Far-left politics

Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some scholars consider it to be the left of communist parties, while others broaden it to include the left of social democracy. In certain instances—especially in the news media—far left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism, anarchism, communism, and Marxism, or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies, or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. Far-left terrorism consists of extremist, militant, or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes.
The far-left is heterogeneous, and wide variety exists between different far-left groups. The definition of the far-left varies in the literature and there is not a general agreement on what it entails or consensus on the core characteristics that constitute the far left, other than being to the left of mainstream left-wing politics.
Far-left groups are alike in their support for radical politics and systemic reorganisation of society, as opposed to the reformist politics of the centre-left. The far-left seeks to create a post-capitalist society without exploitation, oppression, and class inequality. This is often described as communist society, though terms such as socialism or democratisation may be used to describe a similar concept. The method to bring about communist society became the primary distinction among new far-left ideologies as they developed, and ideas of how communist society should function changed over time. Over time, far-left groups became more willing to work within liberal capitalist nations as revolutions failed to develop.
As with all political alignments, the exact boundaries of centre-left versus far-left politics are not clearly defined and can vary depending on context. Far-left ideologies often include types of socialism, communism, and anarchism. Academic study of far-left politics often uses the term radical left as an all-encompassing term, though some far-left groups object to this usage as derogatory. Extreme left and anti-capitalist are also commonly used as synonyms for the far-left. Far-left political parties use a variety of descriptors for themselves, including workers', labour, socialist, communist, militant, and revolutionary parties.
The far-left is regarded as being to the left of social democracy. While it historically opposed social democracy over its reformist nature, the post-Soviet far-left accuses social democracy of being too comfortable with neoliberalism.
Far-left politics is traditionally centred on the idea of a unified working class. Karl Marx defined the working class as including all waged employees of all industries. The development of middle management and decline of the petite bourgeoisie complicated the definition over time. Students and intellectuals have often been inclined to support far-left politics. The far-left may appeal to independent producers or craftsmen who fear competition for large corporations. The unemployed, including the elderly and disabled, are associated with the working class as defined by the far-left because of the disadvantages they may face. The majority of left-leaning labourers preferred social democracy over far-left ideologies.
The radical-left is situated between the far-left and social democracy. Per Richard Dunphy, "the radical left" desires fundamental changes in neoliberal capitalism and progressive reform of democracy such as direct democracy and the inclusion of marginalized communities, while per March "the extreme left" denounces liberal democracy as a "compromise with bourgeois political forces" and defines capitalism more strictly. Far-left politics is seen as radical politics because it calls for fundamental change to the capitalist socio-economic structure of society. Radical-left politics, rejecting both neo-liberal social-democracy and revolutionary action, instead seeking to enact change from within government, prioritize equality of outcome over equal opportunity. Post-Soviet radical left-wing movements in Europe and the United States are associated with anti-globalization and anti-neoliberalism.
The far-left is sometimes divided into the Old Left and the New Left. The New Left developed as a separate movement from Soviet-style communism. It came as a response to developments of the mid-20th century like deindustrialization, globalization, and neoliberalism. It is common for these far-left movements to define themselves based on their opposition to these concepts instead of affirmative descriptions of their ideologies. It emphasises ideas like civil rights, environmentalism, and feminism. European Green parties formed from the New Left in the 1960s and 1970s, but these are not traditionally considered far-left.
The revolutionary left places less emphasis on electoral politics and instead supports total rebellion against capitalist governments. The revolutionary left has become less common over time as far-left groups have sought control through government, and deradicalization has become more common within left-wing politics.
Post-Soviet far-left parties often take ideas from multiple schools of far-left thought or represent the far-left more generally instead of endorsing a specific ideology.
Left-wing populism occurs among the far-left. The far-left also includes left-libertarianism.
The far-left is historically minuscule in Southeast Asia where it has been repressed or failed to develop.
Various courants and movements of socialism are considered far-left. Socialism has historically been divided into left-wing reformist socialism and far-left revolutionary socialism. Modern social democracy is generally considered to be a centre-left socialist ideology.
