MAPPING the LEFT Progressive Politics in the United States ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE by Ethan Young Table of Contents

MAPPING THE LEFT Progressive Politics in the United States ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE By Ethan Young Table of Contents

The U.S. Left on the Eve of Occupy. By the Editors...... 1

Mapping the Left

Progressive Politics in the United States...... 2

By Ethan Young

The Power of the Right...... 3 The Three Lefts and the Ebb of Oppositional Politics...... 4 Social Movements, the Decisive Force in Progressive Politics...... 4 Labor...... 5 African American empowerment, civil rights, and racial equality...... 7 Peace/Environment...... 8 Women and gender equality...... 9 Healthcare, consumers, and media...... 10 The religious component...... 11 The Political Left...... 11 The Academic Left...... 13 Left Rethinking After 1989...... 13 Broad coalitions versus anti-authoritarian action...... 14 Self-marginalization vs. political refocus...... 15 The Left and the Democratic Party...... 16 Rightist domination of the media and judiciary...... 17 The Current Situation...... 18 Afterword (November 2012)...... 21

Published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office, November 2012

Editors: Stefanie Ehmsen and Albert Scharenberg Address: 275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114, New York, NY 10016 Email: [email protected]; Phone: +1 (917) 409-1040

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is an internationally operating, progressive non-profit institution for civic education. In cooperation with many organizations around the globe, it works on democratic and social participation, empowerment of disadvantaged groups, alternatives for economic and social development, and peaceful conflict resolution.

The New York Office serves two major tasks: to work around issues concerning the United Nations and to engage in dialogue with North American progressives in universities, unions, social movements, and politics.

www.rosalux-nyc.org The U.S. Left on the Eve of Occupy

Occupy Wall Street arose like a force of nature over the landscape of the U.S. Left. Only a year after its birth, there are hardly any left institutions or tendencies that it has not in some way influenced. The inclination, then, may be to allow its influence to color our memories of the U.S. Left as it stood pre-September 2011.

To be sure, it was a barren landscape. The U.S. Left has no central political vehicle and only a very small and tenuous hold within the Democratic Party. The broader cultural memory of left social movements was obliterated with the rise of the Reagan Republicans in the 1980s, while the fall of the Soviet Union devastatingly reinforced the neoliberal formulation that “There Is No Alternative”, leaving the U.S. Left permanently weakened and seemingly shorn of its past victories. The following decades were characterized largely by fragmentation and low-key public visibility.

But nonetheless, the Left does have a place in U.S. history and society. Its activism has played a crucial part, from the abolitionist movement and the socialist movement to the creation of Roosevelt’s New Deal to a string of civil rights and environmental gains in the 1960s and 1970s. However unsuccessful at times, it most certainly has played a role in exposing and opposing the various contradictions and scandals of American capitalism. And on the eve of Occupy the U.S. Left was present, in all its fragmented and dysfunctional glory, but present nonetheless.

The following text by writer and activist Ethan Young, written in the summer of 2011, depicts with great detail the historical development and state of the U.S. Left before Occupy Wall Street. While his judgments are determined and at times unsparing, his tone conveys belief that the Left’s fragmentation can be overcome. The at least momentary reunification of divergent tendencies under the banner of the Occupy movement proves the timeliness of this message. Its importance is further revealed by the fact that, looking past the bright lights of Occupy, much of the U.S. Left landscape remains essentially the same. A postscript by the author, written more than a year after Occupy Wall Street began, provides readers with final thoughts on what that landscape may look like in years to come.

Stefanie Ehmsen and Albert Scharenberg Co-Directors of New York Office, November 2012

1 Mapping the Left Progressive Politics in the United States

By Ethan Young

The Left is hard to find and even harder to de- mulate a resolution to this problem begin and fine. “In the absence of national organization, end in transient proposals for coalitions around the left, decentralized and fragmented, lacks ob- issues, electoral campaigns, or vaguely focused, jective definition.” This 1988 verdict by Richard short-lived dialogues involving various tenden- Flacks, a founder of the original SDS (Students cies. The belief that a theoretical breakthrough for a Democratic Society), still holds. He contin- would somehow serve as a new rallying point ues: “For one to become an identified leftist is, has proven futile many times over. therefore, very much a matter of self-construc- tion. The left one identifies with tends to be the Some of the problems related to fragmenta- left one happens to see—and there is a good tion and political incoherence have deep his- chance that one will not see the left at all, or see torical roots. No social democratic or labor only a portion of its potentialities.” party has ever come close to challenging power at the federal level. Intense government re- The Left has no central political vehicle; it occu- pression and widespread xenophobia made pies a precarious niche in the Democratic Par- joining self-identified left groups extremely risky. ty but is denied any real power in the party’s The most radical groups to gain a mass follow- leadership. This is in sharp contrast to the Right, ing, such as the Industrial Workers of the World which has gained substantial influence and vis- in the 1910s and 20s and the Black Panther Par- ible presence within the leadership of the Re- ty in the 1960s and 70s, were targets of mur- publican Party. In a two-party, winner-take-all der and torture at the hands of police and vigil- electoral system, the Left is the loser taking antes. nothing. Political understanding of left social move- This situation has been developing throughout ments was nearly obliterated from popular the last century. In some ways it is unique to the memory at two intervals: the post-World War II United States. For decades, analysts fell back on Red Scare, and the insurgence of social conser- a catch-all formula of “American exceptional- vatism that swept the country at the beginning ism,” and the relatively higher living standard, of the neoliberal Reagan/George H.W. Bush era to explain it. The full circumstances are com- (the 1980s). plicated and very specific to the nature of U.S. politics and the class structure of the society; Yet the Left is still a part of U.S. society. Its frag- and within those contexts, the troubled history mentation can also be viewed in the context of of the Left. the fragmentation of the broader society. Its decline is part of a critical decline of democracy The incoherence of the Left reflects its fragmen- itself—those bourgeois democratic structures tation. Few would deny this, but attempts to for- and practices that have endured, and in some

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cases deepened (thanks to the Left itself), since to the dissolution of communities and cultures the founding of the republic. The fragmentation built around traditional workplaces and shared and democratic decline are, in part, a result of spaces. This trend is accelerating with the ever- the erosion of the nation’s infrastructure and increasing turn to privatization, austerity, and industrial base, which in turn has contributed social Darwinism.

The Power of the Right

2000-2001 was the turning point. The voting The Bush era selection of conservatives to the numbers overall would have handed the 2000 Supreme Court was carefully planned to offset presidential election to the Democratic candi- any future change of party power in the exec- date. The outcome was instead determined by utive and legislative branches. The 2010 Su- a combination of Electoral College votes, polling preme Court “Citizens United” ruling removed chicanery in key states, and the Supreme Court limits on corporate financial control of political decision in favor of the Republicans in Bush v. campaigns. Thus, unrestricted corporate power Gore. Gore won the majority of votes, but the over workers’ rights, as well as protection of the “will of the people,” however polarized, was de- private sector from most government regula- feated by the Reagan-appointed majority of Su- tion, is now federal law. Once again, the center preme Court justices and rightist goon squads has done little more than mutter disapproval. in Florida. Republicans have launched attacks on the Within a year, the 9/11 attack precipitated the voting rights of African American and Latino anti-terrorism campaign which led to new laws workers. Rightist think tanks have drafted leg- (beginning with the PATRIOT Act) increasing ex- islation that would restrict the ability to vote in ecutive and police power as well as secrecy, and advance, in person, or via mail or phone, and reducing civilian rights and privacy. By 2002, would require voters to show photo ID at the Americans were living in a system where the polling place. These restrictions harken back to very concept of democracy had been stripped the measures used in the pre-civil rights South of much of its already limited meaning. The to harass and stymy African American voters. social contract was rewritten, with no quarrel from the Center and Right, and with the Left too The rise of the populist Right accompanied the weak even to be heard. decline of government services—the very term “welfare state” has been turned into a negative The political impact of street demonstrations buzzword—and the naked expansion of corpo- was blunted in the course of the decade. rate hegemony. The politicization of Christian George W. Bush’s military adventures were fundamentalist congregations, beginning in the met with widespread opposition, but centrist 1970s, created a fervent populist right elector- politicians were terrified of being labeled “soft al base driven by social conservatism, which on terrorism,” and the media belittled the an- pushed hard for Bush in 2000 and 2004. ger and numbers of the largest peace rallies. The exporting of jobs neutralized the ability of Today, the purportedly anti-elitist, “big govern- strikes and job actions to disrupt the economy. ment”-hating far Right’s “grassroots” arm, the

