The industrial working class’s absence crippled the squares movement

Evidence

But it was the third group whose relative absence from the squares would soon become deeply consequential—the surviving industrial working class. This group was torn between its typical exit, voice, and loyalty strategies: while its most passive components stubbornly refused to vote or opted for the far right, the others remained staunchly loyal to the social democrats. Here was a weakness that would become a pervasive feature of the populist left and a thorn in its side. The protesters tended to approach traditional trade unions with a mix of suspicion and hostility—as in Spain and Greece, where they were slammed for their collusion with discredited social democratic parties—or an attitude of stepmotherly compliance, as in Corbynism. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 92

Categorization

• XREF: Small acts of decorum… Hirschman’s exit-voice-loyalty framework applied directly to a class’s political strategies. — connects to: De-industrialisation fragmented labour and replaced class struggle with identity politics — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 672; Square movements attacked elite collusion rather than capital itself, breaking from labor tradition — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 93

Broader Connections

• Square movements attacked elite collusion rather than capital itself, breaking from labor tradition #expands (0.88) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 93
• De-industrialisation fragmented labour and replaced class struggle with identity politics #expands (0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 672