Ernesto Laclau, the philosopher of wokeness

The most important thinker you've never heard of.

There are certain darlings of the New Left: Michel Foucault; Gilles Deleuze; Judith Butler; Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri; Slavoj Zizek. These thinkers have, in ways that are becoming only more apparent, shaped the contemporary political and philosophical dialogue for decades. Foucault’s observations on the nature of power has challenged our collected notions of interpersonal relationships; Deleuze, in his work with Felix Guattari, developed a theory of rhizomatic coordination that activists have internalised, if unconsciously; Hardt and Negri’s proposals for a despatialised, post-territorial politics can be understood as the germ of the ‘open-borders’ push; and the impact of Butler’s claims on the performativity of gender hardly needs elucidating.

I won’t pretend to understand Zizek. I don’t know if Zizek understands Zizek.

Yet one thinker of the New Left exists largely unknown in wider political circles, but his work is by far more important and more influential than any of the aforementioned. His writings, starting in the mid 1970s and continuing until his death in 2014, has formed the backbone of left-wing strategy for decades; the language of the modern left is steeped in his thought, from intersectionality to identity formation; and his partner - both romantic and academic - advises left-wing parties and activists from Momentum to Podemos. This thinker is Ernesto Laclau.