The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics

by Raina Lipsitz

Overview

HOW THE FIRST MAJOR LEFTWING GENERATION SINCE THE SIXTIES HAS SHAPED ELECTORAL POLITICS

The mushrooming rolls of the Democratic Socialists of America, Marxist explainers in Teen Vogue, and the outsized impact of the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all herald a new, youth-inflected radical politics.

The Rise of a New Left gets behind the headlines about AOC and her cohort of elected officials to tell the stories of the young organizers who created the Squad and the new social movements that have roiled US politics, from the DSA to the Sunrise Movement to Justice Democrats. Ranging across the country to describe grassroots organizing in places like rural Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Kentucky, Florida, and California, this book examines the panoply of strategies and struggles of activists working in—and trying to transform—electoral politics and the climate justice, racial justice, and labor movements. Alongside Ocasio-Cortez, we hear from the even younger Alexandra Rojas, one of the strategists who guided her political insurgency.

Propelled by scores of immersive and absorbing conversations on political strategy with young activists determined to reshape the country, this book—by a writer who is herself a member of this generational movement—is a riveting account of a resurgent left.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781839764264
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	641,320
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Raina Lipsitz lives in Brooklyn and writes about politics and culture. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera America, the Appeal, Atlantic, Nation, and New Republic, among other publications.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Young People Power the Rise of Bernie Sanders 1

2 New Kids on the Block 31

3 Youth-Run, Movement-Driven Organizations 71

4 Sanders-Style Populism Comes to Pennsylvania 105

5 A Country on Fire 129

6 New Pipelines, New Strategies, New Leaders 153

7 Why the Left Needs Organized Labor 175

8 Where We Are and Where We're Going 199

Acknowledgments 229

Notes 231

Index 245

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2022

Journalist Lipsitz debuts with an insider’s account of how young progressives are influencing American politics and culture. She traces the resurgence of the political left to the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest and Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential run, but credits New York City congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset victory in 2018 with catapulting the movement into the limelight. Today’s progressives, Lipsitz shows, are well educated and often come from immigrant or working-class families. Pragmatic economic concerns, more than ideology, drive their passion for such issues as Medicare for All, free college, and the Green New Deal. They are also pushing to cut police budgets, ban fracking, and reform immigration laws. Lipsitz profiles progressive organizers including Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, and recounts campaigns by “insurgent candidates” including India Walton, who lost to Buffalo’s incumbent mayor after defeating him in the Democratic primary. Though the “new left” was happy to see Donald Trump defeated, Lipsitz strikes a note of caution: “It’s obvious how little progress many of the people and groups who helped put Biden in office have made on their top priorities.” Idealistic yet clear-eyed about the movement’s strengths and weaknesses, this is an inspirational introduction to young progressives and the causes they’re fighting for. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Rise of a New Left is an engrossing behind-the-scenes account of our decade's breakout political movement. It is also an invaluable second draft of history that readers and scholars will consult for many years to understand the opportunities and challenges of socialist organizing in the first decades of the 21st century."
—Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, author of The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen

"I was on the verge of getting sad about politics, again. Then I picked up The Rise of a New Left, I was reminded of all the energy on the young left, and I started feeling hope again. If you don’t know this movement, you could find no better way to learn about it than this book."
—Doug Henwood, host, Behind the News, KPFA

"An exceptionally well-informed report from the ranks of the most dynamic, constructive movement in contemporary American politics. Few books can be profitably read as history, journalism, and political field manual, but this one succeeds on all three fronts."
—Patricia O'Toole, author of The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made

"An important primer on the young activists and politicians whose mandate is nothing less than saving our country."
—Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends: A Novel

"An insider's account of how young progressives are influencing American politics and culture...an inspirational introduction to young progressives and the causes they're fighting for."
—Publishers Weekly

"A well-reported introduction to a growing, controversial movement among the younger electorate."
—Kirkus

"A sobering yet inspirational record of what leftists have been up to post-Bernie....by highlighting the work of a diverse array of left organizations and their leaders, most of whom are women, Lipsitz does justice to the Left as a whole."
—James J. Jackson, Democratic Left

"Lipsitz's The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics is the best book I've read on the evolution of radical politics in recent years."
—John Nichols, Cap Times

From the Publisher

2022-08-11
A journalistic account of the recent emergence of a millennial cohort of progressive politicians and activists.

It’s no small irony that the swelling ranks of youthful leftists came about, at least in some measure, because of the presidential campaigns mounted by the superannuated Bernie Sanders. “As much as they admire Sanders, this new crop of left-wing…candidates are more interested in enacting his vision than imitating his personal style,” writes political journalist Lipsitz, “which, unless Sanders’s apparent artlessness counts as a style, isn’t what attracted them in the first place.” In other words, next to the rumpled Sanders, an array of well-put-together young people such as, notably, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has risen to put a fresh face on progressive politics. Some of them, such as a Buffalo-based activist, eschew “capital S” socialism. Others are quicker to embrace the label, but they also seek to run for existing political offices rather than attempt to build a larger movement because the path to the former is more clearly defined. One of the great strengths of the more effective candidates and activists is their ability to explain “poorly understood concepts like ‘identity politics’ and ‘intersectionality’ ” to their young audiences. In doing so, some are helping to expand the horizons of a new kind of socialist feminism, “broadening its conception of workers and deepening its understanding of the interconnectedness of different forms of oppression.” A new labor movement is also emerging. For all that, the young progressives face considerable opposition not just from their right-wing challengers, but also from entrenched Democratic Party operatives who understand correctly that they’re in the crosshairs, too. It’s for that reason, Lipsitz suggests, that not much has changed with the Biden presidency, which causes her to conclude, somewhat dejectedly, that “progress does not inevitably follow a smooth, upward trajectory.”

A well-reported introduction to a growing, controversial movement among the younger electorate.

Kirkus Reviews