Left discourses, antisemitism, racism and gender
By Daniel Mang | 2002 | www.hatifnattar.net
1. The discourse on antisemitism and the German-language radical left
The issue of antisemitism has been an important element of debates in the German-language undogmatic left over the last 15 to 20 years. The proposition that antisemitism is not some contingent prejudice, but a “structural” and necessary element of capitalist social relations has become increasingly accepted as true or at least a point of view to be taken seriously. With this ideological shift the issue of an antisemitism of the left has also come to be more accepted in many quarters of the undogmatic left as an issue that needs to be addressed.
This shift, that has occurred since the mid to late eighties, is due to no small part to the continued efforts of “antinational” tendencies who mostly base their political thinking on or are strongly influenced by the Frankfurt School of critical marxism. Over the years, “antinational” and “antigerman” groups in Germany and Austria have differentiated considerably: originally a pretty small scene with a relatively homogeneous ideology, dominated by male intellectuals politically formed in various marxist circles of the sixties and seventies, the scene today comprises a greater diversity of ages and political heritages, there are more women involved in it, although it remains by and large male-dominated in terms of numbers, who’s in charge and styles of comportment, and there are many different ideological subcurrents, some blending antinational critical theory with poststructuralist thought (anathema to “traditionalist” antigermans such as the ISF Freiburg), some aggressively sexist, some (few) relatively open to feminist concerns, some blatantly racist in their discourse on “islam” and “the palestinians” and some (not so many) at least not more so than the average German antiracist.
