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What Happened To The Left?
🕑 Added 2023-04-05 21:13:16 +0000 UTC"What Happened To The Left?" is a question that is asked often by many people who used to belong to the collective entity known as "the left". In this programme I attempt to answer that question and in order to do so I start off by defining what "the left" is. I go on to make the case that if you view things through the analytical framework of Marxism-Leninism then "the left" and the function it performs really hasn't changed as much as either it's proponents or its nominal enemies would like us all to think.
You can read Hoxha's critique of Eurocommunism here
Outro Music is 'The People And The Party' a song of the Albanian Party of Labour
Episode Artwork is 'October Winds' by the Soviet Russian Artist Mikhail Devyatov
Comments
William Mckay
These are both good questions so I'll address them in a follow up programme to be released next week.
Sam
A related question: we know empirically or from our own experience that the non productive working class—those in the service industries say or who engage in intellectual labour—are many more times likely to be hitched ideologically to social democracy or progressive liberalism; but what is the deep explanation? Is it simply that seeking bourgeois approval is written into the job description so to speak? That to be good at your job in this line of work is to tell the bourgeoisie what they want to hear? I’m aware that there is some discussion of this within the Marxist literature, including or starting with Kapital, but I don’t know where. Can you point me in the right direction/suggest any further reading?
Sam
I’m still not quite clear on the difference between petit bourgeois and Labour aristocracy. Those on the left that hail from the ngo world — are they petit bourgeois or Labour aristocracy? Or does it depend upon their role within these organisations?