Socialism seeks to create a socially equal society in which every individual has access to basic necessities and in which prosperity and knowledge are shared. It is derived from ideas of egalitarianism.
Democratic socialism is generally considered to be a reformist left-wing or radical-left ideology, and it has historically been considered centre-left, though it is occasionally considered far-left. Democratic socialists support the replacement of capitalism with nationalisation of industry in a welfare state. Democratic socialism is sometimes used interchangeably with social democracy in political rhetoric, but is often used to describe political movements to the left of or following radical social-democracy. Communists may also identify as democratic socialists to contrast themselves with Stalinists. Democratic socialism supports far-left politics but rejects the authoritarian governance of Marxism–Leninism. It exists in opposition to social democracy and neoliberalism. Some democratic socialist groups adopt a stronger form of social democracy involving non-electoral political movements, while others espouse more traditional leftism.
Communism is the belief that humanity should abandon class divisions in favor of a communist society organized around the needs and abilities of its citizens. Modern communism is a form of revolutionary socialism based on support for the communist society described in the writing of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, known as Marxism.
Marxists believe that capitalism should be replaced by a dictatorship of the proletariat, which would cause capitalism to degrade and quickly disappear. The early Soviet Union applied this through soviet councils, which were to serve as a democratic method of achieving the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Marxism–Leninism has historically been a major far-left ideology, especially before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Stalinism supports a one-party state with a planned economy. Conservative groups within Marxism–Leninism, such as the Communist Party of Greece and the Portuguese Communist Party, support revitalization of Soviet-style government and adhere to a classical Leninist interpretation of communism. Reform communists such as the Cypriot Progressive Party of Working People retain Soviet-style organization but adopt public involvement in government, the use of a market system, and acceptance of New Left policies.
Eurocommunism supports a reformist, democratic approach to achieving communism and opposes the ideology of the Soviet Union.
Anarchism seeks to create an alternate form of society that excludes the state entirely. Anarchism incorporates elements of both socialism and liberalism, and it was a prominent ideology among the far-left globally from 1900 to 1940.
Anarchists hold that capitalism should be overthrown at once instead of dismantled over time.
Under a communist society as envisioned by the far-left, all means of production would be owned collectively and resources would be subject to distribution according to need. The specific nature of this society is not strictly defined, but it is generally agreed among the far-left that it would be self-governing and extend globally.
Far-left groups support redistribution of income and wealth. They argue that capitalism and consumerism cause social inequality and advocate their dissolution. Some far-left groups also support the abolition of private property. Scholars, such as Luke March and Cas Mudde, propose that socio-economic rights are at the far left's core. Moreover, March and Mudde argue that the far left is to the left of the political left with regard to how parties or groups describe economic inequality on the base of existing social and political arrangements.
As an extension of left-wing politics, the far-left maintains that inequality is a fixable problem, and it supports internationalism. It rejects neoliberalism, but it also rejects centre-left ideas like social democracy and Keynesian economics. It supports social advances within capitalism, but only as temporary measures until capitalism's abolition.
Far-left groups are anti-establishment, opposing existing political and economic structures. Both anarchist and statist far-left ideologies may support disestablishment of traditional sociopolitical structures. They are opposed to liberalism and liberal democracy. They may be classified as radical, supporting a total reformation of society and its functions. Proponents of the horseshoe theory interpretation of the left–right political spectrum identify the far left and the far right as having more in common with each other as extremists than each of them has with centrists or moderates. This theory has received criticism, however, by many academics.
Communism has historically emphasized economics and class over social issues. In the 1970s and 1980s, far-left movements in Western Europe were increasingly defined by the new social movements, which gave prominence to issues such as environmentalism, animal rights, women's rights, the peace movement, and promoting the interests of the Third World. These ideas as a singular movement became less prominent in far-left politics as they were subsumed by green politics, but they are still disparately supported by many in the far-left. Far-left parties hold a variety of positions on environmentalism.
Members of the far-left have varying opinions on revolution and the state. The far-left may support militancy while also opposing militarist ideas.
