Radical left wing

Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some scholars consider it to be the left of communist parties, while others broaden it to include the left of social democracy. In certain instances—especially in the news media—''far left'' has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism, anarchism, communism, and Marxism, or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies, or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. Far-left terrorism consists of extremist, militant, or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes.

Ideologies

Far-left politics are the leftmost ideologies on the left of the left–right political spectrum. They are a heterogeneous group of ideologies within left-wing politics, and wide variety exists between different far-left groups. Ideologies such as socialism, communism, and anarchism are typically described as far-left. Far-left politics is typically regarded as being to the left of social democracy. As with all political alignments, the exact boundaries of centre-left versus far-left within left-wing politics are not clearly defined and can vary depending on context. Far-left parties sometimes avoid anti-capitalist rhetoric to appeal to the centre-left, while the centre-left may invoke language of radicalism or incorporate some of its ideas. The modern far-left distinguishes itself from social democracy through its inherent opposition to capitalism, neoliberalism, and globalisation.

Academic study of far-left politics often uses ''radical left'' as an all-encompassing term, though some far-left groups object to this usage as derogatory. ''Extreme left'' and ''anti-capitalist'' are also commonly used as synonyms for the far-left. The ''radical left'' and the ''extreme left'' are often used as equivalents, though some writers create distinctions between them. ''Hard left'' may also be used. Far-left political parties use a variety of descriptors for themselves, including workers', labour, socialist, communist, militant, and revolutionary parties. Far-left ideologies are typically derived from either anarchism or Marxism, and the two are frequently combined or integrated together.

A unified working class has traditionally been the focus of far-left movements. Karl Marx defined the working class in the 19th century to include all waged employees of all industries. The development of middle management and decline of the ''petite bourgeoisie'' complicated the definition over time. The modern European far-left overall has higher educational attainment than its far-right equivalent. Students and intellectuals have often been inclined to support far-left politics. The far-left may appeal to independent producers or craftsmen who fear competition for large corporations. The unemployed, including the elderly and disabled, are associated with the working class as defined by the far-left because of the disadvantages they may face. The majority of left-leaning labourers preferred social democracy over far-left ideologies.

The far-left is sometimes divided into the Old Left and the New Left. The New Left developed as a separate movement from Soviet-style communism, considering it to be too resistant to social change. It came as a response to developments of the mid-20th century like deindustrialization, globalization, and neoliberalism. It is common for these far-left movements to define themselves based on their opposition to these concepts instead of affirmative descriptions of their ideologies. The New Left is anti-imperialist, anti-American, and anti-NATO. It emphasises ideas relating to civil rights, environmentalism, and feminism. Rather than form a vanguard party, New Left groups typically seek to incite a desire among the public to revolt, which can then bring about a more established leadership. Ideas such as standpoint theory and intersectionality emerged from New Left movements and became influential in academia. The New Left in the United States was associated with Black nationalism and the Black power movement. European Green parties formed from the New Left in the 1960s and 1970s, but these are not traditionally considered far-left. By the 21st century, the ideas of the New Left have largely been subsumed by either communists or social democrats.

Post-Soviet far-left movements in Europe and the United States are associated with anti-globalization and anti-neoliberalism. The far-left also includes left-libertarianism. The ultra-left is an anti-Leninist communist movement that believes communism should be allowed to rise naturally when the people of a given area are inspired to revolt, instead of through a planned revolution. Post-Soviet far-left parties often take ideas from multiple schools of far-left thought or represent the far-left more generally instead of endorsing a specific ideology.

Left-wing populism commonly expresses far-left ideals. Populists describe themselves as protectors of the common man and define a group of elites who rule through corruption. Populism within the far-left supports popular sovereignty and opposes political establishment. It may or may not support the democratic institutions through which it seeks power. Some populist movements may define themselves as far-left but lack cohesive ideology and only make use of left-wing rhetoric as a means toward anti-establishment politics. In Europe, the support for populist left politics comes from three overlapping groups: far-left subcultures, disaffected social democrats, and protest voters—those who are opposed to their country's European Union membership.

Radical environmentalism, while not inherently left-wing, often overlaps with the far-left. These movements primarily exist in North America and Europe.

Socialism

Various currents and movements of socialism are considered far-left. Socialism has historically been divided into left-wing reformist socialism and far-left revolutionary socialism. Modern social democracy is generally considered to be a centre-left socialist ideology.

Eco-socialism opposes capitalism from environmental and feminist perspectives as well as economic ones, seeing capitalism as the cause of environmental damage. The Nordic Green Left Alliance is a major eco-socialist party alliance in Northern Europe.

Democratic socialism supports the replacing the capitalist system with state ownership and participatory democracy, and welfare state. It opposes both totalitarianism and neoliberalism, presenting themselves as a third option to communism and centre-left social democracy. The emphasis that democratic socialists place on different issues can vary greatly between movements. They may be strictly socioeconomic parties, or they may also take stances on social or environmental issues. The term ''democratic socialism'' was not clearly defined in the 20th century when it was used interchangeably with ''social democracy'', but people who identified as democratic socialists were often those who considered themselves more radical than social democrats. This distinction has become more common since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Some communists also refer to themselves as democratic socialists to distinguish themselves from Marxism–Leninism. Some democratic socialist groups adopt a stronger form of social democracy involving non-electoral political movements, while others espouse more traditional leftism. They vary in their stances on Marxism.

Communism and Marxism

Communism is the belief that humanity should abandon class divisions in favor of a communist society organized around the needs and abilities of its citizens. Modern communism is a form of revolutionary socialism based on support for the communist society described in the writing of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism supports total equality in all aspects and oppose individual freedom. Since its introduction, elements of Marxism have become a common factor between most far-left groups. Communist ideology appears in a variety of forms, especially since the dissolution of the Soviet Union left communists without a unifying force.