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Obama-phobic Tea Party, has neutralized the nected with the renewal and restoration of U.S. Center-Rightists in the Republican Party. Sec- democracy itself. The Center and Right offer tions of the stridently populist right movement only pseudo-democratic spectacles to lend le- are openly subsidized by corporate billionaires. gitimacy to the blatantly destructive enormities Neo-fascist elements have found legitimacy in of capital in power. It is now up to the Left to the movement, which is now accepted as a le- present to the public the case for democracy gitimate political player by the mainstream me- as mass, self-interested (in the class sense) po- dia, with only minor argument. litical action, in opposition to both the populist Right and the show biz spectacles of the Repub- In this overwhelming scenario, the struggle of lican and Democratic national leadership-led the Left to cohere and reconstruct is intercon- campaigns.

The Three Lefts and the Ebb of Oppositional Politics

The terrain of the U.S. Left—in its broader, so- and marginal, as long as it lacks any connect- cial definition—appears in three distinct areas: ing structure or strategy, its component parts social movements, political formations, and exist in a constant state of demoralization academia. They are, for the most part, isolated and grossly underestimate their own potential from one another and have separate roles in strength. society. They make their influence felt mainly through public discourse, limited campaigns, Each sector must be analyzed individually and demonstrations, strikes, and elections. in relation to the others to understand the present condition of the U.S. Left as a whole. The extent of that influence was demonstrated by the ability of the Democratic Party’s social movement base to make a major contribution Social Movements, the Decisive Force to the election of Obama in 2008. This base in Progressive Politics consciously and effectively worked to turn widespread disillusionment with Bush into a solid vot- The sector of the Left with the most tangible er turnout. They simultaneously broke through power consists of progressive social movements deep-rooted racist presumptions about the first that have, at various times, reshaped social re- black major-party presidential candidate. lations; pushed through laws, government services and policies to protect workers and spe- But after the election, that left/liberal activist cially oppressed groups; and limited U.S. military base was quickly reined in by the party and adventurism. campaign leadership. Since Obama took office, the Left has not moved the administration Social movements are distinguished by their on any issue (excepting gay rights and some mass character. They manifest nationally and ground gained for immigrants). retain an attraction for new generations. They are often stereotyped as reflecting marginal These episodes highlight both the surprising sentiments—“special interests”—a stereotype strength and fundamental weakness of the that is in turn embraced by some in the move- U.S. Left. As long as the Left is fragmented ments themselves.

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Yet various movements’ appeal and influence conflict.) Obama’s deliberate snubs have under- find their way into many social settings. To the scored the Left’s powerlessness in asserting a extent that movements express themselves cul- political agenda, even as his return to courting turally, they change that culture. To the extent its support during the campaign season reflects that they organize and move politically, they his continued reliance on the Left, as the Re- challenge power relations, at least in terms of publicans repeatedly point out. social policy and access to democratic rights. The movements have waned steadily since the How can movements that have only rudimen- 1970s but remain ingrained in many settings: tary politics (single issues, group demands) be urban centers, college towns, some suburban considered part of the Left—a political phe- and exurban towns with educated populations, nomenon by definition? Because they come union strongholds in industrial towns, and from, and are driven by, the social contradic- among the most impoverished workers in rural tions that foster politics which clash with the areas. Notably, an informal convention of social power of capital. movement groups and activists, the U.S. Social Forum, was held in Atlanta in 2007 and Detroit Even so, within each movement an array of in 2010. political tendencies struggles for dominance. When a movement is threatened and isolat- A very broad overview of the main social move- ed by the Right, it may be isolated and its left ments follows. leadership weakened—as happened during the 1950s Red Scare. Labor Left politics can sometimes gain in influence, as recent developments suggest is happening In the early 20th century, industrial organizing in labor. Some national and local leaders are swept the U.S., terrifying the centers of power. drawing a sharper line between workers and While the great strikes following World War I corporations, the financial sector in particular. had no political banner beyond syndicalism, the At the same time, we see more identification Depression-era rise of the Congress of Industri- by some labor leaders and unions with social al Organizations (CIO), which was energized by movement demands, immigrant rights, and hardcore leftists, became more and more iden- women’s equality. But there is a widespread tified with Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New “culture of concessions” that has still to be over- Deal legacy. FDR sought to encourage union or- come. ganizing to build a counterweight to the Right. The bond between the labor movement and the Obama’s 2008 election strategy was aimed at Democratic Party was cemented by the wartime mobilizing the fragmented left social move- demand for national unity. ments, in particular unions, civil rights groups, and electorally-oriented NGOs. However, Oba- Hence, while the labor movement retained a ma has taken pains since his election to avoid class character—it was and is accountable to its identification with the social movement Left— members for protecting their financial security, not coincidentally, the political sector with the at least—its political stance was susceptible to strongest ideological and historical ties to the pressure from the state. civil rights movement. (The administration has been particularly concerned about racial fears When the New Dealers—the left wing of the that Obama would side against whites in any FDR administration—were forced out of the

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federal power arrangement under Truman with ing assault on taxes and government spending the onset of the Cold War, the Center and Right pursued by big and small business sectors un- in labor leadership attacked the Left. During the dercut government employees’ strength. While Red Scare, entire unions were blacklisted, and Democratic administrations slowed the pace of left leaders were purged locally and nationally. attacks on labor, they did nothing to shore up The consequences were major: the CIO and the the movement as the economy declined. more conservative American Federation of La- bor (AFL) merged. A plan to organize black work- The Democratic Party leadership was shocked ers in the South (Operation Dixie) was dropped when traditionally loyal working-class voters— in order to protect segregationist Democratic middle-income and white—deserted them in office holders. The AFL-CIO lined up with Wash- 1972 and 1980: the dreaded “Reagan Dem- ington’s crusade against Communism, worked ocrats” phenomenon. Democratic campaign to undermine left unions around the world, organizers fixated on restoring that loyalty, and backed U.S. wars and sabotage of foreign basing their strategy on further distancing the governments. party from left social movements, and adapting to white racial phobias and social conservatism A general acceptance of conservatism and (within limits imposed by key constituencies in- conformism went largely unchallenged by the fluenced by previous left social movement suc- membership. Postwar “business unionism,” cesses). in a setting of economic boom and rigid social conservatism, prevailed over the prewar Unions inside and outside the AFL-CIO remained drama of nationwide organizing, mass strikes, strong enough to help elect Bill Clinton in 1992 police attacks, and factory takeovers. Orga- and 1996 and Barack Obama in 2008. But their nized labor went into a steady membership de- strength, in numbers and internal cohesion, cline that has ever since been ongoing and continues to decline. They are in a proper trap: relentless. unable to make any headway without strong allies on the Left and unable to ward off further When new social movements began to emerge erosion without bolstering from the Democrats, in the postwar period, they were rarely wel- which does not seem to be forthcoming. comed by union members. Attempts to link labor with the civil rights movement were only Yet and still, the labor movement has stronger minimally successful. In 1968, the powerful, pre- national structure, more money, and closer ties dominantly white teachers’ union in New York to the working class than any other social move- struck to undercut a community control ex- ment. Unlike other social movements, they also periment in an African American ghetto. In the have the experience of an uninterrupted en- 1970s, some unions opposed the Equal Rights gagement with national and local politics over Amendment, a major campaign of the women’s nearly a century. If they can consolidate these movement, as a threat to laws designed to pro- relative strengths and build closer ties with oth- tect women from harsh labor conditions. er movements on a political basis, they can lead in filling the gap in society that has empowered Thus, when the postwar “labor-management the Right, as well as save themselves from ex- partnership” was broken under the Reagan ad- tinction. There are indications that labor lead- ministration, labor lacked strong allies besides ership is moving in that direction, such as joint the Democratic Party. The Nixon-era econom- action with the NAACP, the largest civil rights ic shift from industry to service already weak- group; expanded organizing beyond workplace ened the core of blue-collar unions. The grow- settings; and increased interaction with environ-

