The View from K92

“Hyperpolitics” is interesting, partly because so many people find it interesting. Anton Jäger attempts to answer a question a lot of us are asking: why is the left failing? He has a reasonable stab at advancing a theory, based on a periodic view of recent (and predominantly Western) history. His conclusion – that the working class and its organisations have been atomised by deindustrialisation, suburbanisation and consumerism – isn’t really news. But, as a younger person himself, Jäger does offer some insights into the political mindset of a generation for who the stakes could hardly be higher. The final words of the book, a quote from someone born in the mid-1990s, sum it up: “My generation constantly oscillates between the realisation that we need to get moving, preferably very quickly, and the feeling that all is in vain. The true challenge – to change things – appears nigh impossible.”

It’s an understandable reaction to half a century of planet-threatening neoliberalism. However, Jäger arrives at this dead-end via some peculiar twists. Although the book was only published this year, and allowing that it took a while to get to that stage, it seems very odd to barely mention the Gaza genocide and the enormous popular global reaction to it. Similarly, the book refers critically to #BlackLivesMatter, but without really paying tribute to the magnitude of the movement. There is no mention of the resistance to ICE, or the thousands of demonstrations against Trump in the last year. Worryingly, in passing reference to the Arab Spring, the author says the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, “stepped down”, when in fact, he was driven from power by mass protests. It may seem pedantic, but to describe Thatcher breaking the “British Miners’ Association” (sic), which I presume is a reference to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) suggests either poor editing, or someone who doesn’t fully acknowledge the collective struggle that does exist, even if it seems inadequate.  

On a more positive note, “Hyperpoltiics” deals well with the increasingly temporary and transient nature of modern life and how this may be reflected in contemporary political movements, or the lack of them. I completely agree with Jäger that a particular problem of current organisation models is the preponderance of NGOs and paid activists. But while these are significant issues, it’s important to distinguish symptom from cause.

The major failing of the book is under-playing the chronic economic decline of capitalism. Jäger focusses on the superstructure, not the base, which is crumbling. In so doing, he presents history as something that “just happens”. “Hyperpolitics” calls up the urgency of our times, but without offering any real possibilities for action, beyond somewhat nostalgic references to the mass working class organisations of yore. Those days may be gone, but it doesn’t mean similar hegemonic structures can’t be built, but based on different social realities and tactics. Jäger refers to how Corbynism stimulated an explosive growth in Labour Party membership. Fleetingly, it did suggest the possibility of mass left-wing organisation freed from some of the sclerotic bureaucracy that ultimately did for it (and then, Your Party). But the fact that the old ways don’t leave easily doesn’t mean we should stop trying to get rid of them.  We can’t afford to.