Ethnic rivalries among members crippled the American Left’s development

Evidence

Arthur Liebman also complements Cruse’s views: “The attitudes and values that Jews and non-Jews held about themselves and each other, on the whole, proved to be significant impediments to the development of a ‘successful’ Left in the United States. Given the long-engrained tradition of ethnic antagonisms in a society where ethnic communities were and continue to be placed in the roles of rivals for scarce and desirable goods, services, and positions, no political movement in this country could be free from the debilitating tensions emanating from these ethnic rivalries. The problem of the Left was greatly exacerbated in this regard because of the highly prominent and visible role of the Jews within it. The vicious cycle of anti-Semitism and Jewish chauvinism and defensiveness, divisive element emanating out of America’s cultural and political history, proved to be especially onerous burdens for the Left in America.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2251

Categorization

• XREF: Internal ethnic antagonism as a constraint on radical movements connects to the Jewish in-group dynamics in Milgrom’s law-merchant analysis and to the broader theme across this book of how racial/ethnic formations constrain revolutionary organization.