THE NEW LEFT IN EUROPE

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06548833
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 62
• Document Creation Date: March 16, 2022
• Document Release Date: July 5, 2016
• Case Number: F-2016-01325
• Publication Date: December 1, 1967

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THE ,NEW LEFT
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THE NEW LEFT IN EUROPE
A sciics of incidents in recent years has brought
attention to bear bn the activities of that
amorphous, self-contradictory radical movement
loosely called the New Left. This memorandum
attempts to identify in at least a preliminary
listing those organizations which might be called
the European New Left.
The listing is based both on the statements of
members of the movement and on the subjective
judgments of itS author. We stress the preliminary
and tentative nature of what follows, and hold any of
it open to challenge and comment, This is not a
supmary, of all available information; it is,an
extract ofmaterial readily at hand.
lOne of the problems in discussing the ilew Left
is the obscurity .and uncertainty of the movement
itself. The introduction to this paper is an ateempt
to identify the sub-currents of the movement. This
too is in no sense a complete picture. It is rather
a tentative description in which several central
facets of the New Left are briefly examined: its
'atmospherics' and origins; its parent influences;
its theoretical arguments; and its position as
against other leftist currents.
, TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I .The New Left as a Movement
PART II The New Left in Europe
1
1
-France
2
-Germany
9'
-Netherlands
�
-Great.Britain
18
4Belgium
26
-Austria
28
-Scandinavia
30
-Italy
34
-Switzerland
36
-International
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1
PART ONE '
. .THE ,NEW LEFT
� AS-A MOVEMENT
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The rising political significance of the left
over the past century, based essentially on the
Marxist materialist dialectic as both a philosophy
and a technique for interpreting and making history,
has also been accompanied by a constant process of
evolution, split .and polemic, among the groups which
thought they had4n this philosophy and political tool
a single and. unique solution to the problems of society
and an efficient instrument for acquiring and wielding
political power. To elaborate the position and
enforce orthodoxy, four internationals were created
one after another. But .the process of dissent and
internal change in the left continues to this day.
The most recent of these currents is widely, if imprecisely,
described as the 'New Left'. It began to take form in
the post-Stalin period, but to this day still remains
inchoate.
As a label applied to a sector of left-dissidence,
the term 'New Left' is largely an analytic convenience.
At its present stage, the New Left, varying greatly from
one country to the next, admits of no single definition,
no general .approach, nor even common origins. It is as
fruitless to seek a proper history of the New Left as to
try to find in its conflicting statements a coherent
declaration of program. But to conclude as a result
that the New Left is a lot of emotion looking for a
cause is a mistake. The cases, the issues, are present;
what the New Left does not have is a theoretical
framework of analysis and program capable of competing
with those of established political movements.* There
is a stirring of theory beneath the seemingly
directionless 'transports of passion' so evident in
the daily news. And while this new dialectic has not
yet achieved a generally accepted synthesis, the
weighing of antecedents, the sifting of experiences,
and the arguing of theories continue.
What is described below is a phenomenon common
to virtually every nation in the indUstrialized world.
The pattern of response is found in Europe and the
United States, in Japan and Australia, and in the
�aWN,,e�����
*.... as well as some solution to the movement's
very ambivalent attitude toward' organizational forms.
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Soviet Union' and ha stern Europe; hut it should be ,
noted that .the seemingly common threads are perhaps
only analogous. Eat* center of New Leftist thought
arose in response'to conditions and Oatterns which
vary from country to country, and more so from
continent to continent. The focus of the present
discussion is on Europe, with insights from the
American movement. Rut passing.mention must be
made of the other sectors.. Members of the Western
New Left consider the young Soviet writers and
artists as cut from the same cloth as themselves;
and many of the superficial marks are the same. The
ZENGAKUREN, the famous Japanese student organizativn,
was a direct influence on the growth of student
activism its the United States. Other examples are-
available, and it should be noted here that they
are part of the larger picture.
The long-range goal of the New Left is to
produce what is called a new politics: a new
critique of the contemporary world and a new model
for the future. The catalytic force which set in
motion the search for new directions was a feeling
of alienation,growing from an emotional reaction to
the events or the past decade and a willful rejection,
of established pol.itical alternatives as inadequate
to the future, erroneous at base and incapable of
disentangling themselves from the compromises and
corruptions of the status quo. The New Left feels
that a.solution to most of the world's problems is
technologically and even politically possible, hut
that the incipient chance was missed (or possibly
deliberately'rejected) by the established governments
of the World. There is also the feeling that the
forces of history are running uncontrolled, that
the citizen is so lost in the complexities of
government that he can have no effect on decisions
made in his name. They feel that their lives are
controlled by mechanical forces (zip codes, cost
accounting, Keynesian economics) 'which seem carried
by momentum, if not by conscious.direction, toward
permanent international instability and warfare,
domestic economic and social dislocation and crisis,
general intellectual or cultural squalor, and toward
nuclear holocaust..
The status quo is repellent. To document his
argument, the New Ileftist would point to a series of
dates, finding .in recent history a cause and effect
which seems to damn established governments,
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ideologies, and political parties:
1956: Khrushc.hev's secret speech; Hungary; Suez.
1957: Federal troops in Little Rock; the Algerian
War begins to heat up.
�
1961: Bay of'Pigs; the Berlin Wall; Sciviet attacks
on Yevtu$henko and resumption of nuclear
testing, including the explosion'of the SO-
megaton:bomb.
� :
.1962: The Cuban missile crisis (variously interpreted
as renewed evidence of the threat of nuclear
warfare, � as the end of the Cold War, and as
another example of the imperialist tendencies
� of both sides).
