It's no secret that many progressives believe that in the United States, liberal mainstream politics are on the decline. Sociologist and author Charles Derber thinks he knows why. The American left, he says, fails to understand a crucial aspect of capitalism: how it intersects with race, class and gender.

Derber posits this argument during a new interview with Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges. "The intersectionality—and I don't like that word because it's kind of a buzzword, but it is used widely in academic circles—is the recognition that you can't understand any of these hierarchies of power and repression without understanding the interrelationship among these different structures and hierarchies," Derber says. "We have no conversation about capitalism in this country."

Hedges, who asserts that the American left would "be a right-wing party in Europe," agrees, and asks Derber how the left needs to change in order to address the perils of capitalism.

"While I'm identified with the left, I'm very critical of a lot of the history and the structure of the left," Derber says. He explains that the left is internalizing "so much of the system it's combating" and says that progressives need to develop an "intersectional resistance."

Watch the full interview in the player above.

--Posted by Emma Niles