derelictspaces making some space

It is not the threat from the extreme right that is the most striking characteristic of these elections, though clearly there is a shift to the right, and centre-right governments are likely to make more concessions to the far right. The real story is the crisis of the left .We have been here before, in the 1930s when the net effect of the Depression was to strengthen the right and nullify the left - Labour was reduced to 50 MPs in 1931. The left rose again, but I am not optimistic about it being able to do so this time. Social democratic parties across Europe are in decline. That decline is not as dramatic as the communists a generation ago, but it is still marked. The European left relied on a working class that no longer exists in its old form, and in order to recover it will need to find a new constituency. That may be hard.

The left is in trouble everywhere: Labour in the UK, the French socialists, the Italian democrats. The Spanish socialists, one of the few leftwing parties to gain in recent years, have also slipped. The SPD in Germany are not doing as badly as expected, but they are down to around 20%, and these losses are not compensated by the votes for the New Left party. We have seen the demoralisation of the French left and a degree of disintegration of the left in Germany. Social democrats will need a new vision as well as a new constituency.

from: Is fascism on the march again?

Which is why I would argue that the recent return to ‘workerism’ evident in the radical left is doomed as a more general approach - perhaps the multitude, perhaps not - centred on ’seizing the means of reproduction’ is the key…

And there is this - ‘Many Paths’ - the first anti-party response to what has been a recent out pouring or desire by socialists and social democrats for a ‘new left party/organisation’ with which to, well, lose more elections by huge margins and suck the life blood from the numerous struggles that currently exist and will exist. Oh well.