1964: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the
beginning of major military escalation of
the Vietnam War.
1965: American Marines land in the Dominican
Republic; the U. S. first bombs North Vietnam;
Julian Bond is denied a seat in the Georgia
legislature.
1966: Riots in Watts; unleashing of the Red Guards;
etc.
There is of course more that could be added to this
chronology; each nation added its own: the force de
frappe, the German question in the post-Wall period,
the stress.and strains of an 'empire' on the British
economy, etc. Arguments from a contrary assessment
of history are unacceptable to the New Left/ largely .
because they don't believe that the.present situation
necessarily followed from the events of the past, nor
that those events were 'Good versus Evil' in nature. It
is perhaps:gratuitous to point out that the generation
which make S up the New Left's hard cbre was born lor
the most part during the forties; this generation has
no real memory of the immediate post-War era, nor
even of Korea. Their political awareness began around
1956, and their understanding of the earlier era is
not drawn from participation but from an academic
knowledge. It should not be surprising therefore that
they could draw differing lessons from that history, and
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New Left academicians have begun the process as
each generation is alleged to -- of rewriting and
re-evaluating its past, .Particularly the history of
the Cold War.* The search for new directions had begun.
11
The New Left was born or two influences which even
today have not been able to sanctify their union in a
reasonably coherent and encompassing ideology. The
movement first began in the intellectual circles of
universities and first expressions appeared in the
analytical quarterlies of graduate students and
junior faculty. Perhaps the first consistent
appearance of a new critique (or at least the one that
is felt to have had the major impact) was in New Left
Review, published in the United Kingdom.**
An editor of NLR sets the DOB of this first
influence exactly:
[It] was created in 1956, by the twin crises
of Suez and Hungary ..... The Hungarian Revolt
led to a wave of .resignations from the
Communist Party, and the Suez Crisis suddenly
galvanized many hitherto indifferent or
apolitical members of the younger generation,
especially in the universities. � The convergence
of the two phenomena produced the New Left,
which initially defined itself as a simultaneous
rejection of Stalinism and Social Democracy.
� *The outlines of these "revisionist histories"
were described in a recent article by Christopher
Lasch in the New York Times Magazine (14 January 1968);
Lasch is the arfhor of another piece of 'historical
research, The New Radicalism in America; 1889-1963.
A longer summary of "revisionrit"-- interpretations was
written by David Horowitz (now associated with the
Bertrand Russell Centre for Social Research) in Free
World Colossus (available in paperback as From Yalta
175-Tretnam).
**The influence. of NLR is acknowledgedby the
American New Left. -NLR'-i--influence on the continent
is open to 'question,-617t at least Scandinavia seems to
have read and understood NLR's gropings.
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The formulations for a new approach were eclectic:
socialist at base; utopian and anti-establishment in
tone;, humanist in motive; Marxist in international
analyses; and pacifist in tactics. The combination --
.which has still not jelled -- was one which could not
be categorized under the usual labels of communism,
socialism,', or other gradations on the left.
A Second influence was student activism, which
has in large measure determined the subsequent
course of.the New Left. .For a myriad of reasons, and
obviously different ones apply in each country, there
was a rebirth of student political involvement in the
mid-fifties -- a current which was never' completely'
absent-in earlier periods but which had been subdued
in the immediate post-War era. And the form this
renewed involvement took was as. 'much determined by a
rebellion against the institutionalized channels of �
politics as against the 'Establishment' itself. The
student protested against the use of the university
in loco parentis (in the United States), and sought
to 17)176u1ate theo.ries which related the university_
and the student to society at large (an effort made
throughout the West). The activist also frequently
sought other mechanisms than the youth wings of
established political parties or the national
student union: the political parties were dismissed
(almost ;! ;riori) for reasons mentioned above; the
student ohions, at least most of those in the
United States and northern Europe, were constitutionally
limited to questions of concern to 'students as such',
not those pertinent to students as voters, as potential
draftees or.as members of society. Where it became
possible fdr the new leftist to 'renovate' the student
union (e.g., France), that instrument was used. 'Where
that was not possible (e.g., in the U. S., Great
Britain, and Germany), new outlets were created --
most frequently around single issues. Thesd outlets
are now familiar members of the leftist scene. The
theories supporting and making legitimate direct -
student activism in the larger political sphere were
t.ound in the 'New Left' Critique and 'radical' research
then surfacing at the same time. '
The marriage of new dissident critique and
youthful energies was natural. They tended to rescue
each other from their respective congenital failings:
impotent iritellectual exercises on the one hand, and
undirected rebelljon on the other. But'if the New
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left has not yet found the proper balance of critique
and direct action, nor a synthesis of experience,
theory 'and antecedents, it at least has some impact
and a direction.
�
Much energy could be spent trying to isolate what
is particularly 'new' about the New Left, and a number
of possible answers have,been suggested. For our
purposes here it is enough to note that the New Left
thinks of, itself as new and derives therefrom a
psychological 4ttitude and energy which cannot be
Ignored,* On this assumption, it now seeks to define
itself against the background of earlier forms of
radicalism.
The cosmic glue of any theory of politics must be
a view of what the future should be and a statement
of the means pf achleiring that goal. In this respect
the New Left faces major problems; it has not been
able to articulate in any detail its'vision of the
future; nor has it settled upon the appropriate
means. Its success or failure in answering these.
questions will spell its ultimate importance and future.
The question of -goals is one which the movement
is beginning to recognize as central to their purposes.