Marxism is based heavily in political theory and is directed toward a planned system for society. Marxism specifically opposes capitalism, as opposed to anarchists who oppose the state in its entirety. Marx and Engels believed that the most developed nations were the most likely to see a communist revolution.

Marxists believe that capitalism should be replaced by a dictatorship of the proletariat, which would cause capitalism to degrade and quickly disappear. The early Soviet Union applied this through soviet councils, which were to serve as a democratic method of achieving the dictatorship of the proletariat. Historically, successful communist revolutionaries have consistently imposed authoritarian rule over society despite invoking concepts of equality when seeking power. Academics in the 21st century generally consider communism to be incompatible with democratic society, though advocates of communism may counter this with proposals of communal organisation to compete with privatisation.

Leninism sees the proletariat as the primary movers of the revolution. It moved away from the belief that, by taking advantage of popular unrest, revolutions would occur in more developed nations. It was unsuccessful in more developed nations, as the middle and upper classes were more established, and the unionist working class outnumbered any revolutionary peasantry.

Marxism–Leninism has historically been a major far-left ideology, especially before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Stalinism supports a one-party state with a planned economy. Conservative groups within Marxism–Leninism, such as the Communist Party of Greece and the Portuguese Communist Party, support revitalisation of Soviet-style government and adhere to a classical Leninist interpretation of communism. Reform communists such as the Cypriot Progressive Party of Working People retain Soviet-style organization but adopt public involvement in government, the use of a market system, and acceptance of New Left policies.

Maoism developed as an alternative form of Marxist—Leninist-style vangaurdism that emphasised anti-imperialism. Maoism sees the peasantry as the primary movers of the revolution. This spawned Guevarism, an ideology advocated by Che Guevara and Régis Debray which holds that foco guerrilla warfare can serve the role of a vanguard instead of a formal vanguard party.

Eurocommunism supports a reformist, democratic approach to achieving communism and opposes the ideology of the Soviet Union.

Latin American liberation theology blends Catholicism and Marxism.

Anarchism

Anarchism is a far-left ideology that rejects all forms of authority, social hierarchy, or socially-imposed control over the people. This manifests as a total rejection of the state in any form. It is a revolutionary ideology that seeks to overthrow capitalism at once instead of dismantling it over time. Some anarchists like Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin advocate a society based on social relations and interdependence. Individualist anarchism, developed by figures like Max Stirner and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, supports the abolition of mutual ties between individuals. Insurrectionary anarchism holds that civilisation must be actively destroyed because it is the cause of human suffering. It involves the use of individual cells to carry out guerrilla attacks against people and places associated with political or economic power. Green anarchism is an ideology within anarchism, and in its modern form it argues that climate change will become apocalyptic. Anarcho-primitivism is a sub-type of green anarchism which holds that civilisation is responsible for environmental damage and must be dismantled.

Historical anarchist movements believed that acts of violence would make revolution more viable. The belief was that acts of violence would make the public more aware of grievances against the established political system, demonstrate that the state is vulnerable, provoke the state into responding to expose hypocrisy, and encourage others to carry out their own acts of violence. Opponents of civilisation may support accelerationism, which endorses acts that will increase chaos and instability within society to bring about its downfall more quickly. Anarchism has never achieved widespread success.

Positions

Economics and class

The goal of far-left politics is to create a classless society. It seeks a post-capitalist world without exploitation, oppression, or class inequality. Here every individual would have access to basic necessities while prosperity and knowledge would be shared. This is often described as communist society, though terms such as ''socialism'' or ''democratisation'' may be used to describe a similar concept. Under a communist society as envisioned by the far-left, all means of production would be owned collectively and resources would be subject to distribution according to need. The specific nature of this society is not strictly defined, but it is generally agreed among the far-left that it would be self-governing and extend globally. The method to bring about communist society became the primary distinction among far-left ideologies as they developed, and ideas of how communist society should function changed over time. While the far-left historically opposed social democracy over its reformist nature, the post-Soviet far-left accuses social democracy of being too comfortable with neoliberalism.

Far-left groups support redistribution of income and wealth and advocate equality of outcome over equal opportunity. It argues that capitalism and consumerism cause social inequality and advocate their dissolution. Some far-left groups also support the abolition of private property. The far-left rejects neoliberalism, but it also rejects centre-left ideas like social democracy and Keynesian economics. It supports social advances within capitalism, but only as temporary measures until capitalism's abolition. Far-left ideology presents a moral hierarchy in which those who are deemed oppressive are considered wholly immoral.

As an extension of left-wing politics, the far-left maintains that inequality is a fixable problem. European populist left politics share many of the values of centre-left politics, including cosmopolitanism, altruism, and egalitarianism. By the 21st century, the European far-left expressed interest in many political issues traditionally associated with progressivism, including cost of living, housing shortages, and identity politics. Marxists support nationalisation of industry and oppose gentrification. Supporters of the far-left and the far-right in 21st century Europe express similar concerns that lead them to radical ideology and typically come from lower economic classes. They both lean toward nationalism, Euroscepticism, and populism.

Social and environmental issues

Communism has historically emphasised economics and class over social issues. In the 1970s and 1980s, far-left movements in Western Europe were increasingly defined by the new social movements, which gave prominence to issues such as environmentalism, animal rights, women's rights, the peace movement. These ideas as a singular movement became less prominent in far-left politics as they were subsumed by green politics, but they are still disparately supported by many in the far-left. The American far-left advocates social equity, and it cites white privilege and male privilege as the causes of inequity.

