Why the Left Keeps Losing — and How We Can Win
Being a socialist won’t stop being hard anytime soon. But if we want to start winning, socialists need to study the recent defeats of Syriza in Greece, Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, and Bernie Sanders in the US, along with the failures of twentieth-century social democracy and the declining relevance of Leninism.
Bernie Sanders at a March 2 rally in St Paul, Minnesota. Nikolas Liepins / Flickr
It’s never easy being a socialist. But the Left has lost some particularly gut-wrenching battles recently. Though Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders succeeded in raising political expectations and reviving a socialist left, in their respective countries and beyond, their losses have left activists shell-shocked and searching for answers.
For those trying to understand how we got here, and where we need to go, The Socialist Challenge Today (Haymarket 2020) is an essential starting point. Rejecting false optimism of any kind, the book is helpful precisely because it explains why it’s so hard to be a socialist. By soberly identifying the obstacles to anti-capitalist transformation, it provides socialists a strategic road map to victory.
The Left’s Rise, Decline, and Rebirth
The book begins with a whirlwind history of the socialist movement. Our current crisis, the authors argue, reflects the limitations of the twentieth century’s two principal Left strategies: social democracy and Leninism.
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