The far-left supports internationalism and rejects loyalty to the working class of one nation at the expense of others. During the Cold War, socialist internationalism was often applied to mean loyalty to the Soviet Union. The post-Soviet far-left is strongly associated with anti-globalization. The European far-left is typically Eurosceptic and opposes the European Union, either challenging its liberal orientation or rejecting the idea of a union entirely from the perspective of left-wing nationalism. Many support entry into the European Union but wish to reorganize or repurpose it. The far-left is typically anti-imperialist, though supporters of the Eastern and Western blocs were often more accepting of their own side's actions.
Far-left parties have historically been unable to win control of the government in parliamentary systems unless they join coalitions with social democratic governments. They are commonly unsuccessful in enacting policy in times where they do lead the government. The far-left does not benefit from an incumbency advantage as much as other ideological groups and is more likely to fail in reelection efforts.
The far-left gain more support in nations with long-term social inequality, and when there are poor economic conditions. Far-left voters are more likely to be working class, trade union members, and irreligious. Older, working class, male, and less educated voters are more likely to support communism over democratic socialism. The far-left primarily competes with social democratic parties for votes in electoral systems. Green parties sometimes provide electoral competition for the far-left, as both groups appeal to similar demographics. They vary in how willing they are to work alongside centre-left parties in electoral politics, which is a major point of dispute within many far-left groups. Alignment with centre-left parties sometimes causes far-left parties to moderate their positions.
Far-left politics often has a sizeable non-electoral aspect, made up of trade unions and social movements. The far-left has historically supported direct activism over electoral gains, seeing it as a better position to improve workers' rights and build support for communist society. Movements in democratic nations may disagree over whether to participate in electoral politics, with some adhering to the Leninist belief that bourgeois governments should be overthrown. Ideologies such as anarchism, left-communism, and some New Left positions reject electoral participation entirely. When European far-left parties have gained power, they generally moved away from non-electoral activism and used their influence to limit its reach. Among the Western European far-left, support for electoral participation increased throughout the 20th century as revolution appeared unfeasible.
Communist parties were the most common far-left parties between the 1920s and the 1960s, and in many cases they were the only ones. Many other far-left parties emerged in the 1960s, including socialist and left-wing nationalist parties.
Far-left parties in Europe are often affiliated with the Party of the European Left.
Societies resembling communist society have been postulated throughout human history, and many have been proposed as the earliest socialist or communist ideas. The ideas of Plato have been described as an early type of socialism. In medieval Europe, some philosophers argued that Jesus believed in shared ownership of property and that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was contrary to his teachings. This included the Taborites, who attempted to create a social structure that resembled a communist society. Numerous emancipation movements have occurred throughout history, including slave rebellions and peasant revolts. Early socialists believed that violent revolution against capitalism was virtually guaranteed to eventually take place, either because it would be initiated by the far-left or because democratic attempts to implement socialism would be fought by the far-right.
Early examples of communist societies in fiction include Utopia by Thomas More, which proposed a society without personal property, and The City of the Sun by Tommaso Campanella, which proposed a society without the family unit.
Modern far-left politics developed from support for socialism. This can be traced to Europe and North America in the late 18th century, when industrialization and political upheaval caused discontent among the working class. Socialists were those who objected to the changing social and economic structures associated with industrialization, in that they promoted individualism over collectivism and that they created wealth for some but not for others, creating economic inequality.
Early European socialism was developed in the 19th century as the concept of a working class formed. It was influenced by numerous philosophers, such as Mikhail Bakunin, Louis Blanc, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Henri de Saint-Simon, Friedrich Engels, Charles Fourier, Ferdinand Lassalle, Karl Marx, Robert Owen, and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The modern far-left developed during the Industrial Revolution as their ideas were adopted as a response to capitalism and industrialisation. Marxism and anarchism joined reformist socialism as the predominant left-wing ideologies.
The term socialism first came into use in the early 19th century to describe the egalitarian ideas of redistribution promoted by writers like François-Noël Babeuf and John Thelwall. Inspired by the French Revolution, these writers objected to the existence of significant wealth, and Babeuf advocated a dictatorship on behalf of the people that would destroy those who caused inequality. Socialism was recognized as a coherent philosophy in the 1830s with the publications of British reformer Robert Owen, who self-identified as socialist. Owen, as well as others such as Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Étienne Cabet, developed the utopian socialist movement, and these utopian socialists established several communes to implement their ideology. Cabet responded to More's Utopia with his own novel, The Voyage to Icaria. He is credited with first using the term communism, though his usage was unrelated to the ideologies that were later known as communism.
