The problems ailing Western Europe’s left are not just cyclical

De Balie, a cosily chic cultural venue on Amsterdam’s Leidseplein, is the epicentre of Dutch liberal intellectual life. On May 3rd it played host to two thinkers representing ideas that are pulling the European left apart. Gloria Wekker is a black Dutch academic who argues that the Netherlands suffers from structural racism. Susan Neiman, an American-born German-Jewish philosopher, recently published a book (“Left Is Not Woke”) that calls for dropping identity politics and re-embracing universal values. The left, Ms Neiman says, must “come up with things that we’re moving towards”, rather than simply denouncing taxonomies of oppression.