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Listening to the Left reconstructs the suppressed musical history of Lekra, the Indonesian Institute of People's Culture, from 1950 to 1965. Established in the formative period of the modern Indonesian nation, Lekra grew into a far-reaching cultural movement of left-wing nationalism. Music was central to its success, binding national ambitions, Afro-Asian internationalism, and local grassroots practice into a single transformative project. Having been supported by President Sukarno and affiliated with the Communist Party of Indonesia, Lekra was violently erased along with the mass killings of 1965–66. This book draws on original recordings, archival scores, and interviews with survivors to trace Lekra's founding composers, populist choral culture, transnational solidarities, and local musical worlds. Andrew N. Weintraub demonstrates that music was not propaganda layered onto politics but rather a powerful medium for constructing political community, forging cross-class solidarity, and opening a space for workers, peasants, and artists to claim Lekra's project as their own. Listening to the Left challenges seventy years of erasure and offers a new way of hearing modern Indonesia.