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TheAmerican Left refers to the groups or ideas on theleft of thepolitical spectrum in theUnited States. It is occasionally used as a shorthand for groups aligned with theDemocratic Party. At other times, it refers to groups that have soughtegalitarian changes in the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the United States.[1] Various subgroups with a national scope are active.Liberals andprogressives believe that equality can be accommodated into existingcapitalist structures, but they differ in theircriticism of capitalism and on the extent ofreform and thewelfare state.Anarchists,communists, andsocialists with international imperatives are also present within this macro-movement.[2] Manycommunes andegalitarian communities have existed in the United States as a sub-category of the broaderintentional community movement, some of which were based onutopian socialist ideals.[3] The left has been involved in both theDemocratic andRepublican parties at different times, having originated in theDemocratic-Republican Party as opposed to theFederalist Party.[4][5][6]
Althoughleft-wing politics came to the United States in the 19th century, there are currently no major left-wing political parties in the country. Despite existing left-wingfactions within theDemocratic Party,[7] as well as minor third parties such as theGreen Party,Communist Party USA,Party for Socialism and Liberation,American Communist Party,Workers World Party,Socialist Party, andAmerican Solidarity Party (aChristian democratic party leaning left on economics), there have been few representatives of left-leaning third parties in Congress. Academic scholars have long studied the reasons why no viable socialist parties have emerged in the United States.[8] Some writers ascribe this to the failures of socialist organization and leadership, some to the incompatibility of socialism withAmerican values, and others to the limitations imposed by theUnited States Constitution.[9]Vladimir Lenin andLeon Trotsky were particularly concerned because it challengedorthodox Marxist beliefs that the most advanced industrial country would provide a model for the future of less developed nations. If socialism represented the future, then it should be strongest in the United States.[10] While branches of theWorking Men's Party were founded in the 1820s and 1830s in the United States, they advocatedland reform,universal education and improved working conditions in the form oflabor rights, notcollective ownership, disappearing after their goals were taken up byJacksonian democracy.Samuel Gompers, the leader of theAmerican Federation of Labor, thought that workers must rely on themselves because any rights provided by government could be revoked.[11]
Economic unrest in the 1890s was represented bypopulism and thePeople's Party. Although usinganti-capitalist rhetoric, it represented the views of small farmers who wanted to protect their ownprivate property, not a call forcommunism,collectivism, orsocialism.[12] Progressives in the early 20th century criticized the way capitalism had developed but were essentially middle class and reformist; however, both populism and progressivism steered some to left-wing politics; many popular writers of the progressive period were left-wing.[13] Even theNew Left relied on radical democratic traditions rather than left-wing ideology.[14]Friedrich Engels thought that the lack of a feudal past was the reason for theAmerican working class holdingmiddle-class values. Writing at a time when American industry was developing quickly towards the mass-production system known asFordism,Max Weber andAntonio Gramsci sawindividualism andlaissez-faire liberalism as core shared American beliefs. According to the historian David De Leon, American radicalism was rooted inlibertarianism andsyndicalism rather than communism,Fabianism andsocial democracy, being opposed tocentralized power and collectivism.[15] The character of theAmerican political system is hostile towardthird parties and has also been presented as a reason for the absence of a strong socialist party in the United States.[16]Political repression has also contributed to the weakness of the left in the United States. Many cities hadRed Squads to monitor and disrupt leftist groups in response to labor unrest such as theHaymarket Riot.[17] The legacy of slavery and racial discrimination created deep divisions within the working class, producing a racially stratified, two-tiered labor force. These divisions fostered divergent political priorities and undermined class solidarity, making it more difficult for left-wing movements to build broad-based coalitions.[18]
During World War II, theSmith Act made membership in revolutionary groups illegal. After the war, SenatorJoseph McCarthy used the Smith Act to launch a crusade (McCarthyism) to purge alleged communists from government and the media. In the 1960s, theFBI'sCOINTELPRO program monitored, infiltrated, disrupted and discredited radical groups in the United States.[19] In 2008, Maryland police were revealed to have added the names and personal information of anti-war protesters and death penalty opponents to a database which was intended to be used for tracking terrorists.[20] Terry Turchie, a former deputy assistant director of theFBI Counterterrorism Division, admitted that "one of the missions of the FBI in its counterintelligence efforts was to try to keep these people (progressives and self-described socialists) out of office."[21]
Manyindigenous tribes in North America practiced what Marxists would later callprimitive communism, meaning they practiced economic cooperation among the members of their tribes.[22]
The first European socialists to arrive in North America were a Christian sect known asLabadists, who founded the commune of Bohemia Manor in 1683, about 60 miles (97 km) west ofPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania. Their communal way of life was based on the communal practices of the apostles and early Christians.[23]
