6 - Identitarian Socialism

Summary

Introduction

Identitarian Socialism is a proto-ideology in which a range of social injustices are drawn together through an association of oppressed identities with a left-of-centre politics. Its critique of capitalism is that it is based in an elitist politics that exploits, oppresses, and marginalises a society composed of various social groups. Its aspirational world view is that a diverse coalition of identities will push the political centre of gravity radically to the Left through a multi-sited and diverse set of political activisms. Deploying the core concepts of socialism, intersectionality, and populism, Identitarian Socialism would construct a socialism that understands class as a property expressed through situated cultures or resistance and activism.

Identitarian Socialism is oriented around a group of individuals who share some connection with Novara Media. Novara Media was set up in 2011 by Aaron Bastani and James Butler. It is perhaps the best known and most popular socialist news media outlet, which started as a podcast and has grown into a network of political commentary, driven by its Facebook and Twitter profiles. These social media profiles are not only disseminated by Novara’s own accounts but also the accounts of its main spokespeople who have achieved considerable public profiles that have brought them into TV appearances and columns in The Guardian. Identitarian Socialism also weaves into the content of other websites such as Tribune, Stats for Lefties, Left Foot Forward and New Statesman.

Core concepts

Socialism

In Chapter 3, we explored how the term socialism was both historically changeable and therefore varied in its relations to Marxism. At the end of the spectrum, socialism seems like a synonym for the rather vague and relativistic ‘Left’; at the other end, it seems like a synonym for Marxism or communism. We distinguished between a Socialism that was not Marxist – the anarchism, social democratic, and romanticisms of those seeking to find a better life beyond industrial capitalism – and a socialism which was broader, encompassing these trajectories as well as all the variations of Marxism. Identitarian Socialism’s socialism is lower case. Indeed, as we shall explore, there is a discernible ecumenicalism to Identitarian Socialism that evokes Marx, even if it does not go far beyond the act of evoking itself.