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mentalist groups, non-union organizations of on the nation’s ideology and mores, for better informal (domestic, undocumented, per diem) (very few would have expected a black can- workers, and community groups. didate could win just a few years before) and for worse (with the familiar backlash of overt racism). African American empowerment, civil rights, and racial equality The 1960s civil rights movement exposed the continuation of white supremacy and black op- The movement of African American people to pression, from slavery to the violent suppres- assert racial equality produced a tectonic shift sion of Southern Reconstruction to the centu- in U.S. society. But the “color line” remains the ry-old de jure racial caste system of Jim Crow, fundamental division cutting across all classes enforced by the state. In turn, the same sys- and sectors. It characterizes class stratification, tem in its Northern, de facto form, extralegal employment, housing, the polarization of skilled but also state-enforced, was confronted, and and unskilled workers, and access to education, the mass urban explosions in the mid-to-late health care, as well as civil rights, despite prog- 1960s showed in no uncertain terms that there ress—some real and some hyperbolized. was a price to be paid should U.S. society not reform its power relations regarding race and The color line separates more than two racial racism. demographics. The experience of African Amer- icans is unique. The bloody path from chattel In the years following, colleges and businesses slavery to wage exploitation shaped the U.S. as were integrated, and African Americans entered a nation and as the strongest capitalist world the professional world—a few at the highest power. The civil rights movement was a break- levels of power. Most of the black population, through, unleashing the clash of community in- however, suffered the worst consequences of terests that continue to shape national politics urban decay and industrial collapse. in many and complicated ways. The rise of race consciousness and political At the same time, the struggles and transforma- radicalization among working-class black youth tions of Chicanos, Mexicanos, and established was met with fierce police repression. Begin- Latino immigrant populations are central to the ning in the 1970s, a concerted effort to contest history of the U.S. working class. The American major elections grew rapidly in the politically Indians, various Asian nationalities, and Arabs developing black “inner cities.” This “empow- all have lived under the yoke of systemic racism. erment” movement spread to other racially These communities mobilize for distinct goals— oppressed groups, most significantly Mexican- which are, at the same time, fundamentally in- descended and Puerto Rican communities. (A terconnected. large portion of the Southwest, formerly part of Mexico, is made up of U.S. citizens of many Meanwhile, the Right has gained ground by generations’ standing who speak Spanish and playing to many whites’ fear of being outnum- identify as Chicanos. Despite their actual na- bered and “losing America.” Racist panic is in- tional status, they are subject to the same ha- tensified by increased immigration from Asia, rassment and attacks as undocumented Latin Africa and Latin America. Americans.)

The election of a black president illustrates the Elected positions long reserved for whites only continuing impact of the civil rights movement were filled at city, state, and federal levels by

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politicians from black and brown constituen- and politicization among long-established pop- cies, whose politics tended to lean left. (The ulations, as well as new arrivals from Central promotion of non-white, rightist figures by the and South America, is already affecting election Republican Party is a new phenomenon.) outcomes.

Successful electoral campaigns led by the em- The spread of Islamophobia since the 9/11 di- powerment movement sought and won sup- saster has led to government and street-level port from unions and other movements. Jesse harassment of Arabs and South Asians. These Jackson’s presidential primary campaigns in growing immigrant groups have begun to orga- 1984 and 1988 built off this development, cre- nize in defense of their own democratic rights. ating the first distinct left presence in national This movement spans religious and secular ap- politics since the failed 1972 antiwar candidacy proaches but is only beginning to have an im- of George McGovern. Jackson’s popularity took pact on local political scenes. the political establishment by surprise, both as a black contender in a white domain and as a figure associated with social movements con- Peace/Environment sidered obsolete in the Reagan era. However, Jackson’s unwillingness (or perhaps inability) to The peace and environmental movements are turn his campaign coalition into a continuing distinct in their moral, rather than economic or political organization after 1988 dealt a blow to civic demands. Both challenge powerful state the Left, which then fell below the electoral ra- and corporate institutions but speak less direct- dar for two decades. ly to living standards. Their success in remold- ing public opinion has been phenomenal, in a Today, Obama claims a fierce loyalty from Afri- society as invested in military buildup and ex- can Americans of all classes. Yet black oppres- pansion and in the “free market” as the U.S. was sion is on the rise: wildly disproportionate un- in the last century. employment, affordable education and healthcare under attack, a huge prison system that re- The peace movement in the U.S. reached two calls slavery in its blatant racism, and renewed high points: during the Vietnam War, and in threats to voting rights. As a result, a renewed 1982 with the massive demonstration against politicization around issues rather than figure- the nuclear arms race. Cold War consensus— heads is stirring in civil rights groups, if not yet conspicuous during the Korea War—was effec- in the black community in general. tively reversed. The Johnson administration, which had achieved the biggest electoral ma- Taken as a whole, the Latino population is grow- jority in history in 1964, was broken by 1968 ing rapidly; its numbers recently surpassed that with the rise of the peace movement. After of the African American demographic. Pan-Lat- Reagan’s election, highly influential centrist in identity has won recognition in the broader forces seized on public support for peace to culture, following the path broken by the black challenge the newly empowered Right’s revival community. At the same time, xenophobic na- of the Cold War. The June 1982 nuclear freeze tivism, aimed mostly at Latino immigrants, has rally in New York was the largest demonstra- been deployed successfully by the far Right and tion in U.S. history, with more than one million adopted by the Republicans. Civil rights for “il- people. legal aliens” has since become a major mobilizing issue in the complicated constellation of The peace movement, over the decades, Latino communities. A trend toward solidarity has left a legacy in the form of “Vietnam syn-