The first secular American socialists were GermanMarxist immigrants who arrived following theRevolutions of 1848, also known asForty-Eighters.[24]Joseph Weydemeyer, a German colleague ofKarl Marx who sought refuge in New York in 1851 following the 1848 revolutions, established the first Marxist journal in the U.S., calledDie Revolution, but It folded after two issues. In 1852 he established theProletarierbund, which would become the American Workers' League, the first Marxist organization in the U.S., but it too was short-lived, having failed to attract a native English-speaking membership.[25]
In 1866,William H. Sylvis formed theNational Labor Union (NLU). Frederich Albert Sorge, a German who had found refuge in New York following the 1848 revolutions, took Local No. 5 of the NLU into theFirst International as Section One in the U.S. By 1872, there were 22 sections, which were able to hold a convention in New York. The General Council of the International moved to New York with Sorge as General Secretary, but following internal conflict, it dissolved in 1876.[26]
A larger wave of German immigrants followed in the 1870s and 1880s, which included social democratic followers ofFerdinand Lassalle. Lassalle believed that state aid through political action was the road to revolution and was opposed to trade unionism which he saw as futile, believing that according to theiron law of wages employers would only pay subsistence wages. The Lassalleans formed the Social Democratic Party of North America in 1874 and both Marxists and Lassalleans formed theWorkingmen's Party of the United States in 1876. When the Lassalleans gained control in 1877, they changed the name to theSocialist Labor Party of North America (SLP). However, many socialists abandoned political action altogether and moved to trade unionism. Two former socialists,Adolph Strasser andSamuel Gompers, formed theAmerican Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886.[24]
Anarchists split from the Socialist Labor Party to form the Revolutionary Socialist Party in 1881. By 1885 they had 7,000 members, double the membership of the SLP.[27] They were inspired by the International Anarchist Congress of 1881 in London. There were two federations in the United States that pledged adherence to the International. A convention of immigrant anarchists in Chicago formed the International Working People's Association (Black International), while a group of Native Americans in San Francisco formed the International Workingmen's Association (Red International).[28] Following aviolent demonstration at Haymarket in Chicago in 1886, public opinion turned against anarchism. While very little violence could be attributed to anarchists, the attempted murder of a financier by an anarchist in 1892 and the 1901assassination of the American president,William McKinley, by a professed anarchist led to the ending of political asylum for anarchists in 1903.[29] In 1919, following thePalmer Raids, anarchists were imprisoned and many, includingEmma Goldman andAlexander Berkman, were deported. Yet anarchism again reached great public notice with the trial of the anarchistsSacco and Vanzetti, who would be executed in 1927.[30]
Daniel De Leon, who became leader of the SLP in 1890, took it in a Marxist direction.Eugene V. Debs, who had been an organizer for theAmerican Railway Union formed the rivalSocial Democratic Party of America in 1898. Members of the SLP, led byMorris Hillquit and opposed to the De Leon's domineering personal rule and his anti-AFL trade union policy joined with the Social Democrats to form theSocialist Party of America (SPA). In 1905, a convention of socialists, anarchists and trade unionists disenchanted with the bureaucracy andcraft unionism of the AFL, founded the rivalIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW), led by such figures asWilliam D. "Big Bill" Haywood,Helen Keller, De Leon and Debs.[31]
The organizers of the IWW disagreed on whether electoral politics could be employed to liberate the working class. Debs left the IWW in 1906, and De Leon was expelled in 1908, forming a rival "Chicago IWW" that was closely linked to the SLP. The (Minneapolis) IWW's ideology evolved intoanarcho-syndicalism, or "revolutionary industrial unionism", and avoided electoral political activity altogether.[32] It was successful organizing unskilled migratory workers in the lumber, agriculture, and construction trades in the Western states and immigrant textile workers in the Eastern states and occasionally accepted violence as part of industrial action.[33]
The SPA was divided between reformers who believed that socialism could be achieved through gradual reform of capitalism and revolutionaries who thought that socialism could only develop after capitalism was overthrown, but the party steered a center path between the two.[34] The SPA achieved the peak of its success by 1912 when its presidential candidate received 5.9% of the popular vote. The first Socialist congressman,Victor L. Berger, had been elected in 1910. By the beginning of 1912, there were 1,039 Socialist officeholders, including 56 mayors, 305 aldermen and councilmen, 22 police officials, and some state legislators. Milwaukee, Berkeley, Butte, Schenectady, and Flint were run by Socialists. A Socialist challenger to Gompers took one-third of the vote in a challenge for leadership of the AFL. The SPA had 5 English and 8 foreign-language daily newspapers, 262 English and 36 foreign-language weeklies, and 10 English and 2 foreign-language monthlies.[35]
American entry into the First World War in 1917 led to a patriotic hysteria aimed against Germans, immigrants, African Americans, class-conscious workers, and Socialists, and the ensuingEspionage Act andSedition Act were used against them. The government harassed Socialist newspapers, the post office denied the SP use of the mails, and antiwar militants were arrested. Soon Debs and more than sixty IWW leaders were charged under the acts.[36]
In 1919,John Reed,Benjamin Gitlow and other Socialists formed theCommunist Labor Party of America, while Socialist foreign sections led byC. E. Ruthenberg formed the Communist Party. These two groups would be combined as theCommunist Party USA (CPUSA).[37] The Communists organized theTrade Union Unity League to compete with the AFL and claimed to represent 50,000 workers.[38]
