View source for Left-wing politics

{{Short description|Political ideologies favouring social equality and egalitarianism}}
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'''Left-wing politics''' or '''leftism''' is the range of [[Ideology#Political ideologies|political ideologies]] that support and seek to achieve [[social equality]] and [[egalitarianism]], often in opposition to [[social hierarchy]] either as a whole,<ref name="Smith">{{cite book|author-last1=Smith |author-first1=T. Alexander |author-first2=Raymond |author-last2=Tatalovich |title=Cultures at War: Moral Conflicts in Western Democracies |url=https://archive.org/details/culturesatwarmor0000smit |url-access=registration |location=Toronto, Canada |publisher=Broadview Press |year=2003 |page=[https://archive.org/details/culturesatwarmor0000smit/page/30 30] |isbn=9781551113340}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Bobbio |author-first1=Norberto |author-first2=Allan |author-last2=Cameron |title=Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction |url=https://archive.org/details/leftrightsignifi00bobb |url-access=limited |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=1997 |page=[https://archive.org/details/leftrightsignifi00bobb/page/n58 37]}}</ref><ref name="Lukes">{{cite book|author-last1=Ball |author-first1=Terence |title=The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought |date=2005 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780521563543 |edition=Reprint. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1h4_NqTOFoC&q=The+Cambridge+History+of+Twentieth-Century+Political+Thought |access-date=15 November 2016 |pages=612–614}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Thompson |author-first1=Willie |title=The Left In History: Revolution and Reform in Twentieth-Century Politic |date=1997 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |location=London |isbn=978-0745308913}}</ref> or to certain social hierarchies.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=The Desk Encyclopedia of World History |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7394-7809-7 |editor-last=Wright |editor-first=Edmund |location=New York |pages=370}}</ref> Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished,<ref name="Lukes"/> through radical means that change the nature of the society they are implemented in.<ref name=":0" /> According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, supporters of left-wing politics "claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated."<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Clark |author-first=Barry |date=1998 |title=Political Economy: A Comparative Approach |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=[[Praeger Press]] |isbn=9780275958695}}</ref>

Within the [[left–right political spectrum]], ''left'' and ''[[right-wing politics|right]]'' were coined during the [[French Revolution]], referring to the seating arrangement in the French [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Assembly]] between revolutionaries and [[Ancien Régime|monarchists]] respectively.<ref name="Knapp">{{cite book|author-last1=Knapp |author-first1=Andrew |url=https://archive.org/details/governmentpoliti0000knap |title=The government and politics of France |author-last2=Wright |author-first2=Vincent |date=2006 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-35732-6 |edition=5th |location=London [u.a.] |quote=the government and politics of france.|url-access=registration}}</ref> Usage of the term ''left'' became more prominent after the restoration of the French monarchy in 1815, when it was applied to the ''Independents''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Realms of memory: conflicts and divisions |date=1996 |editor-first=Pierre |editor-last=Nora |chapter=Right and Left |author-first=Marcel |author-last=Gauchet |pages=248}}</ref> The word ''wing'' was first appended to left and right factions in the late 19th century, usually with disparaging intent, and ''left-wing'' was applied to those who were unorthodox in their religious or political views.

Ideologies considered to be ''left-wing'' vary greatly depending on the placement along the [[left–right political spectrum|political spectrum]] in a given time and place. At the end of the 18th century, upon the founding of the first [[Liberal democracy#Origins|liberal democracies]], the term ''Left'' was used to describe [[liberalism]] in the United States and [[republicanism]] in France, supporting a lesser degree of [[Social stratification|hierarchical decision-making]] than the ''right-wing politics'' of the [[Traditional conservatism|traditional conservatives]] and [[monarchists]]. In [[Modernism|modern]] politics, the term ''Left'' typically applies to ideologies and movements to the left of [[classical liberalism]], supporting some degree of [[Economic democracy|democracy in the economic sphere]].

Today, ideologies such as [[social liberalism]] and [[social democracy]] are considered to be [[centre-left]], while ''the Left'' is typically reserved for movements more [[Criticism of capitalism|critical of capitalism]],<ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Alan |author-last1=Maass |author-first2=Howard |author-last2=Zinn |author-link2=Howard Zinn |title=The Case for Socialism |quote=The ''International Socialist Review'' is one of the best left-wing journals around... |page=164 |publisher=[[Haymarket Books]] |edition=Revised |year=2010 |isbn=978-1608460731}}</ref> including the [[labour movement]], [[socialism]], [[anarchism]], [[communism]], [[Marxism]], and [[syndicalism]], each of which rose to prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries.<ref>{{cite book|author-first1=Michael |author-last1=Schmidt |author-first2=Lucien |author-last2=Van der Walt |author-link2=Lucien van der Walt |title=Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism |series=Counter-Power |volume=1 |publisher=[[AK Press]] |year=2009 |page=128 |quote=[...] anarchism is a coherent intellectual and political current dating back to the 1860s and the First International, and part of the labour and left tradition. |isbn=978-1-904859-16-1}}</ref> In addition, the term ''left-wing'' has also been applied to a broad range of [[Cultural liberalism|culturally liberal]] and [[Progressivism|progressive]] social movements,<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Jean Francois |author-last=Revel |title=Last Exit to Utopia |quote=In the United States, the word liberal is often used to describe the left wing of the Democratic party. |page=[https://archive.org/details/lastexittoutopia0000reve/page/24 24] |publisher=Encounter Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1594032646 |url=https://archive.org/details/lastexittoutopia0000reve/page/24}}</ref> including the [[civil rights movement]], [[feminist movement]], [[LGBTQ movements|LGBTQ rights movement]], [[abortion-rights movements]], [[multiculturalism]], [[anti-war movement]], and [[environmental movement]],<ref>{{cite journal |author-first=Eric |author-last=Neumayer |title=The environment, left-wing political orientation, and ecological economics |journal=Ecological Economics |volume=51 |year=2004 |issue=3–4 |pages=167–175 |doi=10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.06.006 |bibcode=2004EcoEc..51..167N |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/714/1/EE_51%283-4%29.pdf |access-date=20 April 2018 |archive-date=21 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921200052/http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/714/1/EE_51%283-4%29.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-first=John |author-last=Barry |title=International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics |quote=All surveys confirm that environmental concern is associated with green voting...[I]n subsequent European elections, green voters have tended to be more left-leaning...the party is capable of motivating its core supporters as well as other environmentally minded voters of predominantly left-wing persuasion... |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0415202855 |url=https://archive.org/details/internationalenc0000unse_a2h7}}</ref> as well as a wide range of [[political parties]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/Fleisher/courses/econ508winter06/docs/Democratic_socialism.pdf |title=Democratic socialism |access-date=3 June 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902085146/http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/Fleisher/courses/econ508winter06/docs/Democratic_socialism.pdf |archive-date=2 September 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author-link=Fiona Harvey |date=5 September 2014 |title=Green party to position itself as the real left of UK politics |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/05/green-party-left-uk-politics-caroline-lucas |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213003036/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/05/green-party-left-uk-politics-caroline-lucas |archive-date=13 February 2017 |access-date=12 December 2016 |work=[[The Guardian]] |author-first=Fiona |author-last=Harvey}}</ref><ref name="sarnold">{{cite book|author-last=Arnold |author-first=N. Scott |title=Imposing values: an essay on liberalism and regulation |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordclinicalda00libg |url-access=limited |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2009 |location=Florence |isbn=978-0-495-50112-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordclinicalda00libg/page/n15 3] |quote=Modern liberalism occupies the left-of-center in the traditional political spectrum and is represented by the Democratic Party in the United States, the Labor Party in the United Kingdom, and the mainstream Left (including some nominally socialist parties) in other advanced democratic societies.}}</ref>‌

