It actually made a lot of sense, in the political climate of the 1980s and 90s, for the left to play up identity issues and focus less exclusively on class. For one thing, the existing traditions of working class solidarity politics *did* need to be hauled out of the 19th century. They did need to come to terms with the fact that certain identity markers (eg being a PoC, homosexual etc) push people further down class hierarchies.
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