In 1928, following divisions inside the Soviet Union,Jay Lovestone, who had replaced Ruthenberg as general secretary of the CPUSA following his death, joined withWilliam Z. Foster to expel Foster's former allies,James P. Cannon andMax Shachtman, who were followers ofLeon Trotsky. Following another Soviet factional dispute, Lovestone and Gitlow were expelled, andEarl Browder became party leader.[39]
Cannon, Shachtman, andMartin Abern then set up theTrotskyistCommunist League of America, and recruited members from the CPUSA.[40] The League then merged withA. J. Muste'sAmerican Workers Party in 1934, forming theWorkers Party. New members includedJames Burnham andSidney Hook.[41]
By the 1930s the Socialist Party was deeply divided between an Old Guard, led by Hillquit, and younger Militants, who were more sympathetic to the Soviet Union, led byNorman Thomas. The Old Guard left the party to form theSocial Democratic Federation.[42] Following talks between the Workers Party and the Socialists, members of the Workers Party joined the Socialists in 1936.[43] Once inside they operated as a separate faction.[44] The Trotskyists were expelled from the Socialist Party the following year and set up theSocialist Workers Party (SWP) and the youth wing of the Socialists, theYoung People's Socialist League (YPSL) joined them.[45] Shachtman and others were expelled from the SWP in 1940 over their position on the Soviet Union and set up theWorkers Party. Within months many members of the new party, including Burnham, had left.[46] The Workers Party was renamed the Independent Socialist League (ISL) in 1949 and ceased being a political party.[47]
Some members of the Socialist Party's Old Guard formed theAmerican Labor Party (ALP) in New York State, with support from theCongress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The right-wing of this party broke away in 1944 to form theLiberal Party of New York.[48] In the 1936, 1940 and 1944 elections the ALP received 274,000, 417,000, and 496,000 votes in New York State, while the Liberals received 329,000 votes in 1944.[49]
In 1958, theSocialist Party welcomed former members of theIndependent Socialist League, which before its 1956 dissolution had been led byMax Shachtman. Shachtman had developed aneo-Marxist critique ofSoviet communism as "bureaucratic collectivism", a new form of class society that was more oppressive than any form of capitalism. Shachtman's theory was similar to that of many dissidents and refugees from Communism, such as the theory of the "new class" proposed by Yugoslavian dissidentMilovan Djilas.[50] Shachtman's ISL had attracted youth likeIrving Howe,Michael Harrington,[51]Tom Kahn, and Rachelle Horowitz.[52][53][54] The YPSL was dissolved, but the party formed a new youth group under the same name.[55]
Kahn and Horowitz, along withNorman Hill, helpedBayard Rustin with thecivil rights movement. Rustin had helped to spreadpacificism andnonviolence to leaders of the civil rights movement, likeMartin Luther King Jr. Rustin's circle andA. Philip Randolph organized the1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King delivered hisI Have a Dream speech.[56][57][58][59]
Michael Harrington soon became the most visible socialist in the United States when hisThe Other America became a best seller, following a long and laudatoryNew Yorker review byDwight Macdonald.[60] Harrington and other socialists were called to Washington, D.C., to assist theKennedy Administration and then theJohnson Administration'swar on poverty andGreat Society.[61]
Shachtman, Harrington, Kahn, and Rustin argued advocated for a political strategy called "realignment" that prioritized strengthening labor unions and other progressive organizations that were already active in the Democratic Party. Contributing to the day-to-day struggles of the civil rights movement and labor unions had gained socialists credibility and influence, and had helped to push politicians in the Democratic Party towards "social-liberal" orsocial-democratic positions, at least on civil rights and the war on poverty.[62][63]
Harrington, Kahn, and Horowitz were officers and staff-persons of theLeague for Industrial Democracy (LID), which helped to start theNew LeftStudents for a Democratic Society (SDS).[64] The three LID officers clashed with the less experienced activists of SDS, likeTom Hayden, when the latter'sPort Huron Statement criticized socialist and liberal opposition to communism and criticized the labor movement while promoting students as agents of social change.[65][66] LID and SDS split in 1965, when SDS voted to remove from its constitution the "exclusion clause" that prohibited membership by communists:[67] The SDS exclusion clause had barred "advocates of or apologists for" "totalitarianism".[68] The clause's removal effectively invited "disciplined cadre" to attempt to "take over or paralyze" SDS, as had occurred to mass organizations in the thirties.[69] Afterwards,Marxism–Leninism, particularly theProgressive Labor Party, helped to write "the death sentence" for SDS,[70][71][72][73] which nonetheless had over 100 thousand members at its peak.
In 1972, the Socialist Party voted to rename itself asSocial Democrats, USA (SDUSA) by a vote of 73 to 34 at its December Convention; its National Chairmen wereBayard Rustin, a peace and civil-rights leader, andCharles S. Zimmerman, an officer of theInternational Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU).[74] In 1973,Michael Harrington resigned from SDUSA and founded theDemocratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), which attracted many of his followers from the former Socialist Party.[75] The same year,David McReynolds and others from the pacifist and immediate-withdrawal wing of the former Socialist Party formed theSocialist Party USA.[76]
When the SPA became SDUSA,[74] the majority had 22 of 33 votes on the (January 1973) national committee of SDUSA. Two minority caucuses of SDUSA became associated with two other socialist organizations, each of which was founded later in 1973. Many members of Michael Harrington's ("Coalition") caucus, with 8 of 33 seats on the 1973 SDUSA national committee,[77] joined Harrington's DSOC. Many members of the Debs caucus, with 2 of 33 seats on SDUSA's 1973 national committee,[77] joined the Socialist Party of the United States (SPUSA).
