© 2025 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Socialism is making a comeback in Milwaukee

Democratic Socialists of America logo.
Democratic Socialists of America Branding Guidelines
/
Wikimedia
Democratic Socialists of America logo.

"Socialism" has been a dirty word in U.S. politic, but over the last decade socialism has become increasingly popular with U.S. voters. Recently, Wisconsinites voted to advance two Democratic Socialists to the general election, candidates Darrin Madison and Ryan Clancy, who are all but guaranteed to win the midterm.

Socialism isn't unfamiliar to Milwaukee. In many ways socialist policies were the driving force behind the city as it rose to prominence in the early 20th century. So how does today’s socialist movement compare to the movement that made Milwaukee, and why are we seeing these policies gain popularity once again?

"Economic precarity is reaching higher up into the income spectrum in the sense that we’re starting to see college-educated men and women begin to struggle to find good jobs and these sorts of things. And those people are also people who are often the most willing to organize," says Sam Harshner, a teaching instructor at Marquette, who co-authored a piece on the topic for Jacobin Magazine.

Phil Rocco, an associate professor of political science at Marquette and co-author of the piece, explains that Milwaukee's history is deeply intwined with socialist policies.

"Socialists really put into place a lot of the things we now sort of take for granted about Milwaukee. The first socialist mayoral administration ushered in an 8-hour workday, created some of the first public higher education institutions in the city, and expanded the quality and extent of city services; that includes: street lights, sewerage, libraries, museums, and of course, the park system," says Rocco.

As the 1960s Civil Rights movement began to take root in the city, Harshner says socialists faced a new onslaught of racist attacks, accusing them of bringing more Black residents to the city and stoking the flames of racial unrest. As the socialist movement declined, so did Milwaukee's fortune. Industrial jobs that had helped build the city and the socialist movement declined, as did union membership and the higher wages for which they fought.

Rocco credits the housing crisis and the Great Recession for reigniting interest in socialist policies. He explains, "There's increasing attention to class issues in the United States, in part because the consequences of the particular version of capitalism that developed in the United States are being brought to bear on the lives of working-class people. And I think the traditional political parties' leadership are increasingly, in a way, inattentive to a lot of those issues."

Both Rocco and Harshner are quick to note that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is not a party in the U.S. sense but is instead a political organization that advocates for policies that support working-class people. Many Democratic Socialists are members of the Democratic Party, but the political organization is distinctly separate from the party.

"DSA candidates, their electoral strategy is predicated on people being on the ground, advocating for them, going door-to-door pushing their message out, which gives them a great deal more freedom, great deal more independence to really follow working-class policy. They're not beholden to a donor class that is sometimes antagonistic to those agenda items," Harshner explains.

Have a story idea you'd like to hear on Lake Effect? Share below.

_

Joy is a WUWM host and producer for Lake Effect.
Related Content