Yes and no. They have two things going for them that we do not: beacoup money and the ability to use fear and ignorance to divide and conquer (and organize).
On the subject of the left, recently I've come across two anecdotal instances of it in mainstream magazines. So we're out-organized, but an awareness of the left is still very present. (in the US. In Brazil, for instance, it's looking like the left will win the presidential elections, which is roiling the financial markets there.)
Perhaps this will cause some eye-rolling, but both magazines mention it in one of those categorical tables that Spy probably originated and now everyone uses. A glass-half-empty view no doubt would be that they're reducing the left to a lifestyle choice that pisses off parents and thereby just using it to help sell mags.
In the most recent issue of the magazine Book, which is about - surprise - books, there's a table about the 50 books one should read to learn how to be, eh, cool. Down the left hand column are different kinds of cool: rebel cool, existential cool, urban cool, kitschy cool, "road trip" cool, visionary (cyberpunk) cool, artsy cool and "revolutionary cool." Across the top are column headers like required reading, etc. For revolutionary cool, under the first header "what to bring the first day" is "A gas mask, walki-talkies, and the number for your ACLU lawyer." Under required reading: Zinn's People's History of the US, Fanon's Black Skin, White Mask, Foucault's Discipline and Punish, and Arundhati Roy's Power Politics. (What about the current best-sellers Stupid White Men, Nickle and Dimed and Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace?) Under the header "Extra Credit" is "Rogue States by Chomsky: The renowned philosopher scrutinizes the policies of the world's superpowers and unveils the havoc they wreak in the Third World. Among other things, the book discusses the use of chemical and biological warfare by England and the United States against Cuba, Iraq and Vietnam" Under "Whom to quote," Malcolm X: "You show me a capitalist and I'll show you a bloodsucker." After class: "Write the definitive treatise on the implications of globalization and the WTO."
The other mag, _Chicago_ - a booster publication like _New York_, I guess - had a breakdown of all the different neighborhoods and the "urban lemmings" who flock to each, in its May issue. Under "Wicker Park", my neck of the woods and a gentrifying bohemian area, one's Transport is "kid sister's three speed," Guru is "Jeff Tweedy," On the nightstand: "Stupid White Men And Other Sorry Excuses For the Nation," In the bathroom, "The Onion," Frequent lament "Chicago has lost the edge." It's depressing to be a cliche. (Note this was the area of town MTV chose to use for their "Real World" show.)
Peter