== Positions ==

=== Economics ===
{{see also|Anarchist economics|Comparison of Marxian and Keynesian economics|Socialist economics}}
Left-leaning economic beliefs range from [[Keynesian]] economics and the [[welfare state]] through [[industrial democracy]] and the [[social market]] to the [[nationalization|nationalisation]] of the economy and [[Planned economy|central planning]],<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Andrew |author-last=Glyn |title=Social Democracy in Neoliberal Times: The Left and Economic Policy since 1980 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-924138-5}}</ref> to the [[anarcho-syndicalist]] advocacy of a council-based and self-managed [[anarchist communism]]. Left-wing politics are typically associated with popular or state control of major political and economic institutions.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |date=2009-04-15 |title=Left |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/left |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127205533/https://www.britannica.com/topic/left |archive-date=27 January 2016 |access-date=2022-05-22 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en |quote=}}</ref> During the [[Industrial Revolution]], leftists supported [[trade union]]s. At the beginning of the 20th century, many leftists advocated strong government intervention in the economy.<ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Beinhocker |author-first1=Eric D. |title=The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics |date=2006 |publisher=[[Harvard Business Press|Harvard Business School Press]] |location=Boston, Mass. |isbn=978-1-57851-777-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/originofwealthev00bein/page/316 316] |url=https://archive.org/details/originofwealthev00bein/page/316}}</ref> 

Leftists continue to criticise the perceived exploitative nature of [[globalization|globalisation]], the "[[race to the bottom]]" and unjust lay-offs and exploitation of workers. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the belief that the government (ruling in accordance with the interests of the people) ought to be directly involved in the day-to-day workings of an economy declined in popularity amongst the [[centre-left]], especially [[social democrats]] who adopted the [[Third Way]]. <ref name=":1" />

Other leftists believe in [[Marxian economics]], named after the economic theories of [[Karl Marx]]. Some distinguish Marx's economic theories from his political philosophy, arguing that Marx's approach to understanding the economy is independent of his advocacy of [[revolutionary socialism]] or his belief in the inevitability of a [[proletarian revolution]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Neo-Marxian Schools |publisher=[[The New School]] |url=http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/schools/neomarx.htm |access-date=23 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416234151/http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/schools/neomarx.htm |archive-date=16 April 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author-last=Munro |author-first=John |title=Some Basic Principles of Marxian Economics |publisher=[[University of Toronto]] |url=http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~munro5/MARXECON.htm |access-date=23 August 2007 |archive-date=20 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020054744/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~munro5/MARXECON.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Marxian economics do not exclusively rely on Marx and draw from a range of Marxist and non-Marxist sources. The ''[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]'' and ''[[workers' state]]'' are terms used by some Marxists, particularly [[Leninists]] and [[Marxist–Leninists]], to describe what they see as a temporary state between the [[capitalist]] [[State of affairs (sociology)|state of affairs]] and a [[communist society]]. Marx defined the proletariat as salaried workers, in contrast to the [[lumpenproletariat]], who he defined as the outcasts of society such as beggars, tricksters, entertainers, buskers, criminals and prostitutes.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049344/Lumpenproletariat |title=Lumpenproletariat |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=23 June 2022 |archive-date=7 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007203133/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049344/Lumpenproletariat |url-status=live }}</ref> The political relevance of farmers has divided the left. In {{Lang|de|[[Das Kapital]]}}, Marx scarcely mentioned the subject.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939251-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206174159/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939251-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 February 2009 |title=Communists: Marxism Fails on the Farm |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=13 October 1961 |access-date=3 June 2017}}</ref> [[Mikhail Bakunin]] thought the [[lumpenproletariat]] was a revolutionary class, while [[Mao Zedong]] believed that it would be rural peasants, not urban workers, who would bring about the [[proletarian revolution]].

[[Left-libertarians]], [[anarchists]] and [[libertarian socialists]] believe in a [[decentralized|decentralised]] economy run by [[trade unions]], [[workers' councils]], [[cooperatives]], [[municipalities]] and communes, opposing both [[State ownership|state]] and [[Private property|private]] control of the economy, preferring [[social ownership]] and local control in which a nation of decentralised regions is united in a [[confederation]]. The [[global justice movement]], also known as the [[anti-globalisation movement]] and the [[alter-globalisation]] movement, protests against [[corporate]] [[economic globalisation]] due to its negative consequences for the poor, workers, the environment, and small businesses.<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Tom |author-last=Mertes |title=A Movement of Movements |location=New York |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |date=2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Krishna-Hensel |author-first=Sai |year=2006 |title=Global Cooperation: Challenges and Opportunities in the Twenty-first Century |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |page=202}}</ref><ref name="Juris">{{cite book|author-last=Juris |author-first=Jeffrey S. |year=2008 |title=Networking Futures: The Movements against Corporate Globalization |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |location=Durham |isbn=978-0-8223-4269-4 |page=2}}</ref>

Leftists generally believe in innovation in various technological and philosophical fields and disciplines to help causes they support.<ref name=":0" />