Far-left parties hold a variety of positions on environmentalism. Far-left environmentalist movements may support their causes for the sake of all living things, or out of interest in social justice for those affected by environmental damage. Those who support radical environmentalism might also support typical pro-environmental positions but demand that they be done rapidly instead of gradually. Modern radical environmentalists maintain belief in the idea of climate apocalypse, which has been adopted by moderates in some nations as well. The far-left opposed nuclear power in the 1980s on environmental grounds. The anti-globalisation movement adopted environmentalism as one of its main causes as it developed in the 1990s and 2000s.

Government and revolution

The far-left is a form of radical politics, as it calls for fundamental change to the capitalist socio-economic structure of society. This distinguishes it from the reformist politics of the centre-left. Members of the far-left have varying opinions on revolution and the state. Both anarchist and statist far-left ideologies may support disestablishment of traditional sociopolitical structures. The far-left has different stances on democracy, but it opposes liberal democracy. Far-left groups sometimes support direct democracy or participatory democracy with emphasis on protecting the rights of those who are disenfranchised in liberal democracy. The revolutionary left supports total rebellion against capitalist governments. This form of far-left politics has become less common over time as revolutions failed to develop and far-left groups have become more willing to work within liberal capitalist nations. Deradicalisation has become more common within the broader political left.

As a radical ideological system, the far-left opposes political pluralism. Academics such as Hans Eysenck and Edward Shils suggest that extremism is a better means to define ideology than the left–right spectrum, and that far-left ideas like Bolshevism are related to far-right ideas like Nazism because of their common opposition to political pluralism, liberal democracy, and private enterprise. Opponents of this view argue that extreme ideologies are separated by social class or that the far-left supports non-democratic means only to a democratic end. Some supporters of left-wing politics define support for democracy as equivalent to being left-wing, rejecting ''extremist'' label and arguing that communist states are actually far-right entities. In developed nations where the proletariat has influence over society, communist groups opt for institutional compromise over revolution.

Far-left groups frequently advocate the Marxist system of vanguardism, in which a select group is allowed to form a vanguard party to function as a revolution's leadership. It holds that history is guided by advances in technology and ownership of the means of production, that oppression permeates all aspects of society, that there will be an end of history where oppression no longer exists, and that there is a class enforcing this oppression that must be overcome because it cannot understand or accept the end of history. It emphasises that this system of oppression and revolution is something that could be studied scientifically, and the vanguard party asserts that it is able to understand this science. Vanguardism incorporates democratic centralism, where the party membership makes a decision together and then enforces it on all of its members. It presents the vanguard party's ideas as inevitable and allows contrary ideas to be dismissed as false consciousness that was imposed by oppressors.

Geopolitics and global affairs

As part of the left-wing, far-left politics is associated with internationalism and it rejects loyalty to the working class of one nation at the expense of others. During the Cold War, socialist internationalism was often applied to mean loyalty to the Soviet Union. Marxists oppose economic globalisation, and the post-Soviet far-left is especially associated with the anti-globalisation movement. The far-left opposes major geopolitical institutions such as NATO and the International Monetary Fund. The European far-left is typically Eurosceptic and opposes the European Union, either challenging its liberal orientation or rejecting the idea of a union entirely from the perspective of left-wing nationalism. Many support entry into the European Union but wish to reorganise or repurpose it.

The far-left is typically anti-imperialist, though supporters of the Eastern and Western blocs were often more accepting of their own side's actions during the Cold War. Marxists oppose imperialist actions and military activity by the Western world and especially from the United States. The far-left may support militancy while also opposing militarist ideas. During the Cold War, far-left groups associated with new social movements advocated for the interests of the Third World. Far-left movements in Europe generally support Kurdish nationalism and provide assistance to militant Kurdish groups.

Electoral dynamics

Far-left parties have historically been unable to win control of the government in parliamentary systems unless they join coalitions with social democratic governments. They are commonly unsuccessful in enacting policy in times where they do lead the government. The far-left does not benefit from an incumbency advantage as much as other ideological groups and is more likely to fail in reelection efforts. As with far-right parties, far-left parties are typically forced to moderate in democratic systems to gain support among voters, leading to factionalism as they disagree on how much to moderate. Far-left parties may be challenged by right-wing parties with welfare chauvinism, which supports a welfare state but restricts it from those seen as foreigners.

The far-left gain more support in nations with long-term social inequality, and when there are poor economic conditions. Far-left voters are more likely to be working class, trade union members, and irreligious. Older, working class, male, and less educated voters are more likely to support communism over democratic socialism. The far-left primarily competes with social democratic parties for votes in electoral systems. Green parties sometimes provide electoral competition for the far-left, as both groups appeal to similar demographics. They vary in how willing they are to work alongside centre-left parties in electoral politics, which is a major point of dispute within many far-left groups. Alignment with centre-left parties sometimes causes far-left parties to moderate their positions. Strengthening of the far-left in a democratic system is associated with the weakening of democracy as it rejects political pluralism.

Far-left politics often has a sizeable non-electoral aspect, made up of trade unions and social movements. The far-left has historically supported direct activism over electoral gains, seeing it as a better position to improve workers' rights and build support for communist society. Movements in democratic nations may disagree over whether to participate in electoral politics, with some adhering to the Leninist belief that bourgeois governments should be overthrown. Ideologies such as anarchism, left-communism, and some New Left positions reject electoral participation entirely. When European far-left parties have gained power, they generally moved away from non-electoral activism and used their influence to limit its reach. Among the Western European far-left, support for electoral participation increased throughout the 20th century as revolution appeared unfeasible. Far-left parties in Europe are often affiliated with the Party of the European Left. The far-left is historically minuscule in Southeast Asia where it has been repressed or failed to develop.