They feel that the established political groupings offer
no real alternative, but they have offered none
*There is a sociological pattern worth noting in
this regard. It is argued that.a common feature of
industrial societies is a discontinuity of generations:
that the fluidity of social structure, with a rate of -
change that increases as technology, afflpence, and
geographic mobility increase, leads to a break between
generations. In writing of an earlier group of American
radicals, Christopher Lasch comments, "though they
talked of the tyranny of the family..., the freedom which
they undeniably' enjoyed made it impossible for them to
conceive Of enslavement to the uncomplicated categories
of the old radi.calism, the radicalism of Mill and Marx."
This observation is if anything even more to the point
today. ,
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themselves beyond a rhetorical espousal of an
egalitarian, equitable, and �ocialist society.
Utopianism has been dismissed by the New Leftist as
a failing of intellectuals, but the problem of
defining their goals remains. To some degree
however the construction of a new model for the future
is dependent upon answers provided by the fields of
cosmology and metaphysics, of sociology and psychology,
or of science and theology. Theoretical ferment in
almost every field of abstract research and thought
is cearly:evident, and the New Left might be seen
as at least one political expression of that more
general seeking of new answers. It is, then, not
surprising that the New Left has so far been unable
to present a detailed program for the future: most
of that program will follow from the asiyet unanswered
questions in other fields. .
More .�properly within the realm of politics is
the question of means, of defining the 'agent of
change'. The traditional answer provided by. Lenin
over 'a half century ago, that the agent of change
was the vanguard of the proletariat, the communist
party, has never been comfortable in the post-World
War II West. The working class quite clearly has
not responded as Lenin,predicted.. And to the New
Left, events since 1956 have demonstrated that parties
of "labor" or "socialism", whether communist or
democratic, were solidly entrenched in the status
quo. The conversion of European revolutionary
movements into reformist parties has if anything
become more evident in the past five years. The
Social-Democratic parties of Europe, aspiring to
and ultimately achieving the control of governments,
dropped their revolutionary trappings and became
openly parliamentarian, even non-Marxist. And, in
the New,aeft's assessment, this occurred "precisely
at the moment when the Communist Parties of Western
Europe -- particularly the French -- hesitantly
but uncritically entered the very same reformist
road misled by their own parliamentdry successes
of the last few years".
In passing it might be worthwhile to quote
. one New Left analysis-of the American Communist Party.
Though, as explained later in this paper, the generation
gap is felt particularly strongly in the United
States -- and though the American radical is,
consciously or "tot, defensive of his position vis-a-vis
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the American arch-devil, Communism, and thus seeks'
to make his diitance more clearly understood -- the
American New Left attitude toward the CPUSA is
instructive. Change a few terms in the following,
and make allowance for a continuation of the present
parliamentary trend of European CPs, and the quotation
serves equally as a scornful dismissal of European
communists.
For more than thirty years the political .
strategy of the old left has been predicated
iipon the curious notion that the hest way
to combat the evils of capitalism is to
stiengthen the capitalist state. . Whether it
was a matter of demanding government 'regulation'
of big business or government 'protectipn' of
civil rights, the old left has consistently
behaved as if the state 'were simply a neutral
Instrument which could be directed to either
'reactionary' or 'progressive' ends depending,.
upon the,relative strength of the 'monopoly'
and 'antimonopoly' forces. Given this
assumptioh, which owed as much to the legacy
of American populism as it did to the Popular
Front policies of the Comintern, the old left
had no choice but to align itself' with the
liberal camp. .... Having hit upon the system
of regulating big business by awarding it
military 6ontracts, the liberals then
proceeded to purge themselves of their former
allies, whereupon the old left decided that
it had erred in not, electing enough liberals.
In :order to correct this mistake, the old
left has now arrived at the point where it
abandons even the pretense of political
independence for fear of embarrassing those
very forces which have already destroyed it.
The CPs and Marxist principles having proven to
be impotent, old and chair-ridden, the problem was
then one of finding a group, a class or an element
which could take up the revolutionary banner.*
*Most of the literature available here on this
aspect of New Left thought is of American origin.
Because any comparable European writing is not available
-- if it exists. -- the following account may not be
reflective .of the'movement as a whole. Allowance must
therefore he made for a certain prismatic distortion.
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Several suggestions have been made. , The French
student union, for example, defined itself as
syndical and called the student an "intellectual
worker". The British tried a combination of
British liberalism (as expressed in the pacifism
of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Labour
Party left-wing socialism and view of the affluent
society adapted from Galbraith. And with perhaps
more success: it was this element that once won
(then'quickly lest) official Labour Party approval
of a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament.
The American answer has been complicated beyond
destription by the cross problems of liberal dissent,
black nationalism, poverty programs, and the
American radical's 'rediscovery" of Marx, but the
key phrase on this side of the,Atlantic is
participatory democracy -- a slogan which has defied
definition and implementation even after a minimum
of seven years of currency.
For some, the liberation movements of the Third
World hold revolutionary promise. This is the
position of the Marxist left, at least as expressed
in the publications of Leo Huberman and Paul Sweezy
(principally, the Monthly Review published now, in
Italy and Chile as well as in the U. S.). But not
everyone can agree what that promise might be and
what lessons should be drawn from it for the
Industrialized West. Some see capitalist 'exploitation
of the working class' as the key to understanding �
relations between the industrialized West and the
underdeveloped world (even if the processes of
domestic economics are no longer as Marx saw them):.
they see the victory of the "new exploited", through
the medium of the national liberation movements of
Africa and Latin America, as having such economic impact
on the West that alterations of a basic sort-in Western.
economies would have to follow: Others, of more .
romantic, revolutionary.or activist bent, sec in the
guerrilla bands a more direct model to be applied in
urban guerrilla warfare.