=== Environment ===
{{see also|Eco-socialism|Green anarchism|Green politics}}
One of the foremost left-wing advocates was [[Thomas Paine]], one of the first individuals since ''left'' and ''right'' became political terms to describe the collective human ownership of the world, which he speaks of in ''Agrarian Justice''.<ref>{{cite web |author-last1=Paine |author-first1=Thomas |title=Agrarian Justice |url=http://thomaspaine.org/major-works/agrarian-justice.html |publisher=Thomas Paine National Historical Association |access-date=13 July 2019 |archive-date=27 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527075134/http://thomaspaine.org/major-works/agrarian-justice.html |url-status=live }}</ref> As such, most of left-wing thought and literature regarding environmentalism stems from this duty of ownership and the aforementioned form of cooperative ownership means that humanity must take care of the Earth.{{cn|date=November 2025}} This principle is reflected in much of the historical left-wing thought and literature that came afterwards, although there were disagreements about what this entailed. Karl Marx and the early socialist philosopher and scholar [[William Morris]] had a concern for environmental matters.<ref name="Foster2000">{{cite book|author-last=Foster |author-first=J. B. |title=Marx's Ecology |year=2000 |location=New York |publisher=Monthly Review Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Burkett |author-first=P. |title=Marx and Nature |year=1999 |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0312219406}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://leonora.fortunecity.co.uk/WilliamMorris.html |title=William Morris: The First Green Socialist |publisher=Leonora.fortunecity.co.uk |date=14 December 2007 |access-date=13 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413181212/http://leonora.fortunecity.co.uk/WilliamMorris.html |archive-date=13 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author-last=Moore |author-first=J. W. |year=2003 |url=http://www.jasonwmoore.com/uploads/Moore__Capitalism_as_World-Ecology__Braudel_and_Marx_on_Environmental_History__O_E__2003_.pdf |title=Capitalism as World-ecology: Braudel and Marx on Environmental History |journal=[[Organization & Environment]] |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=431–458 |doi=10.1177/1086026603259091 |bibcode=2003OrgEn..16..514M |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713090801/http://www.jasonwmoore.com/uploads/Moore__Capitalism_as_World-Ecology__Braudel_and_Marx_on_Environmental_History__O_E__2003_.pdf |archive-date=13 July 2011 |citeseerx=10.1.1.472.6464 |s2cid=145169737}}</ref> According to Marx, "[e]ven an entire society, a nation, or all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not the owners of the earth. They are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries, and have to bequeath it in an improved state to succeeding generations".<ref name="Foster2000" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=13676 |title=Marx and ecology |publisher=[[Socialist Worker#United Kingdom]] |date=8 December 2007 |access-date=13 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326154510/http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=13676 |archive-date=26 March 2010}}</ref> Following the Russian Revolution, environmental scientists such as revolutionary [[Alexander Bogdanov]] and the [[Proletkult]] organisation made efforts to incorporate environmentalism into Bolshevism and "integrate production with natural laws and limits" in the first decade of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] rule, before [[Joseph Stalin]] attacked ecologists and the science of ecology, purged environmentalists and promoted the [[pseudoscience]] of [[Trofim Lysenko]] during his rule up until his death in 1953.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Gare |author-first=A. |chapter=Soviet Environmentalism: The Path Not Taken |editor-last=Benton |editor-first=E. |title=The Greening of Marxism |year=1996 |location=New York |publisher=[[Guilford Press]] |isbn=978-1572301184 |pages=111–128}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Kovel |author-first=J. |title=The Enemy of Nature |year=2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author-first=Arran |author-last=Gare |title=The Environmental Record of the Soviet Union |journal=[[Capitalism Nature Socialism]] |volume=13 |year=2002 |issue=3 |pages=52–72 |doi=10.1080/10455750208565489 |hdl=1959.3/1924 |s2cid=144372855 |url=https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/e3c56de5-1863-4df1-a825-b18c351f40c3/1/PDF%20(Accepted%20manuscript).pdf |access-date=20 September 2019 |archive-date=14 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200314063154/https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/e3c56de5-1863-4df1-a825-b18c351f40c3/1/PDF%20(Accepted%20manuscript).pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Similarly, [[Mao Zedong]] rejected environmentalism and believed that based on the laws of historical materialism, all of nature must be put into the service of revolution.<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Judith |author-last=Shapiro |title=Mao's War against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2001}}</ref>

From the 1970s onwards, environmentalism became an increasing concern of the left, with social movements and several unions campaigning on environmental issues and causes. In Australia, the left-wing [[Builders Labourers Federation]], led by the communist Jack Mundy, united with environmentalists to place [[green ban]]s on environmentally destructive development projects.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Burgman |author-first=Meredith |title=Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation |publisher=[[UNSW Press]] |location=Sydney |date=1998}}</ref> Several segments of the socialist and Marxist left consciously merged environmentalism and anti-capitalism into an [[eco-socialist]] ideology.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Wall |author-first=D. |title=Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements |date=2005}}</ref> [[Barry Commoner]] articulated a left-wing response to ''[[The Limits to Growth]]'' model that predicted catastrophic [[resource depletion]] and spurred environmentalism, postulating that capitalist technologies were the key cause responsible for environmental degradation, as opposed to human population pressures.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Commoner |author-first=B. |title=[[The Closing Circle]] |date=1972}}</ref> Environmental degradation can be seen as a class or equity issue, as environmental destruction disproportionately affects poorer communities and countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/articles/file/The+Argentimes.pdf |title=Poor Bear Burden of Industrialisation |work=[[Blacksmith Institute]] |date=19 October 2007 |access-date=16 April 2016 |author-first=Sanra |author-last=Ritten |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184856/http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/articles/file/The+Argentimes.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Ms. magazine Cover - Spring 2007.jpg|thumb|Global warming was the cover story of this 2007 issue of the ''[[Ms. (magazine)|Ms.]]'' magazine.]]
Several left-wing or socialist groupings have an overt environmental concern and several green parties contain a strong socialist presence. The [[Green Party of England and Wales]] features an eco-socialist group, the [[Green Left (UK)|Green Left]], which was founded in June 2005. Its members held several influential positions within the party, including both the former Principal Speakers [[Siân Berry]] and [[Derek Wall]], himself an eco-socialist and Marxist academic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gptu.net/gleft/greenleft.shtml |title=Green Left homepage |publisher=Gptu.net |access-date=13 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311004501/http://gptu.net/gleft/greenleft.shtml |archive-date=11 March 2009}}</ref> In Europe, several [[green left]] political parties such as the [[European United Left–Nordic Green Left]] combine traditional social-democratic values such as a desire for greater economic equality and workers rights with demands for environmental protection. Democratic socialist [[Bolivian president]] [[Evo Morales]] has traced [[environmental degradation]] to capitalist [[consumerism]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cc.com/video-clips/7qwmpn/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-president-evo-morales |title=President Evo Morales |work=[[The Daily Show]] |publisher=[[Comedy Central]] |date=25 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923114559/http://www.cc.com/video-clips/7qwmpn/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-president-evo-morales |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> stating that "[t]he Earth does not have enough for the North to live better and better, but it does have enough for all of us to live well". [[James Hansen]], [[Noam Chomsky]], [[Raj Patel]], [[Naomi Klein]], [[The Yes Men]] and [[Dennis Kucinich]] hold similar views.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/how-solve-climate-problem|title=How to Solve the Climate Problem|author=James Hansen|magazine=[[The Nation]]|date=31 December 2009|author-link=James Hansen|access-date=6 October 2010|archive-date=9 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109011949/http://www.thenation.com/article/how-solve-climate-problem|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Chomsky|first1=Noam|title=Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order|date=1999|publisher=Seven Stories Press|location=New York|isbn=9781888363821|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrLv4surz7UC&q=profit+over+people|access-date=3 June 2017|language=en}}{{page needed|date=June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Trisha |url=http://rajpatel.org/2010/08/06/we-have-yet-to-see-the-biggest-costs-of-the-bp-spill |title=The Nation: We Have Yet to See The Biggest Costs of the BP Spill |publisher=Raj Patel |date=6 August 2010 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=26 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326124941/http://rajpatel.org/2010/08/06/we-have-yet-to-see-the-biggest-costs-of-the-bp-spill/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FtrSql3vss |last1=((policyalternatives)) |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/2FtrSql3vss |archive-date=28 October 2021 |title=Naomi Klein- Climate Debt (Part 1) |publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=26 February 2010 |access-date=15 November 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://scrutinyhooligans.us/2010/07/26/the-yes-men-fix-the-world/ |title=The Yes Men Fix the World  |publisher= Scrutiny Hooligans |date=27 July 2011 |access-date=3 June 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727110443/http://scrutinyhooligans.us/2010/07/26/the-yes-men-fix-the-world/ |archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ph9rSRY3Q |last1=DJKucinich |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/S4ph9rSRY3Q |archive-date=28 October 2021 |title=Kucinich responds to BP Oil Spill |publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=26 May 2010 |access-date=15 November 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In [[climate change mitigation]], the Left is also divided over how to effectively and equitably reduce [[carbon emissions]] as the center-left often advocates a reliance on market measures such as [[emissions trading]] and a [[carbon tax]] while those further to the left support direct government regulation and intervention in the form of a [[Green New Deal]], either alongside or instead of market mechanisms.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/41735 |title=Rudd's carbon trading — locking in disaster |newspaper=Green Left Weekly |date=23 May 2009 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=20 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320062310/https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/41735 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.solidarity.net.au/22/carbon-tax-not-the-solution-we-need-on-climate |first1=Chris |last1=Breen |title=Carbon tax not the solution we need on climate |publisher=Solidarity Online |date=10 March 2010 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=21 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130421110723/http://www.solidarity.net.au/22/carbon-tax-not-the-solution-we-need-on-climate/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/43410 |first1=Simon |last1=Butler |title=James Hansen and climate solutions |newspaper=Green Left Weekly |date=13 March 2010 |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=19 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319033414/https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/43410 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Nationalism, anti-imperialism and anti-nationalism ===
{{see also|Anarchism and nationalism|Anti-imperialism|Internationalism (politics)|Left-wing nationalism|Proletarian internationalism|Anti-Stalinist left}}
The question of [[nationality]], [[imperialism]] and [[nationalism]] has been a central feature of political debates on the Left. During the French Revolution, nationalism was a key policy of the Republican Left.<ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Doyle |author-first1=William |title=The Oxford History of the French Revolution |date=2002 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-925298-5 |edition=2nd |quote="An exuberant, uncompromising nationalism lay behind France's revolutionary expansion in the 1790s...", "The message of the French Revolution was that the people are sovereign; and in the two centuries since it was first proclaimed, it has conquered the world." |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryoff00doyl}}</ref> The Republican Left advocated for [[civic nationalism]]<ref name="Knapp" /> and argued that the nation is a "daily plebiscite" formed by the subjective "will to live together". Related to [[revanchism]], the belligerent will to take revenge against Germany and retake control of [[Alsace-Lorraine]], nationalism was sometimes opposed to [[imperialism]]. In the 1880s, there was a debate between leftists such as the [[Radical Party (France)|Radical]] [[Georges Clemenceau]], the [[French Section of the Workers' International|Socialist]] [[Jean Jaurès]] and the nationalist [[Maurice Barrès]], who argued that colonialism diverted France from liberating the "blue line of the [[Vosges]]", in reference to Alsace-Lorraine; and the "[[French colonial empire|colonial lobby]]" such as [[Jules Ferry]] of the [[Moderate Republicans (France, 1871–1901)|Moderate Republicans]], [[Léon Gambetta]] of the [[Republican Union (France)|Republicans]] and [[Eugène Etienne]], the president of the Parliamentary Colonial Group. After the [[antisemitic]] [[Dreyfus Affair]] in which officer [[Alfred Dreyfus]] was falsely convicted of sedition and exiled to a penal colony in 1894 before being exonerated in 1906, nationalism in the form of [[Boulangism]] increasingly became associated with the far-right.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Winock |author-first=Michel |author-link=Michel Winock |title=Histoire de l'extrême droite en France |language=fr |trans-title=History of the extreme right in France |date=1993}}</ref>

