The Rise of American Socialism
Why Socialism in the United States might be a thing now
Socialism is a very old word, so old it’s almost quaint, in places like Western Europe it’s associated with mainstream (and boring) political parties that often betray their core values in order to carry out self-destructive neoliberal policies. In the Middle East socialism is remembered as failed political movements that were crushed by Western-backed dictatorships and anti-democratic Islamic movements.
Here in Latin America socialism is associated with old social democratic parties that sold out to the Washington Consensus a long time ago, giving up their most basic principles in order to carry out privatizations that have only benefited the corporate establishment, while only keeping a few social institutions in place.
Cuba is still the most famous example of socialism in Latin America, and for many years held standards of living that were far ahead most countries in the region, at least until the Soviet Union collapsed, which left Cuba isolated and at the mercy of a long-standing US-blockade. The United States has always used sanctions and blockades as a tool of economic warfare, mainly with the intention of causing pain among the civilian population. But in the case in Cuba the emergency policies of the state allowed them to not just survive the blockade, but even improve the standards of living of the island nation.
And yet Cuba is another example of a socialist country that is looking into the future for ways to reform their system, as they are now following the Chinese model as a way to slowly introduce market reforms in the form of private cooperatives and small businesses, while also promoting foreign investment.
Cubans are looking for inspiration in the Chinese model for obvious reasons: they learned from the catastrophic collapse of the economies of post-Soviet Eastern Europe following their sudden transition from socialist to capitalism, by going through a massive privatization process that’s often refereed as shock therapy. The Soviet economy was stagnant during its last decades, so change was necessary, but the sudden transition proved to be disastrous.
And even though there is a lot of Soviet nostalgia in Eastern Europe, and the transition to capitalism was catastrophic, socialist and communist parties don’t hold much sway in the region anymore. Especially now that many Europeans are instead voting for far-right populist parties, and see authoritarian oligarchs like Vladimir Putin as a source of inspiration.
So I don’t have that much hopes for socialism
When I hear about the incoming red tide of socialism in the United States, mostly in the form of democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I cannot stop but think about how the word has lost much of its power across the world, and how to me it sounds rather antiquated.
That might be a mistake of perspective, I live in Costa Rica where the main political party that calls itself “democratic socialist” is basically a bunch of corrupt sellouts that want to privatize as much public services as possible (such as our universal healthcare system) in the name of a privatization agenda that would only benefit the regional corporate establishment, even local business would see little to no benefit from these policies.
However the United States has a completely different story, because socialism has never managed to become part of the mainstream political establishment. This is probably due to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies which managed to achieve much of the social progress that’s often associated with socialist parties in Latin America and Europe.
For many years socialism and communism has been nothing but a scary boogeyman in the United States, taking the form of an unfathomable evil known as the wicked Soviet Empire. And yet the image of the Evil Red Empire was a wildly exaggerated version of the USSR, for all their war crimes and human rights abuses they weren’t any more savage than the United States with all their endless coups, wars and humanitarian bombing campaigns.
Now that the old Cold War has ended it seems that this anti-Soviet narrative has lost much of its sway, especially among younger people who had never have to fear the incoming threat of nuclear annihilation due to Ronald Reagan threatening the Soviet establishment with mindless aggressive rhetoric, and military exercises such as Able Archer 83.
So in the United States socialism isn’t an old and boring term: It’s a scary, radical and edgy, socialism is full of potential energy that might be used to motivate individuals towards change. In a strange twist all the exaggerated fears of the Cold War might be reversed because young people always look at the iconography of evil and otherness as symbols of rebellion and revolution.
I also have the theory that the image of socialism in the United States might have been significantly improved thanks to the role played by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) during the war in Syria.
During the Syrian Civil War the YPG established a strong alliance with the US in order to fight and defeat Islamic State. The People’s Protection Units are known as one of the most progressive groups in the Middle East as they openly support democracy, feminism, minority rights and religious freedom. They are also widely known across social media, and celebrated by people from all across the political spectrum.
Even though their spiritual leader, Abdullah Öcalan, isn’t a Marxist-Leninist anymore, the YPG still retains many socialist symbols (such as the red star) and are allied with Marxist militias from Syria and Turkey.
It’s worth mentioning that the People’s Protection Units rebranded as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in order to gain more support and recognition outside of Syria, especially in the United States where many people seem to have a deep obsession with the word democracy, even though the USA barely counts as one.
Part of me says rebranding is necessary
Many supporters of left-wing policies seem to feel the same, I remember Trevor Noah seeming very troubled about just using the word when he was interviewing Ocasio-Cortez, which is kinda funny to me since I don’t see socialism as this eternal scapegoat that must be hated and feared at any cost.
But if socialist candidates are finding success in the United States of America, and Sanders is one of the most popular candidates in America, is rebranding even necessary? Socialism is seen as dangerous, which means it’s also seen as powerful, transgressive, borderline diabolic, and this can be a strength.
What I strongly believe is that if American Socialism is to succeed it needs forward-thinking ideas based on the story of North America, it cannot just rely on old books written by European intellectuals centuries ago. And this new ideology needs to be rooted in American intellectuals and leaders such as Angela Davis, Cesar Chavez, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gerald Cohen, José Martí, Martin Luther King Jr, Murray Bookchin and Noam Chomsky.
There is also a necessity of new and powerful symbols based on America’s own tradition, not just the red rose of the DSA, but radical new symbols based on pop culture and American history. New symbols, words and ideas that challenge outdated notions and traditions, that create something that is both old and new, that exists in the present while looking at the past and future.
Socialism cannot escape its complex (and often tragic) history, but it doesn’t have to be shackled by it either.
Change is one of the universal laws of the universe, nothing lasts forever and the Washington Consensus might be about to collapse for a second time, especially if they don’t adapt and embrace different ideas. And Trump’s disastrous policies might be accelerating this collapse.
If new socialist movements emerge it will be due to the fundamental flaws of the current system, which is rooted in unsustainable neoliberal principles that promote endless waste, overexploitation of workers, unregulated growth and unfettered Wall Street gambling.
Socialism needs to change in order to survive the storm that is 21th century. And yet the most important question is that if most Americans, and the establishment, is open to change. Because if they reject progress they will be consumed by their own worst fears.