Communist parties were the most common far-left parties between the 1920s and the 1960s, and in many cases they were the only ones. Many other far-left parties emerged in the 1960s, including socialist and left-wing nationalist parties. As industrial workers became less common by the 21st century, far-left parties seeking power have been forced to either define the working class more loosely or to form alliances with other classes and ideological groups.

History

Early history

Societies resembling communist society have been postulated throughout human history, and many have been proposed as the earliest socialist or communist ideas. The ideas of Plato have been described as an early type of socialism. In medieval Europe, some philosophers argued that Jesus believed in shared ownership of property and that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was contrary to his teachings. This included the Taborites, who attempted to create a social structure that resembled a communist society. Numerous emancipation movements have occurred throughout history, including slave rebellions and peasant revolts. Early socialists believed that violent revolution against capitalism was virtually guaranteed to eventually take place, either because it would be initiated by the far-left or because democratic attempts to implement socialism would be fought by the far-right.

Early examples of communist societies in fiction include ''Utopia'' by Thomas More, which proposed a society without personal property, and '' The City of the Sun'' by Tommaso Campanella, which proposed a society without the family unit.

Far-left politics comes from the left-wing of the left–right political spectrum, which developed during the French Revolution. Modern far-left politics developed from support for socialism. This can be traced to Europe and North America in the late 18th century, when industrialization and political upheaval caused discontent among the working class. Socialists were those who objected to the changing social and economic structures associated with industrialization, in that they promoted individualism over collectivism and that they created wealth for some but not for others, creating economic inequality.

19th century

Early European socialism was developed in the 19th century as the concept of a working class formed. It was influenced by numerous philosophers, such as Mikhail Bakunin, Louis Blanc, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Henri de Saint-Simon, Friedrich Engels, Ferdinand Lassalle, Karl Marx, Robert Owen, and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The modern far-left developed during the Industrial Revolution as their ideas were adopted as a response to capitalism and industrialisation. Marxism and anarchism joined reformist socialism as the predominant left-wing ideologies. The Luddites were anti-technology activists who emerged during the British Industrial Revolution, where they sabotaged machinery out of fear that it would displace workers.

The term ''socialism'' first came into use in the early 19th century to describe the egalitarian ideas of redistribution promoted by writers like François-Noël Babeuf and John Thelwall. Inspired by the French Revolution, these writers objected to the existence of significant wealth, and Babeuf advocated a dictatorship on behalf of the people that would destroy those who caused inequality. Socialism was recognized as a coherent philosophy in the 1830s with the publications of British reformer Robert Owen, who self-identified as socialist. Owen, as well as others such as Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Étienne Cabet, developed the utopian socialist movement, and these utopian socialists established several communes to implement their ideology. Cabet responded to More's ''Utopia'' with his own novel, '' The Voyage to Icaria''. He is credited with first using the term ''communism'', though his usage was unrelated to the ideologies that were later known as communism.

Early anarchists emerged in the 19th century, including Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin. These anarchists endorsed many utopian ideas, but they emphasized the importance of revolution against and complete abolition of the state for a utopian society to exist. Bakunin argued that peasants rather than the working class should lead a socialist revolution, and he popularized calls to violence among the anarchist movement. Anarchist ideology spread to the Americas shortly after its development.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels introduced Marxism in the 1840s, which advocated revolutionary socialism. As the state bureaucracy was developed in the late 19th century and labor rights were increasingly recognized by national governments, socialist movements were divided on the role of the state. Some objected to the increase in the state's involvement, while others believed that the state was a stronger alternative to protect worker's rights than labor movements. Many of the former moved to anarchism, while many of the latter responded with the development of social democracy.

There were relatively few waged workers in the 19th century, which was still dominated by subsistence agriculture and independent sale of basic goods and services. The early far-left was primarily made up of industrial workers. Labour groups led the Revolutions of 1848.

The Russian far-left group Land and Liberty arose in the 1860s to lead peasants' revolts against the monarchy. It split in 1879 between the populist movement Black Repartition and the anarchist movement Narodnaya Volya. Narodnaya Volya engaged in acts of violence, called propaganda of the deed, to incite revolution. These groups were eradicated following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, but the methods used by Narodnaya Volya were adopted by other groups and set the precedent for modern terrorism.

The First International was created in 1864 and lasted until 1872. The Paris Commune was created in 1871. Many national trade unions were established in the 1880s, which coalesced into the Second International in 1889. This group was officially aligned with social democracy but was predominantly influenced by Marxism.

Mikhail Bakunin was influential in developing anarchist ideas in the 19th century, advocating acts of violence instead of political discourse. Errico Malatesta introduced the propaganda of the deed in 1876 when he encouraged the use of violence in Italy to win the support of the working class.

Early 20th century

East Asian anarchism developed in the 1900s during the Russo-Japanese War, based on the ideas of Japanese writer Kōtoku Shūsui, who was in turn inspired by Peter Kropotkin. This movement saw its greatest prominence in the 1920s in China. Anarcho-syndicalism was developed as a form of anarchism in the late 19th century, and it grew popular around 1900. It remained relevant in far-left politics through 1940. One important syndicalist movement of this period was the Wobblies.

The modern revolutionary left emerged in the aftermath of World War I. Socialist movements had gained considerable political power in Europe by the 1910s, but they were fractured during the war. Before World War I, socialism was intertwined with the labour movement. Moderate left-wing nationalist factions split from socialists in defence of their nations during the war, while the remaining far-left adopted a revolutionary cosmopolitan ideology. Italian anarchists created the first car bomb in 1920 to carry out the Wall Street bombing in the United States.

