"We would suggest that that the biggest barrier to active mass social movements derives not from a Communist past but from a neoliberal present. Drakulic is unfortunately quite correct that the ideology of collective solidarity belongs to a bygone era. But this is not only the case in the post-communist countries of eastern Europe – as showcased, perhaps inadvertently, by the last part of her essay.

In the western democracies, the hyper individualism of late-capitalist consumerism and post-modern identity politics conspire to focus our attention on our own material needs and desires for personal actualization. In a social world that values competition and rewards self-interest, there are few incentives for collective action beyond the occasional nationalist or religious ones. In an economic system that creates scarcity and vast inequalities between rich and poor, it makes more sense to focus on getting ahead, or at the very least on ensuring that you don’t fall further behind.

What we need in eastern Europe today, and indeed across the globe, are not myths of what is or isn’t “real” women’s organizing. We need new ways to imagine a future that is as good for women as it is for all peoples marginalized or disenfranchised by the savagery of neoliberal übercapitalism."