Socialism: The Movie
A new documentary explores the history of socialist politics in America and tells the stories of the young left-wingers helping to put it back on the map.
- Interview by
- Holly Whiston
For decades, socialism was a taboo word in US politics. The persistent stigma around it, a hangover from Cold War-era McCarthyism, had all but removed it from mainstream American political discourse; as recently as the Obama era, ‘socialist’ was being used as a slur.
The past three years, however, has seen a dramatic transformation in its fortunes. Fed up of the inequalities of neoliberalism, millions of Americans are voting for socialist candidates, joining the labour movement and organising against injustice. Interest in class-struggle politics is at a high. ‘Socialism’ is popular again.
An upcoming documentary Socialism: An American Story explores this explosion of interest, looking at the history of American socialism and the ordinary people at the forefront of its resurgence. Director and producer Yael Bridge talks to Holly Whiston about the transformation she’s witnessed over the three years making of the film and the importance of issues it documents.
You started making this film just after Bernie narrowly missed out on the Democratic Party nomination in 2016. Since then there’s been a huge upsurge of interest in socialism in the US. People are disenchanted with capitalism, left-wing ‘outsider’ candidates like Ocasio-Cortez have emerged and socialism is a topic of popular conversation in a way it hasn’t been for generations.
When you told people you were making a documentary about socialism, what sort of response did you get? Has that changed over the time you’ve been in production?
I’d definitely say that the response I’ve gotten has changed over the last few years. In the beginning there were obviously some people who were enthusiastically supportive and I’d say a small number who were curious. But the majority thought it was fringe. Over the last year that’s shifted dramatically. Now people congratulate me for being intuitive enough to have seen the trend coming. Its funny, though, because Bernie’s campaign was clearly signalling something very large but I think it took a minute for its importance to sink in. And of course, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the growing popularity of the Medicare for All campaign have contributed a lot to bringing the word “socialism” into mainstream discourse.
Your major characters illustrate the many faces of socialist organising in the states. There’s Lee Carter, a representative to the Virginia General Assembly dodging attacks by his right-wing colleagues (Democrat and Republican alike), and Stephanie, an ordinary teacher who gets involved in politics through the Oakland School Strike.
What were you looking for in your characters when you started out? Can you tell us a bit about their development over the course of the film?
We were interested in exploring the major avenues through which workers can take and exercise power. Ultimately we landed on the electoral arena and labour organising. We wanted to represent the range of actions socialists take and examine the effects of these actions on both the individual and their communities. We were also just looking for socialists who were engaging politically outside of the left, people who were trying to make concrete change.
We met Stephanie before the teacher strike even happened. She wasn’t a socialist–she was just a public school teacher working a second job struggling to make ends meet while raising her son and pay off debts. Going on strike helped her see the power she personally held and could wield when organising collectively with her fellow teachers against forces as large as the state and the oil companies its beholden to. She ultimately lost faith in her union leadership when they called off the strike before any significant gains were made. We’re still filming so it’s tough to talk about her development as though it’s complete, but it’s been an honor to witness her journey and see first hand how much a strike can change someone’s outlook.
Lee enters office as a fresh-faced 30-year old who just ousted the incumbent Republican Speaker of the House. We were interested in exploring what a socialist can do in office – how do they legislate? Will he be able to get anything passed? His bills get shot down from both sides of the political aisle but he’s still out there fighting. He’s currently running for re-election so it will be interesting to see if his constituents will support him for another round in capital.
For much of the twentieth century, socialism has been a dirty word in America, but your film sets out to demonstrate the deep roots of socialist politics in American history. What’s the impact of re-shaping that narrative? Were you surprised by what you learnt about America’s socialist history?
Yes! I was totally surprised by what I learned. I was never taught about socialist history in America–so much of what we now think of as the inevitable progress of our great democracy has been driven by the sacrifice of radical organisers. It’s been a treat travelling the country, visiting key locations in American socialist history and talking to some of the most important thinkers on the topic. We have shot in over 10 states so far and are planning to film in a few more because we thought it was important to show that these ideas and this history is pervasive.
Our goal was always to explore the socialist roots of America. But now that we’re seeing a substantial resurgence of interest in the s-word it’s even more important to understand what past socialists were able to achieve, and revisit the strategies they used. And, of course, how monied interests were able to orchestrate their demise.
At the same time as your film is specifically ‘An American Story’, you also look at the way socialism’s current moment in America is paralleled elsewhere, including filming in Liverpool at last year’s Labour conference. What did you make of the similarities between the socialist movement in the United States and Labour under Corbyn? Is the resurgence of socialism an international phenomenon?
We went to Liverpool to film with Lee who was speaking at a panel at The World Transformed conference. I think it was important for him to see a place like Liverpool, where socialist ideas are not as marginal. Regarding the international aspect of this resurgence, I think discontent with neoliberalism is growing, and we’re at a tipping point where that discontent has led to a simultaneous rise in interest in democratic socialism and in the rise of authoritarian figures that promise to fix the problems from the top-down.
There’s an association of this renewal of interest in socialism with millennials, a sense that the word has less baggage with younger people, particularly in America. Certainly, someone like Lee Carter is pretty young compared to the other politicians around him. You interviewed lots of ordinary people about their responses to the word–did you see much of a generational divide in their reactions?
The generational divide is definitely noticeable in America. Of course, there are certainly people who buck their generational trends but I’d say there is a real gap. For people between the ages of 35 and, say, 75 the word is loaded. But I think the crash of 2008 and the Occupy movement were influential in encouraging younger people to be open to alternatives to capitalism. I’m 36 and when I’m in a room with a group of socialists I feel quite old.
We’re at the very start of the 2020 presidential campaign. Has the experience of making the film made you hopeful about the prospect of Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic primary–and his chances against Trump?
I don’t know about Bernie’s candidacy but making the film has definitely made me hopeful. I think delving more into the history and seeing how we’ve been able to change as a country before and spending all your time focusing on the growing left in the US would make anyone optimistic. For all the online sectarian strife, there’s a generation of young organizers out there who are devoted to improving the conditions of life for the working class, and they’re making real strides.
You’ve funded the film through crowdfunder–was that a political decision? What are your plans for it when it’s finished?
It was partly political and partly practical. We’re operating as a non-profit, and crowdfunding as much of the film as possible is certainly in accord with our values. But we also feel a tremendous urgency to get the film out and in front of a wide audience, so we’re just using all avenues available to us.