Opposition to World War I triggered a series of revolutions across Europe. Those in Finland, Germany, Hungary, and Russia were led by socialist movements. Trade unions, workers' councils, and far-left parties were formed in many European nations. Numerous far-left movements developed with different ideological foundations. The strongest far-left movement developed with the Russian Revolution and its establishment of Leninism. The Bolsheviks seized power under the rule of Vladimir Lenin, and Lenin implemented the idea of vanguardism where the Bolsheviks were seen as continuing the revolution and preventing other economic systems from forming.

Far-left politics emerged in Central America through the labour movement in the early years of the 20th century. Following the Russian Revolution, this shifted to focus on Marxism–Leninism. Central America had yet to industrialise by this point as Europe had, and it was still dominated by feudal-style land ownership, so most communists felt it had not yet reached the point of revolution.

Communist groups sought to emulate the Russian Revolution that replaced capitalism with a planned economy and established a system of soviet councils to serve as the dictatorship of the proletariat. Other communist governments were formed in Bavaria, Finland, and Hungary, but they were short-lived. The Bolsheviks eventually became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Throughout its existence, the Soviet Union provided both material and non-material support to communist parties in other nations, and it provided refuge for the leadership of parties in exile.

Communism in early 20th century Europe often gained power in countries with significant polarization between segments of the population on an ethnic, religious, or economic basis, and in countries that were destabilized by war. It was less prominent in industrialised nations, where social democracy maintained electoral success over communist parties. The Russian Revolution was the only instance of a successful socialist revolution. The Bolsheviks created the Communist International in 1919 to bring together the communist parties of several nations, and the International Working Union of Socialist Parties existed from 1921 to 1923 for other socialist groups. They hoped to join forces with Western social democrats, but the alliances were never formed. Support for immediate revolution declined among the far-left; it seemed less feasible as state intervention within capitalist nations brought about improvements in quality of life for the working class. The social democratic movement moderated, and much of the European far-left lost influence outside of Russia by 1923.

By 1922, as Russian SFSR became one of the founding countries of Soviet Union, it responded to widespread hunger and poverty with the New Economic Policy, which restored market enterprise for smaller industries. After Lenin's death, a power struggle between Nikolai Bukharin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin ended with Stalin taking power by 1928. Stalin implemented his ideology of Marxism–Leninism, which reorganized society and created a cult of personality in his favor. This also entailed the Great Purge in the late 1930s, an interpretation of Lenin's revolutionary violence that saw hundreds of thousands of Stalin's opponents killed, often to be replaced by ambitious loyalists. By this time, Marxism–Leninism was seen as the definitive implementation of communism by most communists globally, justifying the Great Purge as an effort to eradicate fascist infiltrators, with state censorship obscuring the Great Purge's extent. This view was challenged by the Anti-Stalinist left, including anarchists and Trotskyists.

The Middle East developed an anti-colonial Marxist movement in the 1920s, where it spread from the Russian Revolution.

Western Europe largely adopted liberal democracy by the mid-1920s, and social democracy drew socialists to a more moderate stance. The far-left did not have significant political power and instead acted through labour movements, which engaged in strikes and insurrections. Its interest in communist revolution declined. There was not always a clear delineation between the far-left and the centre-left this time as they were often affiliated with the same organisations. Far-left parties in France, Germany, and Spain briefly took power in the 1930s but were eradicated as fascism spread across the continent. The Communist Party of Germany had split from the Social Democratic Party of Germany and became the largest communist party in Western Europe, performing only 3.5 percent below the Social Democratic Party in the November 1932 election. Spain's far-left launched the strongest response to conservative governance when it fought the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. Far-left popular front groups arose in the mid-1930s.

The Communist Party of El Salvador and the Communist Party of Honduras both led unsuccessful indigenous and peasants' uprisings in their respective countries during the Great Depression. These parties, along with the Communist Party of Guatemala, were persecuted and largely dismantled as a result.

Under the rule of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union adopted Stalinism in the 1930s. While the Communist International was initially democratic between its members, it removed disloyal parties while Stalin was in charge.

How to respond to fascism was a question that divided the far left in the interwar years. During its ultra-left “ Third Period”, the Communist International saw social democrats (who it labelled “social fascists”) as an equivalent enemy to Nazism. Trotsky, in contrast, argued for anti-fascist unity just within the far left, in the strategy of the United front.

During the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, anarcho-syndicalists seized control of multiple regions in Spain, but this ended when the nationalist faction won the war. This, along with the rise of communism, ended the relevance of anarchism among the far-left globally after 1940. As mass production became more common, the traditional style of labor that anarcho-syndicalists objected to ceased to exist, preventing any significant resurgence in the movement. Trotsky died in 1940, and Trotskyism subsequently underwent a period of lesser influence over the following two decades.

Western opinion surrounding communists briefly improved in the aftermath of World War II because of communist contributions to the war effort, and they saw minor electoral success in a few European countries. The French Communist Party and Italian Communist Party briefly became major parties in their respective nations, while the Popular Democratic Front of Italy and the Finnish People's Democratic League were formed as alliances between different far-left groups. Italian communists moved away from Leninism and democratic centralism in 1944 in favour of mass membership and Catholic influences. Antonio Gramsci, who was active in the 1920s and 1930s, became one of the main figures of Italian communism. The Cold War began shortly after, and communist parties again became poorly regarded.

Cold War

The Cold War began when a major diplomatic rift occurred between liberal Western nations, led by the United States, and communist nations, led by the Soviet Union. Communist parties were effectively outcast within the West, and those that existed were typically aligned with Stalinism and the Soviet Union. The United States pressured other nations to purge communist parties from their governments in 1947, and the Italian government created its that effectively disallowed the Italian Communist Party from taking power. The number of West European communists declined significantly, with only France, Italy, and briefly Finland retaining a notable communist presence. Under Soviet pressure, Eastern European communists remained dominant and became Stalinised. By the mid-1950s, the Italian Socialist Party was the most influential anti-communist far-left party in Europe. Violent revolution was discouraged as the Cold War began, emanating from fears that Western nations would intervene.

