. The problem is that they are not willing to do anything about it, and are often dismissive of the people (like myself) who are trying to do something about it. They seem to think that just complaining about rich people with an agenda funding the culture wars would magically solve the problem. It won’t. We have to actively put an end to the culture wars ourselves. This is the only way we can stop the reactionary right.
Originally published at https://taraella.substack.com.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory and The TaraElla Story (her autobiography).
