Astute activists felt that the plight of the ghettoes, the sex life of teenagers, the ills of alcoholism, and the roots of crime were all primarily class issues. Sure, why not, but do it secondarily, as superstructure. Alongside all this came Black Power, La Raza, the new women's movement, and the gay and lesbian movements. These projects fought against repressive society, but also against reactionary residues inside the left. Pay attention to race, gender, and sexuality not as derivative but as critical in their own right, not as secondary but as strategic keys to social change.
Class is relatively absent from the left's lexicon.
Priority attention to the economy is not only diminished, but often entirely absent. Class is relatively slighted in left activism. Race, gender, and sex are relatively highlighted. Everyone realizes that with the emergence of large, reinvigorated race, gender, and sexuality movements many new folks unaware of class issues came into the left, but no one argues that this alone explains declining attention to class. After all, we should have been able to raise class consciousness for these new participants, enlarging the perspective of each new constituency rather than having new recruits drive out prior valid beliefs.