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drome,” the widespread opposition to extend- Women and gender equality ed military interventions. Numerous pretexts for war, from “victories” like the invasion of The women’s liberation movement opened so- Grenada to proxy wars, “humanitarian” inva- ciety to women in uncountable ways. It also de- sions, and revenge scenarios, have failed to veloped political vehicles aimed at promoting reverse antiwar sentiment. Opinion polls con- female candidates and appointments, fund- sistently show military adventures meeting raising for candidates with pro-women policies, public opposition, whether from leftist anti- and lobbying for women’s rights. As a result, the imperialism, liberal/centrist caution, or rightist Democratic Party has held steadfast to support isolationism. for abortion rights, despite fierce (and often violent) pressure from the Right. Similarly, the environmentalists have steadily raised public awareness about pollution, nu- The women’s movement, like the environmen- clear energy, and climate destruction over the tal movement, takes a range of forms, with an course of 40 years, despite fierce efforts by elite sector of foundations and innumerable corporations and the Right to discredit them. local expressions which tend to disdain eco- The movement has branched out in all levels nomic issues and have little direct influence in of society, from elite foundations to local ef- working-class communities. This stance con- forts to challenge social norms in waste dis- trasts strongly with the movement in its early posal, energy use, food policy, transportation, years, which sought to break out of academic/ animal rights, and so on. The movement em- professional settings, drew on the spirit of mass phasizes social/moral choices rather than eco- resistance of the civil rights movement, and nomic demands but in the process are thrown shared much of the worldview of the left-wing into conflict with corporations and their agents of the antiwar movement. in the state. The main opposition to feminist goals came However, sentiment and awareness without from social conservatives, mainly the insur- political organization and strategy cannot bring gent religious Right, who until the 2001-2008 about change. Both the peace and environmen- Bush administration were relatively isolated tal movements are atomized organizationally. from federal power centers. Since then, the re- They have no national structure beyond loose assertion of 1950s-style “family values”—het- or short-lived coalitions. Like the unions, they erosexual male-led households, severe cur- are constantly on the defensive against the ever tailment of women’s and children’s rights, and more rightist Republicans, while their inability constant use of biblical authority to enforce to hold Democrats accountable further under- these “values”—has become a hallmark of Re- cuts their attempts to grow and gain new active publican policy. support. There is little identification with other social movements, and non-profit groups are in Since the heyday of the early women’s move- constant competition for disappearing funding ment, there have been many attempts to por- sources. The default tactics of demonstrations, tray feminism as puritanical and hidebound. petitions, and ad campaigns do not make up This has at times been accepted by women for the movements’ current political dead end. themselves, many of whom have increasingly However, ongoing discussion among diverse assumed that the movement’s achievements forces has been established, with a stated deter- are not hard-won rights but social norms. In mination to come up with effective strategy and this setting, the wealthier sectors of the move- tactics. ment have tended to shy away from targeting

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corporations and maintained support for po- The radical contingent of the gay movement is litical allies who took stands opposed by oth- alive and well, having been tested in the life-or- er social movements. Some feminist groups death stakes of the AIDS epidemic. The pres- have chosen to back otherwise conservative ence of radical politics creates a tension within Republican candidates who broke ranks over the movement that pushes it out of a purely de- abortion rights, and some have campaigned fensive posture. Despite this, the radical trend for Democratic women over male candidates is not strong enough to broaden the scope of with more progressive politics. the movement as a whole toward building stra- tegic ties to other movements. That setting has shifted with the increased power of social conservatives, particularly since the Republican Party’s agenda turned to Healthcare, consumers, and media overt opposition to women’s rights (along with the rights of organized workers, oppressed The movement for healthcare reform has groups, immigrants, and advocates of gov- spread into unions, professional groups, and ernment regulation of corporations in gener- community organizations. The main focus has al). The women’s movement now finds itself been advocacy for a national single-payer plan ill-equipped to mobilize supporters and car- to provide universal health care. A secondary ry on even a defensive fight. However, it still branch of the movement emphasizes a govern- has allies in the Democratic Party who gain no ment-run health insurance plan in competition benefit from adapting to the Republicans’ so- with private insurers (the “public option,” which cial conservatism and who stand firm on abor- Obama promoted and then abandoned in the tion rights and against gender discrimination. face of opposition from Republicans and the Centrist Democratic officials have maintained insurance industry). The movement has shifted support for Planned Parenthood, a health from the national arena to local and state-level service provider under siege by the Right proposals, with a recent first legislative victory for championing abortion rights and birth for single-payer in Vermont. control. The movement continues to grow despite enor- The early gay movement was heavily influ- mous pressure and massively expensive public enced by the women’s movement and has relations efforts to bolster a failed private insur- itself consolidated its forces enough to begin ance system. The spiraling costs of healthcare to effectively challenge prevailing homopho- in the midst of increased unemployment have bia. This is no small accomplishment, given weakened the free-market faith at the heart the long-standing, deep-rooted and violent of the Right’s program. The contradictory ar- rejection of homosexuality in U.S. society. The guments of the right populist Tea Party (which gay movement was the first social movement is heavily bankrolled by the insurance in- to bring grievances directly to Obama. It has dustry) have had little adverse effect on the made headway against the military’s “don’t universal health care movement, but there ask/don’t tell” policy, and in favor of same-sex is recognition of the need to move forward marriage. Openly gay men in particular have without hoped-for support from the White moved into some positions of power and in- House. fluence. However, despite a growing cultural questioning of homophobia, gains in acquiring Similarly, the consumer movement’s demand legal rights have been consistently obstructed for stricter government oversight of the mar- by both Right and Center. ketplace for goods, property, and services chal-

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lenges the political mantra of neoliberalism: In the late 20th century, marginal Protestant de- “an unregulated market will provide.” The nominations, liberal Catholics, and Reform Jews very notion of public safety and regulation were most identified with left social movements of commercial goods was made controver- around particular issues—rarely with the Left sial only recently, when purist free-market as a whole. In major denominations—Episcopa- libertarianism came to dominate the Repub- lian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc.—the mainline lican Party. The Right has shifted the center churches have quietly identified with causes of gravity on this issue at a time when com- aimed at ameliorating suffering and inequality. mercial corruption and cheating have be- Institutions like the National Council of Church- come even more commonplace in this won- es and denominations like the United Church of derland of fraud. Any hint of regulation of Christ have been important funders of, and ac- business now suggests “government inter- tors in, social movement campaigns. ference” in the market. Again, opinion polls show the public favors solutions advocated Black churches have been divided on social ac- by the Left, but this is rarely discussed in the tion, as have Muslim mosques, but the congre- mainstream media, which live on advertising gations and leaders who have taken political revenues. stands have influenced many in their broader communities. This is a legacy continued from The fight against misleading advertising has the civil rights movement. brought consumer groups into the movement for media democracy. There are hundreds of Over the last decades, rightist forces have orga- local media activist groups involving thousands nized within large church communities to wrest of staff and volunteers in every region of the power and redirect the faith to more conser- country. They work in local media and comput- vative interpretations of religion, particularly er centers, broadcasting and video production, toward male supremacy and homophobia. The broadband deployment, media literacy, cable question of control of church funds has serious television and digital access, media consolida- implications for social movements. tion, news reporting and content-production, and related issues like software access, copy- The mainline churches have sought to set- right, privacy, and culture. The movement has tle these disputes by keeping the Right at bay grown more political as the Right has increased without making a strong counter-challenge. its hegemony in mainstream media, and as However, the general political polarization in excluded groups—particularly youth—develop the U.S. will continue to force political differ- their own projects. ences to the forefront. The extent to which the main religious groups identify with and openly support left social movements is likely to The religious component have a big impact on the direction of national politics. The U.S. is a stronghold of every religion, and the intersection of religion and politics is a constant feature. The influence of various religious The Political Left groups is tangible in social movements of every political stripe. In turn, the major religious The section of the Left organized around political groups or movements are subject to polariza- program and ideology covers a broad, intricate tion over social issues, leading to internal power spectrum but is thoroughly fragmented and mar- struggles. ginalized. Sectarianism is normal in politics but

11 ETHAN YOUNG MAPPING THE LEFT

in the U.S. it is more pronounced because no his- of the CP and rightward drift of the SP left both torical left tendency—social democracy, Greens, groups unable to establish a lasting presence in post-1989 communism, Trotskyism, Maoism, the civil rights movement and the New Left, al- anarchism—has an organized expression that though they did play important, distinct roles in amounts to more than a sect. the peace movement.

