Editorial for issue 16 of The Communist. Subscribe now or get a copy from MarxistBooks.com!

The right-wing Cato Institute is panicking about the results of their recent poll on attitudes towards socialism and communism in America. To their horror, they found that 62% of Americans under 30 say they have a “favorable view” of socialism, while 34% say the same about communism.

As the think tank summarized, in an article titled “Young Americans Like Socialism Too Much”:

In the March 2025 survey, Cato/​YouGov asked a national sample of 2,000 Americans aged 18 and older about US fiscal policy, including the following: ‘Do you have a favorable or unfavorable view of Socialism?’ and ‘Do you have a favorable or unfavorable view of communism?

 

A total of 43% said they have a ‘favorable’ view of socialism, and for those aged 18–29, 62% said favorable. For communism, a total of 14% said they have a favorable view; however, in the 18–29 group, 34% said favorable. That’s about 18 million people. (The findings are estimates: there are an estimated 52 million Americans aged 18–29, so 34% is 17.68 million; 62% of that age group is roughly 32 million people.)

These self-described socialists and communists may not have absolute clarity as to what those terms mean, Cato says. But what unites them is “a disdain for capitalism.”

We in the Revolutionary Communists of America can verify the results of this poll. Millions of young people have moved far to the left in recent years. Every day, while building the party, we encounter more people who have been driven to revolutionary conclusions by the catastrophic impact of capitalism on every aspect of our lives.

World of crisis

The Spring 2025 Harvard Youth Poll found that just 15% of young people think that the country is “heading in the right direction.”

It’s not hard to see why. Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, has known nothing but crisis, instability, and societal decline. Our earliest memories are colored by the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, which was the deepest crisis in capitalism’s history since the Great Depression.

The decade and a half since then has been characterized by the intensifying climate crisis, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the most unstable job market in generations. For many, an intense dislike for the capitalist system was transformed into outright hatred upon witnessing Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, which has been directly aided and abetted by Joe Biden and Donald Trump alike. It is a fact that the most heinous crimes against humanity in our lifetime have been directly enabled by the US government, with 68% of Israeli arms imports coming from the United States.

As Karl Marx explained long ago, conditions determine consciousness. Back when the capitalist system was still playing a relatively progressive role by raising living standards and providing some semblance of stability, most people accepted the status quo. But having grown up in an era of crisis, Generation Z has drawn the conclusion that we need a new system altogether. We need a socialist revolution.

Economic decline

Faced with all of this interest in socialism and communism, Cato is anxious to teach young people about “the values of free markets.” The answer to this crisis of leftward youth radicalization, in their view, is education from libertarian-types who “understand the foundations of liberty.”

They are welcome to try. But life is the greatest teacher of all, and the experience of life under our “free market” system does not inspire much confidence among young people.

Just look at the economic prospects facing young people. Last year, the Washington Post published an article titled, “Millennials had it bad financially, but Gen Z may have it worse.” As they explain, Gen Z workers are paying 31% more for housing than their millennial counterparts were a decade ago, 46% more on health insurance, and over 100% more on car insurance, after adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted earnings for Gen Z workers have risen by just 26%.

In the recent Harvard Youth Poll, over 40% of Americans under 30 reported that they’re “barely getting by” financially, with just 16% reporting that they’re doing well or very well.

Currently 6.6% of recent college graduates are unemployed, higher than the national average of 4%—and both figures conceal the massive number of underemployed workers in this country. Meanwhile, as of March over 40% of recent college graduates are working jobs that do not typically require a college degree.

In decades past, young people were told that if they obtained a college degree and a white-collar job, they’d be set for a lifetime of financial security. This can no longer be relied upon.

The business press predicts that subpar economic growth rates and the introduction of artificial intelligence are setting the stage for a “once-in-a-generation” reduction in white-collar jobs. Already, publicly traded companies have cut 3.5% of their white-collar workforces over the last three years, and this is just the beginning.

The CEO of Ford recently predicted: “Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US. AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.” Under a rational system, a socialist planned economy, this technology would be harnessed to raise living standards and reduce working hours for everyone. But under capitalism it will simply mean increased unemployment and desperation.

The bottom line is that young people have no confidence that they can count on personal and financial stability in the future.

In the April 2025 Times/Sienna poll of registered voters, pollsters asked respondents: thinking about the nation’s economy, how would you rate economic conditions today? It’s no wonder that among 18–29 year olds, precisely 0% said “excellent.”

Shift to the right?

Like most demographics, Gen Z saw an electoral shift towards Trump in November 2024, with 47% of 18–29 year olds voting for him. Liberal pundits lamented the supposed “rightward shift” among young people. But as always, the liberals can only see the surface appearance of things.

The reality is that, as with most Trump voters across all age groups, this was primarily a vote against the disastrous Biden-Harris government—a protest ballot signifying that “anything and everything” would be better than the status quo. The Democrats had held the presidency during 12 of the previous 16 years of capitalist crisis.