From 1979 to 1989, SDUSA members likeTom Kahn organized theAFL-CIO's fundraising of $300,000, which bought printing presses and other supplies requested bySolidarnosc (Solidarity), the independent labor-union of Poland.[78][79][80] SDUSA members helped form abipartisan coalition (of the Democratic and Republican parties) to support the founding of theNational Endowment for Democracy (NED), whose first President wasCarl Gershman. The NED publicly allocated $4 million of public aid to Solidarity through 1989.[81][82]
TheDemocratic Socialists of America was founded in 1982 with the goal of running candidates in Democratic primaries and winning.[83]
In the 1990s, anarchists attempted to organize across North America aroundLove and Rage, which drew several hundred activists. By 1997 anarchist organizations began to proliferate.[84] One successful anarchist movement wasFood Not Bombs, that distributed free vegetarian meals. Anarchists received significant media coverage for their disruption of the 1999World Trade Organization conference, called theBattle in Seattle, where theDirect Action Network was organized. Most organizations were short-lived and anarchism went into decline following a reaction by the authorities that was increased after theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001.
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In the2000 presidential election,Ralph Nader andWinona LaDuke received 2,882,000 votes or 2.74% of the popular vote on theGreen Party ticket.[85][86]
FilmmakerMichael Moore directed a series of popular movies examining the United States and its government policy from a left-wing perspective, includingBowling for Columbine,Sicko,Capitalism: A Love Story andFahrenheit 9/11, which was the top grossing documentary film of all time.[87]
According toThe New Republic, Barack Obama's victory in the2008 United States presidential election "would thrill and then embitter a generation of leftists" with "Millennials curious about socialism [being] drawn to" Obama, "especially as he successfully repelled the avatar of the Democratic establishment, Hillary Clinton. In office, however, Obama veered to the economic center, tapping Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff and allowing fiscal moderates like Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers to steer the recovery from the economic crash."[83]
In 2011,Occupy Wall Street protests demanding accountability for the2008 financial crisis and against inequality started inManhattan, New York City, and soon spread to other cities around the country, becoming known more broadly as theOccupy movement.[88]
Kshama Sawant was elected to theSeattle City Council as an openly socialist candidate in 2013. She was re-elected in 2015.[89][90][91]
Bernie Sanders, a self-describeddemocratic socialist who runs as anindependent,[92] won his first election as mayor ofBurlington, Vermont, in 1981 and was re-elected for three additional terms. He then representedVermont in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 until 2007, and was subsequently elected U.S. Senator for Vermont in 2007, a position which he still holds.[93][94][95] Although he did not win the2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination, Sanders won the fifth highest number of primary votes of any candidate in a nomination race, Democratic or Republican, and had caused an upset in Michigan and many other states.[96]
Democratic Socialists of America memberAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated ten-term incumbentJoe Crowley in theNY-14 U.S. House primary and went on to win her general election. She is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and ran on aprogressive platform. The DSA has seen a huge resurgence in growth withBernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and continues to grow despite having had a membership of around 5,000 members only a decade ago. Unlike other parts of the modern left like theSocialist Equality Party, the DSA is not a political party and its affiliated candidates usually run on a Democratic or independent ticket. DSA memberZohran Mamdani was electedMayor of New York City onNovember 4, 2025.
Use of the socialist label became more prominent afterSocialist Party of America was founded in 1901.Eugene Debs ran as the party's presidential candidate five times and received 6% of the popular vote in 1912. The party suffered political repression duringWorld War I due to itspacifist stance and broke into factions over whether or not to support theBolshevik Revolution in Russia and whether or not to join theComintern. The Socialist Party was re-formed in the mid-1920s but stopped running candidates after 1956, having been undercut byFranklin D. Roosevelt'sNew Deal and the resulting leftward movement of the Democratic Party to its right, and by theCommunist Party on its left. In the early 1970s, the party split into tiny factions.
After 1960 the Socialist Party also functioned "as an educational organization".[97] Members of the Debs–Thomas Socialist Party helped to develop leaders of social-movement organizations, including the civil-rights movement and the New Left.[98][99] Similarly, contemporary social-democratic and democratic-socialist organizations are known because of their members' activities in other organizations.
