Ash Sarkar’s Minority Rule: A Mix of Bright Ideas and Blind Spots

Understanding the Left’s struggles with identity politics

Book review by Graeme Kemp

There can be few new books as intriguing but sometimes as unreasonable as Ash Sarkar’s ‘Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War’. It starts so well - but then just gets stranger. Over its seven chapters, the book shifts from being lively to, at times, frankly a bit frustrating.

However, consider this statement from the start of the book:

“Today’s identity politics isn’t so interested in the material injustices of food, jobs and money…Language, though important, has taken on an absurdly elevated status. We use language to signal that we’re enlightened, virtuous and morally pure. There’s an element of class dominance here – university-educated people imposing on others how to talk…” (Page 44).

At first glance, this could easily be mistaken for a quote from a right-wing political commentator like Matt Goodwin.

Yet the reality is quite different. Ash Sarkar has publicly described herself as “literally” a communist in a television interview, and her book firmly belongs on the left of the political spectrum. So, are left-wingers in Britain finally waking up to the insanity of fighting on the wrong side of the culture wars?

Sadly, ‘woke’ ideas only get the criticism they rightly deserve in the earlier part of ‘Minority Rule’. The rest of the book tries to explain how the clearly deluded working classes are being divided by the sinister, scheming right-wing media. According to Sarkar, these divisive tactics serve a capitalist class eager to accumulate more profit and undermine working-class unity by setting ordinary people against one another and demonising minorities.

Many on the centre-left recognise the social problems Ash Sarkar raises. They also accept that unscrupulous individuals and political parties often exploit issues like immigration. It’s no exaggeration, then, to say that society is deeply divided on some topics. The elevated status given to victimhood is another particularly contentious issue.

Yet at times, her book reads a little like a conspiracy theory: if only the divided masses would awake and see how their false consciousness enables the wicked capitalists to pick their pockets!

Ash Sarkar’s book has, therefore, a rather uneven quality to it. At times I felt like applauding. At other times I could have thrown it in the bin. Even many of the democratic left are going to have reservations about some of her excited claims. The right-wing in politics will hate the book.

Now, I don’t want to knock all of her ideas – Ash does make some good points in places about what we should be emphasising, if we want to create a better society that works for everyone, regardless of class or ethnicity:

“…we still have agency. We can make choices – and I’m not talking about individual ones, where we dedicate ourselves to policing the boundaries of our own moral purity. We can make choices which bring us into community with other people, as the highest source of good.” (Pages 266/267).

What’s vital, she emphasises, is that we work together to improve our physical and material situation, despite our differences in identity. Too often radical activists exclude others sympathetic to a political cause, for not conforming enough or getting it ‘right’ on every progressive political point. We need to regain our belief that things can change – and remember ordinary people are the majority, not a minority. Human beings as a species can change themselves and society. I agree with that.

Ash Sarkar acknowledges that it’s often the left of politics that needs to change its mind-set.

She cites an example of The World Transformed festival in 2023 where Roger Hallam of the activist group Extinction Rebellion swore at the audience when asked what was wrong with the political left, blaming each of them and their attitudes!

Yet, what also shocked Ash Sarkar was the response of many in the room to his provocation. Someone complained about the eruption of ‘white anger’ in the room. Some claimed the space was now unsafe for minorities. Everyone started to discuss their feelings and how upset they were.

As Ash points out: the whole bizarre event was seen through the lens of contemporary ‘identity’ issues. As she explained, the political left has rapidly immobilised itself over identity politics. The identity of different groups has now become a reason not to work with others on political causes. Daft and impractical suggestions may seem radical, but they also de-rail and slow down political campaigns about social problems.

And there are always perverse incentives, such as status, to hang on to your victimhood.

Yet, as Ask Sarkar correctly points out: if people want to continue fighting things like genuine racism, they need to overcome this limited way of thinking.

Even big business likes a certain version of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) she explains. The critical race theory trainer Robin DiAngelo (yes, her again) had Amazon and Unilever as her clients!

So, the real progressives need to overcome certain bad ideas and start to really unite people. Seminars about being ‘less white’ don’t challenge the rich and powerful. Ash Sarkar argues that it’s time ordinary people claimed more of the money, power, and status that have been concentrated in the hands of the wealthy economic minority.

So how, in Ash’s view, does the power of the media work to prevent the genuine unity needed to tackle real social problems? According to Minority Rule, both the relentless spread of trivia and the media’s hostility toward certain minorities contribute to this division.

“…the media landscape is having a profound effect on how we perceive each other and our politics…the media’s presentation of minority identities (hyper-sensitive, scolding and aggressive) breaks down our ability to find common cause with one another. In creating a false impression of Minority Rule, the media forms a ring of defence around actual inequalities.” (Pages 68/69).

Anger at social problems is therefore diverted away from the elites in society towards ethnic minorities, including migrants and asylum seekers, as well as people who are ‘transgender’.

And right-wing commentators in the media who previously derided the less well-off white working-class as ‘chavs’ - now cry crocodile tears over the plight of such people and their limited opportunities. It’s all about creating division, maintains Ash.

There is an element of truth here: some right-wing commentators now see ordinary white people as oppressed victims, having previously worried about them as a so-called ‘underclass’.

However, is it only a hysterical media whipping up public fears about immigration without any genuine cause? Or is there also a real debate and legitimate concern among many people about immigration itself? In recent years, there has been growing anxiety over the rising numbers arriving in the UK, even as opinion polls show that ethnic prejudice has generally declined over the past few decades.

Britain is Ageing... Immigration Alone Won’t Save Us

There are genuine debates around cultural change and values that can’t just be attributed to prejudice in a manipulative media, I would argue.

And the idea that opposition to Gender Ideology or ‘transgenderism’ is a part of this sinister plot to divide the workers is laughable. Ash Sarkar’s chapters on this area are very weak, I believe. She displays no awareness of exactly why many arguably reasonable people don’t like the claims and politics of Gender Ideology including policies that impact women so negatively. She fails to take the Cass Review seriously. It’s all the nasty right-wingers in the all-powerful media, conspiring in a new way to divide the workers, it seems.

The implication is clear: working people are just too easily duped by the media. They are too easily fooled. I’m not sure how many ordinary people, apart from activists, would be impressed by such a conclusion! The answer for Ash Sarkar is increased revolutionary zeal. The left just needs to organise better. She rejects mainstream social democracy or liberalism as a part of this solution.

So, this is an interesting, if flawed book. There are some valid points – but the good thoughts she expresses sometimes get buried under some dubious ones. The book seems to have gotten quite a lot of publicity. The book appears to have received quite a lot of publicity. Fortunately, there are more perceptive and credible books available on these topics.

But there is a nice picture of Ash Sarkar’s cat on page 292…

Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War is available to purchase HERE

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Graeme Kemp is a former teacher and civil servant who currently lives in the Midlands. He is an English and Cultural Studies graduate of several universities in England and Scotland. He has also contributed book reviews to the Don't Divide Us website and 'Bournbrook' Magazine.

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