Early anarchists emerged in the 19th century, including Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin. These anarchists endorsed many utopian ideas, but they emphasized the importance of revolution against and complete abolition of the state for a utopian society to exist. Bakunin argued that peasants rather than the working class should lead a socialist revolution, and he popularized calls to violence among the anarchist movement. Anarchist ideology spread to the Americas shortly after its development.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels introduced Marxism in the 1840s, which advocated revolutionary socialism. As the state bureaucracy was developed in the late 19th century and labor rights were increasingly recognized by national governments, socialist movements were divided on the role of the state. Some objected to the increase in the state's involvement, while others believed that the state was a stronger alternative to protect worker's rights than labor movements. Many of the former moved to anarchism, while many of the latter responded with the development of social democracy.
There were relatively few waged workers in the 19th century, which was still dominated by subsistence agriculture and independent sale of basic goods and services. The early far-left was primarily made up of industrial workers.
Labour groups led the Revolutions of 1848. The First International was created in 1864 and lasted until 1872. The Paris Commune was created in 1871. Many national trade unions were established in the 1880s, which coalesced into the Second International in 1889. This group was officially aligned with social democracy but was predominantly influenced by Marxism.
East Asian anarchism developed in the 1900s during the Russo-Japanese War, based on the ideas of Japanese writer Kōtoku Shūsui, who was in turn inspired by Peter Kropotkin. This movement saw its greatest prominence in the 1920s in China. Anarcho-syndicalism was developed as a form of anarchism in the late 19th century, and it grew popular around 1900. It remained relevant in far-left politics through 1940. One important syndicalist movement of this period was the Wobblies.
The modern revolutionary left emerged in the aftermath of World War I. Socialist movements had gained considerable political power in Europe by the 1910s, but they were fractured during the war. Before World War I, socialism was intertwined with the labour movement. Moderate left-wing nationalist factions split from socialists in defence of their nations during the war, while the remaining far-left adopted a revolutionary cosmopolitan ideology.
Opposition to World War I triggered a series of revolutions across Europe. Those in Finland, Germany, Hungary, and Russia were led by socialist movements. Trade unions, workers' councils, and far-left parties were formed in many European nations. Numerous far-left movements developed with different ideological foundations. The strongest far-left movement developed with the Russian Revolution and its establishment of Leninism. The Bolsheviks seized power, under the rule of Vladimir Lenin. The state ideology developed during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921, setting the preservation of Bolshevik power as the highest priority to assure the building of socialism as well as seeking to spread communist revolution to other nations.
Communist groups sought to emulate the Russian Revolution that replaced capitalism with a planned economy and established a system of soviet councils to serve as the dictatorship of the proletariat. Other communist governments were formed in Bavaria, Finland, and Hungary, but they were short-lived. Though the Bolsheviks identified as communist, the term socialist was often used interchangeably at the time.
Communism in early 20th century Europe often gained power in countries with significant polarization between segments of the population on an ethnic, religious, or economic basis, and in countries that were destabilized by war. It was less prominent in industrialised nations, where social democracy maintained electoral success over communist parties. The Russian Revolution was the only instance of a successful socialist revolution. The Bolsheviks created the Communist International in 1919 to bring together the communist parties of several nations, and the International Working Union of Socialist Parties existed from 1921 to 1923 for other socialist groups. They hoped to join forces with Western social democrats, but the alliances were never formed. Support for immediate revolution declined among the far-left; it seemed less feasible as state intervention within capitalist nations brought about improvements in quality of life for the working class. The social democratic movement moderated, and much of the European far-left lost influence outside of Russia by 1923.
