Outside of the odd bout of scare-mongering, socialism is a term with little currency in American political discourse. Only one member of Congress openly embraces the term. The Socialist Party itself was already a spent force by 1936 (when it barely outpaced the Prohibitionist Party). Since the end of the Cold War, America’s radical left has been marginalized by the Democratic Party and policy elite, and turned instead to anarchism and a vague kind of anti-corporatism.

 

Via jean lievens

Both Marxism and anarchism come out of the 19th century workers’ and socialist movements. They shared certain goals:  the end of classes and of capitalism, the end of the state, and of all oppression. They believed that these goals would be achieved through the international revolution of the working class, in alliance with all oppressed sections of society. They both advocated the formation of labor unions (their practical dispute was over whether to also form electoral workers’ parties). And they both have been historical failures, in that neither has led to successful, lasting, working class revolutions—so far. Yet they have been at odds since the bitter faction fight which blew up the First International, between the forces led by Karl Marx and those of Michael Bakunin, primary founder of anarchism as a movement.

Via jean lievens

"It is perhaps a mark of the progress of libertarian ideas that there are now understood to be several different kinds of libertarianism. While some people associate the philosophy with conservative thought, there is also a segment that identifies itself with “the left.” (And, to be sure, there are those who steadfastly reject the left/right dichotomy, insisting that classical liberalism cannot be neatly classified on the modern political spectrum.)"

Via 3MenInABlog