Bit of a lighthearted question: Do you see the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars as communist? Or another form of leftist?
If so, would that make Star Wars a leftist film series?
Bit of a lighthearted question: Do you see the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars as communist? Or another form of leftist?
If so, would that make Star Wars a leftist film series?
Some people would say they are, for various reasons, but I very strongly disagree. The rebels weren’t trying to start a dictatorship of the proletariat, or secure any form of a people’s democracy. They, instead, were trying to reform the previous republic, believing that Palpatine’s corruption is the sole reason it failed. And while they would technically be right, the only people who knew of Palpatine’s plans were himself, Anakin, and his close council (the two henchmen who stand with him while he represents the republic), as well the separatist war was going to happen regardless of Palpatine’s puppeteering, because the republic was a state that only benefitted the core worlds.
Or, really, the IRL counterpart for the Rebels would be Social-Democrats of the western nations. They don’t seak true revolution, only the reformatting of the old system to work for more of its citizens. They lack materialism, and act solely on reaction. The only group in the Star Wars universe who mirror communist society are the Kinyen, the three-eyed folk who switched to the CIS during the clone wars after generations of belittlement from the core worlds.
If we extend, and keep in mind that politics in Star Wars are entirely different to the politics of our world, then the only major faction you could argue as being ‘left-wing’ would be the CIS. Yes, they were ran in part by the Trade Federation, yes one of their primary figureheads was a monarch. But, the main calling card of the CIS is independence for every system that joined the confederacy. So though the confederacy’s military and higher-level government is funded by staunch capitalists, they promised every system freedom from the chains of the core. Which, at least to me, sounds a lot like some forms of ‘libertarian’ leftism.
or to sum, no the Rebels are liberals.
edit: If you want to disagree, that’s cool - it’s your right to, and this is just a made-up story about space wizards. But, this answer comes from a deep 18+ year love for the lore of Star Wars, not just conjecturing. If you want to only talk about episode 4, as though it exists in a vacuum within the universe of the story, then sure. You could argue that as being moderately leftwing. But if you want to look at literally anything else, then the argument quickly falls apart, especially if you include the established canon of the lore.
It should also be stated that if you thought George was pointedly making a statement of strict anti-imperialism, the CIS and the Alliance fought for the same major motivation, freedom from core world oppression. But one was led in part by humans, and the other was led in majority by non-humans. And the one that was led by non-humans also happens to be ‘evil’. By the time of the clone wars, Lucas had entirely dropped the anti-imperialism from the story.
The heroes of the clone wars era are the oppressors, we’re expected to root for magic space wizards and liberal politicians who utilize a slave army to put down popular native revolutions. CIS is f a r from perfect, but most of the systems within it are genuinely just trying to win the right to regulate themselves. When we get to the rebellion, we’re rooting for humans to regain their old state so they can do the exact same thing again, but this time with more minority oppressors :trade mark:
No, George Lucas was pretty much a New Left hippie; he was very anti-imperialist.
This is kinda the main issue tho, otherwise they’re fighting a temporarily successful counter-revolution. Is there anything in the movies (I don’t know if anything else is considered canon) that suggests the republic before palpatine was malicious towards these worlds? AFAIK almost all the worlds we see in the original films are outside of the republic / eventual empire.
Actually, the Republic in The Clone Wars and New EU is pretty corrupt. Even George Lucas said so.
It’s well established in both the canon and the EU that the core worlds have always been exploitative of the outer rim. The earliest example of this (in terms of in-world timeline) is the conquests of the old republic into the outer rim during the sith wars. In essence, the core worlds represent the first world of IRL and the outter rim represents the third world.
During the Republic, it’s already well established that the republic only worked for coreworlders and humans, this is reinforced by the opening negotiations scene in episode 1, and further reinforced in nearly every examination of the CIS that attempts to explain why systems joined it. I don’t off the top of my head remember when this was added to the canon, but it was before episode 1 and sometime after episode 7. But, we also see with the New Republic, they kinda just reverted to this exploitation of the outer rim.