Herbert Marcuse; argues in broader terms. He sees
four forces as having revolutionary potential: (1) the
liberation movements, of the underdeveloped wprld; (2)
the political "labor movements" (the CPs) in countries
like France and Italy which could extend labor's role
in the management of key industries and in government
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through coalition; (3) in the United States, the
underprivileged strata (the ghettos of race and
poverty); (4) and the "oppositional intelligentsia".
The Ameritan Students fora Democratic Society might
argue a similar platform hut -- when they can he
pinned down -- they probably give primacy to the
univerSity as an instituti.on which, being the .
laboratory and storehouse of knowledge, could guide
and mold the world. This role for the university
is one heard increasingly today in circles quite
foreign to the New Left. There is an echo of this
when Galbraith writes of the "technostructure", of
"organized intelligence" replacing capital and ,
labor as the most important economic element.
With more directrelevance, this idea appears in
articles on the. "cybernetic revolution" and the
importance of institutions of higher learning to the
formulations of national purpose. It is this idea
which provides �the support ,to student protests
against university defense contracts.
Others see the less precise forces of sociology,
of urbanization and population growth having
revolutionary implications; and still others see
scientific discoveries, technological innovations
and the concurrent nightmares of human automation.,
mechanical lives and nuclear warfare as being the
platform for galvanizing'broad masses toward a basic
reform. Those of more doctrinaire and conspiratorial
bent are attracted to the 'purity' of the Chinese
version of Maricism-Leninism and to the Cultural .
Revolution (the overthroW of a party tending toward
bureaucracy and reformism). Other admonitions, as
for example those of the hippies to "turn off, drbp
out, tune in", are well known.
These questions, however distant they may seem
from the daily headlines, are not wholly meaningless
theoretic's. And if .the New Left is of interest or
concern today, .that concern is not solely a function
of its theoretical potential: its energies are by no
means completely expended, in parlor debates and
theoretical discussions.
What commends the New Left to more than passing
attention is the fact that it is working among the voters
for political change or revolution -- however improbable
the chances for revolution are in the West. Directly
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relevant to the question of the New Left's present
effectiveness and importance is that of its relations
and alliances with other powers and groups on the
left: the communist parties, the Bloc, the 'liberal-
. democratic.left' and the left-socialists.
IV
Attitudes of attraction and revulsion are found.
on both sides over the general question of alliances.
What confuses the issues here and makes broad
generalizations tenuous is the differing relative
strength of the two 'wings' of the New Left, giving
different accents to the policies. which themselves
vary .from country to country and situation to situation.
To. the degree that the. theoretician of the New Left
.holds sway, the New Left tends to differentiate itself
more clearly from other forces on the left and to attack
with equal virulence all parts�of the 'Establishment"'
(in which the New Left would count most CPs and the
Soviet Bloc in general); but to-the degree that the
street activist calls the shots, there operates the.
principle of "my enemy's enemy is my friend". And,,
increasingly it appears that the radical activist --
not the theoretician -- is in the driver's seat with
a policy of all-oUt 'confrontation' with the
authorities (e.g, the liberal-democratic governments)
and implacable opposition to the United States.
Relations with the Communist Parties were never
great moral questions for the New Left. In the West,
one of the formative influences was a revolt against
'anti-communism' as official policy and social dogmai
the New Left adopted a position of non-exclusion: it
allowed individual communists to join their organizations
and allowed, the CPs to associate themselves with New
Left actions if they so wished. But the basic attitude
was both patronizing and scornful: :though aware of the
money and manpower available from the CPs in most
countries,'.the New Left views orthodox communist
policies as too conservative and barely distinguishable
from ,those. of Western governments; there is also the
hint.of pity for a movement which after all these
years still 'hasn't got it right'.
On the other side, the attitude of the CPs toward
the New Left is almost equally ambivalent. The passions
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the New Left is able to stir in those under thirty
both worry and attract the CPs. They want to take
advantage of those energies and channel them on behalf
of the Party, hut they are as much worried by the
risk of infection. The problems the French Cl' for
one has had with its cells in Parisian universities lierp.
not lost on other parties. For their part too the
CPs tend to he' patronizing and scornful: patronizing
with the hope that education will make the New Left
see the light of reason and Marx; scornful to the
degree that New Left radicalism begins to embarrass
the party.
Relations with and attitudes toward the USSR, for,
the New Left, began in an attempt to bridge the gaps
between East and West, to end the Cold War. If all
members cif the 'Establishment' are tb be condemned for
the shape of the world today, they are equally guilty;
the inverse of this proposition is that the USSR is
only partially responsible for post-war history and
that it perhaps was,. to a certain degree, victimized
by the 'crusades of the anti-communist West. More to
the point for the activist is the feeling that
even if the USSR is staid, conservative, and even at
times reactionary it at.least has managed to get on
the Tight side on Vietnam, among other issues. But
for the most part, the New Left does not consider the
Soviets a factor; revisionism is as deadly a sin as
liberalism, and the. New Left sees little difference
between revisionist communism and liberal democracy.
The ,Soviets on the, other hand seem to have .
definite 91ans'for the New Left, even if they have not
apparently fo0d the proper approach. Their goals
are virtually the same as those of the CPs: to
use the New Left as an adjunct to orthodox communist
policies at home and abroad. The Soviet Union does
not however have to worry as much about the risks of
infection. Though the young Soviet 'underground of -
artists and writers is a part of the broader New Left
movement, geographic distance alone reduces the danger
� of direct foreign influences on Soviet domestic matters.