When used in a broader sense, the American left can also refer toprogressivism as the movement is largely sympathetic to social democratic principles, despite there existing differences in approach between progressive factions such as more capitalist-leaning Americansocial liberals andsocial democrats versus some anti-capitalistdemocratic socialists. Following a slow in usage after theProgressive Era and post-F.D.R., progressivism had a rebirth in the 21st century with the two-term elections ofBarack Obama,[100] followed by the election of politicians to Obama's left includingAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez,Bernie Sanders, andElizabeth Warren.[101] The label has been more broadly embraced by Democratic Party elected officials since the2016 United States presidential election, since Democratic nomineeHillary Clinton referred to herself as a "progressive who likes to get things done" during a CNN primary debate with Sanders, who also brandished the progressive label and indicated some degree ofvalue consensus despite differing policies.[102] TheDemocratic Party has adopted an increasingly progressive stance with the presidencyJoe Biden and hisprogressive economic agenda.[103] Biden's presidency has been considered to be ushering-in more principles of social democracy into American government.[104]
Michael Harrington resigned from Social Democrats, USA early in 1973. He rejected the SDUSA (majority Socialist Party) position on the Vietnam War, which demanded an end to bombings and a negotiated peace settlement. Harrington called rather for an immediate cease fire and immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam.[105] Even before the December 1972 convention, Michael Harrington had resigned as an Honorary Chairperson of the Socialist Party.[74] In the early spring of 1973, he resigned his membership in SDUSA. That same year, Harrington and his supporters formed theDemocratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). At its start, DSOC had 840 members, of which 2 percent served on its national board; approximately 200 had been members ofSocial Democrats, USA or its predecessors whose membership was then 1,800, according to a 1973 profile of Harrington.[106]
The DSOC became a member of theSocialist International. It supported progressive Democrats including DSOC member CongressmanRon Dellums and worked to help network activists in the Democratic Party and in labor unions.[107]
In 1982, the DSOC established the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) upon merging with theNew American Movement, an organization of democratic socialists mostly from the New Left.[108] Its high-profile members included CongressmanMajor Owens, CongresswomanRashida Tlaib, CongresswomanAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congressman Ron Dellums, multiple state legislators (Sara Innamorato,Lee J. Carter,Summer Lee,Julia Salazar), andWilliam Winpisinger, President of theInternational Association of Machinists.[109][circular reference] In 2019 at the Democratic Socialists of America convention in Atlanta, Georgia, DSA confirmed its support for SenatorBernie Sanders in the2020 United States presidential election.[110]
Since the2016 United States presidential election, the DSA has grown to more than 50,000 members, making it the largest socialist organization in the United States.[111] In 2017, DSA left the Socialist International, citing its support ofneoliberal economic policies.[112]
The Socialist Party of America changed its name to Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) in 1972.[74] In electoral politics, SDUSA's National Co-chairmanBayard Rustin stated that its goal was to transform the Democratic Party into a social-democratic party.[113] SDUSA sponsored conferences that featured discussions and debates over proposed resolutions, some of which were adopted as organizational statements. For these conferences, SDUSA invited a range of academic, political, and labor-union leaders. These meetings also functioned as reunions for political activists and intellectuals, some of whom worked together for decades.[114]
Many SDUSA members served as organizational leaders, especially in labor unions. Rustin served as President of theA. Philip Randolph Institute,[115] and was succeeded byNorman Hill.Tom Kahn served as Director of International Affairs for the AFL–CIO.[59]Sandra Feldman served as President of theAmerican Federation of Teachers (AFT).[116] Rachelle Horowitz served as Political Director for the AFT and serves on the board for theNational Democratic Institute. Other members of SDUSA specialized in international politics.Penn Kemble served as the acting director of theU.S. Information Agency in thePresidency of Bill Clinton.[117][118] After having served as the U.S. Representative to the U.N.'s Committee on human rights during the firstReagan Administration,[119]Carl Gershman has served as the President of theNational Endowment for Democracy.[120]
In the Socialist Party before 1973, members of the Debs Caucus opposed endorsing or otherwise supporting Democratic Party candidates. They began working outside the Socialist Party with antiwar groups such as theStudents for a Democratic Society. Some locals voted to disaffiliate with SDUSA and more members resigned; they re-organized as the Socialist Party USA (SPUSA) while continuing to operate the old Debs Caucus paper, theSocialist Tribune, later renamedThe Socialist. The SPUSA continues to run local and national candidates, includingDan La Botz' 2010 campaign for US Senate in Ohio that won over 25,000 votes and Pat Noble's successful election onto theRed Bank Regional High School Board of Education in 2012 and subsequent re-election in 2015. The SPUSA has run or endorsed a presidential ticket in every election since its founding, most recently nominating Greens party co-founder and activistHowie Hawkins in the 2020 presidential election.
The American Solidarity Party (ASP) is afiscally progressive andsocially conservativeChristian-democratic political party with asocial-democratic faction in the United States.[121][122] It favors asocial market economy with adistributist flavor,[122][123] and seeks "widespread economic participation and ownership" through supporting small business,[123] as well as providing asocial safety net programs. It also has a minoranti-capitalism faction.[124] The party's name was inspired bySolidarity (Solidarnosc), the independent labor union of Poland.[125]
The Green Party of the United States is aneco-socialist party whose platform emphasizes environmentalism, non-hierarchical participatory democracy, social justice, respect for diversity, peace, and nonviolence.[126][127][128][129][130] At their 2016 party convention in Houston, the party changed its platform to support a decentralized form ofeco-socialism based onworkplace democracy.[131][132]
In the2000 presidential election,Ralph Nader andWinona LaDuke received 2,882,955 votes or 2.74% of the popular vote.[133]
In the2016 election, Green Party presidential candidateJill Stein and running mateAjamu Baraka qualified to be on the ballot in 44 states and the District of Columbia, with 3 additional states allowing write-in votes.[134][135]
TheGreens/Green Party USA is a much smaller group focusing on education and local, grassroots organizing.
Anarchism in the United States first emerged fromindividualistic,free-thinking, andutopian socialism as typified by the work of thinkers such asJosiah Warren andHenry David Thoreau. This was overshadowed by a mass, cosmopolitan, and working-class movement between the 1880s and 1940s, whose members were mostly recent immigrants, including those of German, Italian, Jewish, Mexican, and Russian descent.[136]
Prominent figures of this period includeAlbert Parsons andLucy Parsons,Emma Goldman,Carlo Tresca, andRicardo Flores Magón. The anarchist movement achieved notoriety due toviolent clashes with police,assassinations, and sensationalRed Scare propaganda, but most anarchist activity took place in the realm of agitation and labor organizing among largely immigrant workers. Anarchist organizations include:
De Leonism, occasionally known as Marxism–De Leonism, is alibertarian Marxist ideological variant developed by the American activistDaniel De Leon.
