In response to Zoe Williams's article on Anton Jäger (Meet the man whose groundbreaking book is being devoured by the left, 23 July), Mark Bergfeld, a trade unionist based in Brussels, writes that the weakness of today's organisations cannot be resolved by harking back to a golden age. Bergfeld notes that people no longer attend trade union meetings, church, synagogue, or volunteer as youth football coaches, often due to intolerable working hours or being logged in, as he himself writes from his beach vacation in Greece.
Hyperpolitics as a response to organisational decline
Bergfeld agrees with Jäger's premise but confronts a problem that has led him to embrace hyperpolitics. He co-produced a podcast on cleaners' work and lives and runs an influencer campaign with hairdressers to get the union message out. People might not attend a meeting, but they will watch something on TikTok or Instagram, or listen to a podcast on Spotify.
Rejecting nostalgia for pillarisation
Jäger's argument appears to contain a nostalgia for Christian democracy and the system of 'pillars', a society divided between Christian and social-democratic institutions. Bergfeld recounts meeting a trade union leader in his 60s whose father was a miner. The leader joined the Christian union when he entered the printing trade, remained in the socialist health insurance system, and joined the Christian Democrats hoping to save his workplace. He attended one party meeting, hated the people there, and never returned.
Bergfeld asserts that intensity without organisation rarely produces power, but the task is to build institutions appropriate to pluralism to counter the monopolistic tendencies of corporate power. The weakness of today's organisations cannot be resolved by harking back to a golden age but needs to draw inspiration from the future.
Hyperpolitics as a demonstration of Wolin's theory
Derrick Joad from Leeds writes that hyperpolitics, politics practised after the destruction of institutions that gave people a voice, demonstrates American political theorist Sheldon Wolin's contention that democracy is a short-lived upsurge in people power soon nullified by powerful opponents. Joad cites the destruction of union power, noting that Mrs Thatcher's reforms claimed to introduce democratic decision-making to industrial relations, while successive Labour leaders have defenestrated trade unions from decision-making, claiming it would make the Labour party more democratic. Tony Blair reportedly spoke in the 1990s of wanting a party of volunteers, not activists; hyperpolitics fulfils his wish.
Organised interests as a real threat to capital
Joad agrees that hyperpolitics poses no threat to capital; real threat comes from sustained struggle by organised interests. Hope is found in new trade unions such as the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, which have put a check on employer power abuse in retail trade. Ephemeral groups like Occupy can be ignored as they lack the heft to force change. Joad suggests this may explain the Green party's popularity among young people, who see it as the only organised political group openly opposed to inequities characterising British society today.