(It should be noted, however, that the European
satellites are considerably less sanguine on this
point. The East Germans in particular, looking across
the Wall Into West Berlin, one of the New Left's centers
of strength, have definite reservations on the benefits
of dealing with the New Left.) The ultimate goal of
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V.
the Soviet Union must be the American New Left,
including both its Vietnam protest and civil rights
movement wings. To avoid giving the 'kiss of death'
to this movement, ,the Soviets are surely apt to
restrict the .publicity given moves to channel and
influence the Western New Left. For the present, the
Soviets seem content to deal with student radicals
through their international front, the International
Union of Students'. They are ready to send delegations
abroad to New Left meetings (at least to those
meetings which look 'safe' and are not so rabid as
to embarrass them), and to solicit and accept visiting
delegations in Moscow. The quieter hands of
intelligence services must also be active, but little
can be said at this point.
Toward Cuba and China there is less reserve in
New Left attitudes. From its peculiar viewpoint, there
is much that is attractive in the spectacle of a
comMunist party (Chinese or Cuban) being overthrown
or put on trial by the 'popular masses'. But they
recognize.that the Chinese Cultural Revolution may .tiso
be interpreted as a new form of party purge, smacking
of the worst Stalinist tyranny and totalitarianism.
There is concern for China's future between the lines
of New Left praise. For Cuba there is more
unqualified support. Cuba is 'where the action is'
Latin America. There is much in the New Left's outlook
and jargon that is borrowed from the Cubans and the
Chinese: the rhetoric of revolution, the
uncompromising Militancy, the charge that the Soviet
Union and its attendant CPs are revisionist, the call
for, total NLF victory in Vietnam, etc. In the New
Left :book of heroes, Cho, Fidel, and Mao rank at the
top.'
In its organized expression, however, only Cuba
seems to be in position to capitalize on this new-
found support. The pro-Chinese parties are dismissed
by the New Left as vestigial organs of a dead communism;
China itself is preoccupied with it internal politics,
and dealing with Chinese these days takes a hit more
servility toward the Great Leader than the New Left has
been willing to grant anyone. Cuba on the other hand
has no official parties in the industrial world to
'interpret' Cuban realities to the New Left; discipline'
is not demanded. Further, Cuba and its constellation
or revolutionary movements are open and approachable:
witnesS: Regis%Debray; witness: Stokely .Carmichael.
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What the New Left itself is doing to aid and abet
liberation movements in Latin America is not clear,
though numerous organizations and individuals have
taken Latin American liberation as a holy vow.
What Cuba has done for the New Left is also
unknown, though allegations of training camps and
financial assistance have been heard. �
� For the liberal democrats (of the U. S.) and
the social-democrats (of Europe), the'New Left has
undiluted scorn. These parties control the
governments of the Western world, and the New Left
is most afraid of the abilities of the liberal
center to, take legal 'or police action against them
and to coopt the het of.their ideas and platforms
as they did those of.the'dissenters of the twenties
and thirties. This attitude is expressed in the
refusal of the .recent Chicago Convention for New
Politics 'to enter a separate slate in the 1968
elections, a refusal to have anything to do with.
the political mechanics controlled by the ruling
parties. It is'likewise expressed in Europe in
policies of total confrontation with the
'Establishment', as for exam/ile in the.recent
actions of the students of Berlin.
With respect to a final category of leftists,
the dissident Marxists (e.g. the Trotskyists) and
the left-wing socialists, there is a problem of
� delineating the old left from the New. And
unfortunately there is no satisfactory filter that
will separate the younger members of the old from
the older members of the New: unhappily for those
seeking clear-Cut distinctions, the difference is
at base one of motive..
In the United States, these motives are more
easily seen; they appear in the form of a sort of
generation gap. By the time the present generation
stood on its political feet, the Communist Party,
USA had become .a burlesque figure. The transmission
belt of ideas had virtually ceased to function,
and the American leftist was able to "rediscover"
Marx on his own without the made-in-Moscow blinders
that would normally have been there. Being able
to compare Marx's forecasts with history and
Marxism with the communist present, the American
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radical most frequently came out at a point not
consonant with that of the CPUSA. The New Lirf
dismisses the CPUSA (and many of the other
doctrinaire leftist parties*) as being little more
than the .".Marxist wing of the Democratic Party",
as committed to electioneering and to the established
political processes as other members of the
'Establishment'. Generational politics, the scorn
heaped by the New Left on what they dismiss as the
old left, is a unique factor on the American side.
The European dissenters -- at least in most
countries -- are parts of societies with lunctioning
CP's and a greater public tolerance for the left in
general. It is natural therefore that they should
blend in better with established political parties,
and that they should seek alliances with others as
actively as the American New Leftist spurns them.
It is also unsurprising to find that the European
New Left has a larger number of adult supporters. An
analytical probrem -- for which we have no easy
solution does indeed arise in sorting out the old
dissidence from the New in Europe.
�The line between left reformists and the New
Left is particularly hard to draw since much of the
writing which inspires the New Left comes from the
critics and dissidents within the established political
order. In Europe they include not'only the communist
dissidents of the Trotskyist and Naoist variety but,
as well, the writings of those associated with the
French PSU, the Italian PSIUP, and the Scandinavian
SFs." Another complicating factor is the presence
in many or the New Left's organizations of individuals,
some of whom are quite influential, who are
*This applies certainly to the. democratic-
socialists of the League for Industrial Democracy
(Norman Thomas) and the Trotskyists of the Socialist
Workers Party. The pro-Chinese parties, the
Progressive.Labor Party, and CPUSA/Marxist-Leninist,
are openly revolutionary but demand of their members
the same sort of blind allegiance.and discipline that
the New Left has rejected in others.
