Vox Meditantis

The supposed battle between identity politics and class politics represents one of the most damaging false choices in contemporary political discourse. This manufactured conflict has paralysed progressive movements precisely when unified action is most needed. The evidence is clear: identity-based struggles are fundamentally economic struggles, and class politics without attention to identity becomes a politics of exclusion that serves only the most privileged workers. Rather than competing frameworks, these approaches must be understood as complementary tools for achieving genuine social justice in pluralistic societies.

The Artificial Construction of Political Division

The framing of identity politics versus class politics as competing paradigms serves the interests of those who benefit from maintaining existing power structures. This false dichotomy obscures a fundamental truth: most identity-based discrimination has material, economic foundations that intersect with class dynamics in complex ways^[15]. When critics dismiss identity politics as mere “cultural” concerns divorced from economic reality, they reveal either profound ignorance or deliberate obfuscation.

The historical record demonstrates that identity-based movements emerged precisely because class-focused politics failed to address the specific forms of exploitation faced by marginalised groups. As legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw’s foundational work on intersectionality revealed, Black women workers faced unique forms of discrimination that were invisible when race and gender were considered separately^[18]. This wasn’t a distraction from class politics—it was an essential expansion of class analysis to include previously invisible forms of economic exploitation.

The charge of “class reductionism” against traditional Marxist approaches reflects real limitations in how economic analysis has historically been applied^[8]. When class politics ignores the ways that racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression create distinct patterns of exploitation within the working class, it becomes a politics that primarily serves white, male workers. This isn’t theoretical—it’s observable in the historical exclusion of women and racial minorities from trade unions and labour movements.

The Economic Foundations of Identity-Based Struggles

Recent research has comprehensively demolished the myth that identity politics is somehow divorced from economic concerns. Multiple studies demonstrate that identity-based policies, particularly affirmative action and diversity initiatives, produce measurable economic benefits not just for targeted groups but for society as a whole^[5][15]. The claim that such policies represent mere “virtue signalling” crumbles when confronted with hard data about improved economic outcomes.

Consider the stark economic realities that underpin identity categories. In the United States, the Black-to-white per capita wealth ratio stands at 1 to 6—a ratio that reflects centuries of systematic economic exclusion^[15]. Women globally earn 20% less than men for equivalent work^[15]. These aren’t cultural or symbolic disparities—they represent massive transfers of economic value that benefit those at the top of existing hierarchies.

The opposition to identity-focused policies reveals telling patterns about who actually benefits from current arrangements. Research shows that resistance to affirmative action and diversity initiatives comes primarily from “lower-ability economic elites who feel that their advantage is under threat”^[5]. This isn’t working-class resistance to middle-class concerns—it’s elite resistance to genuine meritocracy.

When identity politics focuses on ensuring equal access to education, employment, and economic opportunity, it directly challenges systems that allow less qualified individuals to maintain positions of power through inherited privilege. The irony is palpable: those who claim to champion merit-based advancement are often those most threatened by actual merit-based systems.

Beyond the Myth of Competing Grievances

The notion that addressing racial, gender, or other identity-based inequalities somehow detracts from class-based organising reflects a scarcity mindset that serves reactionary purposes^[6]. This zero-sum thinking assumes that justice is a limited resource—that gains for women must come at the expense of men, or that addressing racism somehow harms white workers.

Reality demonstrates the opposite. When workplace discrimination against women is reduced, it doesn’t harm male workers—it strengthens collective bargaining power by preventing employers from using gender-based wage gaps to undermine all workers^[15]. When racial minorities gain access to better education and employment opportunities, it doesn’t diminish opportunities for others—it expands the overall economic pie through better utilisation of human talent.

The most effective labour movements have historically been those that recognised these interconnections. The failure of organised labour in many Western countries stems partly from its reluctance to embrace solidarity across identity lines^[17]. Unions that maintained exclusionary practices found themselves weakened and divided, whilst those that built inclusive coalitions demonstrated greater resilience and effectiveness.

Contemporary examples reinforce this pattern. The most successful progressive political movements—from the Rainbow Coalition to modern campaigns for economic justice—have explicitly linked class-based and identity-based concerns^[3]. They understand that a woman working two minimum-wage jobs faces both class exploitation and gender-based discrimination, and that addressing one without the other provides incomplete solutions.

The Intersectional Foundation of Effective Politics

Intersectionality provides the analytical framework necessary to move beyond false choices between different forms of political mobilisation^[4][20]. This approach recognises that individuals hold multiple, overlapping identities that interact with systems of power in complex ways. A working-class woman of colour doesn’t experience class, race, and gender as separate phenomena—she experiences them as an integrated whole that shapes her relationship to economic and political power.

