I amerikansk vänsterdebatt rasar debatterna vidare om så kallad identitetspolitik vs klasspolitik. Trumps valseger, och det nya intresset för den vita arbetarklassen i landets småstäder, har gett grälen en ny twist. Före valet pratade alla om den demografiska förändringen av USA och att demokraterna var vinnarna, eftersom migranterna röstar på dem. Den verkligheten har inte förändrats, men har helt tappats bort i eftervalsdebatten. Nu gäller bara klassfrågan.

I vårnumret av Dissent skriver filosofen Michael Walzer, som vanligt klokt, om vänsterns uppgifter. Den handlar om USA, men jag tycker den är relevant även för europeisk vänsterdebatt, inte minst det här avsnittet om den inte särskilt hjälpsamma polariseringen mellan klassperspektiv och sk identitetspolitik:

”But the current theoretical debate about the relative importance of identity politics and class struggle isn’t terribly helpful. There is nothing like the classic “working class,” neglected by Democratic politicians, waiting to be mobilized. The people we need to reach are a radically mixed group. They are economically mixed: they include unemployed men and women, old people without adequate pensions, part-time workers, rust belt workers with new jobs that pay much less than they once earned, workers without union protection and with few benefits, and the rural poor—all of them frighteningly vulnerable, watching anxiously for the next downturn. And they are mixed in their identities: black and white, Hispanic and Asian, men and women, gay and straight. These people could form what Charles Mills (in the Fall 2015 issue of Dissent) called “a transracial coalition of the disadvantaged.” But first they must come to see that their difficulties are not theirs alone. Think of them as a class in formation—or, in the old language, a class in itself but not yet for itself. How can we advance the formation? That is the question we should be debating.”

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