Vive la révolution

The working class in the West has been under attack for 40 years or more but the turning point was the fall of the USSR and collapse of the Berlin wall. No longer would the capitalist countries of the West have to worry about the “workers rising up”. The threat of communism was over - democracy, capitalism and liberalism had won - but the working class were about to get hammered. 

Henceforth any pretence of social solidarity or concern for the bottom of society was jettisoned as the magic of the market was embraced by all parties across the West. Historical ideological position was irrelevant and in fact many of the parties of the left ran head to head with the right in their advancement of the market into every facet of people's lives and the creative destruction that it brought. 
   
Globalisation, offshoring and trade efficiency became the buzzwords of the liberal class as the 90’s progressed. The world was going to turn Western and globalisation was unstoppable were repeated with almost religious fervour and well if you had to break a few eggs so be it. 

This kicked up a gear with China’s ascension to the WTO in 1999 - 2000. Suddenly the working class was pitted against people working for a few dollars a day. Wages couldn’t fall so the jobs had to go - which they did in droves to China. Factories and companies closing one after another only to reopen in the Far East weeks later. 

Sure the West got cheaper goods and corporations got fat on the wage arbitrage but the people at the bottom got screwed with shit jobs and no respect. Great trade off for the rich and the middle class - not so good for the working class.  

Along with this onslaught from abroad the working class was also attacked at home. Western countries began the largest experiment in mass migration in history. Country after country threw open their borders to encourage inbound migrants. Great for those arriving from the second or third world who got an immediate step up living standards but horrific for those who had to compete with them for jobs. 

Want a pay rise, training or simply a longer tea break - no chance. No company had any need to invest a penny more than necessary on those at the bottom. They could either get someone else for cheaper at home or simply export the jobs to China. Workers were told to shut up and be grateful they had a job. 

Those you would have expected to stand up for the working class had long since given up. The unions had become tired after the bruising battles of the 80’s and simply focused on the public sector. The parties of the left had sold their souls to the devil and no longer saw an alternative. Two sides of the same tarnished coin which no longer represented their historical constituents. The working class were left abandoned when they needed help the most. 

The distance from the left and its voters yawned open as they marched away from the working class at a quick step. They, like the rest of the emerging liberal class largely saw the working class as surplus to requirements - a weird artefact from a bygone era “Why can’t they learn to code and start a website?” became the refrain. Their ignorance of the places and people away from the centre came into view.  

The left reinvented itself, it no longer representing the working class - they would do as they were told. No the left would represent the caring middle class who worried about the environment and an ethical foreign policy. Along the way perhaps a few scraps would be thrown to those at the bottom but no serious change was going to happen. 

It was a new world order and the liberal class were going transnational. Citizens of everywhere - global citizens who bestrode the globe with their multiple foreign holidays and second homes in France. In reality they were citizens of nowhere - lacking a sense of community or rootedness. No sense of belonging that is so vital to the essential being. 

Tradition, culture and history were seen more and more as inconveniences to be escaped from, things that were disposable. Cultural relativism was the cri de jour. One culture was no better than the next one - so why would we worry about this one. The liberal class decided that the idea of western culture was inconvenient and embarrassing - suddenly the apologies started.

Whatever the liberal class might think people aren't stupid, The working class watched and recognised what was happening. That is why populism, that new shiny thing that the media and academy have just discovered actually started germinating in the mid 90’s and early 2000’s. 

In France you had Le Pen, in the UK there was UKIP, in the USA it was Tea party etc etc. The names are familiar though few are willing to tie the threads together. All were driven by people angry at failed elites, worried about the social and economic changes being imposed upon them and all fed up with being sneered at. 

Look at the liberal class's shock when Trump and Brexit came along. They wasted no time in spitting poison at those who dared have a different opinion. Every effort made to shut them up via sneering and insults whilst the political and legal processes were stretched to breaking point in an effort to stamp out the nascent political uprisings. After 40 years of having it their way they make horrible losers. 

Covid briefly created a respite as suddenly the liberal class realised their reliance on those at the bottom - the stock pickers, warehouse workers, delivery drivers and takeaway chefs. All the services they used whilst sitting at home, eating avocado on toast and celebrating what a big sacrifice they were making for the countries and people they had grown to despise. 

Many claim that the Biden win has stopped the train in its tracks but I have news for them. Biden won fair and square with the largest vote in American history but Trump had the second largest and he increased his share of minority votes. The working class didn’t decamp back to the Democrats because they have heard and seen too much over the last five years. The mask has been torn away and they have seen the ugly face of the liberal class - sneering, entitled and elitist. 

In France Le Pen is ahead in the polls, in Italy the government is staggering, Spain the political extremes are growing as the centre folds and on and on. Western politics heaves under the pressure of the tectonic plates grinding together. 40 years of pain, hurt and anger bubbling into full view and waiting to be released - a question of when not if. 

Either way I have my money on the working class, you see they have realised what they can do when they turn out to vote. History is bending towards them and the liberal class know it and are scared.