The [[Marxist]] [[social class]] theory of [[proletarian internationalism]] asserts that members of the [[working class]] should act in solidarity with working people in other countries in pursuit of a common [[class interest]], rather than only focusing on their own countries. Proletarian internationalism is summed up in the slogan: "[[Workers of the world, unite!]]", the last line of ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]''. Union members had learned that more members meant more bargaining power. Taken to an international level, leftists argued that workers should act in solidarity with the international proletariat in order to further increase the power of the working class. Proletarian internationalism saw itself as a deterrent against war and international conflicts, because people with a common interest are less likely to take up arms against one another, instead focusing on fighting the [[bourgeoisie]] as the [[ruling class]]. According to Marxist theory, the [[antonym]] of proletarian internationalism is [[bourgeois nationalism]]. Some Marxists, together with others on the left, view [[nationalism]],<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Szporluk |author-first=Roman |title=Communism and Nationalism |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1991}}</ref> [[racism]]<ref>{{cite journal |author-first1=John |author-last1=Solomos |author-first2=Les |author-last2=Back |title=Marxism, Racism, and Ethnicity |journal=American Behavioral Scientist |year=1995 |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=407–420 |doi=10.1177/0002764295038003004 |url=http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/pub/eres/SOC217_PIMENTEL/solomos.pdf |citeseerx=10.1.1.602.5843 |s2cid=39984567 |access-date=25 October 2017 |archive-date=10 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810135237/http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/pub/eres/SOC217_PIMENTEL/solomos.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> (including antisemitism)<ref>{{cite web |author-last=Lenin |author-first=Vladimir |author-link=Vladimir Lenin |title=Anti-Jewish Pogroms |work=Speeches On Gramophone Records |year=1919 |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/mar/x10.htm |access-date=29 April 2009 |archive-date=19 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200319172258/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/mar/x10.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[religion]] as [[Divide and rule|divide and conquer]] tactics used by the ruling classes to prevent the [[working class]] from uniting against them in solidarity with one another. Left-wing movements have often taken up anti-imperialist positions. Anarchism has developed a critique of nationalism that focuses on nationalism's role in justifying and consolidating state power and domination. Through its unifying goal, nationalism strives for [[centralisation]] (both in specific territories and in a ruling elite of individuals) while it prepares a population for capitalist exploitation. Within anarchism, this subject has been extensively discussed by [[Rudolf Rocker]] in his book titled ''[[Nationalism and Culture]]'' and by the works of [[Fredy Perlman]] such as ''[[Against His-Story, Against Leviathan]]'' and ''The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism|first=Fredy|last=Perlman|location=Detroit|publisher=Black & Red|year=1985|isbn=978-0317295580}}</ref>

The failure of revolutions in [[German Revolution|Germany]] and [[Hungarian Soviet Republic|Hungary]] in the 1918–1920 years ended [[Bolshevik]] hopes for an imminent [[world revolution]] and led to the promotion of the doctrine of [[socialism in one country]] by [[Joseph Stalin]]. In the first edition of his book titled ''Osnovy Leninizma'' (''Foundations of Leninism'', 1924), Stalin argued that revolution in one country is insufficient. By the end of that year in the second edition of the book, he argued that the "[[proletariat]] can and must build the socialist society in one country". In April 1925, [[Nikolai Bukharin]] elaborated on the issue in his brochure titled ''Can We Build Socialism in One Country in the Absence of the Victory of the West-European Proletariat?'', whose position was adopted as state policy after Stalin's January 1926 article titled ''On the Issues of Leninism'' (К вопросам ленинизма) was published. This idea was opposed by [[Leon Trotsky]] and his supporters, who declared the need for an international "[[permanent revolution]]" and condemned Stalin for betraying the goals and ideals of the socialist revolution. Various [[Fourth International]]ist groups around the world who describe themselves as [[Trotskyist]] see themselves as standing in this tradition while [[Maoist China]] formally supported the theory of socialism in one country.

