Victor Zemprano

The Retreating Left

Democratic Socialism, Anarchism, and Left Communism are variations of the same failure. Each represents a retreat from the inherited legacy of communism and the revolutionary left. These three ideologies are idealist, Eurocentric, and petty bourgeois. They emerged in our context as different strategies of retreat — positions I once inhabited but no longer do. Through these three ideologies I carried variations of similar bourgeois fears about Marxism-Leninism. I followed multiple paths during my time on the left. Each promised a way forward. Three led to retreat. One did not.