**The Fren*ah Unified Socialist Party (PSU);
The Italian Socialist Party for Proletarian Unity
(PSIUP); the Scandinavian Socialist Peoples Parties
(SFs).
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simultaneously'identified with one or another of the
reformist left parties or factions. A fundamental
problem here is determining whether these influential
people are in fact basically with the New Left or
whether they are essentially out-riders of the reformist
left who are trying to gain control of the political
Force which the New Left represents.
At his juncture, fine distinctions of this order
cannot he 'precisely made. Tv is first necessary to
establish as best we can what groups, with what
strength and political potential, merit classification
in the .New Left and who the individuals are in each of
these groups who, either through force of personality,
intellectual accomplishtent or drive, dominate the
group. Given the character of these New Left -
organizations,.. and the fact that they rise, fall, split,
and merge with.considerabfe ease and frequency, it
may well ,prove:in the long run that the individual is
more impqrtant,than either the doctrine or the group.
Recapitulating, what is known of these forces can at
least give a frame of reference within which the
evolving political significance and character of the
New Left can gradually be assessed'.
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'PART TWO
LE THE NEW FT TN EUROPE
. �
The organizations listed in the following sections
are towariing degreei elements of the European New
Left. Omitted are Greece, Finland, Portugal, and
Spain; each in its own way is a special situation, and
a New Left comparable to that found elsewhere does not
publicly exist. Inchoate or semi-clandestine elements
can be found (as for example, the radical youth of the
Greek Ceinter Union party or the Democratic 'Student
Syndicate �(SDEE) of Spain)lhut they operate in wholly
different sorts of environments and respond to unique
circumstances and pressures.
Overlapping the New Left is a larger community
of protest.on the Vietnam issue. Organizations and
individuals actively opposed to American policies in
Southeast Asia. are of course found almost everywhere
on the political spectrum from extreme left to
moderate right. Many are well-known as arms or fronts
of what the New Left .regards as the 'Establishment'
(especially including, the peace fronts of the
communist parties), but among the others some have
close ties with the New Left and at times become
indistinguishable as separate elements. Where there
exist important or noteworthy protest groups of this
type, a separate section is added to the national
listings to identify them.
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1
FRANCE
PART I
1. Union Nationale des Etudiants de France (UNEF)
15 rue Soufflot, Paris Ve
UNEF occupies a central place in the development of
a New Left in Europe if only for its historical
influence. Of the major European student organizations
(a list which would not include those controlled by the
CPs), UNEF was the fifit to adopt a 'plague on bOth
your houses' approach to the Cold War; it was among the
first to seek .a healing of East-West divisions at the
student level and to quest after the impossible goal .
of world student unity. Under the impact of the
Algerian war, UNEF was the first of the European national
student unions to go into systematic and consistent
opposition to its government on a radical (but non-
communist) platform. These developments took place in
the late fifties, and by 1958 had been codified in
a "minoritii" government of UNEF (that is, officers, of
the radical minority were elected, replacing those of
the more apolitical majority).
UNEF'e basis was a redefinition of the place of the
student in society, placing stress on the
uecessity of an alliance with the working class... There
were of course.antecedents. The 1946 Charte de Grenoble
which reestablished UNEF after the war definer-the
student as a "young intellectual worker", with rights
and duties analogous to those of any other worker. But
it was not until the leftist minority took power fully
twelve years later that the full implications (or, at
least those implications following from Marxism) were
drawn: thus, the syndicalist and pseudo-trade union
terminology; thus, the demands for a student "pr6-
salaire", the student being as entitled to wages
for his. labors as any worker. In application, UNEF's
analyses of the contemporary world and its policies in
national and international affairs become almost :
unintelligible without g special dictionary. As long
as the Algerian problem continued, what often bordered
on a surtealistic collage was held together. In the
post-Algerian period, however, it has not been as
easy for UNEF militants to convert emotional energies
into a broader attack. UNEF congresses since 1962
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�
have'been almost desperate searches for new issues,
new approaches, and even new formulas; it has not
yet succeeded. To this thumbnail sketch of UNEF,
however, must be added the note that UNEF has not
been completely an amalgam of sophomoric philosophical
debate and street demonstrations. What cannot be
omitted is a reference to its practical work toward
the democratization of the French educational system,
and its attempts to find solutions to the immense
problems of the French universities. The real base .
of UNEF's strength is found in its tutorial programs,
its study units .for those unable to find seats in
the classrooms and its reproduction and distribution
of Class notes and scarce text materials. UNEF
publishes a national student magazine; it holds afi
annual cultural festival of some repute; it has
several auxiliary units active in social welfare
programs for students.
As UNEF's domestic position has eroded, its
international influence has increased. UNEF was
the mentor of a large number of national student
unions in the French-speaking Third World, many of
these unions' leaders having gone to school in
France. Its influence in the contiguous French-
speaking areas of Belgium, Luxembourg,- and Switzerland
had a direct product in similar syndical student
unions for those regions. After attempting to further
East-West cooperation in annual European Student
Meetings (which began as a regular bilateral meeting
between UNEF and ZSP, the Polish student union), and
having these forums blocked by East-West tensions,
UNEF. joined the communist-front International Union of
Students in 1964 and accepted a seat on its Executive
Committee. Its tactic in so doing is to work for a
"democratization of the IUS" from within (that is,
the conversion of the IUS from an old-line Soviet
front into a more democratic assembly of, at least,
leftist student.unions).-- though it must be
admitted that UNEF has not pushed this campaign so
far as to antagon4e the Soviets. UNEF's latest
tacti9 is the Conference des Etudiants Syndicalistes
Europeens '(CESE).