The Soviet Union's influence during and after World War II spread communism, directly and indirectly, to the rest of Eastern Europe and into Southeast Europe. Several of these countries became people's democracies, which maintained some liberal mixed economies before eventually coming under the influence of Stalinism. New communist governments were formed in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Most far-left governments adopted the Leninist system of vanguardism. China and North Korea took on the Marxist—Leninist variant that developed under Stalin's rule of the Soviet Union. The development of post-industrial society and postmaterialism in Western Europe caused many of the traditional sectors associated with communism to dissipate. Communist International had been dissolved in 1943, and it was replaced by Cominform as the main communist international in 1947. This lasted until 1956.

Communist movements resurged in Central America during the 1940s and 1950s despite repression from authoritarian governments, and Marxism–Leninism lost influence among these groups. The People's Vanguard Party in Costa Rica aligned with the winning coalition in the 1944 general election.

Following Stalin's death, the workers of several Eastern European countries staged revolutions against communist rule, which were suppressed by the Soviet military. Many of these countries were led by Stalinist rulers, who were forced out and replaced by the subsequent Soviet government. Yugoslavia distanced itself as a neutral communist nation, aligned with neither the East nor the West.

Arab socialist groups took power in the Middle East during the 1950s and 1960s, and they persecuted the preexisting communist groups to replace them as the region's predominant far-left movement. The Japanese Communist Party, supporting scientific socialism, was the far-left opposition to the dominant Liberal Democratic Party of Japan in the 1950s. Indonesia's far-left was destroyed in a series of anti-communist mass killings in the mid-1960s, ending the Communist Party of Indonesia.

The Chinese Communist Party had been active since 1921, but it did not seize power in China until its victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. As with the Soviet Union, the newly formed People's Republic of China carried out purges of political enemies, killing millions of land owners. The peasants were not targeted, however, instead using them as a base of political support. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, China under the rule of Mao Zedong distanced itself from the Soviet Union. Maoism grew in popularity as an alternative to Soviet-style communism, but it did not result in any stable governments outside of China. At the same time, North Korea and North Vietnam were established as communist governments, triggering the Korean War and the Vietnam War against South Korea and South Vietnam, respectively. By the late 1970s, Maoism in China was replaced by the ideology of Deng Xiaoping, which restored the private sector and market pricing.

Many European communist parties were fractured by different Marxist ideologies beginning in the 1950s, with the greatest challenges coming from Maoist and Trotskyist factions. Some European communist parties erroneously saw Maoism as non-hierarchal and internationalist and adopted it for these reasons, but European Maoism only became a major force in the Albanian Party of Labour. Trotskyists gained influence among the European far-left in the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly in France and the United Kingdom, but it was plagued by inter-fighting and was never successful. The Communist Party of Finland lost its influence in the 1960s as a schism emerged between pro-Soviet and pro-modernisation factions.

Two major Latin American far-left ideologies emerged in the 1960s: Guevarism and Latin American liberation theology. Guevarism emerged from the Cuban Revolution. The revolution's success dispelled the common belief among communists that socialist revolution could only occur after democratic and anti-imperialist reformist movements were successful. Many guerrilla militant groups formed in Central America over the following decades, triggering the Guatemalan Civil War and the Salvadoran Civil War. The Sandinista National Liberation Front led the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979 and held power in Nicaragua until it was voted out in the 1990 general election. Latin American liberation theology came amid the Second Vatican Council and the Second Episcopal Conference of Latin America, popularising far-left ideas among some Catholic Churches in the region.

Left-wing nationalist movements developed in colonial territories in the 1960s, leading to rapid decolonisation, though traditional far-left ideas played a relatively small role in independence activities.

In the mid-20th century, agricultural workers, the unemployed, and white-collar workers replaced industrial workers as the main far-left demographics in Western Europe. Highly-educated people surpassed blue-collar workers as the primary far-left demographic by the end of the 1960s.

The New Left developed in Western Europe as an alternative to communism in the 1950s, taking positions on social issues and identity politics. It was unable to overcome traditional communist parties except those of Scandanavia, where communists were already sympathetic to ideas like Eurocommunism and humanism. Communist Party of Denmark leader Aksel Larsen was expelled from his party for his opposition to the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, so he formed the Socialist People's Party that became the new dominant far-left force in Danish politics. The rise of the New Left was associated with the rise of new social movements and the counterculture of the 1960s, which also saw the revival of anarchism. The Western far-left as a whole resurged in the 1960s and 1970s as American hegemony and capitalist systems came under scrutiny. There were periods of civil unrest and youth revolts in several European nations. The Vietnam War was a catalyst for New Left activity. Green politics developed as an offshoot of the New Left, but it was deradicalized by the end of the 20th century and became a centre-left movement.

New far-left socialist parties were formed across Western Europe, many communist parties cut ties with the Soviet Union, and other Marxist movements such as Maoism, Trotskyism, and workerism gained a presence in several countries' politics. Maoism significantly influenced far-left movements around the world in the 1970s and 1980s. Eurocommunism developed in response to the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s to provide a democratic alternative for far-left ideas. It supports the expansion of European-style welfare states and mixed economies until they resemble communist society. The People's Alliance of Iceland had remained electorally relevant by avoiding Soviet influence and adopted Eurocommunism to some success. The spread of Eurocommunism meant that Soviet-aligned communist parties declined in Western Europe. It proved unable to maintain its influence by the 1980s as its supporters were unable to reconcile vanguardism with political pluralism.