Founded in 1876, the Socialist Labor Party (SLP) was a reformist party but adopted the theories ofKarl Marx andDaniel De Leon in 1900, leading to the defection of reformers to the newSocialist Party of America (SPA). It contested elections, including every election for President of the United States from 1892 to 1976. Some of its prominent members includedJack London andJames Connolly. By 2009 it had lost its premises and ceased publishing its newspaper,The People.[139]
In 1970, a group of dissidents left the SLP to form Socialist Reconstruction. Socialist Reconstruction then expelled some of its dissidents, who formed the Socialist Forum Group.[140]
Marxism–Leninism has been advocated and practiced by American communists of many kinds, includingpro-Soviet,Trotskyist,Maoist, orindependent.[141]
The American Communist Party (ACP) is apolitical party in the United States andCanada. The ACP formed in 2024 when its members split from theCommunist Party USA (CPUSA).[142]
ACP has been described asMAGA Communist,[143][144][145] as notable ACP foundersJackson Hinkle andHaz Al-Din have promoted it and similar conservative communist labels since 2022.[146][147][148][149] MAGA Communism has been described asanti-feminist,[150][151]queerphobic,[150][151]anti-woke,[152]anti-environmentalist,[150][148][151] pro-social services,[151][147] pro-tax cuts,[151][147] and pro-Donald Trump.[151][153] ACP leaders argue that MAGA Communism is a tool to shift theAmerican working class away fromcapitalism and toward communism.[147][151][154][155]
ACP officially adheres toMarxist–Leninist philosophy,[146][156][157] and also promotessocialist patriotism.[158] The ACP aligns with the Chinese view of theSino-Soviet split, regards thede-StalinizedSoviet Union asrevisionist,[159] supports theCultural Revolution,[154] celebratesthe Chinese economic reforms,[154] and upholdsXi Jinping Thought.[149][152][154][160] ACP and its leaders supportChina,North Korea,Iran,[161][149]Nicaragua,[162]Venezuela,[151] and the Russian "Special Military Operation",[163][164] stating that "today, as 80 years ago [in 1945 as the Soviet Union],Russia remains at the forefront of the world liberation movement".[165]
The American Party of Labor was founded in 2008 and adheres toHoxhaism.[166] It has its origins in the activities of the American communistJack Shulman, former secretary ofCommunist Party USA leaderWilliam Z. Foster; and the British Marxist-LeninistBill Bland. Members of the American Party of Labor had previously been active in Alliance Marxist-Leninist and International Struggle Marxist-Leninist, two organizations founded by Shulman and Bland. The present-day APL sees itself as upholding and continuing the work of Shulman and Bland. Although not a formal member of the International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle), the APL is generally supportive of its line and maintains friendly relations with a number of foreign communist parties including theChilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action), the TurkishLabour Party (EMEP), theLabour Party of Iran, and theCommunist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist).
It has been involved in a number of events, such as a 2013 protest against theGolden Dawn inChicago,[167] a 2014 meeting on Ukraine[168] and a protest againstDonald Trump at the2016 Republican National Convention.[169] A significant program of the American Party of Labor is "Red Aid: Service to the People", which involves providing food, clothing and other assistance to the poor and homeless in impoverished communities, and has been established in multiple US cities.[170][171][172]
Its current organ,The Red Phoenix, carries articles concerning contemporary political issues and theoretical and historical questions.
Established in 1919, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) claimed a membership of 100,000 in 1939 and maintained a membership over 50,000 until the 1950s. However, the 1956 invasion of Hungary,McCarthyism and investigations by theHouse Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) contributed to its steady decline despite a brief increase in membership from the mid-1960s. Its estimated membership in 1996 was between 4,000 and 5,000.[173] From the 1940s, the FBI attempted to disrupt the CPUSA, including through its Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO).[174]
SeveralCommunist front organizations founded in the 1950s continued to operate at least into the 1990s, notably the Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade, theAmerican Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born, theLabor Research Association, theNational Council of American-Soviet Friendship, and the U.S. Peace Council. Other groups with less direct links to the CPUSA include theNational Lawyers Guild, theNational Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, and theCenter for Constitutional Rights.[175] Many leading members of theNew Left, including some members of theWeather Underground and theMay 19th Communist Organization were members of the National Lawyers Guild.[176] However, CPUSA attempts to influence the New Left were mostly unsuccessful.[177] The CPUSA attracted media attention in the 1970s with the membership of the high-profile activist,Angela Davis.[178]
The CPUSA publishes thePeople's World andPolitical Affairs. Beginning in 1988, the CPUSA stopped running candidates for President of the United States.[179] After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was found that the Soviet Union had provided funding to the CPUSA throughout its history. The CPUSA had always supported the positions of the Soviet Union.[180]
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) was founded in 1985 through the mergers ofMaoist andMarxist–Leninist organizations active near the end of theNew Communist Movement. The FRSO grew out of an initial merger of the Proletarian Unity League and the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters. Some years later, the Organization for Revolutionary Unity and the Amilcar Cabral/Paul Robeson Collective merged into the FRSO.
In 1999, the FRSO split into two organizations, both of which retain the FRSO name to this day. The split primarily concerned the organization's continued adherence to Marxism–Leninism, with one side of the FRSO upholding Marxism–Leninism and the other side preferring to pursue a strategy of regrouping and rebuilding the left in the United States. These organizations are commonly identified through their publications, which areFight Back! News andFreedom Road, and their websites, (frso.org) and (freedomroad.org), respectively.
