The American Left Wing

Roosevelt undermined socialist and communist positions by absorbing their planks into the New Deal while cracking down on unions and strikers during WW2. In exchange for material aid, Stalin also ceases support for American communists.

After WW2 being a Communist/Socialist is basically made illegal and precludes one from heading a union and depending on the region from holding numerous other jobs, teachers for example. Unions everywhere purge socialists from their ranks.

ML's apparent "success" leads to it becoming the preeminent form of socialism. Thanks to Stalinists purging "revisionists," the variety of Left thought is severely curtailed. Cold War propaganda makes much hay out of disasters in China and the apparent "totalitarianism" of the USSR/Eastern Bloc, etc. Conflicts in Korea and Vietnam solidify in American minds that Communism and Americanism are incompatible. Countries like Cuba are endlessly vilified and treated as existential threats despite lacking anything like the material means to threaten the US.

All the while the US/NATO carries out official as well as clandestine programs to kill or incarcerate Leftist leaders. The CIA creates numerous front organizations, magazines, associations, etc, to dilute the Left further.

independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html

Many of the people that participated in these weren't even aware of who they were in fact working for. Even prominent opponents of Capitalism like Pablo Neruda wrote (apparently unwittingly) for magazines and journals sponsored by the CIA.

Then you have the events of 1968, where for example despite the immense mobilization of the working class against capitalism, the French Communist Party (iirc) sides with the establishment and orders the rebellious students and workers to stand down.

The failure of Leftist movements to capitalize on the events of the 60s and early 70s, coupled with Capital's resurgence due to the increasing financialization of the world economy, and "success" stories like Japan and South Korea in the 80s further diminish the reputation of Leftist thought and theory. When the 90s roll around, the major ML states have almost entirely capitulated to global Capital. The USSR dissolves and China is capitalist in all but name. Coupled with the US aggressively funding pro-Western opposition groups such as the Contras and militarily intervening such as in Granada, and by the death of the Soviet Union "The Left" as we usually conceive it had pretty much ceased to exist.

I want to say that David Harvey had an article/blog post about how "Marxism" was gradually rooted out of the academic scene too, but I can't find it at the moment (or I might just be mistaken regarding the author). Many of the factors are the same, though. The diminishing prestige of Communism made it harder for academics to survive in the university "market," and to keep from getting shitcanned entirely had to shift their analyses of capitalism (or whatever) in increasingly sympathetic tones regarding the status quo. The fall of the SU "settled" the matter of Communism v Capitalism, so there was the perception that taking Communism seriously made one a crackpot.

Then we entered the vast desert we currently inhabit, but which thankfully is beginning to show signs of greening (or "reding" :^j ) once again.

Tbh if were talking in regards to an actual Labor party in the 19th century? Full blown self-detonation.

It's not like Europe's rebels are making their predecessors proud either.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2718863/Russian-students-beam-racist-laser-depicting-President-Obama-eating-banana-US-embassy-Moscow-American-leader-s-birthday.html

Psychotropic overdosage.

McCarthy

Given that communists have no rights on paper in the US, maybe the government has been abducting communists and taking them to its black sites.

Area 51. More like Commune 51. Good thing I’m not technically a communist because I support an ENTERNAL state.

literally remove your existence.

Mostly murdered or otherwise subverted or made illegal

Soviet Realist Lincoln makes me hard.

Probably some sort of groupie thing involving phasers

You on the right.

What is the commie font called?

It's weird, I could have sworn that this pic was a montage in a really early Life magazine imagining a commie America, but apparently this damn thing happened.

Tho I don't think it''s realist art.

Huh, well spotted.

Wasn't the CPUSA already heavily infiltrated at this point?

this. terrorized into submission. also, splits and geographical differences made it hard to unite.

the real movement with revolutionary aspiration was already destroyed by 1917, fuck Roosevelt. sage for doublepost.

liberals happened our historical enemy is now ""left""

"T-thats not what a leftist is"

"W-we're not like that"

"K-kill trannies lol"

This was the question that Bookchin asked when they published the book Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism. In the book, there was an essay titled "The Left That Was". It's a good essay about this subject and is worth a read.
social-ecology.org/wp/1991/04/the-left-that-was-a-personal-reflection/