By 1922, as Russian SFSR became one of the founding countries of Soviet Union, it responded to widespread hunger and poverty with the New Economic Policy, which restored market enterprise for smaller industries. After Lenin's death, a power struggle between Nikolai Bukharin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin ended with Stalin taking power by 1928. Stalin implemented his ideology of Marxism–Leninism, which reorganized society and created a cult of personality in his favor. This also entailed the Great Purge in the late 1930s, an interpretation of Lenin's revolutionary violence that saw hundreds of thousands of Stalin's opponents killed, often to be replaced by ambitious loyalists. By this time, Marxism–Leninism was seen as the definitive implementation of communism by most communists globally, justifying the Great Purge as an effort to eradicate fascist infiltrators, with state censorship obscuring the Great Purge's extent. This view was challenged by the Anti-Stalinist left, including anarchists and Trotskyists.
The Middle East developed an anti-colonial Marxist movement in the 1920s, where it spread from the Russian Revolution.
Western Europe largely adopted liberal democracy by the mid-1920s, and social democracy drew socialists to a more moderate stance. The far-left did not have significant political power and instead acted through labour movements, which engaged in strikes and insurrections. Its interest in communist revolution declined. There was not always a clear delineation between the far-left and the centre-left this time as they were often affiliated with the same organisations. Far-left parties in France, Germany, and Spain briefly took power in the 1930s but were eradicated as fascism spread across the continent. Spain's far-left launched the strongest response to conservative governance when it fought the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. Far-left popular front groups arose in the mid-1930s.
Under the rule of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union adopted Stalinism in the 1930s. While the Communist International was initially democratic between its members, it removed disloyal parties while Stalin was in charge.
How to respond to fascism was a question that divided the far left in the interwar years. During its ultra-left “Third Period”, the Communist International saw social democrats (who it labelled “social fascists”) as an equivalent enemy to Nazism. Trotsky, in contrast, argued for anti-fascist unity just within the far left, in the strategy of the United front.
During the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, anarcho-syndicalists seized control of multiple regions in Spain, but this ended when the nationalist faction won the war. This, along with the rise of communism, ended the relevance of anarchism among the far-left globally after 1940. As mass production became more common, the traditional style of labor that anarcho-syndicalists objected to ceased to exist, preventing any significant resurgence in the movement.
Far-left politics saw a brief resurgence in Western Europe during the aftermath of World War II; the French Communist Party and Italian Communist Party briefly became major parties in their respective nations, while the Popular Democratic Front of Italy and the Finnish People's Democratic League were formed as alliances between different far-left groups.
The Cold War began when a major diplomatic rift occurred between liberal Western nations, led by the United States, and communist nations, led by the Soviet Union. Communist parties were effectively outcast within the West, and those that existed were typically aligned with Stalinism and the Soviet Union. By the mid-1950s, the Italian Socialist Party was the most influential anti-communist far-left party in Europe. Violent revolution was discouraged as the Cold War began, emanating from fears that Western nations would intervene.
The Soviet Union's influence during and after World War II spread communism, directly and indirectly, to the rest of Eastern Europe and into Southeast Europe. Several of these countries became people's democracies, which maintained some liberal mixed economies before eventually coming under the influence of Stalinism. New communist governments were formed in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. The development of post-industrial society caused many of the traditional sectors associated with communism to dissipate. Communist International had been dissolved in 1943, and it was replaced by Cominform as the main communist international in 1947. This lasted until 1956.
Following Stalin's death, the workers of several Eastern European countries staged revolutions against communist rule, which were suppressed by the Soviet military. Many of these countries were led by Stalinist rulers, who were forced out and replaced by the subsequent Soviet government. Yugoslavia distanced itself as a neutral communist nation, aligned with neither the East nor the West.
Arab socialist groups took power in the Middle East during the 1950s and 1960s, and they persecuted the preexisting communist groups to replace them as the region's predominant far-left movement. The Japanese Communist Party, supporting scientific socialism, was the far-left opposition to the dominant Liberal Democratic Party of Japan in the 1950s. Indonesia's far-left was destroyed in a series of anti-communist mass killings in the mid-1960s, ending the Communist Party of Indonesia.
