THE RISE OF AMERICAN SOCIALISM

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

While the New Zealand left has been suffocated both by its support for Labour as 'the lesser evil' and the liberal failure of 'identity politics', the American left continues to grow in leaps and bounds.

IT WASN'T SO LONG AGO that the United States was dominated by the 'third way' politics implemented by the presidency of Bill Clinton and then reaffirmed by the 'great progressive hope', Barack Obama. Neoliberalism prevailed and there was little compelling evidence to be found that the error of neoliberalism would ever come to an end, with both the Republican and Democratic Parties loyal to the monetarist creed. It was a situation that recalled the observation of the keynesian economist John Maynard Keynes who write some eighty years previously:

'Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.'

But the backlash against the disastrous consequences of neoliberalism accelerated with the rise of Donald Trump who promised to bring jobs and prosperity to a working class America taken for granted by the Democratic Party establishment.

Since then the rise of a newly-invigorated American left has been inexorable. Over 100 democratic socialists have been elected to office and national recognised figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have given American socialism a prominent voice that, up until recent times, the American establishment has been able to deny a seat at the table.

But now, with all with the opinion polls indicating that a growing disillusionment with capitalism is abroad in America, the political establishment is no longer able to ignore what a Republican congressman recently told Fox News was 'a red insurgency'.

At a recent Republican youth event Vince President Mike Pence implored his audience to resist the 'siren song of socialism'.

'We got to win the next generation. We got to go tell the story to younger Americans about the truth – the truth about socialist policies,' he said.

The American left, whatever its faults, is a genuine left wing movement. It is not the liberal or 'woke' politics we are all sadly familiar with in New Zealand. This brand of politics, articulated through the identity politics of parliamentary politicians like the Green's Marama Davidson or Golriz Ghahraman, has accommodated itself to neoliberalism and capitalism. But in the United States, identity politics, once the foundation of the Democratic Party, has been sliced though by the new socialist politics of people like congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Ocasio-Cortez has refused to campaign on the basis that she is a woman or, more specifically, a Latino. Instead she talks about the policies that are inspired by her socialist politics and about the issues that confront the American working class.

Her promotion of a 'Green New Deal' for America represents a fundamental rejection of neoliberalism and calls for the overhauling of the American economy not only to combat climate change but to tilt the balance of power in favour of the working class. While Ocasio-Cortez views capitalism as permanently broken, the New Zealand Green Party continues to act as if it can be 'adjusted' to be more 'environmentally friendly'.

When asked about a 'green capitalism' Ocasio-Cortez's response reply was immediate:

'Capitalism is an ideology of capital –- the most important thing is the concentration of capital and to seek and maximize profit. And that comes at any cost to people and to the environment, so to me capitalism is irredeemable.'

Of course the American left still faces opposition from the Democratic Party establishment, the same establishment that prevented Bernie Sanders from becoming the Democratic Party's presidential establishment even though he was, by far, the most popular politician in the United States and would have almost certainly defeated Donald Trump. Even though it was responsible for picking the corporate and unpopular Hillary Clinton the Democratic Party establishment continues to claim that socialist politics have no place in the Democratic Party. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has openly attacked Ocasio-Cortez's socialist politics and claims that the Democratic Party 'will always be a capitalist party'.

But Ocasio-Cortez and the American socialist movement are standing their ground and continue to campaign against a power structure that has dominated America for the past three decades.

At its recent national convention the national director of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mary Svart, observed that “Trump is attacking us because the socialist movement offers an alternative vision to what he is offering, which is essentially neo-fascism. He is threatened by us. And so are the Wall Street Democrats."