What Losing Socialism Has Cost Us – The Triangle – Drexel University The Triangle Online
Socialism (or its even scarier cognate, communism) was for a good part of the 20th century the equivalent of what COVID has become for us, the terrible virus that lurked everywhere and perpetually threatened destruction to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
After the Bolshevik Revolution, it had a home, at least theoretically, in the geographically largest nation in the world, Russia; and after 1949 in the most populated one, China. The fight to contain or roll it back was called the Cold War, and the potential cost of doing so, in the Atomic Age, was the destruction of the planet a cost from which successive administrations did not shrink, at least until the nuclear standoff called the Cuban Missile Crisis brought us to the brink of actual disaster. Future historians can look back and make some sense of that if they are able to.
Russia shed communism in 1991, or what had supposedly passed for it. China did not repudiate its own version of it, but slipped quietly into the autocratic capitalism it faces us with today. Republicans like to keep the bogeyman of Communism alive, still attached to even mildly helpful initiatives such as President Joe Bidens relief and infrastructure bills, but, since hardly anyone still remembers what the word was supposed to mean, they interchangeably denounce liberalism or progressivism, signifying anything that involves the government with the exception of tax cuts for the rich or voter suppression laws. If politics, as George Orwell suggested, is the art of corrupting language to the maximum possible extent, then-Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative Matt Gaetz have few peers. It has to be admitted that Soviet Russia and Communist China had little to do with anything Karl Marx would have understood as socialism, collective ownership of the means of production.
Looking at them with rose or red colored glasses, Americans vaguely identifying themselves as liberals or socialists saw in them what they wanted to see up to about 1970, namely societies that sought to promote the general welfare rather than the wealth of a few. And it was true that, in theory, this was the professed goal of so-called socialist states. That perception had real-world effects, particularly as the capitalist world wrestled with the devastating effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s that virtually shut the global economy down. If capitalism could lead to such systemic paralysis, why not give communism a try? The result of this was a mid-century period when developed Western countries experimented with something called social democracy, namely the attempt to graft populist reforms onto a capitalist framework. This was galvanized by World War II. The fight against Nazi Germany had to be one not only against tyrannical fascism but for something else. Democracy alone parliamentary governments whose leaders were chosen by popular vote would not fill the bill, since it had not prevented an economic collapse that had exposed transparent social injustice. And in the wake of the war, communist parties in France and Italy had come uncomfortably close to winning national elections with their programs.
To forestall the possibility that Soviet-style communism might not only succeed by violent revolution or military occupation but peacefully at the ballot box, Western leaders undertook to offer reforms premised on the idea that stable prosperity was compatible with, and indeed dependent on, government-supported welfare programs. This was enunciated in President Franklin D. Roosevelts so-called Four Freedoms speech of 1941, which included a freedom from want that defined economic security as a basic human right. Roosevelt meant this as a permanent extension of the social commitments of the New Deal, while in Britain, the Beveridge Commission envisioned a broad postwar program to create what would come to be known as the welfare state. Nor were these merely national initiatives; Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill jointly affirmed the principle of social welfare in the Atlantic Charter, and it was universalized after the war in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.
The grand rhetoric of freedom from want did not mean an abandonment of the national interests of the victorious Western powers, or of capitalism, with its boom and bust cycles of prosperity that made economic insecurity a standing threat. The fine print of Roosevelts promise enjoined worldwide free trade and tariff reductions, which favored advanced industrial countries at the expense of developing ones. Britain, which elected a Labour government in 1945, did go some distance toward a welfare state, creating a national health care system and, for a time, nationalizing some basic industries and services. In most of Western Europe, a system of social services was instituted, including government-run or regulated health care, child and elder care and unemployment benefits. Strong union pressure contributed to much of this, but underlying it was the fear, particularly acute in the postwar period, of Soviet expansion. Russia had occupied most of Eastern Europe during the war, asserting political control over it and introducing its version of communism, with state ownership of the means of production, centralized economic planning and a one-party system. It advertised itself as more stable, efficient and socially just.
As we have seen, it had considerable appeal through communist political parties in the West. And, somewhat more belligerently, it was backed by the worlds largest army, which had just defeated Adolf Hitler. All these reasons, and the additional problem of resettling millions of war-displaced refugees, impelled West European governments to play a more active role than they had formerly, including the provision of social benefits. Some of their policies might have occurred in the ordinary course of events.
Some, such as urban policing, public education and sanitation, were already in place. But the prime impetus for the welfare state was the challenge of the communist model. Western states could tout the benefits of freedom and opportunity. But economic security was precisely what the capitalist model had failed to provide, and what a planned economy with guarantees of subsistence and benefits seemed to offer. In the ideological battle between capitalism and socialism, the former had to demonstrate what, besides spasmodic growth and sudden contraction, it could work.
