I don’t consider myself a ‘progressive’ or a ‘leftist’. Let me explain…

First of all, where do we even get these terms? The concept of a “leftist” as associated with a certain set of ideas comes from the French Revolution. The rising national bourgeoisie sat on the left in the National Assembly. They wanted an end to feudalism and monarchy, market freedoms, certain forms of equality and private property. That revolution helped usher in the shift from feudalism to capitalism, born on the industrial revolution and a new mode of production. 

Of course the French Revolution looms large in history and set the stage for the development of working class theory. I fully understand that there a global resonance to the concept of “leftism”.  However, in the context of the United States, with its two main corporate political parties, the concept of “left” loses much of its meaning. In our context, the vast majority of “leftists” are essentially a part of the Democratic coalition by necessity (and I don’t blame them for that).

So what about “progressive”? The term can be dated back to the “Progressive Era” and the corresponding activism during the Gilded Age at the turn of the 20th century. One hundred years after the French Revolution, in the wake of the Civil War, with the slave power vanquished and Reconstruction defeated, the rapid industrialization of the second technological revolution proceeded in the United States. Robber barons, strikes and labor wars, monopolies and trusts dominated the day. Progressivism brought a push to expose injustice and promote demands for government regulation of industry. However, just as today we distinguish between the poor organizing the poor vs. the rich organizing the poor, class-conscious historians like Gabriel Kolko have shown that it was the capitalists themselves that pushed for reforms and regulation in order to preserve their class position for the long haul. 

So, let’s think for a moment beyond political labels. I don’t organize people on the basis of their self-described political identity. I organize the unorganized, on the basis of our position with respect to and our relationship to the economy. Which is that we don’t have an ownership interest in, a controlling interest in the economy. I organize the 140 million people who are poor or near poor, those with the most to gain and least to lose from a fundamental transformation of society. And the objectively revolutionary class comes from both the “left” and “right” on the political spectrum. 

I’m not interested in just “fighting the right’, I’m interested in fighting the billionaires and the system they uphold. The billionaire class lined up behind Biden in 2020 and behind Trump in 2024. They don’t have lasting political allegiances. They act as a class, in their class interests. But we don’t – not even (and sometimes especially) “leftists” and “progressives” because those terms become reasons to keep ½ of our class OUT. 

The left/right or partisan divide is one of the ways that the ruling class controls the working class in this country. People root for their team and can’t think critically about what’s actually happening or what is true – on both sides of that divide. There’s Red and Blue versions of MAGA that both want to turn back time – one to a pre-civil rights era, and one to a New Deal era. Neither are desirable or possible. 

The Republican Party in its original form emerged in the lead-up to the Civil War, as neither the Democrats or the Whigs could resolve the contradictions of the slave system. It was born in March of 1854 in the small town of Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the founders is recalled as saying “we came into the meeting Whigs, Free Soilers, and Democrats, and we came out Republicans.”

The way some of the “leftists and progressives” talk today their quote would be “we came into the meeting progressives, leftists, and ultra-leftists and we came out ….” Nah. 

The 140 million draw from every political persuasion. Many are part of the tens of millions who don’t regularly participate in the process no matter what label is associated with their voting record. 

We can either be the “left wing” church or we can be the church of the poor and dispossessed. We can either be the “left wing” veterans or we can be the veterans group that is for the poor and dispossessed. We can either be the organization focused on “turning the state blue” or we can be an organization that fights for the poor and dispossessed. As soon as we start considering ourselves the “democratic” version of what the republicans have then we are proxy soldiers in the ruling class’ game. We can be the [insert your thing here] of the Democrats or we can be poverty abolitionists engaged in a class struggle.

There are fissures happening in both parties and new forms are sure to emerge. Some of them will be imposed from above and some of them will come up from below. I’m not discouraging anyone from voting or participating in the political process, but this is about building what MLK called “the new and unsettling force”. That force that is capable of transforming this society from the bottom up is not simply found among the poor who vote Democrat. 

I’m looking to move people wherever they are on the political spectrum in a few key areas. Recognizing that their problems are not theirs alone. Helping them see below the surface of what is happening and connecting their experiences and insights to a bigger picture. Many people are ready to skip over platitudes and signifiers, and knowing all the right things to say. They want real material changes that can only come from class struggle.  

For those coming into activism now, it’s easy to understand why someone would feel pressure to identify as a liberal, progressive or leftist. That’s what it seems to mean to be a good person. But those labels aren’t as meaningful as you think they are. The most important thing to be able to do is connect with our family, neighbors and communities who are hurting. Connect with people from the falling middle. Connect on the basis of our experiences and where we are in relation to the economy, not on the basis of what corporate media talking points we listen to. Don’t let the ruling class keep dividing us based on the “left/right’ binary. 

Be part of a movement to abolish poverty. A movement that cuts across racial, geographic, and party lines. Leftism is a barrier to entry that I’m not willing to put up. I am of, by and for the working class. I’m not here to unify the left, I’m here to unify the bottom.