Only zoomers say zoomers are the most left generation
American union membership has more than halved from the beginning of the Cold War and communist party membership is literally like 20% of what it used to be
Ask any old American communist who used to organize and they'll tell you how much better it was in the past
I spoke to a [German] communist book author once and they've been around in leftist organizing since the early 90s.
He said it was all downhill and in fact the "End of History" period had the least weak left according to his anecdotal experience.
With each crisis like say the German military intervention in Yugoslavia, or the war in Lybia had splits and people going "ok the libs are right on this one" and the movement never recovered the lost manpower.
If you look at campaigns it is easier to organize younger union members and the trend in small areas in Germany is positive. It is true that from the 80s till after the end of history union membership was falling very fast. However now new members can be kinda easily be won - even though class consciousness is lacking. This is true also for people with Ausbildung / Vocational training, who were harder to organize 20 years ago.
I do agree with a lot of what is said, but want to underline that this was the perspective of a likely older left person, who was likely part of resistance to revolutionary intersectionality (in contrast to liberal one). However of course not having mass organizations and millions in financing and expropriations against the left means that you will have it harder.
While squats are good and you had a good left support - even after the German Herbst - in the mainstream society you did not really have stuff like DWEnteignen or a principled fight against the end of Wohngemeinnützigkeit, those things and how gentrification relates to capitalism was something that had to be worked out for the public conscious after the reunification. Even plenty of the left did decry the Neue Heimat instead of defending it and framing the argument as attack against collective partial solutions. The split between migrant workers (who were often not really allowed in established unions - and who did awesome stuff i.e. Ford Streik 1973) is also less prominent now than it was, however racists are more upfront than they once were in some way (and are less upfront than in earlier times). In the early 90s I was part of a leftist group in which there was a discussion whether gay members ought to be allowed to be visible not hetero passing or if this would be bad for communist organizing in the Neue Länder.
Relative to the very good strength East socialized left people had in the early 90s (without economic base for it though) we are much worse off. But the trend is positive once again, different than in the early 2000s.
but want to underline that this was the perspective of a likely older left person, who was likely part of resistance to revolutionary intersectionality
That's a bit of a rude assumption. They were in his early to mid 50s when I spoke with them. They initially became active in an antifa group in southern Germany in the early 90s, so to speak of funding from the East is not adequate to the situation. (No, they're not AntiD)
The campaigns you speak of are good, even if they're fading nowadays due to various degrees of betrayal from reformists and infighting, but are also a localized phenomenon to Berlin mostly. Here in Bavaria, all it amounted to was a petition which was immediately dismissed by the CSU courts in a "lol nope" fashion.
The chauvinism of the 80s in regards to say migrant workers in the unions is having a renaissance among supporters of Wagenknecht and she has depressing amounts of people going "her social democracy plans are good, because they exclude foreigners and allow me to be racist!".
While the trend is not looking downwards compared to the 2000s, I feel like the Covid era was a major setback and we are running out of time before the Merz government does an America style anticommunist propaganda/repression barrage. Then again, I am depressed and a notorious pessimist.
Only zoomers say zoomers are the most left generation
American union membership has more than halved from the beginning of the Cold War and communist party membership is literally like 20% of what it used to be
Ask any old American communist who used to organize and they'll tell you how much better it was in the past
I spoke to a [German] communist book author once and they've been around in leftist organizing since the early 90s.
He said it was all downhill and in fact the "End of History" period had the least weak left according to his anecdotal experience.
With each crisis like say the German military intervention in Yugoslavia, or the war in Lybia had splits and people going "ok the libs are right on this one" and the movement never recovered the lost manpower.
If you look at campaigns it is easier to organize younger union members and the trend in small areas in Germany is positive. It is true that from the 80s till after the end of history union membership was falling very fast. However now new members can be kinda easily be won - even though class consciousness is lacking. This is true also for people with Ausbildung / Vocational training, who were harder to organize 20 years ago.
I do agree with a lot of what is said, but want to underline that this was the perspective of a likely older left person, who was likely part of resistance to revolutionary intersectionality (in contrast to liberal one). However of course not having mass organizations and millions in financing and expropriations against the left means that you will have it harder.
While squats are good and you had a good left support - even after the German Herbst - in the mainstream society you did not really have stuff like DWEnteignen or a principled fight against the end of Wohngemeinnützigkeit, those things and how gentrification relates to capitalism was something that had to be worked out for the public conscious after the reunification. Even plenty of the left did decry the Neue Heimat instead of defending it and framing the argument as attack against collective partial solutions. The split between migrant workers (who were often not really allowed in established unions - and who did awesome stuff i.e. Ford Streik 1973) is also less prominent now than it was, however racists are more upfront than they once were in some way (and are less upfront than in earlier times). In the early 90s I was part of a leftist group in which there was a discussion whether gay members ought to be allowed to be visible not hetero passing or if this would be bad for communist organizing in the Neue Länder.
Relative to the very good strength East socialized left people had in the early 90s (without economic base for it though) we are much worse off. But the trend is positive once again, different than in the early 2000s.
That's a bit of a rude assumption. They were in his early to mid 50s when I spoke with them. They initially became active in an antifa group in southern Germany in the early 90s, so to speak of funding from the East is not adequate to the situation. (No, they're not AntiD)
The campaigns you speak of are good, even if they're fading nowadays due to various degrees of betrayal from reformists and infighting, but are also a localized phenomenon to Berlin mostly. Here in Bavaria, all it amounted to was a petition which was immediately dismissed by the CSU courts in a "lol nope" fashion.
The chauvinism of the 80s in regards to say migrant workers in the unions is having a renaissance among supporters of Wagenknecht and she has depressing amounts of people going "her social democracy plans are good, because they exclude foreigners and allow me to be racist!".
While the trend is not looking downwards compared to the 2000s, I feel like the Covid era was a major setback and we are running out of time before the Merz government does an America style anticommunist propaganda/repression barrage. Then again, I am depressed and a notorious pessimist.
Wow it's significantly worse since even the 90s? That's depressing. My experiences were talking with people when they were doing stuff in the 60s/70s