The vast majority of young people who swung towards Trump did so not because they are rabid right-wing ideologues, but because of economic hardship. In fact, after analyzing the election results and their own polling, the Associated Press wrote at the time:

[AP VoteCast] found that Trump’s younger voters were more motivated by the economy than by immigration, were broadly concerned about climate change, and wanted more government involvement in healthcare and canceling student loan debt.

“Trump won more young voters, but many don’t agree with him on issues,” they concluded.

Before throwing away a broken TV, many people will give it a whack with their fist to see if that somehow fixes the problem. That was the attitude of millions of young people when they voted for Trump.

But Trump’s first six months in office have rapidly dispelled illusions in his promise of a new “Golden Age.” As Newsweek explained this month, Trump’s net rating among Gen Z voters “has deteriorated sharply, falling from -23 points in May to -41 points in June,” adding that “this discontent does not appear to be translating into strong support for Democrats.”

Zohran Mamdani

Some people have concluded that young people have become nihilistic and uninterested in politics. But in the rare instances where young people have something to fight for, not just something to vote against, the real situation becomes clear.

Nearly all of the polls had the establishment pick, Andrew Cuomo, leading in last month’s Democratic mayoral primary in New York. But Zohran Mamdani’s call for freezing rent, providing free buses, and more, landed particularly well with young people across the five boroughs. The result was an astonishing victory for the self-described socialist.

As a spokesman for Cuomo told the New York Times, the Cuomo campaign met most of its turnout goals, but had not foreseen Mamdani’s ability to “expand the electorate in such a way that no turnout model or poll was able to capture.”

In fact, voters aged 25–34 had the largest turnout of any age group—an extremely rare thing in the usually uninspiring world of bourgeois politics. Zohran also won 30% of the districts Trump won in the 2024 general election, with a substantial number of working-class New Yorkers reporting that they had voted for both Trump and Zohran.

Zohran’s victory in the Democratic mayoral primary shows beyond doubt that young people are looking, above all, for candidates who challenge the status quo—wherever they might be found. Unfortunately for those with honest illusions, there is a reason the Democratic Party is known as the graveyard of progressive movements.

Build a communist party!

In short, capitalism is in a profound crisis, and young people are increasingly open to the ideas of revolutionary communism. The youth have always been the layer of the working class that feels the crisis of capitalism most acutely. They understand the horrors of the future that lie in store for them unless capitalism is overthrown. As Lenin explained, paraphrasing Engels:

Is it not natural that youth should predominate in our party, the revolutionary party? We are the party of the future, and the future belongs to the youth. We are a party of innovators, and it is always the youth that most eagerly follows the innovators. We are a party that is waging a self-sacrificing struggle against the old rottenness, and youth is always the first to undertake a self-sacrificing struggle.

Across the country, tens of thousands of young people are burning with rage at the capitalist system and are desperately searching for a way to effectively fight against it. The comrades of the RCA must continue to recruit boldly and widely among the radicalized youth, which are the future of our party and of humanity as a whole. We have not only the opportunity, but the revolutionary duty to seize this opportunity with both hands.

Some recent membership applications to the RCA give a glimpse of this mood:

• I want to join because I am sick and tired of the tyranny the rich have blanketed over us, I’m tired knowing that I will have to work with no given end just to barely accumulate half as much as my neighbors who were simply born into more fortunate circumstances and alongside that, I’m tired of working myself to the brink of death all just to not even be able to pay my bills on time or get dinner on the table, I’m tired of not being able to afford health insurance, I’m tired of seeing my family and friends get put down by the same hands that are said to protect, I’m tired because we are more powerful than the ones we oppose but we have been blinded for so long that it’s too hard for most to see a way out, we need change, we need to break free from this system, we are all oppressed until none of us are.” (Kansas City, June 17)

• I also believe wholeheartedly that this movement has great potential to push society into greater prospects and give light to the threats and atrocities that capitalism and imperialism pose to the working class around the globe. I want to be part of that movement and help grow it to greater heights. (Seattle, June 17)

• Humanity deserves so much better than to be cannon fodder for the profits of the few. (Bay Area, July 10 )

• I hate this capitalistic hellscape. Have been a communist for a long time and have been looking for an organization to join, but just haven’t found one until now due to long hours working my union job and living abroad. (Chicago, July 12)

• Whether it be in my lifetime or not, I would like to contribute my time and labor towards organizing the working class so that one day, an international workers state can be achieved. (San Diego, July 15)

• I want to join because I want to help the working class develop class consciousness to overthrow the bourgeoisie and develop their own working class party! (Boston, July 16)

• I want to dedicate my life to the revolution. (New York, July 16)

This is the generation of class fighters that history is forging. Our future comrades are out there, and the revolutionary process in the United States is maturing.

If we stay grounded in the ideas of Marxism and continue to build our party with a sense of urgency, we will succeed. We will overthrow the cancerous rot of world capitalism in our lifetime.