History of left-wing politics in the United States
The history of left-wing politics in the United States consists of a broad range of individuals and groups that have sought fundamental egalitarian changes.
[1] Left-wing activists in the United States have been credited with advancing social change on issues such as labor and civil rights as well as providing critiques of capitalism.
[12] The first European socialists to arrive in North America were a Christian sect known as Labadists, who founded the commune of Bohemia Manor in 1683, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1676, an interracial group of angry Virginians came together in Bacon's Rebellion, listing complaints ranging including unjust taxation, judicial corruption, and installing a person in a position of power against the people's consent.
[15] Samuel Sewall, a puritan judge who felt remorse over his part in the Salem Witch Trials, became an abolitionist later in life, writing The Selling of Joseph, which argued against slavery and racial inferiority using scriptural arguments.
[16] In that same year, a group of Quakers along with some German Mennonites met at the meeting house in Germantown, Pennsylvania, to discuss why they were distancing themselves from slavery.
This call for abolition was frequently combined with a larger critique of greed and wealth, as in John Woolman's A Plea for the Poor:[17]Wealth desired for its own sake obstructs the increase of virtue, and large possessions in the hands of selfish men have a bad tendency, for by their means too small a number of people are employed in things useful; and therefore they, or some of them, are necessitated to labour too hard, while others would want business to earn their bread were not employments invented which, having no real use, serve only to please the vain mind.Slaves themselves also resisted the rise of chattel slavery.
In the 17th century, new slaves would petition courts for their freedom, arguing that a conversion to Christianity should give them the right to escape slavery.
[18] Many slaves, inspired by the First Great Awakening, had a deeply religious view of the struggle against slavery, comparing themselves to the ancient Israelites in Egypt.
Members of the SLP, led by Morris 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 the Socialist Party of America (SPA).
In 1905 a convention of socialists, anarchists and trade unionists disenchanted with the bureaucracy and craft unionism of the American Federation of Labor, founded the rival Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), led by such figures as William D. "Big Bill" Haywood, Helen Keller, De Leon and Debs.
The (Minneapolis) IWW's ideology evolved into anarcho-syndicalism, or "revolutionary industrial unionism", and avoided electoral political activity altogether.
The government harassed Socialist newspapers, the post office denied the SP use of the mails, and antiwar militants were arrested.
[44] Some members of the Old Guard formed the American Labor Party (ALP) in New York State, with support from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
[53][54][55][56] Michael Harrington soon became the most visible socialist in the United States when his The Other America became a best seller, following a long and laudatory New Yorker review by Dwight Macdonald.
[58] Shachtman, Michael Harrington, Kahn, and Rustin argued advocated 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" or social-democratic positions, at least on civil rights and the War on Poverty.
[59][60] Harrington, Kahn, and Horowitz were officers and staff-persons of the League for Industrial Democracy (LID), which helped to start the New Left Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
[65] 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.
Many members of the Debs caucus, with 2 of 33 seats on SDUSA's 1973 national committee,[74] joined the Socialist Party of the United States (SPUSA).
From 1979–1989, SDUSA members like Tom Kahn organized the AFL–CIO's fundraising of 300 thousand dollars, which bought printing presses and other supplies requested by Solidarnosc (Solidarity), the independent labor-union of Poland.
[75][76][77] SDUSA members helped form a bipartisan coalition (of the Democratic and Republican parties) to support the founding of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), whose first President was Carl Gershman.
Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who runs as an independent,[81] won his first election as mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981 and was re-elected for three additional terms.
[85][86] Filmmaker Michael Moore directed a series of popular movies examining the United States and its government policy from a left perspective, including Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Sicko, Capitalism: A Love Story and Fahrenheit 9/11, which was the top grossing documentary film of all time.
[88] On June 26, 2013, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of United States v. Windsor that held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to heterosexual unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
[89][90][91] The nascent Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum on social media in July 2013, in response to the acquittal of the shooter in the February 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin.
In the 2016 presidential election, independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders ran a strong primary campaign, but he did not win the nomination though he nearly won many midwestern states including an upset in Michigan.
The Sanders movement led to the creation of progressive groups such as Brand New Congress, Indivisible, Justice Democrats and Our Revolution.
