Sharpened contradictions historically favor capital and the Right, not the Left.

Evidence

The “sharpening of contradictions,” comrades, together with the rising tempo of the class struggle, will eventually guarantee the victory of progressive forces everywhere. Those who hold such a position may enjoy untroubled nights; but they have short political memories. They forget how frequently in recent history the “sharpening of contradictions” has led to settlements and solutions which favored capital and the extreme Right rather than the reverse. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1092

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Challenges the orthodox Marxist reading of crisis; connects to Hall’s general skepticism of economic determinism running through the book.

Related

• Crises marketed as milestones to the Left historically benefit capital and the Right (similarity 0.90)
• Social democracy’s contradictions, not capital alone, opened the terrain for Thatcherism (similarity 0.84)
• Marx explains capital better than class and class contradiction is not master key (similarity 0.81)
• The Rightward swing is a constructed response to crisis, not its reflection (similarity 0.81)
• Marx explained modes of production evolving and dissolving through their own contradictions. (similarity 0.79)
• Thatcherism exploited real contradictions in the corporatist state, not mere false consciousness (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalism may resolve its internal contradictions by making them tolerable rather than ending them (similarity 0.79)