New Left

The New Left refers to radical, often Communist or anarchist, political parties and movements which emerged in the United States and Western Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. These are distinguished from the "Old Left" of such groups that originated from the 1890s-1930s, such as the Soviet-line Communist Party USA, the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party, and the even older Socialist Labor Party. Parties and movements which emerged from the New Left include the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Progressive Labor Party, the political movement of Lyndon LaRouche, Students for a Democratic Society, the Weather Underground, the Youth International Party, and several others. A distinguishing feature of the New Left was a tendency to view the Third World as the "vanguard" of the "revolution", rather than the industrial working class of Europe and North America as the Old Left did. Thus, the imagery and ideology of such Third World revolutionaries as Mao Zedong and Che Guevara were favored. Another distinguishing feature of the New Left was a much greater emphasis on manifestations of cultural rebellion against mainstream society, particularly borrowing from the hippie movement, radical feminism, and black nationalism.