Welcome to a special crossover of Dispatches with Rania Khalek and The Socialist Program with Brian Becker!
The U.S. left is often smeared and mocked, accused of being weak, ineffective, unserious, fractured, obsessed with identity issues and prone to destructive infighting. While capitalist media has a stake in portraying the left in this way, the organized US left is rebuilding and growing stronger. Still, it is weaker today than it was many decades ago and that’s no accident.
To discuss the history of repression against the US left and how it relates to the challenges we face today, Rania Khalek was joined by Brian Becker, host of The Socialist Program, which you can watch every Wednesday right here on Breakthrough News.
Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.
Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK
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0:00 Intro
2:44 1920s persecution of the left
6:58 Great Depression, WW2, the left grows
10:17 How the left gave us The New Deal
16:22 1950s Cold War, Korean War, Rosenbergs, Purges
28:24 Fierce repression of the Black liberation movement
44:29 Splits in the antiwar movement
1:01:05 Right tries to co-opt the left
1:13:20 Why did Covid split the left?
1:29:34 How to get offline and involved
