Curtin's Cast Episode 68 - 9 September 2026 - Freddie Hayward (New Statesman) on America's 'Summer of Socialism' and 9/11 25 years on

Freddie Hayward on America’s ‘Summer of Socialism’ and 9/11, 25 Years On

Something unusual is stirring inside America’s Democratic Party.

Across the northern summer, young progressive and democratic-socialist candidates have been knocking over establishment Democrats — raising the possibility that the American left is finally experiencing its own Tea Party or MAGA-style insurgency.

Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined from Washington by Freddie Hayward, US Correspondent for the New Statesman, to discuss what he has called “America’s summer of socialism”.

How socialist are these insurgents really? Are Medicare for all, stronger unions, affordable housing and higher taxes on billionaires revolutionary ideas — or simply conventional social democracy made radical by America’s unusually right-shifted political culture?

They discuss the legacy of Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani and the DSA; Abdul El-Sayed’s insurgent Senate campaign; affordability and economic insecurity; organised labour and the possibility of a new alliance between unions and the socialist left; whether progressives have moved beyond “woke 1.0”; the political impact of Gaza; and why anti-establishment movements have generally proved more successful on the right than the left across Western democracies.

They also compare developments in the United States with Britain and Australia, where Labor’s relationship with organised labour and the Greens’ electoral experience point to very different paths for left-wing insurgent politics.

Finally, with America approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11, Freddie reflects on how the attacks are remembered a quarter-century later — and whether 9/11 still represents a genuinely shared American national memory.