You both look for too much. There is no need to "get outside the totality." That is not a prerequisite for thinking that the U.S. should stop killing Afghani! Nor is it necessary as a prerequisite to support a living-wage altternative.
This worry about the "totality" and an "alternative" is the worry of an academic not involved inorganizing any particular struggle.
Somebody: Well, the Chinese workers at Honda and Foxconn are fighting for living wages, as increasingly are their brethren across the country's Eastern seaboard. But, this isn't linked to or part of a larger left-wing movement in any appreciable way, as was the case in France or Germany during their periods of industrialization. Instead it seems to be more in keeping with the development of the country's domestic market and a movement up the value added chain, following in the footsteps of South Korea and Taiwan. I'm afraid I don't see anything academic about the fact that bread and butter unionism and social democracy are the radical edge of dissident politics in those countries.
And this is the point Wojtek seems to be alluding to. The disappearance of a viable alternative most certainly does set certain bounds to contemporary workers struggles. This is most glaringly the case in industrializing Asia - China and Vietnam are seen to be emerging from socialism, not feudalism, although we could endlessly debate the relevancy of these terms.