The Chinese Communist Party had been active since 1921, but it did not seize power in China until its victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. As with the Soviet Union, the newly formed People's Republic of China carried out purges of political enemies, killing millions of land owners. The peasants were not targeted, however, instead using them as a base of political support. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, China under the rule of Mao Zedong distanced itself from the Soviet Union. Maoism then grew in popularity as an alternative to Soviet-style communism. At the same time, North Korea and North Vietnam were established as communist governments, triggering the Korean War and the Vietnam War against South Korea and South Vietnam, respectively. By the late 1970s, Maoism in China was replaced by the ideology of Deng Xiaoping, which restored the private sector and market pricing.
The Cuban Revolution led to Fidel Castro becoming the ruler of Cuba in 1959. Though he was not a communist, he aligned the nation with the communist movement to seek Soviet support. Many other nations adopted socialism distinct from Marxism–Leninism during the Cold War, particularly in Africa and Latin America. Left-wing nationalist movements developed in colonial territories in the 1960s, leading to rapid decolonisation.
In the mid-20th century, agricultural workers, the unemployed, and white-collar workers replaced industrial workers as the main far-left demographics in Western Europe. Highly-educated people surpassed blue-collar workers as the primary far-left demographic by the end of the 1960s.
The New Left developed in Western Europe as an alternative to communism in the 1950s, taking positions on social issues and identity politics. Green politics developed as an offshoot of the New Left, but it was deradicalized by the end of the 20th century and became a centre-left movement. The rose of the New Left was also associated with the rise of new social movements and the counterculture of the 1960s, which also saw the revival of anarchism.
The Western far-left resurged in the 1960s and 1970s as American hegemony and capitalist systems came under scrutiny. There were periods of civil unrest and youth revolts in several European nations. New far-left socialist parties were formed across Western Europe, many communist parties cut ties with the Soviet Union, and other Marxist movements such as Maoism, Trotskyism, and workerism gained a presence in several countries' politics. Eurocommunism developed in response to the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s to provide a democratic alternative for far-left ideas. It supports the expansion of European-style welfare states and mixed economies until they resemble communist society. The spread of Eurocommunism meant that Soviet-aligned communist parties declined in Western Europe. Smaller far-left groups revitalised interest in revolutionary communism in Western Europe. In the Years of Lead in Italy, far-left militants, such as the Red Brigades, justified the usage of political violence as a revolutionary means and defense against far-right terrorism and neo-fascism in Italy.
Far-left parties had representation in the Nordic countries. The Portuguese Communist Party and the Portuguese Democratic Movement played a major role in the Carnation Revolution. The French Communist Party was included in the French government of François Mitterrand in the early 1980s. This wave of European far-left support dissipated in the 1980s as workers lost influence in the economy, neoliberalism became more popular, and the United States re-exerted influence over Europe. As the economies of developed nations shifted, the far-left aligned with the workers of large corporations as opposed to small businesses and subcontractors.
Arabic far-left groups reemerged in the 1980s and 1990s, but they often aligned with the traditional authoritarian governments as a means to oppose Islamism. This prevented them from creating a party structure and caused leftists to act through decentralized movements. Far-left Arab socialists were one of two groups alongside Arab nationalists that made up the New Arab Left, which began in Palestine and influenced other left-wing movements in the Arab world. Hadash formed as a communist coalition in Israel with a focus on the country's Arab population. Kurdish nationalism emerged as the predominant far-left ideology in Turkey after a period of political violence and the subsequent coup eradicated the previous leftist groups in 1980.
Communist nations in Europe struggled economically in the 1980s, and many faced popular revolts. The Soviet Union moved away from ideas of international communism as such efforts came to be seen as too inconvenient. By 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had effectively abandoned communism.
Communist and socialist parties severely declined in Western Europe after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Many of the communist parties effectively disappeared from politics, while others rebranded or moderated. They remained largely irrelevant for several years until a period of regrowth toward the end of the 1990s. Academics at the time generally agreed that far-left politics no longer had relevance in Western Europe. In many Eastern European countries, communist parties were banned by the new governments. In others such as Moldova, they saw continued electoral success.