Smaller far-left groups revitalised interest in revolutionary communism in Western Europe. Support for the 1960s-era far-left declined by the 1970s, giving violent revolutionaries more influence in the movement which further decreased support for the far-left. In the Years of Lead in Italy, far-left militants, such as the Red Brigades, justified the usage of political violence as a revolutionary means and defense against far-right terrorism and neo-fascism in Italy. Earth First! emerged in the 1980s in the United States, combining radical environmentalism with other far-left social issues.

Far-left parties had representation in the Nordic countries during the Cold War. In Sweden, a practice developed between the 1970s and the 1990s where social democrats would vote for the communist Left Party so left-wing coalitions could be formed.

The Portuguese Communist Party and the Portuguese Democratic Movement played a major role in the Carnation Revolution. The French Communist Party was included in the French government of François Mitterrand in the early 1980s. This wave of European far-left support dissipated in the 1980s as workers lost influence in the economy, neoliberalism became more popular, and the United States re-exerted influence over Europe. As the economies of developed nations shifted, the far-left aligned with the workers of large corporations as opposed to small businesses and subcontractors.

Arabic far-left groups reemerged in the 1980s and 1990s, but they often aligned with the traditional authoritarian governments as a means to oppose Islamism. This prevented them from creating a party structure and caused leftists to act through decentralized movements. Far-left Arab socialists were one of two groups alongside Arab nationalists that made up the New Arab Left, which began in Palestine and influenced other left-wing movements in the Arab world. Hadash formed as a communist coalition in Israel with a focus on the country's Arab population. Kurdish nationalism emerged as the predominant far-left ideology in Turkey after a period of political violence and the subsequent coup eradicated the previous leftist groups in 1980.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Communist nations in Europe struggled economically in the 1980s, and many faced popular revolts. The Soviet Union moved away from ideas of international communism as such efforts came to be seen as too inconvenient. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev effectively abandoned communism, leading the nation toward liberalism in its final years.

Communist and socialist parties severely declined in Western Europe after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Many communist parties were unable to survive once the Soviet Union no longer existed to finance them. The far-left was challenged by the neoliberal consensus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Intergovernmental institutions and increasing globalisation embedded neoliberal economics into the global economy, making it harder for the far-left to work against it. The end of history theory was proposed by Francis Fukuyama, asserting that the neoliberal consensus effectively ended far-left politics They remained largely irrelevant for several years until a period of regrowth toward the end of the 1990s. Many of the communist parties effectively disappeared from politics, while others rebranded or moderated. In many Eastern European countries, communist parties were banned by the new governments. Most communist parties in Eastern Europe moved toward the centre-left. The Socialist Party of Ukraine was the only electorally relevant democratic socialist movement of Eastern Europe, but it also moved away from socialism over time. Those that remained communist held more influence than their counterparts in Western Europe. Moldova was an exception to the rejection of communism, where the communists won presidential elections throughout the 2000s.

As the social democratic vote was already contested by green parties and the New Left, formerly communist parties in Western Europe often shifted toward democratic socialism. Exceptions occurred in Italy and Poland, where the respective parties had already been moving toward social democracy. Surviving far-left parties shifted toward domestic politics and made attempts to distinguish themselves from Soviet-style communism. Parties like the Communist Party of Greece maintained their adherence to traditional communism after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, while others like the Communist Refoundation Party in Italy tried to introduce new communist ideas. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova remained relevant in the former Soviet Union, while the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia emerged as the most prominent communist party in East-Central Europe.

The far-left was able to rebuild limited support by the end of the decade. Supporters of the far-left in Europe at this time were more likely to be professional workers, students, and the unemployed. The share of working class supporters declined as they sought other ideologies. It appealed to anti-neoliberalism and tried to rebuild ties with the working class. Most far-left parties in Europe prioritised a broader societal shift to the left instead of disputing individual policies. Many of them became more open to reformist politics as a temporary means to combat neoliberalism. Detailed platforms of societal reconstructions were avoided so as not to emulate Stalinism. The far-left primarily expressed itself through movements led by unions, pacifists, and alter-globalisation advocates instead of traditional political parties. Over time, unions became less involved in these and social activism became more common. Despite his criticism of leftism, Ted Kaczynski became influential within green anarchism and anarcho-primitivism with his essay '' Industrial Society and Its Future'' in the 1990s, which received attention because of Kaczynski's use of letter bombs to forward the cause.

Far-left parties reappeared in post-Soviet states in response to voter frustration with the new governments. Leftist parties in Russia and the Balkans exchanged Marxism–Leninism for left-wing nationalism. The Indonesian party system destabilised after the fall of Suharto in 1998, and the traditional leftist electorate—trade unions and peasant associations–did not develop political representation.

21st century

Of the five Communist states that survived into the 21st century, three of them — China, Vietnam, and Laos — had restored private ownership and reintegrated with global capitalist markets although state and public control continued as well. For instance, Peter Nolan argues that land in China was decollectivized but not privatized, with control of land remaining in the hands of the community.

At the start of the 21st century, the far-left was associated with the global justice movement and supported populist leaders. This was foreshadowed by the 1999 Seattle WTO protests that symbolised a growing rejection of the neoliberal consensus. Far-left violence decreased dramatically by the 21st century, with a limited presence remaining in developing nations and only a small number of isolated attacks in developed nations. The Party of the European Left was established in 2004 as a pan-European political party for the far-left. The far-left parties during this time were rarely new creations, instead descending from earlier far-left parties of the 20th century. Among the European great powers, Germany was the only one where the far-left made strong electoral performances in the 2000s, with the prominence of the Party of Democratic Socialism and WASG, which merged to become Die Linke in 2007. While the Italian Communist Party was historically the most prominent communist party in Western Europe, the Italian far-left fractured and was dissolved into the centre-left in the 2000s. The French far-left did not face significant gains or losses as other European far-left groups did at the time.