The welfare state was the West European answer. The U.S. did not follow suit, except for an expansion of public sector post-secondary education. It was not until the mid-1960s that a very limited public health program, Medicare, was instituted for seniors and the disabled over the fierce opposition of the medical profession, and a so-called War on Poverty, abandoned far short of its goal, was undertaken as the only general effort to realize freedom from want in the richest country on earth. America has been very generous to its wealthy, but for the rest of the country, any effort at social equity has been routinely decried as socialism a term that carries its own terrible if never precisely defined opprobrium.
These events have coincided with a massive turn to the right in the past half-century. The reasons for this are many, but perhaps the major one has been the abandonment of socialism as a coherent ideology and a political goal. This climaxed with the fall of the Soviet Union, whose last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, admitted catastrophically that, after seven decades, it had not achieved true socialism. With China, too, now a de facto capitalist society, there is no present alternative to the capitalist order. It seems no coincidence that we are also on the brink of ecological disaster and global anarchy. The question to be asked perhaps is whether socialism, with its dream of a just and egalitarian society, failed us, or whether we failed socialism.
See original here:
What Losing Socialism Has Cost Us - The Triangle - Drexel University The Triangle Online
- Bernard S. Sharfman: Socialism will not save the Democratic Party. Its historic centrism will. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Zohran Mamdani: Hypocrisy, Socialism and the Danger of Elitist Politics - Fair Observer - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- 'Ask Ann Landers' column once used cows as analogy to explain fascism and socialism - Snopes - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Letter to the Editor: Republican reconciliation bill is 'socialism for the rich' - Sioux City Journal - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Opinion | Cliff Asness on Zohran Mamdanis Socialism - WSJ - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Some Thoughts on Techno-Fascism From Socialism 2025 - Organizing My Thoughts - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Dont go down the Islamist rabbit hole: Socialism is what makes Mamdani toxic - New York Post - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- The Worker-Peasant Alliance in the Transition to Socialism Today - Monthly Review - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Socialism, secularism are the spirit of the Constitution - The Hindu - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Hour 1 - Socialism will ruin NYC | NewsTalk 1320 KWHN | The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show - iHeart - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Daughter of Cuban exiles says Democratic socialism is wonderful in theory but miserable in practice - Fox Business - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Readers sound off on vilifying socialism, Trumps retaliation and a snipers victims - New York Daily News - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Socialism is a fantasy politicians are selling and doesnt work: Editor - NewsNation - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- As a New York Resident Here Is My Biggest Worry About Mamdanis Socialism - The Daily Signal - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Opinion: The secularism-socialism debate is a fight over words, not essence - The News Minute - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Winklevoss and Armstrong Warn: Socialism Punishes the Poor the Most - Bitcoin.com News - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- The siren song of socialism - The Highland County Press - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- How Bezos and Snchez Just Delivered a Pitch-Perfect Ad for Socialism - The Daily Beast - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- Zohran Mamdani and the Rise of Hipster Socialism - City Journal - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- From MAGA Marxism to NY Socialism, something is happening in America - AL.com - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- GMR Today: Can socialism win at the ballot box? - Communist Party USA - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- A City Not Of Socialism: Eric Adams Takes Shot At Zohran Mamdani As He Launches Reelection Bid - The Daily Wire - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- Eric Adamss Common Sense Will Save New York From Radical Socialism - The New York Sun - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- Socialism in practice: Private land was 32.4 times as productive as public land in the Soviet Union - Stephen Hicks.org - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- NYCs Zohran Mamdani Tries Selling Socialism to the Home of Wall Street - Bloomberg.com - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- In todays US, saying be careful with crypto sounds like socialism - The Irish Times - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- Ahead of Shreveport Rally, Louisiana Says No Thanks to Bernies Socialism and Tax Hikes - Bossier Press-Tribune - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- Despite the Pain in the World, Socialism Is Not a Distant Utopia: The Twenty-Fifth Newsletter (2025) - thetricontinental.org - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- The Cuban regime now says that to build socialism, a "well-structured economic system" is needed - CiberCuba - June 18th, 2025 [June 18th, 2025]
- We are heading for economic disaster: say goodbye to virtue-signalling socialism - The Telegraph - June 10th, 2025 [June 10th, 2025]
- Party for Socialism and Liberation holds NATO protest in Dayton - Cincinnati Enquirer - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- Anti-U.S. Extremist Party For Socialism And Liberation, Linked To DC Jewish Event Shooter, Celebrates Hamas Attacks In NYC On October 8, 2023: The... - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- STUC general secretary accused of 'champagne socialism' over second home - Yahoo News UK - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- Under the socialism umbrella: Labor torched over pie in the sky super reform - MSN - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- Socialism dressed up in the politics of empathy - The Spectator Australia - May 26th, 2025 [May 26th, 2025]
