The left lost because it failed to produce its own version of post-Fordism
Evidence
The key problem I think articulated by the most forward-thinking of the left groups in the Seventies and Eighties — including the sort of the autonomous in Italy and what’s called the “New Times” group around Marxism Today in the UK — was, “How could the left hegemonise post-Fordism?”, “How could the left produce it’s own version of post-Fordism?” And I think the failure of that — the failure to meet that challenge — accounts for a lot of the failure of the left. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2099
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to broader literature on New Times/Marxism Today debate and Italian autonomism (Hardt/Negri lineage) Fisher engages elsewhere. — connects to: The left’s failure was lacking an alternative modernity, not Fordism’s end.; Left responses to crisis fail because they seek restoration instead of reconstruction — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 903; Neoliberalism succeeded by capturing sixties anti-authoritarian energies the left failed to harness — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2101 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- The failure was lacking a post-Fordist left vision, not Fordism ending.
#corroborates(0.95) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1651 - The left’s failure was lacking an alternative modernity, not Fordism’s end.
#corroborates(0.93) - Left responses to crisis fail because they seek restoration instead of reconstruction
#expands(0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 903 - In post-Fordism communicating is itself the work
#expands(0.77) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 72 - Neoliberalism succeeded by capturing sixties anti-authoritarian energies the left failed to harness
#expands(0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2101 - Capital absorbed the left’s own liberation desires against it
#qualifies(0.72) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 74 - The core-periphery workforce split assumed by post-Fordism is implausible in intense international competition.
#qualifies(0.71) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 507