The slogan was coined by German socialist student leader Rudi Dutschke in the 1960s. It deliberately referenced Mao Tse-tung’s Long March of 1934–35 and called on the radical left to abandon immediate revolution; instead, they should infiltrate and subvert the key institutions of Western society from within - government, media, schools, universities, courts and corporations - while outwardly working inside them.
Herbert Marcuse, the left’s intellectual superstar of the mid-20th century, enthusiastically endorsed this approach. He described it as “the only effective way” to bring about radical social change in advanced capitalist societies.
Indeed, the strategy worked with remarkable success – and nowhere was it more effective than in the universities. The social sciences and humanities were gradually captured by radical academics who replaced the pursuit of truth with ideological activism. Over decades, this long march transformed those institutions into ideological training grounds for successive generations of activists, journalists, teachers and civil servants.
Today the result is obvious: many of our most important cultural and educational institutions no longer serve the public; they serve a political project. The “long march” quietly replaced liberal education with ideological indoctrination and open inquiry with enforced orthodoxy. The consequences of that conquest are still unfolding today.
A book to read on all of this: Christopher Rufo “America’s Cultural Revolution”. Aka “Cultural Marxism”. It’s been going on for decades. Hugely accounts for today’s anti-Israel hysteria. Which goes as far as anti-America. Anti the west.