European social democrats strongly support [[Europeanism]] and [[Supranational union|supranational]] integration within the [[European Union]], although there is a minority of nationalists and [[Eurosceptics]] on the left. Several scholars have linked this form of left-wing nationalism to the pressure generated by economic integration with other countries, often encouraged by [[neoliberal]] [[free trade]] agreements. This view is sometimes used to justify hostility towards supranational organisations. Left-wing nationalism can also refer to any form of nationalism which emphasises a leftist working-class [[populism|populist]] agenda that seeks to overcome exploitation or oppression by other nations. Many Third World [[Decolonization|anti-colonialist movements]] have adopted leftist and socialist ideas. [[Third-Worldism]] is a tendency within leftist thought that regards the division between [[First World]] and [[Second World]] [[developed country|developed countries]] and [[Third World]] [[developing countries]] as being of high political importance. This tendency supports [[decolonization|decolonisation]] and [[national liberation movements]] against imperialism by capitalists. Third-Worldism is closely connected with [[African socialism]], [[Latin American socialism]], [[Maoism]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://anti-imperialism.org/2012/11/02/what-is-maoism-third-worldism/ |title=What is Maioism-Third Worldism? |publisher=Anti-Imperialism.org |date=2 November 2011 |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=16 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016070235/https://anti-imperialism.org/2012/11/02/what-is-maoism-third-worldism/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{third-party-inline|date=November 2012}} [[pan-Africanism]] and [[pan-Arabism]]. Several left-wing groups in the developing world such as the [[Zapatista Army of National Liberation]] in Mexico, the [[Abahlali baseMjondolo]] in [[South Africa]] and the [[Naxalites]] in India have argued that the First World and the Second World Left takes a racist and paternalistic attitude towards liberation movements in the Third World.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}}

=== Religion ===
{{see also|Anarchism and religion|Buddhist socialism|Christian anarchism|Christian communism|Christian left|Christian socialism|Jewish left|Islamic socialism}}
The original [[French Left]] was firmly [[anti-clerical]], strongly opposing the influence of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and supporting [[atheism]] and the [[separation of church and state]], ushering in a policy known as ''[[laïcité]]''.<ref name="Knapp" /> [[Karl Marx]] asserted that "religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the [[opium of the people]]".<ref>Marx, Karl. 1976. ''Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right''. Collected Works, vol. 3. New York.</ref> In Soviet Russia, the [[Bolsheviks]] under [[Vladimir Lenin]] originally embraced an ideological principle which professed that all religion would eventually atrophy and resolved to eradicate organised [[Christianity]] and other religious institutions. In 1918, 10 [[Russian Orthodox]] hierarchs were summarily executed by a firing squad, and children were deprived of any religious education outside of the home.<ref>[[Michael Burleigh]], ''Sacred Causes'' HarperCollins (2006), p. 41–43.</ref>

Today in the [[Western world]], those on the Left generally support [[secularization|secularisation]] and the separation of church and state. However, religious beliefs have also been associated with many left-wing movements such as the [[progressive movement]], the [[Social Gospel]] movement, the [[civil rights movement]], the [[anti-war movement]], the anti-[[capital punishment]] movement and [[Liberation Theology]]. Early [[utopian socialist]] thinkers such as [[Robert Owen]], [[Charles Fourier]] and the [[Comte de Saint-Simon]] based their theories of socialism upon Christian principles. Other common leftist concerns such as [[pacifism]], [[social justice]], [[racial equality]], [[human rights]] and the rejection of capitalism and excessive [[wealth]] can be found in the [[Bible]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1533448,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070112223942/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1533448,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 January 2007 |title=Does God Want You To Be Rich? |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |author-first1=David van |author-last1=Biema |author-first2=Jeff |author-last2=Chu |date=10 September 2006 |access-date=20 April 2011}}</ref>

In the late 19th century, the [[Protestant]] Social Gospel movement arose in the United States which integrated [[Progressivism|progressive]] and [[socialist]] thought with [[Christianity]] through faith-based social activism. Other left-wing religious movements include Buddhist socialism, Jewish socialism and Islamic socialism. There have been alliances between the left and anti-war [[Muslims]], such as the [[Respect Party]] and the [[Stop the War Coalition]] in Britain. In France, the left has been divided over moves to ban the [[hijab]] from schools, with some leftists supporting a ban based on the separation of church and state in accordance with the principle of ''[[laïcité]]'' and other leftists opposing the prohibition based on personal and religious freedom.

=== Social progressivism and counterculture ===
{{see also|Counterculture|New Left|Socialism and LGBT rights|Socialist feminism}}
{{Globalize|section|United States|date=August 2021}}
[[Social progress]]ivism is another common feature of modern leftism, particularly in the United States, where social progressives played an important role in the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition of slavery]],<ref>James Brewer Stewart, ''Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War'', [[University of Massachusetts Press]], 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-55849-635-4}}. "[...] the progressive assumptions of 'uplift'." (page 40).</ref> the enshrinement of [[women's suffrage]] in the [[United States Constitution]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/progress/suffrage/suffrage.html |title=For Teachers (Library of Congress) |publisher=Lcweb2.loc.gov |access-date=13 May 2010 |archive-date=10 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090110213539/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/progress/suffrage/suffrage.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and the protection of [[civil rights]], [[LGBTQ rights]], [[women's rights]] and [[multiculturalism]]. Progressives have both advocated for [[alcohol prohibition]] legislation and worked towards its repeal in the mid to late 1920s and early 1930s. Current positions associated with social progressivism in the [[Western world]] include strong opposition to the [[death penalty]], [[torture]], [[mass surveillance]], and the [[war on drugs]], and support for [[abortion]] rights, [[cognitive liberty]], LGBTQ rights including legal recognition of [[same-sex marriage]], [[same-sex adoption]] of children, the [[Gender reassignment|right to change one's legal gender]], distribution of [[contraceptives]], and public funding of embryonic [[stem-cell research]]. The desire for an expansion of social and civil liberties often overlaps that of the [[libertarian]] movement. Public education was a subject of great interest to groundbreaking social progressives such as [[Lester Frank Ward]] and [[John Dewey]], who believed that a democratic society and system of government was practically impossible without a universal and comprehensive nationwide system of education.