-Returning to UNEF domestic politics, it should
be noted that its internal political divisions are not
separate from the adult party structure. The PCPs
student group, the Union des Etudiants Communistes /
(UEC), wa among the leading supporters of the minorite
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government; the �RCP obviously hoped to add um: to ..:
its cluster of fronts. But there is a'real question
of who penetrated or subverted whem. It would appear
from the long-standing difficulties the PCP had in '
keeping the ItEC in line that UNEF's line was not
without influence in the ranks of the presumed
ideologically pure. And more recently, the PCF had
to take the unhappy step of.expelling several
sections, principally that section at the Sorbonne.
(it also appears that a good deal of the PCP's headache
in the UEC was due to itrotskyoid' and pro-Chinese
influences which are not absent from UNEF either.) At
last report, the Parti Socialiste.Unifie/(PSU) was
credited with 'control' of UNEF -- which we would
tend to doubt if 'control' is meant in any sense that
would.t.ie UNEF to TSU policies and programs.
. .
One of PNEF's assets has always been the number
of articulate and talented leaders it could recruit.
Their names are far too numerous to list, but note
should be taken of the following:
Jan-to.uis PENINOU
Pierre YANDENBURIE
Alain WMBEQUE .
Roland .bEMARCY
UNEF International
Commission
� General Secretary
International Commission
Representative to the ItT
Jeunesse Communiste R�volutiOnnaire (JCR)
After the PCF''s purge of the UEC a number of new
organizations appeared, two of which deserve mention. .
The JCR collected the Trotskyist wing of UEC dissidents.
It was formally created in April 1966 on the basis of
250 members (claimed), having a national committee
of 37 and a national bureau of 11. Its major figure
is Alain KRIVINE, once an officer of the UEC. The
JCR publishes Avant Garde Jeunesse. It is a member
of the "Brussels Conn-Fe-rice" of avant-garde youth
organizations, and claims continuing contact with
others: the Getman SDS (see in particular P. 12)
Swedish Clartd, Belgian Etudiants Socialistes, the
PSIUP youth of'italy, the Bertrand Russell Peace
Foundation, the (Trotskyist) Young Socialist Alliance
in the USA, and the American Coordinating Committee
to End the War in Vietnam.
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3. Union de la Jcuncsse Communistc (Marxiste-
Leniniste),
One group of pro-Chinese tendencies joined the
more or .less 'official' Marxist/Leninist Party of
France (the pro-Chinese party headed by Jacques
Jurquet). ,,But a second which refused to bow to the
discipline or a militant party began to collect
around the Centre d'Etudes Marxistes-Leninistes in
.Nancy. After a change of names as it expanded into
Paris and other French university towns, the Thion .
exists now as a small, radical association cooperating
with the Jurquet party under conditions of a truce.
Its, numbers and power should not be overestimated;
it amounts to an extremely small minority of political
activists. But, it is nonetheless able to collect
a fairly' impressive number of signatures to n
rather radical appeal on Vietnam, including those of
Jean Baby, K.S. Karol, Prof. Charles Bettelheim, and
two UNEF militants: .Bernard Schreiner (past .President)
and Jean-Louis Pepinou (mentioned above).
PART II
: VIETNAM'PROTEST COMMUNITY
4. Comite Vietnam National (CVN)
6 rue Lalande, Paris (headquarters of
the Union of Jewish Students of France)
.11 rue Jean de Beauvais, Paris (Paris
region office:' headquarters of the
Federation of Christian Student Associations)
The germinal idea that eventually became the CVN
was a project to establish a Center of Coordination
Against the War in Vietnam, an idea which was blockdd
by orthodox Communist refusal to submit to non-party
coordinating instruments. These energies were then
translated into a more formal entity which, its
activists hoped, would be able to coordinate pnd
expand the'anti-war effort. Thus, the Comitd Vietnam
National was established in October 1966. Its leaders
are by and large the ultra-activists for whom the
caution and comparative conservatism of the PCF's
Vietnam actions border on 'betrayal' of the Vietnamese
'patriots'. (Thi's same quarter of activists was a
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little over five years ago at loggerheads with the PCF
over its self.,serving caution on the Algerian wnr.issuo.)
These adtivists have variously been described as
Trotskyists, pro-Chinese, and Pidclistn (and a 'few of
them are in fact members of naFfie-s--15T�these
orientations)rbut the CVN cannot be listed as
front. for any single tendency.*
At last rending, CVN' claimed the affiliation of 250
local committees (all with separate names and various
orientations) and the formal collaboration of a humber
of national orgamizations. Among the latter, the �
leading 'supporters of the CVN appear to be UNEP, the
PSU, the MOuvement Conte l'Armement Atomique (MCAA),
the Paris 'secretariat' of the International War Crimes
Tribunal, and the Mouvement du Milliard nour le,
Vietnam. A notable absence in this list is the,
Mouvement pour'la Paix,.the official PCP peace front.
The PCP has by and large attempted to ignore the CVN,
hoping it will go away and, when forced to mention it,
dismissing it as insignificant. The PCP feels that the
CVN is adventurist, irresponsible and little more than
a nest of opponents.whoSe unstated goal is to embarrass
and iSolate the party, and the PCF is not too far from
wrong.. But for tactical reasons alone, the PCP has not
burnt its bridges with the CVN, and after an incredibly
complicated minuet, decided to sit down with the CVN
in the Etats-Generaux pour la Paix au Vietnam, a
general conference of French peace organizations held
in May 1967. This attempt to keep its left-skirts
reasonably clean did little to unify, the anti-war
movement:u,nder the Party's influence.
