The left simply lost to the geopolitical reality of the era.
The US establishment was battered from the Civil Rights and the anti-war movements during the Vietnam War, the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Yom Kippur War had politically isolated the US from the international stage, the ending of Bretton Woods led to the rise of neoliberal finance capitalism and the subsequent mass deindustrialization of US industries to China, for which the left had no answer for. The global oil shock of the 1970s further ended the economic prosperity of the previous decades.
China at the time was also looking to get rid of the USSR, and saw the opportunity to get close to a US challenged both from within (civil rights, trade union and anti-war movements and the stagflation) and from without (internationally isolated, global energy price shock) looking to shift its industries elsewhere to crush the domestic working class movements once and for all, and to regain its hegemony on the world stage.
It was a perfect marriage (or storm) made in heaven, which ultimately led to the unbridled rise of neoliberal capitalism and especially so when the USSR was finally toppled in the 1990s. By then, the left had already lost all the leverage they used to have, and trade unions became merely a shadow of its former self.
The working class in the US lost big time to the geopolitical reality of the time.
The left simply lost to the geopolitical reality of the era.
The US establishment was battered from the Civil Rights and the anti-war movements during the Vietnam War, the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Yom Kippur War had politically isolated the US from the international stage, the ending of Bretton Woods led to the rise of neoliberal finance capitalism and the subsequent mass deindustrialization of US industries to China, for which the left had no answer for. The global oil shock of the 1970s further ended the economic prosperity of the previous decades.
China at the time was also looking to get rid of the USSR, and saw the opportunity to get close to a US challenged both from within (civil rights, trade union and anti-war movements and the stagflation) and from without (internationally isolated, global energy price shock) looking to shift its industries elsewhere to crush the domestic working class movements once and for all, and to regain its hegemony on the world stage.
It was a perfect marriage (or storm) made in heaven, which ultimately led to the unbridled rise of neoliberal capitalism and especially so when the USSR was finally toppled in the 1990s. By then, the left had already lost all the leverage they used to have, and trade unions became merely a shadow of its former self.
The working class in the US lost big time to the geopolitical reality of the time.