New Left

The New Left is a term used in political discourse to refer to radical left-wing movements from the 1960s onwards. They differed from earlier leftist movements that had been more oriented towards labor activism, and instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism. The "New Left" was an intellectually driven movement which attempted to correct the perceived errors of "Old Left" parties in the post-WWII period. The movement began to wind down in the 1970s, when activists either committed themselves to party projects, developed social justice organizations, or became inactive in the movement.

The British New Left (or "Old New Left")

As a result of Khrushchev's Secret Speech denouncing Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) ruptured. Many left the party for Trotskyist groupings or for the Independent Labour Party. Others formed an embryonic grouping dedicated to revisionist communism.

Related Topics:
Khrushchev - Secret Speech - Stalin - Soviet invasion of Hungary - 1956 - Communist Party of Great Britain - Trotskyist - Independent Labour Party - Revisionist

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The historian E. P. Thompson was one of the chief ex-communists accused of revisionism by the CPGB. In early 1956 Thompson established a dissenting journal within the CPGB called Reasoner. Once expelled from the party he began publishing the New Reasoner from 1957. In 1960, this journal merged with the Universities and Left Review to form the New Left Review. These journals attempted to synthesise a theoretical position of a revisionist, humanist, socialist marxism. In this attempt they published material from the Western bloc Trotskyist traditions and from the Eastern bloc dissenting marxists. This publishing effort made the ideas of minor marxist theorists, particularly culturally oriented theorists, available to an undergraduate reading audience. The New Left Review in many ways popularised the Frankfurt School, Antonio Gramsci and other culturally oriented forms of marxism.

Related Topics:
E. P. Thompson - New Reasoner - 1960 - Universities and Left Review - New Left Review - Revisionist - Humanist - Socialist - Frankfurt School - Antonio Gramsci

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In terms of their actions, the British New Left concentrated on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the hypocrisy of the Soviet Union and its allied countries. It often worked in existing popular front organizations to campaign for peace, disarmament, global justice or other issues important to communists. Some students within the British New Left joined the International Socialists, which later became Socialist Workers Party (UK) while others became involved with groups such as the International Marxist Group. Tariq Ali played a role in some of the New Left protests of this era, and documents his involvement in his book Street Fighting Years.

Related Topics:
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament - Soviet Union - Popular front - International Socialists - Socialist Workers Party (UK) - International Marxist Group - Tariq Ali

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As the campus orientation of the American New Left became clear in the mid to late 1960s, the student sections of the British New Left began taking activity in these areas. The London School of Economics became a key site of British student militance (Hoch and Schoenbach, 1969). Additionally, the influence of the May 1968 events in France were felt strongly throughout the British New Left.

Related Topics:
London School of Economics - May 1968

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The politics of the British New Left can be compared with the simultaneously active, but not revisionist, syndicalist organisation Solidarity, UK, which continued to focus primarily on industrial issues.

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