> so, why is "class" so important a concept to the Left after 150 years of
> losing battles over it?
Simple: whenever social movements have retreated from class, they've lost. And whenever they've embraced the idea of class, they've won remarkable victories, often in the teeth of quite nasty repression (things like eight hour work-days, safety regulations, environmental legislation, free public education, freedom of assembly, universal health insurance, and of course that magnificent institution called the weekend).
Adorno noted a long time ago that one of the key signs of the regression of the Eastern bloc was that its ruling elites criminalized the concept of class. "We're socialist now, so we don't have class struggle", was the refrain, the eerie echo of Cold War America ("we're consumers now, so we don't have class struggle"). But class will be around for as long as we let market forces run our lives.
-- Dennis