This intersectional understanding reveals why both pure identity politics and pure class politics prove inadequate. Identity politics that ignores class dynamics can devolve into middle-class cultural symbolism that leaves fundamental economic structures untouched^[16]. Class politics that ignores identity can perpetuate exclusions that weaken working-class solidarity and legitimise continued oppression of the most vulnerable workers.

The solution isn’t to choose between these approaches but to synthesise them into a more sophisticated understanding of how power operates in contemporary societies. This requires acknowledging that capitalism doesn’t just exploit workers as an undifferentiated mass—it creates hierarchies within the working class that benefit some workers at the expense of others^[17].

Such hierarchies aren’t accidental byproducts of economic systems—they’re actively maintained because they serve the interests of capital. When white workers can be convinced that their interests conflict with those of workers of colour, or when male workers believe that women’s advancement threatens their security, the result is a weakened labour movement incapable of challenging fundamental power structures.

Practical Politics for Pluralistic Societies

The question of how states should prioritise grievances in pluralistic societies assumes that such prioritisation is necessary or desirable. This framing itself reflects the scarcity mindset that progressives must reject. Democratic societies are perfectly capable of addressing multiple forms of injustice simultaneously—indeed, they must do so if they hope to achieve genuine equality.

The British political system provides instructive examples of both successful integration and damaging division. When the Labour Party has been most effective, it has been when it combined robust class politics with attention to identity-based concerns. The creation of the NHS, expansion of educational opportunity, and advancement of workers’ rights occurred alongside progress on racial equality and women’s rights.

Conversely, Labour’s periods of weakness have often coincided with artificial choices between different constituencies. The party’s struggles in recent decades partly reflect its inability to maintain unity between traditional working-class voters and newer social movements. This failure stems not from irreconcilable differences between these groups, but from leadership failures to articulate shared interests and common purpose.

The Conservative Party’s electoral success has often depended on exploiting these artificial divisions—convincing working-class voters that their interests conflict with those of immigrants, women, or racial minorities^[7]. This strategy works only when progressive forces fail to demonstrate the connections between different struggles for justice and equality.

Conclusion: The Path Forward

The choice between identity politics and class politics is a false one that serves only those who benefit from existing inequalities. Progressive movements must reject this manufactured division and instead build coalitions that recognise the interconnected nature of different forms of oppression and exploitation.

This doesn’t mean ignoring differences or pretending that all forms of disadvantage are identical. It means understanding that genuine progress requires addressing the full range of barriers that prevent people from achieving their potential. Economic justice without racial justice is incomplete. Gender equality without economic equality remains hollow. Class solidarity that excludes the most oppressed workers is ultimately self-defeating.

The evidence shows that societies benefit when they harness the full talents of all their citizens, regardless of background or identity. The question isn’t whether to prioritise identity or class—it’s whether to build inclusive movements capable of challenging all forms of unjust hierarchy, or to remain trapped in divisions that serve only those who profit from inequality.

Democratic societies must choose integration over fragmentation, solidarity over division, and justice over privilege. The alternative is continued political weakness in the face of growing inequality and authoritarian threats that recognise no distinction between identity-based and class-based oppression.

Bob Lynn | © 2025 Vox Meditantis. All rights reserved.

Photo by ErnAn Solozábal on Unsplash

References:
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[2] Marxian class theory – Wikipedia
[3] Identity Politics – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
[4] Intersectional Identity: Definition, Importance & Impact
[5] “Identity politics” is economic policy – PubMed
[6] Why the majority’s concerns must be heard as much as a minority’s …
[7] Classism in Westminster: A middle class in control? – QUB Blogs
[8] Class reductionism – Wikipedia
[9] Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s Post-Marxism Can’t Give Us a …
[10] How a new identity-focused ideology has trapped the left and …
[11] Identity politics – Wikipedia
[12] Class analysis – Wikipedia
[13] Identity politics | Definition, Examples, & Facts | Britannica
[14] intersecting identities vs. intersectionality – Therapy with Emilee
[15] Rohini Pande in Science Magazine: “Identity politics” is economic …
[16] Class Reductionism Is Real, and It’s Coming from the Jacobin Wing …
[17] Marxism and Class part three: Class analysis or identity politics?
[18] Identity and Intersectionality in the Classroom – EdSpace
[19] [PDF] The Use and Abuse of Class Reductionism for the Left
[20] Intersectionality: When identities converge – Catalyst
[21] Identity Politics Is a Poor Substitute for Socialism – Jacobin
[22] Identity Politics or Class Politics? – Shop | The Communists
[23] Class Struggle and Identity Politics: A Guide
[24] Intersectionality – Wikipedia
[25] Understanding Intersectional Identities – Psychology Today
[26] The Debate Between Class Reductionists and Intersectionality?
[27] Left wing pitfalls: against neoliberal identity politics and class … – RS21
[28] [PDF] Education and articulation: Laclau and Mouffe’s radical democracy …