It has become commonplace when discussing There was a brief resurgence of far left politi- American political history to note the absence cal formations during the decline and after the of a mass social democratic party. Historic at- fall of the largest New Left group, Students for tempts to break the duopolistic party system a Democratic Society (SDS). Some rallied to the are scarcely remembered, and current ones CP. Maoist groups proliferated in the 1970s, get virtually no media attention. Political cam- and Trotskyist splinters attracted radicalized paigns are dismissed merely on the basis of students. But the international crisis of the lack of financial resources, regardless of their Left laid these efforts to waste. Today, there actual influence or the pertinence of the issues are various divisions within, and cutting across, they raise. surviving socialist tendencies, forced to operate (and sometimes determinedly rooted) in the Today the situation is worse than ever. Public margins. identification as “left” is anathema in- main stream politics. Even the most moderate left A number of left national and local third party groups that focus on working inside the Demo- groups are actively involved in electoral poli- cratic Party have memberships that number in tics. The largest, the Green Party of the United the low thousands at best. Open socialists and States, is left of the Democrats but not socialist. revolutionaries are generally considered too The labor-linked Working Families Party works controversial to associate with. For example, in several states, more as a ballot line than an when the Right exaggerated Obama’s fleeting independent party. They mainly cross-endorse association with a forgotten leader of the long- Democrats running with union support but dead Weather Underground, they essentially have elected a few officials on their own. tainted every figure in the political expanse between the two. Finally, there are groups that build support for Democratic campaigns on an explicitly left plat- The current left political spectrum runs from form, such as the netroots group MoveOn.org Democrats who identify strongly with social and the membership/chapter-based Progres- movement goals to anarchists who dismiss re- sive Democrats of America. form of any kind. The groups in between, mostly socialists, are successors to the tendencies that The political Left, for all its weaknesses, is cru- dominated the Left in the heyday of the Social- cial to the revitalization of the Left as a whole. ist (SP) and Communist (CP) Parties, from the If it can come to grips with the realities of U.S. beginning of the last century to the post-World politics, it can cohere as a force for training, ed- War II period. ucating, and developing the political capacities of social movement activists. It can give Left At the start of the Cold War, the number of intellectuals the political grounding needed to former members of the SP and CP rose higher make their work a material force in giving focus than that of the parties’ memberships. The “par- to mass action, especially in the electoral arena. ty Left” dwindled, to be eclipsed by the informal But the obstacles it faces are severe, beginning “independent Left.” The postwar criminalization with its own fragmentation.

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The Academic Left tainted as “red” had been in the 1950s. Only in academia could one openly identify with One of the lasting legacies of the New Left stu- left politics, socialism, or Marxism. The rela- dent movement is the growth of freedom of tive freedom that left intellectuals enjoyed at- expression in academia. Leftist educators faced tracted social movement and political leftists purges at various times, most fiercely during to scholarly gatherings like the Left Forum, the 1950s Red Scare. But the campaign against where they can meet and discuss radical pol- the Left in education, though sweeping, was itics openly and freely. more limited in its effectiveness than the purge in labor. The Left retained influence in various But the academic setting has not provided a ve- departments and found refuge in various fields hicle for political discussion leading to concrete and campuses. results. Much left intellectual discourse has foundered in various intellectual strains that re- Starting during the brief Kennedy adminis- ject politics, except in abstract forms or a priori tration, the new student movement brought arguments. The influence of the ideas emerging radicalism back, challenging faculty and a new from social movements is real and pervasive, generation of scholars in the humanities. The but in academic left discourse the problems radicalization brought on by the Vietnam War presented by these ideas tend to be removed and political repression against the civil rights from historical context. In many cases, context movement reshaped social policy and cultural is even disdained altogether, and the experi- expression in an unprecedented sweep, despite ences of those movements are left unanalyzed. a significant rightist backlash in such crucial ar- The turn of cultural studies away from concrete eas as economics and law. political analysis, for example, made its intellectual output worthless for social movements’ This relative freedom was partly maintained political purposes. thanks to left intellectuals’ growing numbers and organization at the professional level. Po- Today, educators are facing direct threats litical economists, political scientists, historians, that require them to abandon the fashions of sociologists, scientists, and regional specialists the past few decades. The Right is organizing came out in the open with their politics. They against “left bias” in higher education; educa- effectively challenged the Right and organized tion funding is shrinking drastically; and the groups such as the Union of Radical Political work hierarchy is developing more exploitative Economists and the Union of Concerned Asian roles for aides and adjuncts. The future of the Scholars, as well as in left caucuses in the major left academy will depend on educators’ willing- professional associations. ness to organize politically, in coordination with social movements both on and far, far off cam- This new, energized left intelligentsia made pus. The rise of union organizing on campuses a big difference through the Reagan era. In has become an important vehicle for this transi- society at large, the “liberal” label became as tion away from elite professionalism.

Left Rethinking After 1989

The political Left in the U.S., like the Left every- of the Soviet bloc and the Chinese state attack where, was rocked on its heels by the collapse on a mass student protest. It is still a long way

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from recovering its bearings. Two decades lat- of anguish over austerity and disappointment er, “existing” socialism, which was a defining with Obama. reality for the Left, has become a “specter” once again. What follows is an attempt to sum up the divisions that frame current left politics. 1989 marked the end of the state socialist ex- periment begun by the Bolsheviks after the Oc- tober Revolution of 1917. The existence of the Broad coalitions versus anti-authoritarian Soviet state redefined the Left’s self-definition action and mission—for would-be Leninists of various stripes, as well as for those drawing from The main way the Left has maintained a pub- pre-WW I socialist tendencies and movements. lic presence is through mass demonstrations. Even anti-Soviet groups were deeply affected. These have been most effective when built by The once-great Red Locomotive was run off the broad coalitions reflecting diversity of politics rails, and those who rode it were confronted by and constituencies. With no political party or a world where 20th century analyses no longer ongoing national vehicles for consultation or co- seemed to work. ordination, social movement rallies in Washing- ton, New York, and San Francisco are the closest The events of 1989-91 were all the more dev- thing to assemblies of the Left in toto. astating, coming in the midst of an already pro- longed period of decline. The relative weakness The crash of “existing” socialism made Marxism of the U.S. Left comes in part from its lack of in its various forms much less attractive to new- continuity with its own history—aggravating its ly radicalized young people. Anarchism became marginality from political processes—and its the new magnet for the rebellious. This turned alienation from the broader culture, for better out to be less a new lease on life than a period or worse. A concerted campaign of suppression of repeated attempts to reinvent the wheel. The swept the U.S. in the 1950s, when such import- vanguard party model lost its appeal, but anar- ant historical figures as Frederick Douglass and chism could also lay claim to multiple variations Eugene V. Debs were nearly erased from the on the theme. The authoritarian cadre party was national memory. An attempt to re-appropriate replaced by consensus decision-making, utopia- that history in the context of a left movement nism, mutual aid experiments, and maximalism came in the 1970s and 80s, but the decline of in different forms. This coincided with a new that wave of activism and the rise of the Right explosion of information technology that trans- broke the link once again. formed interpersonal and mass communication.