Various counterculture and anti-war movements in the 1960s and 1970s were associated with the New Left. Unlike the earlier leftist focus on [[labour union]] activism and a proletarian revolution, the New Left instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called [[social activism]]. The New Left in the United States is associated with the [[hippie movement]], mass protest movements on school campuses and a broadening of focus from protesting [[Social class|class]]-based oppression to include issues such as [[gender]], [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] and [[sexual orientation]]. The British New Left was an intellectually driven movement which attempted to correct the perceived errors of the [[Old Left]]. The New Left opposed prevailing authoritarian structures in society which it designated as "[[The Establishment]]" and became known as the "Anti-Establishment". The New Left did not seek to recruit industrial workers en masse, but instead concentrated on a social activist approach to organization, convinced that they could be the source for a better kind of [[social revolution]]. This view has been criticised by several [[Marxists]], especially [[Trotskyists]], who characterised this approach as "substitutionism" which they described as a misguided and non-Marxist belief that other groups in society could "substitute" for and "replace" the revolutionary agency of the working class.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1960/xx/trotsub.htm |title=Tony Cliff: Trotsky on substitutionism (Autumn 1960) |publisher=Marxists.org |access-date=13 May 2010 |archive-date=15 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615002815/http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1960/xx/trotsub.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/4662049/Against-Substitutionism |title=Against Substitutionism |publisher=Scribd.com |date=6 November 2006 |access-date=13 May 2010 |archive-date=20 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220003148/http://www.scribd.com/doc/4662049/Against-Substitutionism |url-status=live }}</ref>

Many early [[feminists]] and advocates of women's rights were considered a part of the Left by their contemporaries. Feminist pioneer [[Mary Wollstonecraft]] was influenced by [[Thomas Paine]]. Many notable leftists have been strong supporters of gender equality such as [[Marxist]] philosophers and activists [[Rosa Luxemburg]], [[Clara Zetkin]] and [[Alexandra Kollontai]], [[anarchist]] philosophers and activists such as [[Virginia Bolten]], [[Emma Goldman]] and [[Lucía Sánchez Saornil]] and [[democratic socialist]] philosophers and activists such as [[Helen Keller]] and [[Annie Besant]].<ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Campling |author-first1=Jo |editor-last1=Bryson |editor-first1=Valerie |title=Feminist Political Theory: An Introduction |date=2003 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire [u.a.] |isbn=978-0-333-94568-1 |edition=2nd}}</ref> However, Marxists such as Rosa Luxemburg,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1912/05/12.htm |title=Rosa Luxemburg: Women's Suffrage and Class Struggle (1912) |publisher=Marxists.org |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=13 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113123614/https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1912/05/12.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Clara Zetkin,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1976/women/3-zetkin.html |title=Clara Zetkin: On a Bourgeois Feminist Petition |publisher=Marxists.org |date=28 December 2008 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=17 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180717034055/http://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1976/women/3-zetkin.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm |title=Clara Zetkin: Lenin on the Women's Question – 1 |publisher=Marxists.org |date=29 February 2004 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=30 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030154957/http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> and Alexandra Kollontai,<ref>{{cite web |author-first=Alexandra |author-last=Kollontai |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1909/social-basis.htm |title=The Social Basis of the Woman Question by Alexandra Kollontai 1909 |publisher=Marxists.org |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=28 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028195319/http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1909/social-basis.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author-first=Alexandra |author-last=Kollontai |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1919/women-workers/ch01.htm |title=Women Workers Struggle For Their Rights by Alexandra Kollontai 1919 |publisher=Marxists.org |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=12 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212181444/http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1919/women-workers/ch01.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> who are supporters of radical social equality for women and have rejected and opposed [[liberal feminism]] because they considered it to be a capitalist [[bourgeois]] ideology. Marxists were responsible for organising the first [[International Working Women's Day]] events.<ref>{{cite web |author-first=Alexandra |author-last=Kollontai |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1920/womens-day.htm |title=1920-Inter Women's Day |publisher=Marxists.org |date=26 August 1920 |access-date=13 May 2010 |archive-date=23 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180523044541/https://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1920/womens-day.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[women's liberation movement]] is closely connected to the New Left and other [[new social movements]] which openly challenged the orthodoxies of the Old Left. Socialist feminism as exemplified by the [[Freedom Socialist Party]] and [[Radical Women]] and [[Marxist feminism]], spearheaded by [[Selma James]], saw themselves as a part of the Left that challenges male-dominated and [[sexist]] structures within the Left. The connection between left-wing ideologies and the struggle for LGBTQ rights also has an important history. Prominent socialists who were involved in early struggles for LGBTQ rights include [[Edward Carpenter]], [[Oscar Wilde]], [[Harry Hay]], [[Bayard Rustin]] and [[Daniel Guérin]], among others. The New Left is also strongly supportive of LGBTQ rights and liberation, having been instrumental in the founding of the [[LGBTQ rights movement]] in the aftermath of the [[Stonewall riots|Stonewall Riots]] of 1969. Contemporary leftist activists and socialist countries such as Cuba are actively supportive of LGBTQ+ people and are involved in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and equality.

== History ==
{{see also|American Left|French Left|Left–right political spectrum|History of political thought}}
[[File:Estatesgeneral.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The 5 May 1789 opening of the [[Estates General of 1789]] in Versailles]]
In politics, the term ''Left'' derives from the [[French Revolution]] as the political groups opposed to the royal veto privilege ([[The Mountain|Montagnard]] and [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobin]] deputies from the [[Estates-General of 1789|Third Estate]]) generally sat to the left of the presiding member's chair in parliament while the ones in favour of the royal veto privilege sat on its right.<ref>[[Michel Winock]], La Droite, hier et aujourd'hui, tempus, 2012, p. 12.</ref> That habit began in the original French [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Assembly]]. Throughout the 19th century, the main line dividing [[Politics of France|Left and Right]] was between supporters of the French [[republic]] and those of the [[monarchy]]'s privileges.<ref name="Knapp"/>{{rp|2}} The [[June Days uprising]] during the [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]] was an attempt by the Left to re-assert itself after the [[1848 Revolution (France)|1848 Revolution]], but only a small portion of the population supported this.

In the mid-19th century, [[nationalism]], [[socialism]], [[democracy]] and [[anti-clericalism]] became key features of the French Left. After [[Napoleon III]]'s [[French coup of 1851|1851 coup]] and the subsequent establishment of the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]], [[Marxism]] began to rival radical republicanism and [[utopian socialism]] as a force within left-wing politics. The influential ''[[Communist Manifesto]]'' by [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]], published amidst the wave of [[revolutions of 1848]] across Europe, asserted that all of human history is defined by [[class struggle]]. They predicted that a [[proletarian]] revolution would eventually overthrow [[bourgeois]] [[capitalism]] and create a [[Stateless society|stateless]], [[Post-capitalism|moneyless]] and [[classless]] [[communist society]]. It was in this period that the word ''wing'' was appended to both Left and Right.<ref name="oed.com">{{cite dictionary|title=Home: Oxford English Dictionary |dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/107000?redirectedFrom=left-wing#eid |access-date=3 June 2017}}</ref>

The [[International Workingmen's Association]] (1864–1876), sometimes called the First International, brought together delegates from many different countries, with many different views about how to reach a classless and stateless society. Following a split between supporters of Marx and [[Mikhail Bakunin]], anarchists formed the [[Saint-Imier International]] and later the [[International Workers' Association – Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores|International Workers' Association (IWA–AIT)]].<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Marshall |author-first=Peter |title=Demanding the Impossible — A History of Anarchism |title-link=Demanding the Impossible |publisher=[[Fontana Press]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-00-686245-1 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/demandingimpossi00mars_782/page/n545 9]}}</ref> The [[Second International]] (1888–1916) became divided over the issue of [[World War I]]. Those who opposed the war, among them [[Vladimir Lenin]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]], saw themselves as further to the left.

