New Left

A political movement, emerging in the 1950s-60s, that opposed both Stalinism and imperialism and sought a third position distinct from both Soviet communism and Western capitalism, emphasizing ideas and cultural/intellectual work over rigid party institutions, and closely connected to the origins of Cultural Studies, often shaped by ex-colonial and third-world student milieus.

Claims that use this term

• Opposing both Stalinism and imperialism gave the New Left its moral authority
• Cultural Studies began as New Left politics sheltered inside the university
• Ex-colonial intellectuals shaped the New Left and Cultural Studies from its origins
• The Stalinist experience drove the New Left to favor ideas over party institutions.
• The 1956 New Left emerged from a third-position third-world student milieu
• Critics saw New Left revolutionary films as self-defeatingly elitist