In a country that declared the end of socialism a major poll released in January 2016 revealed something unexpected: 43% of people under 30 in the US viewed socialism favourably; compared to only 32% viewed capitalism favourably. Abby Martin, The Empire Files: How Capitalism is Killing Itself with Dr Richard Wolff, Youtube 2016
The problems are systemic. ibid. Wolff
The system has in it problems it is constantly struggling with because they are built into the system. ibid.
They don’t see a way out and I don’t either. ibid.
Here in the United States you see the theatrical buffoonery. ibid.
Democratize the Enterprise. ibid.
Those at the top will buy the political system. ibid.
You [employers/corporations] just ripped people off. ibid.
There are lifeless truths and vital lies … This understanding coupled with the resources of the state to saturate the country with propaganda was effectively used by the power-elite to destroy all of those broad-based social movements that were bringing this country towards socialism. Chris Hedges, lecture Portland Oregon, CSpan 2010
The Socialist Party was also experiencing national growth. Plutocracy III: Class War, 2017
I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized life – snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc. – had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master. Of course such a state of affairs could not last. It was simply a temporary and local phase in an enormous game that is being played over the whole surface of the earth. But it lasted long enough to have its effect upon anyone who experienced it. However much one cursed at the time, one realized afterwards that one had been in contact with something strange and valuable. One had been in a community where hope was more normal than apathy or cynicism, where the word ‘comrade’ stood for comradeship and not, as in most countries, for humbug. One had breathed the air of equality. I am well aware that it is now the fashion to deny that Socialism has anything to do with equality. In every country in the world a huge tribe of party-hacks and sleek little professors are busy ‘proving’ that Socialism means no more than a planned state-capitalism with the grab-motive left intact. But fortunately there also exists a vision of Socialism quite different from this. The thing that attracts ordinary men to Socialism and makes them willing to risk their skins for it, the ‘mystique’ of Socialism, is the idea of equality; to the vast majority of people Socialism means a classless society, or it means nothing at all. George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia **** audiobook 8.05.29
The Salters were part of a political movement that dominated the politics of the early twentieth century: it could be called Municipal Socialism. The Secret History of our Streets s1e6: Reverdy Road, BBC 2012
Dean Reed lives in East Berlin because he likes it better over there. An entertainer who has become the Soviet version of a superstar: he sings, he acts, and he speaks with what seem to be genuine conviction the Soviet line. Red Elvis: The Cold War Cowboy ***** 60 Minutes, Sky Documentaries 2022
Six weeks after the 60 Minutes interview is broadcast he disappears. ibid. historian
From that point on there is no way back; he is an enemy of the government of the United States. ibid.
By the late 1960s Dean Read is a fully fledged political radical. ibid.
He is rebelling against the government [East German] he previously cooperated with. ibid.
Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. John Steinbeck
Socialism does not aim at robbing the rich but at preventing the rich from continuing to rob the poor. Tom Mann, 1905
Socialism is a scareword they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps other people. Harry S Truman, 1952
But there’s one more feature of American life that most people until recently would tell you is just as American as apple pie: capitalism. Why Are So Many People Losing Faith in Capitalism? Youtube 15.44, Second Thought 2021
Recent polling that shows a decline in favourability of capitalism and a surge towards socialism. ibid.
What if we work less? … Humans aren’t productive the full eight hours they’re at work … There have been a number of four-day work-week trials … Not only did revenue not decrease, it actually rose by 8%. Should We Move to a 4-Day Work Week? Youtube 12.56, Second Thought 2023
You’d end up with a country of happier, healthier, less stressed, more rested workers. ibid.
I suspect that the decades of anti-communist propaganda that has been hammered into the American psyche since the Cold War is the main road block. ibid.
If there’s one thing America has down to a science it’s twisting the meaning of words and using them to terrify the population. A Future Beyond Capitalism: Socialism Explained, Youtube 26.26, Second Thought 2020
America’s favourite boogieman – Marxism. ibid.
Capitalism is unstable by its very nature. It encourages greed … Human beings are reduced to numbers on spreadsheet. ibid.
Socialism turns all those negatives of its head … It’s like the American dream, only real. ibid.
Mrs Thatcher was asked her greatest achievement and she said, New Labour. Tony Benn, interview Socialism in Britain, Brief Encounters 2006, Youtube 1.04.08
For the first time in my life the public are to the left of what is called a Labour government. ibid.
Without a socialist analysis of what’s happening you simply don’t understand what’s happening. ibid.
People feel they are not represented any more. ibid.
Every battle has to be won again … Every generation has to to do it again. ibid.
You can’t make progress on your own. You have to work with other people. ibid.
You use your power to control the people who voted for you. ibid.
It wasn’t really the Left that destroyed the Labour Party it was the Right. ibid.
We are using taxpayers’ money to subsidise the shareholders of companies that run the railways at a loss. And it’s mad. ibid.
The Labour cabinet in the end ended up fighting the unions, losing the election, and handing over to Thatcher. And that’s exactly what the IMF intended. ibid.
There was no sudden conversion to socialism. It’s an obvious way of living. You care for each other, you care for everybody and everybody cares for everybody else. It’s obvious. Jeremy Corbyn
Come down to it the choice is Socialism or Barbarity. Play for Today: Destiny, bloke in prison cell, BBC 1978
This valley is a political frontier. This side: England’s green and pleasant land. That side, what some see as a red and peasant land, the independent republic of Clay Cross … 10 men and 1 woman built a defiant socialist Jerusalem. Take those kids in that school there: Those kids between 7 and 11 get free milk just as if Mrs Thatcher never existed; take that old age pensioner on the pavement there: he gets free television licence; you’ve got a free set, he still gets a free licence; all the corporation workmen who have just had an increase of 33.3% … and the council houses over there – the rent for those is £1.69, which is about half what it would be anywhere else in the country … Confrontation at Clay Cross, Derbyshire, Yorkshire TV 1974
Where 14 pits have shut down in the last 10 years; unemployment has sometimes hit 20% … Miners have no pits to go down. ibid.
The council has said not a penny will go on those rents. ibid.
‘We had a mandate from the electorate.’ ibid. counsellor Skinner