The environmentalist left was targeted by the United States government in Operation Backfire during the Green Scare in the 2000s, in which environmentalist groups carried out attacks and acts of sabotage. The anonymous ultra-left works of the Invisible Committee in France were produced in 2008, advocating a unified resistance to capitalism during times of crisis. Individualists Tending to the Wild was formed in Mexico as a self-described eco-terrorism group in the 2010s.

Leftist politics diminished in the Arab world by the 21st century as autocratic governments placed token opposition from leftist figures in the legislature. Revolutionary left-wing politics were not prominent during the 2011 Arab Spring, although socialist groups played a role e.g. in the Egyptian revolution and anarchist ideas were put into practice in the local councils established as part of the Syrian revolution. In 2012, the autonomous region Rojava in northwestern Syria established self-governance based on an anarchist direct democracy at the local level and a one-party state at the regional level.

The 2010s also saw a global wave of protest movements against austerity and finance capitalism, including the Occupy movement and the indignados, in which radical left ideas were prominent.

Emergence and positioning of the populist left

Far-left parties became more prominent in democratic systems following the Great Recession. There is disagreement as to whether this is associated with an overall increase in support. Some of these parties, such as La France Insoumise in France, Podemos (Spanish political party), Podemos in Spain, and Syriza in Greece, deliberately incorporated populism into their identity. At the same time, in the United Kingdom and the United States, United States of America, populist movements formed around Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders gained support from the far-left in the 2016 United States presidential election.

When far-left parties took power, they were forced to work within national and international systems that prevented them from unilaterally changing the economic structure. They moved their focus away from the long-term goal of socialism so they could seek broader support from anti-neoliberal coalitions. They adopted support for a left-libertarian welfare state based on Keynesianism and social justice as a temporary measure on the path toward socialist society.

The communist Progressive Party of Working People controlled the government in Cyprus from 2008 to 2013. Far-left parties in Greece, Portugal, and Spain made significant electoral gains in 2015, including Syriza taking control of the Greek government. Gains beyond these countries were limited, as right-wing populism was instead boosted in other countries.

Left-wing extremist activity is uncommon in 21st-century Europe. It is even less common in Canada and the United States, where it aligns with movements like Antifa (United States), Antifa and Black Lives Matter as well as radical environmentalist and other social justice movements. The far-left became more prominent in the United States in opposition to Donald Trump following the far-right Unite the Right rally in 2017. While the American far-left had developed over the previous years as a movement for economic justice, it shifted toward anti-racism as its primary cause, especially after the murder of George Floyd by police officers in 2020, which became a focal point of the anti-racism movement.

The European far-left was split on the issue of COVID-19 lockdowns, in which some found government measures to be oppressive but others counter-protested against far-right opposition to the lockdowns.

Far-left terrorism

Historically, violence has been widely accepted by the far-left as a means to enact societal change. The anti-authoritarian far-left may consider violence justified in combatting repressive forces. Revolutionary far-left groups might organise themselves into underground movements or carry out violent insurgencies. Insurgencies are only viable in developing nations where the state is not capable of defeating the group. As support for the far-left decreases, violent groups shift their focus from attacks against the state to attacks for survival, such as freeing its members from prison. Leon Trotsky rejected the use of violence, saying it does not benefit the working class like other measures such as striking.

Many far-left student protest movements, typically associated with the New Left, formed violent revolutionary organisations between the 1960s and the 1980s. These included the National Liberation Army (Colombia), National Liberation Army in Colombia, Action Directe in France, the Red Army Faction in Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy, the Japanese Red Army, Shining Path in Peru, the Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey, and Weather Underground in the United States. Other violent far-left groups formed in response to democratisation of their respective countries, including 17N in Greece, FP-25 in Portugal, and GRAPO in Spain. Left-wing militant groups were largely eradicated in the 1980s, and popular conceptions of terrorism began to focus on jihadism instead of far-left politics. Other far-left militant organisations of the time included the CPI (Maoist), Montoneros, New People's Army, Prima Linea, and the Tupamaros. In 2021, the European Union considered the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei in Greece and the Informal Anarchist Federation in Italy to be the most serious far-left terrorism threats in Europe.

According to political scientist Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, 194 people were killed by anarchist attacks in the developed world between 1875 and 1925. Some attacks targeted political leaders, while others such as the Liceu bombing were directed at civilians. Most attacks carried out by radical environmentalists have targeted property, with attacks on individuals being rare.

No far-left terrorist group or underground movement has ever been successful in fermenting a revolution; all successful violent far-left revolutions have been carried out by armed insurgent movements engaging in guerrilla warfare. Insurgencies are able to control territory, protecting them from the state and giving them a population from which they can draw support. These insurgencies have been successful in nations such as Cambodia, Cuba, Nepal, Nicaragua, and North Vietnam. The anarchist concept of propaganda of the deed has historically been ineffective, failing to increase awareness of the anarchist cause or reducing support for it.

See also

Far-left politics

* Anti-Stalinist left
* Communitarianism
* Radical left (disambiguation), Radical left
* Third camp

Anarchism

* Anarchism without adjectives
* Collectivist anarchism
* Contemporary anarchism
* Green anarchism
* Insurrectionist anarchism
* Mutualism (economic theory), Mutualism
* Post-left anarchism

Communism and Marxism

* Autonomism
* Centrist Marxism
* Left communism
* Trotskyism

References

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Terrorism bibliography

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Further reading

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Radical left parties case studies

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Radical left and radical right

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Terrorism

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Far Left
Far-left politics,
Political spectrum
Political terminology