- Daz-Canel: "The fight against homophobia and transphobia is part of the ideals of socialism in Cuba." - CiberCuba - May 19th, 2025 [May 19th, 2025]
- Left turns toward socialism, and America must be on guard - The Mountaineer - May 17th, 2025 [May 17th, 2025]
- Join the Trotskyist movement to fight for socialism - World Socialist Web Site - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- "Socialism, yes... but with an hourly rate": The wave of memes about the rental of the Anti-Imperialist Tribune - CiberCuba - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Economic Nationalism Divides Us. World Socialism Is the Answer | Opinion - Newsweek - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Class struggle and identity politics in the era of Trump - International Socialism - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Breaking European socialism will solve Americas drug pricing gap - Washington Times - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- We will intensify campaign for socialism: Chair Prachanda - The Rising Nepal - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- Cuba and Vietnam walk together in the construction of socialism - Granma - May 15th, 2025 [May 15th, 2025]
- The trade deals will be wasted unless Sir Keir rejects socialism - The Telegraph - May 11th, 2025 [May 11th, 2025]
- Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, and the sausage line - Stephen Hicks.org - May 10th, 2025 [May 10th, 2025]
- Ending the Gaza genocide requires the fight for socialism - World Socialist Web Site - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- Trumps dictatorship, global war, and the fight for socialism - World Socialist Web Site - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- The Illusion Of Choice: Capitalism, Socialism, And The Suppression Of Religion In The Modern Era - Kashmir Reader - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- Parroting of socialism: Merely in words, not in action - The Himalayan Times - May 8th, 2025 [May 8th, 2025]
- The end of post-socialism and the opportunity for a European public service media house - New Eastern Europe - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Socialism, the only alternative in the face of danger - Granma - April 18th, 2025 [April 18th, 2025]
- Study group: What are the prospects for socialism in the U.S.? - Freedom Socialist Party - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Debunking the Not Real Socialism Myth - New Ideal - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Capitalism versus Socialism: The Confusion of Knight, the Clarity of Mises | Peter J. Boettke - Independent Institute - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Dilemmas of Humanity: Socialism is the only way, says Vijay Prashad during the conferences opening - Brasil de Fato - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Brinda Karat interview: Socialism is only alternative to capitalism, loot, American hegemony - The Federal News - April 12th, 2025 [April 12th, 2025]
- Letters: "The bandwagon of vindictive socialism [against farming] rolls on" - Farmers Guardian - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Leipzig Book Fair 2025: David North to present the German edition of his book Sounding the Alarm: Socialism Against War - WSWS - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Democrat Party Imploding as Bernie Sanders and AOC Embark on Fight Oligarchy Socialism Tour - Megyn Kelly - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Trump's tariffs fly like socialism in the face of free enterprise capitalism | Letters - The Columbus Dispatch - March 22nd, 2025 [March 22nd, 2025]
- Cybernetics with Chinese Characteristics: How big data is eliminating poverty and building socialism - People's World - March 13th, 2025 [March 13th, 2025]
- The defense of science requires a fight for socialism! - WSWS - March 11th, 2025 [March 11th, 2025]
- Womens liberation and the fight for socialism are inseparable - Counterfire - March 11th, 2025 [March 11th, 2025]
- Faced with Trumps tariffs: working class unity and international socialism - In Defence of Marxism - March 11th, 2025 [March 11th, 2025]
- The Dialectics of Ecology: Socialism and Nature book review - Counterfire - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Oklahoma Republican says prohibiting hitting disabled kids is socialism and violation of scripture - Heartland Signal - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Talk to tell forgotten history of socialism in West Norfolk town - Lynn News - March 1st, 2025 [March 1st, 2025]
- Red Reviews: Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR - Fight Back! Newspaper - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- Socialism at the Milk Bar - Tribune magazine - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- To Fight The Right, Fight For Socialism - Socialist Alternative - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- Like the GDR, GAA must balance socialism and capitalism - The Irish News - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- Jenny Erpenbeck: There is a place in the world for socialism - Hindustan Times - February 18th, 2025 [February 18th, 2025]
- AIs growth will pave the way for socialism - The Times of India - January 30th, 2025 [January 30th, 2025]
- Boomers, its time to hand over your dosh and kill millennial socialism - The Telegraph - January 30th, 2025 [January 30th, 2025]
- System change not climate change Socialism and the fight to save our environment - Socialist Worker - January 9th, 2025 [January 9th, 2025]
- A Deputy claims that young Cubans want to stay in Cuba to "build socialism." - CiberCuba - December 25th, 2024 [December 25th, 2024]
- Milei becomes a symbol of the global far right: We must put an end to the garbage of socialism once and for all - EL PAS USA - December 8th, 2024 [December 8th, 2024]
- John Bellamy Foster: The Dialectics of Ecology: Socialism and Nature Book Review - MR Online - December 8th, 2024 [December 8th, 2024]
- Socialism holds its ground and grows stronger with Chinas contribution - Workers World - December 8th, 2024 [December 8th, 2024]