- https://leftrenewal.org/lraw-en/ (Left Renewal in an Age of Waiting, by Ben Gidley and Daniel Mang – 1 October 2025)

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In this pamphlet, we, two of the authors of For a consistently democratic and internationalist left, return to some of the fault lines within this text – which reflect some of the differences among the authors as well as fault lines in the coalitions we call for.

We wish to clarify ambiguities in our original text (as we see them) but also to deepen and broaden the analysis proposed there.

# Summary

## First of all

We defend a consistently democratic, internationalist, anti-authoritarian left politics.

We argue for broad coalitions, but remain critical of nationalism, authoritarianism, and confusionism.

We oppose liberalism, but recognise the urgent need to form tactical alliances with liberals against the greater danger of the far right.

We call for a left that balances short-term realism with long-term utopian aspiration.

## Class and Interlocking Systems of Oppression

We argue for a renewed focus on class without falling into class reductionism.

We emphasise that class is shaped by and intersects with gender, “race”, sexuality, and other relations of difference and domination.

Our class politics is planetary: link up “core” and “periphery” struggles, instead of placing them in competition.

## Emancipatory Politics

We call for a re-imagining of what leftism means – bringing in the insights and themes of feminist, queer, ecological, anti-racist… social movements.

We reject both reactionary anti-woke backlash and identity absolutism, and call for broad, emancipatory coalition-building.

## Feminism and Gender Politics

We argue that a feminist transformation of the left is essential and overdue.

We are pro-transfeminist; our politics is shaped by queer and sex-radical feminisms.

Gender and sexuality are material.

## Micropolitics and Subjectivity

We stress the need for radical left approaches to affect, emotion, and interpersonal power.

We call for reflection on how projection, fetishisation, and nostalgia shape left politics.

## Nationalism and Collective Identities

We ultimately oppose all forms of nationalism, recognising its inherently exclusionary logic.

While we support struggles against national oppression, we want to strengthen anti-nationalist and democratic tendencies within such movements.

We advocate for planetary belonging over ethnonational attachments.

## “Race”, Racism, and Atlantic Bias

We challenge the Atlantic bias in dominant left conceptions of “race”.

We insist on a more nuanced and global understanding of racialisation and of imperialism.

We warn against left romanticisation of “anti-Western” powers like Russia and China.

## Religious Fundamentalisms

We oppose all religious fundamentalisms, including Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist variants.

We retain the term “fundamentalisms” to highlight these movements’ authoritarian use of religion and state power.

We oppose liberal Islamophobia while defending emancipatory secularism.

## Environmentalism and Extractivism

Our ecological vision of emancipation is critical of extractivist versions of left politics.

We call for rethinking abundance and transforming human relations to nature and non-human life.

The left needs to recognise the centrality of anti-extractivist, indigenous and peasant movements to a global emancipatory politics.

## Democracy and Liberalism

We defend the existing limited forms of political democracy while working towards a deeper democracy.

We criticise the authoritarianism within those parts of the left that dismiss individual rights and glorify past and present repressive regimes.

We advocate tactical engagement with electoral politics, rejecting both abstentionism and maximalist detachment.

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#LeftRenewal #Gauche #Democracy #ReligiousFundamentalisms #Nationalism #Feminism #CollectiveIdentities#GenderPolitics #confusionism #Environmentalism #Extractivism #EmancipatoryPolitics #Class #InterlockingSystemsOfOppression #Micropolitics #Subjectivity #Race, #Racism #AtlanticBias

Philippe Corcuff and Ben Gidley on Confusionism – 11 May 2025

- https://leftrenewal.org/videos-en/corcuff-gidley-confusionism/

00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:44 Philippe’s presentation
00:45:00 Ben’s presentation
01:17:45 Discussion

The Concept of Confusionism: A Tool for Thinking About the Links Between the Crisis of the Left and the Success of the Far Right in France And… Elsewhere?, by Philippe Corcuff – 11 May 2025

- https://leftrenewal.org/webinars/corcuff-confusionism-en/

Understanding Confusionism and Diagonalism, by Ben Gidley – 11 May 2025

- https://leftrenewal.org/webinars/gidley-confusionism-en/

#Confusionism #Leftrenewal #Antifascisme

When the left becomes racist because being victim of fascist confusionism

This is all but specific to Germany: you can face peoples targeting Jews as antisemitic worldwide, quite everywhere, even in Mastodon instances claiming to be anarchist thus anti-racist, etc.

There are too many people all around the world who confuse anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and the exception with the rule, following so exactly the same confusionist dialectics as the ultra-right regarding Netanyahu’s genocide: "Anyone who does not support everything he does is anti-Semitic" which is the same behavior as that of a Trump banning his list of "wokes & DEI" words in all scientific publications without taking the least care about the context.

Not all Jews - in Israel or not - support, and will support, the Palestinian genocide perpetrated by the present far-right government of Israel.

Here, it is exactly as with the Women's Rights and all other too easily ostracized groups's rights. "The irony that the German state would actually classify who is a Jew, what's a legitimate Jewish position, and how Jews should react is just beneath contempt."

It is the lowest of the low.

https://www.dw.com/en/when-germany-targets-jewish-artists-as-antisemitic/a-70180570

#confusionism #Fascist #Propaganda

When the left becomes racist because being victim of fascist confusionism:

This is all but specific to Germany. You can face people targeting Jews as antisemitic worldwide, quite everywhere, even in Mastodon instances claiming to be anarchist thus anti-racist, etc.

There are too many people in the world who confuse anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and the exception with the rule, following so exactly the same confusionist dialectics as the ultra-right regarding Netanyahu’s genocide: "Anyone who does not support everything he does is anti-Semitic" which is the same behavior as that of a Trump banning his list of "wokes & DEI" words in all scientific papers without taking the least care about the context.

Not all Jews - in Israel or not - support, and will support, the Palestinian genocide perpetrated by the present far-right government of Israel.

Here, it is exactly as with the Women's Rights and all other too easily ostracized groups's rights: "The irony that the German state would actually classify who is a Jew, what's a legitimate Jewish position, and how Jews should react is just beneath contempt."

It is the lowest of the low.

https://www.dw.com/en/when-germany-targets-jewish-artists-as-antisemitic/a-70180570

#confusionism #Fascist #Propaganda

https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article8189

Release Boris #Kagarlitsky - despite #RedBrown turn

Anarchist Telegram feed #Netchaievtchina - "deplore the fact that the many activists threatened with death in prison, “ordinary activists” like Yevgeny Karakashev, threatened with dying of brain disease, do not have influential networks..these comrades fear that even less will be said about these now that an ecumenical campaign of the “amnesiac left” in favour of Kagarlitsky could begin"

#confusionism #querfront

Really fun piece that I've got to put some thought into. Think about adding rituals (inspired by #Confusionism and #Daoism) to your phone usage to make it more meaningful (vs more 'efficient').

https://hedgehogreview.com/web-features/thr/posts/the-dao-of-using-your-smartphone?ref=thebrowser.com&utm_source=pocket_saves