Now the Left is forced to find its way without The “Battle of Seattle” in 1999 was the first ma- a red “North Star.” Its weaknesses are often jor demonstration mobilized on-line, with alli- mocked but are really no joke. Differences in ances formed in the course of the action itself. political orientation and notions of strategy It was a breakthrough in several other respects. and tactics are generally not confronted direct- It was both broad and militant but did not come ly, in part as a backlash against the crippling in response to a particular controversial gov- sectarian battles of the 1970s and 80s, which ernment move or act of violence. It started with coincided with the decline of the Left interna- youth but picked up support from community tionally. Internet debates, though superficial, people and unions. Its politics were anti-capi- have become more pronounced (and some- talist, in the altermondialiste (“another world is times hysterical) in the 2010s, with the spread possible”) rather than the Marxist sense.

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While Seattle was a success in execution (if not their marginality. The result is a habitual projec- in concrete gains), the anti-capitalist move- tion of small subcultural in-groups as social or ment came and went within a decade. The old- political movements. er coalition model—a long list of groups rallying around a single issue or theme—returned In one sense, this is an understandable byprod- in response to George W. Bush’s war moves. uct of decades of fragmentation and stagnation But this too did not last, as the inability of the on the Left. There is comfort in this arrange- peace movement to affect policy raised ques- ment, in which outsiders are pitied or scorned, tions about the effectiveness of nonviolent loyalty is measured by acceptance of rules of mass mobilizations. In the intersection of the speech and behavior, and shared commitment anarchist and the anti-capitalist movements, to a set of values. It becomes destructive for an anti-authoritarian “direct action” trend— the Left in that it fights to “protect” movements attacking property and police, sometimes in from the taint of outside influences, i.e., ordi- mass nonviolent settings—has reappeared for nary people—“Us” vs. the dreaded, unenlight- the first time since the 1970s. And as in the ened “Them.” The self-marginalized activists 70s, confrontationism was bred by the wide- fear anything that might threaten their concep- spread despair of affecting policy through tion of the Left as an inward-directed, martyr- peaceful protest. ized “progressive community” that views politics as a struggle against “false consciousness” Seattle showed how social media can generate and its purveyors. interest and mobilize diverse forces in particular situations. It demonstrated that imagina- The lack of any conception of politics rooted in tion and multiplicity of tactics can affect mass the increased class-interested political activity consciousness and challenge authority. But of the majority of the population—democra- Seattle came up short as a model for develop- cy—is a recurring problem in the U.S. Left. The ing a coherent, continuing political movement, influence of racism among whites and social with internal democracy and the capacity to conservatism in the whole working class make turn ferment into organized opposition. Sus- defining the democratic aspect of left politics picion of political thought and organization is particularly difficult. But the beginnings of mass rampant in the U.S., including among radical- opposition, as demonstrated in the Wisconsin ized youth. upheaval of spring 2011, have pulled that task into sharper focus.

Self-marginalization vs. political refocus Reframing democracy for the Left is part of a process of reevaluating political premises in The prevalence of subcultural marginalization light of the lessons and changed conditions in the Left is a debilitating symptom of frag- facing activists in the new century. This process mentation. This phenomenon has been derid- seeks to break the Left out of isolation and to ed as “political correctness,” but it is more com- establish connections with new forces emerg- plex than either a political standpoint (what the ing in response to the crises on the basis of mu- Right characterizes as “left-wing bias”) or a dis- tual respect, serious dialogue, and democratic missive label for a form of rhetoric. Essentially, interaction. The level of maturity required in people who have been active for many years, this process is not strongly in evidence in the and people who were attracted to radical pol- Left’s public discourse, but it will need to be itics only recently and have had no experience achieved if the Left is to become a serious polit- with mass movements, embrace and defend ical force again.

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The Left and the Democratic Party favored presidential and vice presidential candidates, they are actually voting for correspond- Choosing how to approach work inside, through, ingly pledged electors, who are free to vote for or with the Democratic Party has been a peren- anyone eligible to be President. The process is nial debate. For some on the Left, progressive weighted against larger states with dense ur- electoral action really begins only when the ban populations, and contending parties auto- Democratic Party is recognized as a capitalist matically are eliminated from representation party and rejected. Other leftists work with Dem- under a system of winner-take-all. The resulting ocratic campaigns, though they are aware, and underrepresentation of progressive constitu- critical, of the Party’s failures as a progressive encies and effective strangling of “third parties” force—that’s what distinguishes them from par- have brought continual calls for reform. But ty Centrists. The problem is that the two-party the Electoral College system has deep roots in system makes it nearly impossible for any third class and racial politics, and change is not on party even to get recognition in any contest. the horizon.

The Democratic Party is neither particularly dem- Another roadblock to independent politics is ocratic nor a party in the traditional sense. From the power of state law over federal and local one perspective, it is a “big tent” encompassing elections. The federal government’s power is re- hundreds of sectors and subsectors of society. stricted, but national parties can use executive But it also functions as a grid of federal and local and legislative power at the state level to inter- political blocs vying for the reins of power and vene in federal election procedures. Each state the favor of the corporate sector, without a clear- sets its own rules for its own electoral college, cut program or strategy beyond the broadest primaries, and state and local races. They also outlines of difference from its only rival. manage the terms of voter eligibility, a wrinkle which the Right seized upon to suppress votes The cornerstone of the two-party system is the from left-leaning constituencies. Electoral College, composed of delegates from each state and the District of Columbia. The The biggest “third parties” act as spoilers in number of delegates from each state is equal the two-party races, not political forces with to the sum of that state’s Senators (two in ev- independent strength. The Tea Party functions ery case) and Representatives (based on num- mainly as a rump pressure group in the busi- ber of Congressional districts, determined by ness-dominated Republican Party. The Tea state population numbers). The electors, cho- Party’s ability to shape policy is fueled by the sen by popular vote, assemble in their respec- threat of secession from the Republicans. That tive state capitals on the first Monday after the would strip the Republicans of much of its ac- second Wednesday in December and vote for tive base—and send the movement to the same president. Electors are supposed to vote for the political oblivion as previous rightist breakaway candidate who received a plurality of votes in campaigns, such as George Wallace (1968) and the state or area they represent. To become Pat Buchanan (2000). president, a candidate must get more than half of the Electoral College votes (270 out of 538 Access to campaign funds is another obstacle votes). These electors are thus the direct voters for third parties. Electoral campaigns are media on presidential candidates. spectacles, driven by huge amounts of money—which is the primary way the relationship While the election process appears to voters between capital and the two parties is secured. as a direct one, in fact, when casting ballots for Real competition is impossible, even when a

