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Old vs. New Left

Old vs. New Left. 1. Focus on Communism/ Soviet Union-> (Anti-Anticommunism, “Speaking American”) 2. Working Class/Unions as Agents of Social Change-> (Students as Agents of Social change, existing unions as part of “the system.”) 3. Economic Explanation of Society

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Old vs. New Left

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  1. Old vs. New Left • 1. Focus on Communism/ Soviet Union-> • (Anti-Anticommunism, “Speaking American”) • 2. Working Class/Unions as Agents of Social Change-> • (Students as Agents of Social change, existing unions as part of “the system.”) • 3. Economic Explanation of Society • (Making values explicit, alienation as central problem) • 4. Building Centralized Organizations the Key to Victory-> • (Organization, bureaucracy as the problem)

  2. The Growth of SDS • 1960 SDS Formed • 1962 Port Huron Statement • 1964 Berkeley FSM • 1965 April SDS initiated Anti-War March attracts 25,000 • Chapters 1960 3 1963 19 1966 172 1968 400

  3. Collapse • Summer 1969 SDS breaks apart at its annual convention Progressive Labor/ PL-SDS Weathermen/Weather Underground Rapid drift into irrelevance

  4. Organizational Dilemmas • Explosive growth acculturating new members • Having meetings open to all made SDS vulnerable to takeover by a determined minority willing to pack meetings and wait out opponents • Lack of Control—or even communication with individual campuses • Difficulty in planning mass actions and setting priorities

  5. Radicalization • Nonviolence Violence • From “Speaking American”  denunciation of imperialist America • (PIGS, support for the NLF) • Student Agency –Third World/ Inner City Revolution (Black Panthers/Che/Mao) • Reform Revolution • (Fortune magazine/Chalmers Johnson)

  6. Weather Underground • Days of Rage --Bombing at Haymarket --Destruction in the Gold Coast Turn to Violence: Bombings+ attempts on campus on 67-68 10, 68-69 125, 69-70 174 Targets: ROTC 197 attacks 19 buildings destroyed Govt. Buildings 232 in 69-70 alone (esp. selective service centers) Corporate offices: IBM, United Fruit, Standard Oil, GM March 1970 Greenwich Village Explosion

  7. Why Radicalization? • Turbulence • Influx of New Members • Rapid Escalation of War • Desperation • Other methods have not stopped the war • Assassination of King RFK • Repression • Couintelpro • Panthers Assassinations • The Sabotage and Explosives Workshop

  8. Backlash • Reagan 66 Election • Nixon/Wallace receive 58% together • Spiro Agnew: • A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as “intellectuals”. • 1972 election/class

  9. On the plus side… Breines… • Vs. Classical Theorists • Vs. Good 60s/Bad 60s • Protest w/o SDS • Cultural “revolution” • New Movements

  10. Participatory Democracy to Cultural “Revolution” • Rock and Roll Is a Weapon of Cultural Revolution by JOHN SINCLAIR •    "The duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution." The duty of the musician is to make the music. But there is an equation that must not be missed: MUSIC IS REVOLUTION. Rock and roll music is one of the most vital revolutionary forces in the West-it blows people all the way back to their senses and makes them feel good, like they're alive again in the middle of this monstrous funeral parlor of western civilization. And that's what the revolution is all about-we have to establish a situation on this planet where all people can feel good all the time. And we "I not stop until that situation exists. •       Rock and roll music is a weapon of cultural revolution….If you engage yourself in a total revolutionary program of self-reliance and serving the people any way you can, you will have a guaranteed good time forever (except for when they lock you up from time to time) and will help other people get it together too. •       It isn't enough just to drop out though-you have to create new forms which will enable you to sustain yourselves while you're doing your work. The commune is the life-form of the future, it is the revolutionary organizational life-form, and the communal relationship must be realized in everything you do. Rock and roll is the best example. That's why I said at the beginning of this rant, that MUSIC IS REVOLUTION-because it is immediate, total, fast-changing and on-going. Rock and roll not only is a weapon of cultural revolution, it is the model of the revolutionary future. At its best the music works to free people on all levels, and a rock and roll band is a working model of the post-revolutionary production unit

  11. “New” Social Movements • New Social Movements: • Environmental • **Feminism--- • **Gay liberation-- • **Lesbian Feminism in Stein • **anti-nuclear power and weapons movements. • **peace movements--particularly those of the early 1980s • Features: • Middle class or unclear class basis • Qualitative rather than material goals • Vs. hierarchy • Focus on Civil Society and Identity building

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