Give Left Politics its Due

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

Liberals and their right-wing reactionary pundits and propagandists have argued that leftist politics has lost its ideological relevance and therefore must reform itself to regain electoral significance. Despite electoral setbacks, leftist movements across the globe continue to assert that imperialism and capitalism are the enemies of both the people and the planet. These twin forces, they argue, fundamentally oppose the interests of working people and their daily lives.

Liberal allies and reactionary compradors claim that leftist politics is narrow in vision and anti-democratic by nature.

The governing and non-governing elites–along with their voices in the capitalist mainstream media–have repeatedly dismissed the left whenever it advocates for the interests of working people or calls for radical political and social transformation aimed at economic empowerment and the emancipation of marginalised communities from conditions manufactured by imperialism and its capitalist market forces. Leftist perspectives on various issues of everyday life and lived realities are often criticised as being anti–economic growth and hostile to human development and change.

There is no doubt that the left has made many historic blunders, but it has learned from its mistakes, recovered, and developed new political praxis from its own ideological crisis. But capitalism is inseparable from crisis and difficult to change its structure based on exploitation of human beings and nature. In reality, capitalism and imperialism are stagnant and supercilious ideological projects that serve the interests of elites and corporations, while the left continues to act as the moral compass in politics–despite enduring organisational and electoral setbacks fuelled by relentless anti-left propaganda from capitalist media, their bankrupt intellectuals, and media moguls. The left persists in its struggle on the streets to deepen democracy and protect human rights. Left-led trade unions, along with cultural, social, and political associations, continue to fight for justice, liberty, equality and human dignity.

Leftist politics and ideology evolve over time, adapting to advances in science, technology, the workplace, and the needs of the people. Shifts in material conditions shape the left’s political and ideological praxis, while capitalism and imperialism persist in relying on primitive forms of violence to control human beings, suppress their creative capacities, and dominate their everyday lives. Leftist politics is founded on cooperation, solidarity, and the inalienable dignity of humanity where no human being is alien.

Everything the left has argued over the past two centuries–about feudalism, patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism, along with their political, economic, social, and cultural projects–has proven true and can be witnessed by people across the globe today. The left’s analysis of the many forms of inequality and exploitation based on gender, class, race, caste, and sexuality is becoming increasingly undeniable, as imperialist wars and capitalist onslaughts wreak havoc on the lives, liberties, and livelihoods of the working class worldwide.

Political leaders such as Trump, Starmer, and Netanyahu are not accidental products of electoral politics but agents of imperialism and capitalism, elevated through a rigged electoral system that safeguards the interests of the ruling classes at the expense of both people and the planet. These ruling elites have forged inseparable alliances with non-governing elites to mutually represent one another’s interests within a capitalist democratic framework tailored to the needs of imperialist forces and their corporations. Any meaningful opposition to capitalism is met with imperialist wars or the imposition of unilateral trade tariffs.

The idea is to dismantle every possible alternative to capitalism, ensuring it remains the sole governing ideology in world politics–controlling both natural and human resources for the benefit of global corporations. From the imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to ongoing hostilities toward Iran, as well as the persistent opposition to Russia, China, India, Brazil, and other independent nations, these actions are orchestrated to protect capitalism and destroy any political praxis that deviates from the demands and desires of Yankee imperialism and its Western European capitalist allies.

Capitalism forges alliances with all kinds of reactionary, religious, authoritarian, and illiberal forces to manufacture crises and to domesticate and divide people along lines of nationality, race, region, and religion. The aim is to weaken the working class and undermine its ability to challenge capitalism and defeat imperialism. These anti-social and anti-democratic forces engineer conflicts and imperialist wars to further erode the strength of working people, their culture of solidarity and deny them the possibility of living dignified lives built upon the fruits of their own labour. There will be left politics as long as there is different forms of inequality and exploitation in capitalist societies.

The call to struggle against capitalism and imperialism is no longer merely a political or ideological battle waged by the left in defence of working people–it has become a fight to protect humanity and the planet from the relentless onslaught of capitalist and imperialist forces against lives, liberties, and livelihoods. Capitalism and imperialism target all human beings, regardless of class, caste, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, or religion. Therefore, the struggle against these forces is ultimately a struggle for the very survival of both people and the planet.

The more capitalists write epitaphs for the left, the more it rises like a phoenix from the struggles of working people to uphold human values. History stands as the sole witness to humanity’s victories in shaping its own destiny and to the defeats of different forms of imperialism.

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 11, Sep 7 - 13, 2025