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billionaire like Ross Perot enters the fray as an Despite disillusionment with the Democratic Independent (1992). leadership’s default mode of triangulation—as well as a broader demoralization that responds Building a voter base beyond the centrism of to and reinforces the Left’s marginality—most the Democratic Party leadership, therefore, re- progressives see too much at stake to stay neu- quires agitating among non-voters and nonpar- tral in electoral races, particularly those for the tisans (“swing voters”), while winning Democrat- presidency. ic voters over to politics to the left of the party leadership. The funding of such projects alone takes a huge effort. Rightist domination of the media and judiciary Organizing within Democratic campaigns in- volves fighting established figures inside the The dilemma of the Left cannot be fully under- party at both local and national levels. Party ap- stood without recognizing the successes of the paratchiks routinely work to isolate candidates Right. The insurgent populist Right has occu- they deem too far to the left to be “winnable.” pied the ideological and political vacuum creat- Successful challengers are bought off as often ed by the inability of an incoherent Left to re- as not. Another common strategy to hold the spond to the failure of capitalism and the state Left in check has been “triangulation,” executed to maintain a relatively high living standard for with great success by Bill Clinton in 1992 and working-class Americans. 1996, meaning that he borrowed neoliberal Re- publican ideas while taking progressive base The Right has scored a long string of victories support for granted. As a result of these strat- against the Left, from the decertification of the egies, to the extent that there is a public, un- air traffic controllers union in 1981 to the break- equivocal left voice on any issue, it is generally up of the largest network of community groups, perceived as coming from inside the Democrat- the electorally active ACORN, in 2010. ACORN ic Party—even if that voice is usually not heard became the bogeyman in the racist hysteria from the national leadership level. that gripped many white citizens unable to ac- count for the election of a black president. Breaking from the Democrats cuts through that predicament but assumes that a new political The resurfacing of the populist Right in the form force could grow and challenge the Democrats of the Tea Party movement came after the wan- from the outside and split the party’s base, with- ing of the last mass populist movement, the out automatically giving an advantage to the Christian fundamentalist Right. The Tea Party Right, who use their every day in office to further coalition combines the religious Right, the na- isolate the Left. There is no historical case of the tivist/racist Minutemen (demonizing Latino and breakaway strategy strengthening the Left, but Arab immigrants), the Ayn Rand School libertar- hope is constantly refueled by every new Demo- ians (railing against government services, public cratic shift or concession to the Right. Third party sector workers, unions, and regulation of busi- campaigns try to grow before, and stabilize in nesses), and terrified small businesspeople and between elections but are perpetually stymied white workers (whose social status is increas- by the fear of aiding the Republicans. ingly undermined by economic polarization).

There is a strain of electoral abstentionism The focus of the populist Right, in classical pro- among activists, but its influence, too, ebbs in to-fascist style, is on blaming economic decline the face of the direct threat posed by the Right. on the poorest, most defenseless members of

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society and on conspiracies by “elitist” taste- lican agenda took the major media focus during makers, money-changers, and profligate politi- the 2001-2008 Bush administration and has cians squandering tax revenues. held on to it in Obama’s.

Even before the Cold War ended, the Right has There is simply no left counterpart to Fox News more and more defined itself in its opposition or the right influence in the rest of the major to social movements, using coded catch phras- media. Another cable channel offers a few lib- es like “special interests” (unions and inner city eral voices speaking more or less for the Demo- communities); “law and order” (imposed on cratic side, but MSNBC (owned by Comcast and lower income blacks and Latinos), and “protect- General Electric) tries to keep a tight leash on ing family values” (from feminists and gays). their employees moving too far from the “Cen- They demonize “the 60s” as a time of aberration ter,” unlike Fox News, where blatant demagogy when conservative views began to be broadly and lies are aired nonstop. The Left has estab- questioned—and in many cases rejected—by lished itself on the Web, and most left publica- the majority. The Right is constantly asserting tions have sites, but radio and television—com- itself to regain the ideological hegemony it lost pletely controlled by corporate owners and ad- in the 1970s: renewed xenophobic patriotism; vertisers and used by many millions daily—are belief in personal enrichment as the “American off limits. dream;” and distrust of government, combined with obeisance in dealing with the overwhelm- The Right also has organized successfully in the ing power of the corporate sector. judiciary through the meteoric rise of the Feder- alist Society. This group of conservative legal fig- These advances for the Right did not come ures, some from the highest levels of the courts spontaneously. The emergence of the Tea Party and government, has come to equal or surpass as a political force is testimony to the influence the firmly centrist American Bar Association as of right-dominated talk radio and television, the dominant political force in the judiciary. The particularly Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News cable Society trained and promoted young conserva- channel. Beyond the substantial audience for tives who have moved into important appoint- blatant propaganda, other more “neutral, ob- ed positions in the court system, locally and jective” venues in mass media have adopted the federally. This undercut left influence in making “Right as Center” ideology. It would be impos- and interpreting laws. Influential groups, like sible, relying on U.S. television, to tell that the the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American White House and the Senate—i.e., the greater Legislative Executive Council, supply sweeping part of the elected federal government—is in pro-corporate, repressive legal decisions duti- the hands of the Democratic Party. The Repub- fully passed by Center-Right legislators.

The Current Situation

The obstacles facing even a re-energized Left ure economically, and it has still not recov- are formidable. Obama’s first term has been ered from the unexpected end of the Cold a period of profound political instability for War. If Indochina was a swamp, West Asia is the U.S. The nation has lost considerable stat- quicksand. Yet Washington seems unable to

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function without the engine of war, even as The mass upsurge in Madison, the Wisconsin its explanations for its endless military en- state capital, gives an indication of what may gagements are dismissed as fallacious by ensue as the empowered Right enacts its pro- the majority of the public, domestically and gram. The protest came in response to ending worldwide. collective bargaining rights for public employees, by a bill pushed through by the new ma- The Republicans promote a metanarrative that jority Republican state legislature and Tea Par- blames decline completely on taxes and gov- ty-backed governor. The Republicans had the ernment spending. The Tea Party has declared state judiciary on their side, along with the sup- open war (with violent rhetoric) on incumbent posedly large, energized Tea Party base. Democrats in Congress and state and local of- fices, including center-right Republicans. The The public-sector unions made their stand, populist Right’s surprising success in 2010 laid winning unexpectedly broad support from the the groundwork for major changes in the po- Democratic minority of the legislature, the con- litical scene, and the public response has only servative police and firefighters unions, and begun to unfold. tens of thousands of ordinary civilians. They rallied with vocal militancy usually heard only from The populist far Right now holds enough pow- the political Left. The protests also demonstrat- er in the Republican Party to pressure (though ed a new level of the Left’s capacity to mobilize not outweigh) the historically fixed hegemony and connect through social networking. of the corporate sector. This also indicates a political turn to the far Right within the corporate The attempt to recall the rightist governor fell sector, which was once viewed as welfare state short of votes, but the Democrats regained a appeasers (or part of the international Commu- majority in the state legislature. The Right’s win nist conspiracy itself) by the traditional Right— in the recall campaign was short-lived, as court from the small-business tax-haters of the John action cut the legs out from under their crack- Birch Society to the Ivy League Cold Warriors of down on state workers’ bargaining rights. The the National Review circle. center of political gravity, it seems, has shifted, and the mass outpourings in support of work- Centrist Democrats would ordinarily consider ers’ rights in the Midwest undoubtedly had a big this a signal to find a new “middle ground” that impact. would overlap with the Right. Obama’s stance on healthcare and the national debt are good The Right misread their 2010 electoral victo- examples at the executive/federal level. Such ry as a decisive ideological shift in their favor moves further isolate, marginalize, and polarize throughout society. They advanced with a direct the Left as a whole—which is part of the Demo- attack on social movements, with democracy cratic leadership’s campaign strategy. itself the overall target: labor rights, abortion rights, immigrant rights, and voting rights of ra- The popular response to the 2010 elections also cially targeted constituencies. They also pushed offered some surprises, however, and the sce- through disproportionate payoffs to rightist nario has not gone according to the usual script. groups by deeply cutting progressive taxes and This was demonstrated most forcefully in early gun control laws and by freeing corporations to 2011 by the union-based wave of mass protest despoil the environment. from traditionally docile sectors of the working class, in the Midwestern industrial states of Wis- The Democratic Party’s left social movement consin, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. base and its periphery were not inspired to