In the United States, leftists such as [[social liberals]], [[Progressivism in the United States|progressives]] and [[trade unionists]] were influenced by the works of [[Thomas Paine]], who introduced the concept of [[asset-based egalitarianism]] which theorises that [[social equality]] is possible by a redistribution of resources. After the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] era in the aftermath of the [[American Civil War]], the phrase "the Left" was used to describe those who supported trade unions, the [[civil rights movement]] and the [[anti-war movement]].<ref name="Van Gosse 2005">{{cite book|author-last=Van Gosse |title=The Movements of the New Left, 1950–1975: A Brief History with Documents |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4039-6804-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Reuss |author-first=JoAnne C. |title=American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics |publisher=[[The Scarecrow Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8108-3684-6}}</ref> More recently, ''left-wing'' and ''right-wing'' have often been used as synonyms for the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] and [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] parties, or as synonyms for [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberalism]] and [[Conservatism in the United States|conservatism]], respectively.<ref>{{cite magazine|date=3 March 2009 |title=Steel to gop fight for Coleman |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://thepage.time.com/2009/03/03/steele-to-gop-fight-for-coleman/?xid=rss-page |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722030847/http://thepage.time.com/2009/03/03/steele-to-gop-fight-for-coleman/?xid=rss-page |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 July 2011 |access-date=4 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |date=7 May 2009 |title=Is it Spain's place to investigate Gitmo? |url=http://www.theweek.com/article/index/96256/Is_it_Spains_place_to_investigate_Gitmo |magazine=The Week |access-date=3 June 2017 |archive-date=25 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140425012717/http://theweek.com/article/index/96256/Is_it_Spains_place_to_investigate_Gitmo |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Reported in ''Mother Jones'', 29 April 2009.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=June 2017}}<ref>{{cite news |author-last=Gellene |author-first=Denise |date=10 September 2007 |title=Study finds left-wing brain, right-wing brain |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-politics10sep10,0,5982337.story |access-date=2 May 2010 |archive-date=12 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412144317/http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-politics10sep10,0,5982337.story |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the 20th century, war resulted in a dramatic intensification of the pace of social changes, and was a crucial catalyst for the growth of left-wing politics.<ref name = "Kolko 1994 xviitoxviii">{{Harvnb|Kolko|1994|p=xvii–xviii}}: "War in this century became an essential precondition for the emergence of a numerically powerful Left, moving it from the margins to the very center of European politics during 1917–18 and of all world affairs after 1941".</ref> Since the Right was populist, both in the [[Western Bloc|Western]] and the [[Eastern Bloc]], anything viewed as avant-garde art was called leftist across Europe, thus the identification of Picasso's ''[[Guernica (Picasso)|Guernica]]'' as "leftist" in Europe<ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Werckmeister |author-first1=Otto Karl |title=Icons of the Left: Benjamin and Eisenstein, Picasso and Kafka After the Fall of Communism |date=1999 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0226893563 |location=Chicago}}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2017}} and the condemnation of the Russian composer [[Shostakovich]]'s opera (''[[Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (opera)|The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District]]'') in ''[[Pravda]]'' as follows: "Here we have 'leftist' confusion instead of natural, human music".<ref>{{cite book|author-last1=Gutman |author-first1=David |title=Prokofiev |date=1996 |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-0711920835 |edition=New |location=London}}</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2016}}

== Types ==
The spectrum of left-wing politics ranges from [[centre-left]] to [[far-left]] or [[ultra-left]]. The term ''centre-left'' describes a position within the political mainstream that accepts capitalism and a market economy. The terms ''far-left'' and ''ultra-left'' are used for positions that are more [[Radical politics|radical]], more strongly rejecting [[capitalism]] and mainstream [[representative democracy]], instead advocating for a socialist society based on [[economic democracy]] and [[direct democracy]], representing economic, political and social democracy. The centre-left includes [[social democrats]], [[social liberals]], [[Progressivism|progressives]] and [[Green politics|greens]]. Centre-left supporters accept market allocation of resources in a [[mixed economy]] with an empowered [[public sector]] and a thriving [[private sector]]. Centre-left policies tend to favour limited [[state intervention]] in matters pertaining to the [[public interest]].

