People tend to talk about neoliberalism as an assault on labor. But this is a partial view. The neoliberal turn has been an all-out assault on all political mediations in general. The principal is against mediation as such, be it a labor union, a community group, tenant council.

Maybe banal, but I think it's helpful to think of it in these terms. If the neoliberal orientation is towards removing all political mediations, then we have a better idea regarding the relative disempowerment of the working class today.

I also think this makes 'progressive neoliberalism' more coherent to strategize around. They may grant something that seems like a concession (like some somewhat progressive policy) but their task is to ensure, at all costs, that no mediating political entity may claim credit.

Perhaps the difference between the US far-right and the center-right is how they attempt to dismantle mediating political entities. The former wants to smash them, the latter wants to deprive them of their substantive relationship to material reality.

Maybe most important is the demolition of the mass party, previously the apex predator of left-wing mediation (also most scorned by ultra-left). Lots of questions on this one, but it seems potentially relevant for leftists who are longing to reconstruct party-like formations.

In terms of my own political commitments, it's a live question for base-building. If our organizations will be denied the benefits of concessions because of militancy against mediations, then what is the relation between reform and revolution? Between organizing and power?

Anyways, to be clear, I do think anti-labor agitations were clearly the most important in breaking down proletarian resistance in the medium and long-term. It's just that viewing it as only anti-labor misses the larger point about a decline working class organization.