In 2010, members of the FRSO (frso.org) and other anti-war and international solidarity activists were raided by the FBI. Secret documents left by the FBI revealed that agents planned to question activists about their involvement in the FRSO (frso.org) and their international solidarity work related toColombia andPalestine.[181] The FRSO (frso.org) works in the committee to Stop FBI Repression.
Both FRSO groups continue to uphold the right of national self-determination forAfrican Americans andChicanos. The FRSO (frso.org) works in the labor movement, the student movement, and the oppressed nationalities movement.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation was formed in 2004 as a result of a split in the Workers World Party. The San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. branches left almost in their entirety and the party has grown significantly since then.[citation needed] The new party took control of the Worker's World Party front organizationAct Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) at the time of the split.[182]
Following the 2010Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, A.N.S.W.E.R. organized the "Seize BP" campaign, which organized demonstrations calling for the U.S. federal government to seize BP's assets and place them in trust to pay for damages.[183]
The PSL has also been active in the antiracist movement, participating in protests across the country throughout 2020.[184][185] Several organizers in their Denver branch were arrested for their involvement in protests against thedeath of Elijah McClain.[186]
The Progressive Labor Party (PL) was formed as the Progressive Labor Movement in 1962 by a group of former members of the Communist Party USA, most of whom had quit or been expelled for supporting China in the Sino-Soviet split. To them, the Soviet Union was imperialist. They competed with the CP and SWP for influence in the anti-war movement and theStudents for a Democratic Society (SDS), forming theMay 2 Movement as its anti-war front organization.[187] Its major publications areProgressive Labor and theMarxist–Leninist Quarterly.[188] They later abandoned Maoism, refusing to follow the line of any foreign country and formed the front group, theInternational Committee Against Racism (InCAR), in 1973. Much of their activity included violent confrontations against far-right groups, such as Nazis and Klansmen.[189] While membership in 1978 was about 1,500, by 1996 it had fallen below 500.[190]
Formed in 1969 as the Bay Area Revolutionary Union (BARU), the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) had almost one thousand members in twenty-five states by 1975. Its main founder and long-time leader,Bob Avakian, aStudents for a Democratic Society (SDS) organizer had fought off attempts for control of the SDS by the Progressive Labor Party. The party has been unwaveringlyMaoist.[191] Working through theU.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association, the party arranged for visits by Americans to China.[192] Their newspaper,Revolutionary Worker has featured articles supportive of Albania and North Korea, while the party, unusually for the left, has been hostile toschool busing, theEqual Rights Amendment (ERA), and gay rights. The party fell out of favour with the Chinese government after the death ofMao Zedong, partly because of the personality cult of the RCP leader. By the mid-1990s the party numbered fewer than 500 members.[193]
The Workers World Party (WWP) was formed in 1958 by fewer than one hundred people who left the Socialist Workers Party after the SWP supported socialists in New York State elections. Their publication isWorkers World. The party's position has developed from Trotskyism to independent Marxism–Leninism, supporting all Marxist states. They have been active in organizing protests against far-right groups. They were also notable for being the main US supporter of the formerEthiopian communist government. In the 1990s their membership was estimated at 200.[194]
Their front group,Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) organized the early protests against the war in Iraq, which brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to Washington, D.C. before the war had even begun.[195] However, following a split in the party in 2004, some members left to form theParty for Socialism and Liberation, taking leadership of A.N.S.W.E.R. with them. The Workers World Party then formed theTroops Out Now Coalition.[182]
ManyTrotskyist parties and organizations exist that advocate communism. These groups are distinct from Marxist–Leninist groups in that they generally adhere to the theory and writings ofLeon Trotsky. Many owe their organizational heritage to the Socialist Workers Party, which emerged as a split-off from the CP.
The Freedom Socialist Party began in 1966 as the Seattle branch of the Socialist Workers Party that had split from the party and joined with others who had not belonged to the SWP. They differed with the SWP on the role of African Americans, whom they saw as being the future vanguard of the revolution, and of women, emphasizing their rights, which they called "socialist feminism".Clara Fraser came to lead the party and was to form the groupRadical Women.[196]
The Revolutionary Communists of America are the US Section of theRevolutionary Communist International (RCI) (formerly International Marxist Tendency or IMT). They are aTrotskyist party founded in 2024,[197] with their preceding organization having existed in the US since 2002. The RCA are inspired by the theories ofKarl Marx,Friedrich Engels,Vladimir Lenin, andLeon Trotsky, as well as British TrotskyistTed Grant, and publish a regular newspaper calledThe Communist (formerlySocialist Appeal andSocialist Revolution). The party-affiliated publishing house is calledMarxist Books. The party argues for a break with the Democrats and Republicans, advocates for political class-independence of the working class based on a socialist program and aims to build a capable revolutionary leadership.[198]
The International Socialist Organization (ISO) was a group founded in 1977 as a section of theInternational Socialist Tendency (IST). The organization heldLeninist positions onimperialism and considered itself avanguard party, preparing the ground for a revolutionary party to hypothetically succeed it. The organization held aTrotskyist critique of nominally socialist states, which it considered class societies. In contrast to this, the ISO advocated the tradition of "socialism from below". It was strongly influenced by the perspectives ofHal Draper andTony Cliff. It broke from the IST in 2001 but continued to exist as an independent organization for the next eighteen years.