In several countries, the terms ''far-left'' and ''radical left'' have been associated with many varieties of [[anarchism]], [[autonomism]] and [[communism]]. They have been used to describe groups that advocate [[anti-capitalism]] and [[eco-terrorism]]. In France, a distinction is made between the centre-left and the left represented by the [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party]] and the [[French Communist Party]] and the far-left as represented by [[anarcho-communists]], [[Maoists]] and [[Trotskyists]].<ref>Cosseron, Serge (ed.). ''Le dictionnaire de l'extrême gauche''. Paris: [[Éditions Larousse|Larousse]], 2007. p. 20.</ref> The [[United States Department of Homeland Security]] defines "left-wing extremism" as groups that "seek to bring about change through violent revolution, rather than through established political processes".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/hsa-leftwing-extremists-increase-in-cyber-attacks-dated-26-january-2009.pdf |title=Leftwing Extremists Increase in Cyber Attacks |access-date=3 June 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419052505/http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/hsa-leftwing-extremists-increase-in-cyber-attacks-dated-26-january-2009.pdf |archive-date=19 April 2009}}</ref> Similar to [[far-right politics]], [[Extremism|extremist]] far-left politics have motivated [[political violence]], [[radicalization|radicalisation]], [[genocide]], [[terrorism]], sabotage and damage to property, the formation of [[militant]] organisations, [[political repression]], [[conspiracism]], [[xenophobia]], and [[nationalism]].<ref name="Rossi 2021">{{cite journal |last=Rossi |first=Federica |date=April 2021 |editor-last=Treiber |editor-first=Kyle |title=The failed amnesty of the 'years of lead' in Italy: Continuity and transformations between (de)politicization and punitiveness |journal=[[European Journal of Criminology]] |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=381–400 |location=[[Los Angeles]] and [[London]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] on behalf of the [[European Society of Criminology]] |doi=10.1177/14773708211008441 |issn=1741-2609 |quote=The [[Years of Lead (Italy)|1970s in Italy]] were characterized by the persistence and prolongation of political and social unrest that many Western countries experienced during the late 1960s. The decade saw the multiplication of far-left [[Terrorism in Italy|extra-parliamentary organizations]], the presence of a [[militant]] [[Far-right politics in Italy|far right movement]], and an upsurge in the use of [[Political violence|politically motivated violence]] and state repressive measures. The increasing militarization and the use of political violence, from [[sabotage]] and damage to property, to [[kidnapping]]s and [[Targeted killing|targeted assassinations]], were justified by left-wing groups both as necessary means to achieve a revolutionary project and as defences against the threat of a neo-fascist coup. |doi-access=free |s2cid=234835036}}</ref><ref name="Ojeili-Taylor 2018">{{cite journal |last1=el-Ojeili |first1=Chamsy |last2=Taylor |first2=Dylan |date=September 2018 |editor1-last=Cheng |editor1-first=Enfu |editor2-last=Schweickart |editor2-first=David |editor3-last=Andreani |editor3-first=Tony |title=The Revaluation of All Values: Extremism, The Ultra-Left, and Revolutionary Anthropology |journal=International Critical Thought |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] on behalf of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=410–425 |doi=10.1080/21598282.2018.1506262 |issn=2159-8282 |eissn=2159-8312 |s2cid=158719628}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McClosky |first1=Herbert |last2=Chong |first2=Dennis |date=July 1985 |title=Similarities and Differences Between Left-Wing and Right-Wing Radicals |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0007123400004221/type/journal_article |journal=British Journal of Political Science |language=en |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=329–363 |doi=10.1017/S0007123400004221 |issn=0007-1234 |quote=Once one adjusts for superficial differences, Shils contended, communists and other radicals of the far left resemble right-wing radicals in zealotry, susceptibility to Manichean interpretations of human events, implacable hatred of opponents, intolerance toward dissenters and deviants, and an inclination to view public affairs as the outcome of conspiracies and secret plots. |s2cid=154330828|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kopyciok |first1=Svenja |last2=Silver |first2=Hilary |date=2021-06-10 |title=Left-Wing Xenophobia in Europe |journal=Frontiers in Sociology |volume=6 |article-number=666717 |doi=10.3389/fsoc.2021.666717 |issn=2297-7775 |pmc=8222516 |pmid=34179182 |quote=We find that a surprisingly large share of those who identify as far left do express extremely xenophobic attitudes, and we profile them in contrast to far right xenophobes. |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chen |first1=Cheng |last2=Lee |first2=Ji-Yong |date=2007-12-01 |title=Making sense of North Korea: "National Stalinism" in comparative-historical perspective |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article/40/4/459/77/Making-sense-of-North-Korea-National-Stalinism-in |journal=Communist and Post-Communist Studies |language=en |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=459–475 |doi=10.1016/j.postcomstud.2007.10.003 |issn=0967-067X |quote=the role of strong anti-liberal ideology that combined both far left and far right nationalist elements was highly significant in sustaining the regime and therefore should not be underestimated...the DPRK regime was able to hold on to power by using imagined and real external threats, such as the nuclear and missile crises, to justify continuing domestic repression and reinforce its nationalist claims|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In China, the term ''[[Chinese New Left]]'' denotes those who oppose the [[Economic reform in the People's Republic of China|economic reforms]] enacted by [[Deng Xiaoping]] in the 1980s and 1990s, favour instead the restoration of Maoist policies and the immediate transition to a socialist economy.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.ft.com/cms/s/74029202-a389-11da-83cc-0000779e2340,s01=1.html |title=China launches 'New Deal' for farmers |newspaper=[[Financial Times]] |date=22 February 2006}}</ref> In the [[Western world]], the term ''New Left'' is used for social and cultural politics.

In the United Kingdom during the 1980s, the term ''[[hard left]]'' was applied to supporters of [[Tony Benn]] such as the [[Campaign Group]] and those involved in the ''[[Labour Briefing|London Labour Briefing]]'' newspaper as well as Trotskyist groups such as [[Militant (Trotskyist group)|Militant]] and the [[Alliance for Workers' Liberty]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/1054337.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |title=Benn's golden anniversary |date=4 December 2000 |access-date=4 April 2010 |archive-date=1 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301121545/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/1054337.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> In the same period, the term ''[[soft left]]'' was applied to supporters of the British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] who were perceived to be more moderate and closer to the centre, accepting [[Keynesianism]]. Under the leadership of [[Tony Blair]] and [[Gordon Brown]], the Labour Party adopted the [[Third Way]] and rebranded itself as [[New Labour]] in order to promote the notion that it was less left-wing than it had been in the past to accommodate the [[neoliberal]] trend arising since the 1970s with the [[displacement of Keynesianism]] and [[post-war social democracy]]. One of the first actions of [[Ed Miliband]], the Labour Party leader who succeeded Blair and Brown, was the rejection of the New Labour label and a promise to abandon the Third Way and turn back to the left. However, Labour's voting record in the [[House of Commons]] from 2010 to 2015 indicated that the Labour Party under Miliband had maintained the same distance from the left as it did under Blair.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26743802 |work=[[BBC News]] |title=MPs approve annual welfare cap in Commons vote |date=26 March 2014 |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-date=30 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130234519/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26743802 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author-first=John |author-last=Kampfner |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/05/labour-back-on-the-right |title=Labour's return to the right |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=5 November 2012 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=2 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202114513/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/05/labour-back-on-the-right |url-status=live }}</ref> In contrast, the election of [[Jeremy Corbyn]] as the Labour Party leader was viewed by scholars and political commentators as Labour turning back toward its more classical socialist roots, rejecting neoliberalism and the Third Way whilst supporting a [[democratic socialist]] society and an end to [[austerity]] measures.

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=28em}}
* [[Conflict theories]]
* [[History of trade unions in the United Kingdom]]
* [[Labor history of the United States]]
* [[Left-wing populism]]
* {{ill|Left conservativism|jp|左翼保守主義}}
* [[Left-wing terrorism]]
* [[List of left-wing internationals]]
* [[List of left-wing political parties]]
* [[Post-left anarchy]]
* [[Red-baiting]]
* [[Red Scare]]
* [[Redwashing]]
* [[Right-wing politics]]
* [[Social criticism]]
* ''[[Woke]]''
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last=Kolko |first=Gabriel | author-link = Gabriel Kolko |year=1994 |title=Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience |publisher=New Press |isbn=9781565842182 }}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last1= Best|first1=Steven|date=2014 |title=The Politics of Total Liberation: Revolution for the 21st Century|chapter=Rethinking Revolution: Veganism, Animal Liberation, Ecology, and the Left|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|pages=79–106|isbn=978-1137471116|doi=10.1057/9781137440723_4|author-link=Steven Best}}
* ''Encyclopedia of the American Left'', ed. by [[Mari Jo Buhle]], [[Paul Buhle]], [[Dan Georgakas]], Second Edition, Oxford University Press 1998, {{ISBN|0-19-512088-4}}.
*  Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. "Changes in the Nomenclature of the American Left" ''Journal of American Studies'' (2010) 44#1 pp.&nbsp;83–100; how the term "socialism" was replaced by "left" in USA.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/40648690 online]
* Lin Chun, ''The British New Left'', Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1993.
* Geoff Eley, ''Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe, 1850–2000'', Oxford University Press 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-504479-7}}.
* "Leftism in India, 1917–1947", [[Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri]], Palgrave Macmillan, UK, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-230-51716-5}}.
*{{cite book |last1=Winlow|first1=Simon|last2=Hall|first2=Steve|date=2022 |title=The Death of the Left: Why We Must Begin from the Beginning Again|url=https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/the-death-of-the-left|location= |publisher=[[Policy Press]]|page= |isbn=978-1447354154|access-date=}}

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