“I am Not a Socialist but...": The shifting Views and Growing Recognition of the Failures of Capitalism and the Need to Better Educate Americans about What it Means for Us Today

• In Event: 21st Century Socialism & Education Panel #1: What is Socialism for the 21st Century? What is the Role of Education in Promoting this?

Proposal

Throughout most of American history, the idea of socialism has meant different things to different people. For some it conjures the Soviet Union and the gulag, and others, Scandinavia and a guaranteed income. Yet, neither of these conceptions is completely accurate or really captures the hope and possibility that is emerging out of new socialist movements. Despite a long and deep history of socialist struggles and worker education, most Americans have been more or less weary about “socialism” because they are unfamiliar with the many important lessons and basic tenants of leftist ideology that would have particular relevance today.

Many of the central ideas in the “Communist Manifesto” included demands that are now boilerplate assertions of the new left. The vast majority of Americans want a raise in the minimum wage, Medicare for all, tuition-free college, free child care. They are pro-choice, they want equal pay for women, stronger environmental laws, legalized marijuana, support labor unions, a cut in the military budget, and a breakup of big banks; and seventy-five percent believe immigration is good for the U.S.

So why has the word “socialism” been so fraught? This paper will first discuss how, despite overwhelming acceptance of most of these core ideas, Americans have had long held misperceptions about the meaning of socialism, largely due to America’s neoliberal turn and the omission of labor history or worker education over the last 40 years. It will then explore the many different reasons this movement is resonating right now in the US – particularly with young people. Lastly, it will explore what we must do as educators to strengthen and build on this momentum.

We seem to be hitting a turning point. Membership in the Democratic Socialists of America is skyrocketing, especially among young people. Importantly, this new left movement of political representatives are also deeply interconnected with racial and climate justice movements. For example, Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib include the congresswomen of color who are championing policies like the Green New Deal.

Importantly, 21st century socialism differs with the past movements in important ways. Today’s leftists more explicitly link race, class, gender and power to immanent threats like climate change. That’s where education comes in.

For those of us in the academy it’s not enough to teach critical theory or talk about Freire any longer; we have to name capitalism for what it is, why this all matters and how these crises are explicitly linked. An education for 21st century socialism must respond to the world and the crises we are currently facing by examining structural inequality and capitalism that is also linked to right-wing, white-nationalism. It requires recognizing that the current system is failing the majority of the world’s people, which is why we’re in this period of such profound political destabilization – that according to Naomi Klein “we must figure out how to change everything from bottom to top, and do it in a way that addresses all of these other crises at the same time.”

[Our critiques of capitalism must connect settler colonialism with contemporary structural racism, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, Islamaphobic, hate-filled rhetoric that pervades the public discourse.]

[We must associate the rise in violence – from police brutality to gender-based violence, to social control and surveillance and the building of the prison-industrial complex – as connected to capitalism. Each day we lose ground on supports that have made our communities safer, like environmental protections and regulations; drilling, building, burning and development of fragile wildlife sanctuaries and eco-systems. The diversion of public funds to private companies and the subversion of justice – all without accountability and complete impunity.]

Author

• Carol Anne Spreen, New York University