The ISO emphasized educational work on the socialist tradition. Branches also took part inactivism against the Iraq War, against police brutality, against the death penalty, and in labor strikes, among other social movements. At its peak in 2013, the group had as many as 1500 members. The organization argued that it was the largestrevolutionary socialist group in the United States at that time. The ISO found itself in crisis early 2019, largely stemming from a scandal over the leadership's response to a 2013 sexual misconduct case. The ISO voted to dissolve itself in March 2019.
Socialist Action was formed in 1983 by members, almost all of whom had been expelled from the Socialist Workers Party. Its members remained loyal to Trotskyist principles, including "permanent revolution", that they claimed the SWP had abandoned. Strongly critical of authoritarian regimes, including the Soviet Union and Iran, it championed socialist revolution in third world countries. It was an active participant in the Cleveland Emergency National Conference in September 1984, set up to challenge American policy in Central America, and played a major role in organizing demonstrations against American action against theSandinista rebels in Nicaragua.[199]
Although Socialist Alternative has sometimes pursued a democratic socialist strategy, most notably in Seattle whereKshama Sawant was elected to theSeattle City Council as an openly socialist candidate in 2013.,[89][90][91] it identifies as a Trotskyist political organization. Socialist Alternative is the U.S. affiliate of theInternational Socialist Alternative, which is a Brussels-based international of Trotskyist political parties.
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is a political party that formed after a 1964 ideological rupture withSocialist Workers Party over the issue of their support of theFidel Castro government in Cuba, The SEP are composed of Trotskyists and are affiliated with theWorld Socialist Web Site.
With fewer than one thousand members in 1996, the Socialist Worker's Party (SWP) was the second-largest Marxist–Leninist party in the United States.[200] Formed by supporters ofLeon Trotsky, they believed that the Soviet Union and other Communist states remained "worker's states" and should be defended against reactionary forces, although their leadership had sold out the workers. They became members of theTrotskyistFourth International.[201] Their publications includeThe Militant and a theoretical journal, theInternational Socialist Review.[202] Two groups that broke with the SWP in the 1960s were theSpartacist League and the Workers League (which would later evolve into theSocialist Equality Party).[203] The SWP has been involved in numerous violent scuffles.[204] In 1970 the party successfully sued the FBI for COINTELPRO, where the FBI opened and copied mail, planted informants, wiretapped members' homes, bugged conventions, and broke into party offices.[205] The party fields candidates for President of the United States.[204]
Solidarity is a socialist organization associated with the journalAgainst the Current. Solidarity is an organizational descendant ofInternational Socialists, aTrotskyist organization based on the proposition that theSoviet Union was not a "degenerated workers' state" (as inorthodox Trotskyism) but rather "bureaucratic collectivism", a new and especially repressive class society.[206]
The Spartacist League was formed in 1966 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who had been expelled two years earlier after accusing the SWP of adopting "petty bourgeois ideology". Beginning with a membership of around 75, their numbers dropped to 40 by 1969 although they grew to several hundred in the early 1970s, with Maoists disillusioned with China's new foreign policy joining the group.[207]
The League saw the Soviet Union as a "deformed workers' state", and supported it over some policies. It is committed to Trotskyist "permanent revolution", rejecting Mao's peasant guerilla warfare model. The group's publication isWorkers Vanguard. Much of the group's activity has involved stopping Ku Klux Klan and Nazi rallies.[207]
There have been at least 65 officeholders for the Green Party of the United States.[215]
| Election year | No. ofSeattle City Council members | % of Seattle City Council members | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 0 / 9 | 0 | |
| 2015 | 1 / 9 | 11.11 | |
| 2019 | 1 / 9 | 11.11 |
| Election year | No. ofRed Bank Regional High School Board of Education members | % of Red Bank Regional High School Board of Education members | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 0 / 9 | 0 | |
| 2015 | 1 / 9 | 11.11 |
The divisions between Adams and Jefferson were exasperated by the more extreme views expressed by some of their partisans, particularly the High Federalists led by Hamilton on what was becoming known as the political right, and the democratic wing of the Republican Party on the left, associated with New York Governor George Clinton and Pennsylvania legislator Albert Gallatin, among others.
The most sweeping account of how neoliberalism came to dominate American politics for nearly a half century before crashing against the forces of Trumpism on the right and a new progressivism on the left.
What's next may be hinted at by a 51 year old devout Catholic, businessman, and semi-professional magician named Mike Maturen, who recently accepted the presidential nomination of the American Solidarity Party, the only active Christian Democratic party in the nation.
We believe in the economic concept of distributism as taught by GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.
Frattanto, proprio ieri è nato il Partito Comunista Americano, fondato come scissione (pare, di maggioranza) dallo storico Partito Comunista degli USA ad opera dei noti politologi e influencers Jackson Hinkle (che ha partecipato al Forum di San Pietroburgo a giugno) e Haz al-Din, e di cui in Italia si può ritrovare un corrispettivo in Socialismo Italico.
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Gorbachev's revisionism delivered the final blow to the party, which became a fully liberal, bourgeois party, totally assimilating to the Democrats. It has no social base to speak of. For a long time, it was just completely irrelevant, spending all of its time promoting Democrat electoral campaigns even while nobody listened to it.
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