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campaign in 2010, both overestimating the sup- Obamaphobia, which has not proven as wide- port they could expect from Obama and under- spread as the Right had expected. Libertarians estimating the Right’s political capacities. But are uncomfortable with social conservatism’s in the non-electoral year 2011, they came out assault on individual rights through opposition in force when faced with the consequences of to abortion rights, gay marriage, and church- the Tea Party sweep. The Democrats have been state separation. Christian fundamentalists are handed an energized base through no great ef- finding that some in their younger generation fort of their own. It remains to be seen if they are more resistant to bigotry. will respond to the base’s demands or back away for fear of alienating “swing votes.” The direction of the country may be up to groups and individuals in the left social move- It is also not certain that left social movements ment base, acting politically to meet the Right will recognize their real strength in this situation head-on. In this situation, the political Left and and will start to build ties and work out joint strat- the academic Left have crucial roles to play: or- egy and tactics: to politicize and de-fragmentize. ganizational training, political education, gener- ating proposals, and developing a nationwide Fear of jeopardizing individual groups’ ties to political discourse. the White House and Democratic Party leadership has had a potent conservatizing effect After the 2012 election, the U.S. Left will have for decades. These ties involve money, access to overcome and reverse fragmentation, find to chambers of power (if not always actual pol- its own political trajectory, and develop its own icy-making influence), and the coveted mantle capacities as a national political force. Any mea- of “legitimacy” and “respectability” for the orga- sure of success in this direction will reconfigure nizations’ leaders. Some measure of protection the alignment of forces in the two-party system from harassment by the Right and the state is and transform the nation’s political imagination. implicit in this arrangement. The panic on the far Right poses a serious dan- The 2010 far-right electoral sweep puts this ger. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, whole contract in doubt. This is understood by are convinced that their birthright has been the base, if not by the leadership. The continua- usurped. Many are armed and bitter, and they tion of the Clinton-era strategy of triangulation, have been listening to cynical, world-class liars courting “Reagan Democrats” while shunning for a long time. This unstable tendency could the left social movement-identified base, would even lead to violence in the years to come if the overlook the evidence that increasing numbers Left is unable to find a coherent, clear, empathic of “swing voters,” faced with joblessness, irra- voice and make it heard. tional and interminable wars, and unbridled attacks from the Right, are trending to the left of Many on the bottom and in the middle have de- the administration. fined this country’s national identity as “whites on top.” The rapid decline of the middle class The situation on the Right is unstable as well. will confront many Americans with choices they Polling indicates that the far Right is losing the never thought they would have to make: to join ideological war. Humiliated centrist and soft- with have-nots, to identify with racial and gender right Republicans are furious. The ties that equality; or rather, to become politically engaged bind the multiple tendencies of the Tea Party in order to empower the powerless, sweep aside coalition are tenuous. With no one recognized spectacle and actually take a hand in making leader, their fundamental unity is racially-based history.

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The myth of gated, privileged enclaves in an Left’s response to this new chapter can take impregnable empire is shattering before our it from marginality and fragmentation to co- eyes. There is real potential for an egalitari- ordinated action, a culture of dialogue and an, socialist opposition movement grounded solidarity, and effective political power for in expanded, class-conscious democracy. The millions.

Afterword (November 2012)

The Occupy Wall Street movement burst on the physical space. The occupations were broken scene just weeks after this paper was written. up by police in short order, but in the wake A year later, it may be safe to consider some of the Zuccotti Park occupation and literally of the changes in the political scene and what scores of local counterparts, the number of caused them. new radicals has multiplied. This is a reawak- ening for the isolated, unfocused Left. Occupy In the Wisconsin drama, following the 2010 as a movement is finding its way forward, in midterm elections, neoliberalism took its most some cases groping along, in others explod- open political form in the newly empowered ing. Its strongest footing is its identification Tea Party-backed officials. Governors like Scott with the 99%, of which it is only an infinitesimal Walker (R-WI) and John Kasich (R-OH) and their part. Its weak point is a tendency to forget that legislative supporters pushed austerity, govern- fact, to raise the slogan “We are the 99%” as lit- ment service cuts, and attacks on public sector eral fact. But Occupy has played a political role workers and their unions. They did not expect by shining a light on the power of Wall Street. a mass backlash of angry working-class sectors. This has given other movements, in particular It proved that unrest and willingness to make a labor, a needed spotlight to break out of the left political stand was closer to the surface than gloom of corporate hegemony. When Occupy even observers on the Left could see. and other social movements have worked together the results have been impressive. There The spread of Occupy, beginning in September have also been disasters when they work at 2011, reflected some of the same social ferment, odds. minus the class aspect of a focus on workers’ rights—initially. Yet the slogan “We are the 99%” The Left seemed to take a hit when the recall brilliantly captured the moment and changed campaign against Wisconsin Governor Scott the national conversation. Occupy neatly de- Walker failed at the polls in June 2012. The de- flected the Tea Party’s “shrink the government” moralization was real. But the campaign accom- libertarianism—which was easily co-opted by a plished quite a bit. Wisconsin’s mobilized union corporate sector lurching right—and redirected and community forces joined together in a po- the thrust of populism for millions. litical campaign that became a national event. Discontent with Walker’s anti-labor offensive In the space of a few months, a wide range of went directly to the public. The tepid opposing possibilities for the Left appeared in Occupy’s candidate pushed through by Chicago mayor culture of horizontalism, DIY (Do It Yourself), and national Democratic power broker Rahm and ad hoc activism. In a period in which the Emanuel performed as if it were just another Left is denied political space, Occupy seized election. The race failed to win over the ma-

21 ETHAN YOUNG MAPPING THE LEFT

jority of rural Wisconsinites and private sector powerful, intransigent (and Democratic) mayor workers. But many were reached, and several and a full-blown anti-union campaign aided by Republican legislators were removed. the wealthy, pro-privatization charter schools campaign. How (or whether) the state’s political terrain has changed remains to be seen. But the his- The strike and its victory illuminates the poten- torical importance of the taking of the state tial of the U.S. Left—in particular, the growing Capitol building in Madison is real and lasting. It importance of “small-d” democratic demands, was an uprising—interracial, but mostly white; goals, structure, practice, and front-building. working class, but more middle than poor. Yet The unifying efforts of the CTU, partnered with the stance of those involved was unwaveringly community groups and other unions, were a progressive—no capitulation to racism or con- breakthrough in conscious de-fragmentation. descension toward blue collar or low-income The impact of the strike on the broader labor workers. The movement had the potential to movement—starting with the two giant nation- create a broader alliance than any in recent al teachers’ unions—remains to be seen. But memory. That, in itself, is a turning point in class victory for public workers, at a time when they consciousness, broadly defined. are the target of demonization and fierce cut- backs, has already prompted rethinking in labor Then the 2012 Chicago teachers’ strike took de- and other social movements, the political Left velopments a step further. The strike was no and the left intelligentsia. ordinary job action. After years of work, a radical caucus organized its way into leadership of As in Wisconsin, the Chicago teachers’ strike was a compromised, broken union facing a vicious an occasion for mass interracial expressions of onslaught against the city’s public school sys- solidarity. Significantly, unlike Wisconsin, the tem. The CTU recognized the inseparability of African American and Latino communities were economic demands and the degrading of inner at the heart of the solidarity movement. This city public education. They understood that the development, in a city that has been shaped support of other unions, community groups, by racist violence by police and whites against and parents was crucial to the strike’s success. blacks—side-by-side with sweeping union An Occupy group became a full-time solidarity growth and mass strikes in the 20th century—is outreach campaign. Preparation among the extraordinary. members took years. Communities responded: mass rallies and demonstrations attracted tens It indicates that conditions for the reemergence of thousands. In September, after a week out, of the Left as a national political force are ripen- the teachers won. They held their own against a ing fast. Partisans are needed to make it happen.

Related Studies

To Begin the World Over Again: A Politics of Wisconsin, Occupy, and the Next Left By John Nichols, October 2012

A Brief History of Occupy By Ethan Earle, November 2012 (forthcoming)