The far-left was able to rebuild limited support by the end of the decade. Supporters of the far-left in Europe at this time were more likely to be professional workers, students, and the unemployed. The share of working class supporters declined as they sought other ideologies. It appealed to anti-neoliberalism and tried to rebuild ties with the working class. Most far-left parties in Europe prioritised a broader societal shift to the left instead of disputing individual policies. Many of them became more open to reformist politics as a temporary means to combat neoliberalism. Detailed platforms of societal reconstructions were avoided so as not to emulate Stalinism. The far-left primarily expressed itself through movements led by unions, pacifists, and alter-globalisation advocates instead of traditional political parties. Over time, unions became less involved in these and social activism became more common.
Far-left parties reappeared in post-Soviet states in response to voter frustration with the new governments. Leftist parties in Russia and the Balkans exchanged Marxism–Leninism for left-wing nationalism. The Indonesian party system destabilised after the fall of Suharto in 1998, and the traditional leftist electorate—trade unions and peasant associations–did not develop political representation.
Of the five Communist states that survived into the 21st century, three of them — China, Vietnam, and Laos — had restored private ownership and reintegrated with global capitalist markets although state and public control continued as well. For instance, Peter Nolan argues that land in China was decollectivized but not privatized, with control of land remaining in the hands of the community.
At the start of the 21st century, the far-left was associated with the global justice movement and supported populist leaders. The Party of the European Left was established in 2004 as a pan-European political party for the far-left. The far-left parties during this time were rarely new creations, instead descending from earlier far-left parties of the 20th century. Among the European great powers, Germany was the only one where the far-left made strong electoral performances in the 2000s, with the prominence of the Party of Democratic Socialism and WASG, which merged to become Die Linke in 2007. While the Italian Communist Party was historically the most prominent communist party in Western Europe, the Italian far-left fractured and was dissolved into the centre-left in the 2000s. The French far-left did not face significant gains or losses as other European far-left groups did at the time.
Leftist politics diminished in the Arab world by the 21st century as autocratic governments placed token opposition from leftist figures in the legislature. Revolutionary left-wing politics were not prominent during the 2011 Arab Spring, although socialist groups played a role e.g. in the Egyptian revolution and anarchist ideas were put into practice in the local councils established as part of the Syrian revolution. In 2012, the autonomous region Rojava in northwestern Syria established self-governance based on an anarchist direct democracy at the local level and a one-party state at the regional level.
The 2010s also saw a global wave of protest movements against austerity and finance capitalism, including the Occupy movement and the indignados, in which radical left ideas were prominent.
Far-left parties became more prominent in democratic systems following the Great Recession. There is disagreement as to whether this is associated with an overall increase in support. Some of these parties, such as La France Insoumise in France, Podemos in Spain, and Syriza in Greece, deliberately incorporated populism into their identity. At the same time, in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, populist movements formed around Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders.
The communist Progressive Party of Working People controlled the government in Cyprus from 2008 to 2013. Far-left parties in Greece, Portugal, and Spain made significant electoral gains in 2015, including Syriza taking control of the Greek government. Gains beyond these countries were limited, as right-wing populism was instead boosted in other countries.
While left-wing populist parties were in power in the 2010s, they were often forced to put aside their strong anti-neoliberalism and accept neoliberal policies, either proposed by their larger allies or imposed due to the international context. In Europe, the support for populist left politics comes from three overlapping groups: far-left subcultures, disaffected social democrats, and protest voters—those who are opposed to their country's European Union membership. European populist left politics share many of the values of centre-left politics, including cosmopolitanism, altruism, and egalitarianism. They overlap in some areas with far-right politics concerning radicalism, economic nationalism, Euroscepticism, and populism. Two clear distinctions emerge: first, "education [...] tends to statistically significantly lower chances of voting for radical right but increases the chance of voting radical left"; and second, radical-left voters tend not to share the social nationalism of the radical-right, instead having a socio-tropic, or other-regarding, bias based on the ideological concern for economic egalitarianism. Other characteristics may include anti-Americanism, anti-globalization, opposition to NATO, and in some cases a rejection of European integration.
Many far-left militant organizations were formed by members of existing political parties in the 1960s and 1970s, among them the CPI (Maoist), Montoneros, New People's Army, Prima Linea, the Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades and the Tupamaros. These groups generally aimed to overthrow capitalism and the wealthy ruling classes.