CVN's first national cdnference was held in April 1967
in Paris, 350 deleptes yarticipating., The program
approved by the conference included:
-pairing of French and bombed,North Vietnamese
towns 'and universities;
-collecting blood;
-forming an International Vietnam Committee on .��
the basis of the Tricontinental tonference
decisions; '
-aiding American draft dodgers and military deserters
-boycotting American products.
*It is worth nosing that members of the semi-official
Maoist party came to the CVN's founding conference, found-
no support for its Peking-approved line, and left'. ����
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The CVN has reportedly created two sub-units;
one headed by Denis Berger is a 'Committee for the
Defense of the Arab Countries'; another is an
'Organization for Support of the Latin American
Revolution'. The conference elected a National Board
and a larger National Committee. The names of some
of the more well-known activists are:
latirent SCHWARTZ
Jean-Marie VINCENT
Paul CIAUDEL'.
Denis BERGER
Serge DEPAQUIT
Claude BOURDET
Jacques GRIMBLAT
Jean-Pierre VIGIER
Roger PIC
'
Henri BARtOLI
Jean-Paul SARTRE
Professor; CVN President .
PSU member; CVN Vice President
student; Vice President
.Trotskyoid/PSU; Secretary
ex-UNEF officer; Treasurer
.PSU; from MCAA; member of
.National Board
, Trotskyist; National Board
PCF; National Board* '
'War Crimes Tribunal; National
.Board
:National Board
,National Board
S. Mouvement dti Milliard
The name of this enterprise comes from its objective,
to collect 1,000,000000 (old) Frs ($2,000,000) for
Vietnam. This goal was announced in.a closely-typed
four-page appeal signed by fully 1,000 professionals
of all stripes: PCR, PSU, UNR-WDT, SFIO, pro-Chinese,
and Trotskyist. The original idea was a campaign,
but its organizers fell prey to the natural
bureaucratic tendencies of man and sought to establish
an organization. This change of emphasis was, to
the PCF and several others, a violation of earlier
agreements and a period of acrimony and tension set in.
The PCF eventually withdrew from the Coordinating
Committee of 41.
*While Vigier is still technically a PCF member,
he is completely in the dissident camp and is probably
tolerated by the party only because it believes public
expulsion would risk too great a scandal; they would
rather try to contain whatever damage Vigier is doing.
as a PCF member.
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6. Paris Secretariat: International War Crimes
Tribunal
22 rue Etienne-Marcel
Originally known as the Association of French Friends
of the Russell Peace Foundation, this group was
founded in November 1966. After the first session of
the International War Crimes Tribunal, it became
responsible for the Tribunal's work and future
sessions. The National Board.of the Paris
secretariat consisted of:
Jean-Pierre VIGIER President
Jean-Louis VINCENT Secretary
Claude CADART Treasurer
Many other individuals mentioned above were tied in
with the Paris office: Denis BERGER, Roger PIC,
Joan-Michel KRIVINE; Giselle HALM, Abraham BEHAR,
etc.
Beyond these groups are of course others active on
the Vietnam issues. They include such as the
Inter-Union Action Group (established by UNEF and
sections of the teachers' unions), the Vietnam .
Information Center (created by the pro-Chinese
Marxist-Leninist Party of France), the Franco- .
Vietnam Medical Association (in which figure the
names of Jean-Michel KRIVINE, Francis KAHN, and '
Abraham BEHAR), and the Mouvement Contre l'Armement
Atomique (headed by Claude BOURDET).
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GERMANY
6
PART I
1. Spzialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS)
:Wilhelm Hauff Strasse 5; 6 Frankfurt/Main I
SDS was established in 1945 as the student arm of the
German social-democratic party (SPD), but was expelled
from the spD in 1959 for having taken positions too far
to the left of party policy. SDS has since existed as
an independent, leftist student association. In 1965
it achieved control of the student government committee
(AStA) at the Free University of Berlin, giving it for
the first time since 1959 an established political
base of operations.
SDS' goal is the "transformation of the present society
in West Germany into a socialist society", that reality
being variously defined. SDS is not an organization
unified in ideology: within it are democratic socialists'
to the left of .the SPD, semi-clandestine members of the
(illegal) West German CP; undisciplined Maoists,
Marxists, and trotskyoids. Among its present programs
are: 1/ a policy of confrontation with 'the
establishment:, to "demonstrate the repressive nature
of the German state"; 2/ opposition to. American presence
in Germany, and especially,, to American policies in .
Vietnam; 3/ aid and assistance to U. 'S. military
personnel wishing to desert their posts; 4/ creation of
a "critical university", a Free University on the
American model; and 5/ opposition to the Springer
publishing empire (a program which has received
substantial financial assistance from Rudolf Augstein,
publisher of Der S ie el). SDS publishes Neue Kritik
and SDS-Korre-i-TWn enz.
Among SDS' leaders are the following:
Karl-Dietrich WOLFF
Reimut RICHE
Peter GANG
Erich EISNER
Wolfgang LEFEVRE
Lothar WOLF4TATTER
SDS Federal Chairman, 1967-68
SDS Federal Chairman, 1966-67;
student in Frankfurt
Deputy Chairman; from Berlin
Councilor; from Munich;
member of KPD (Communist Party)
Councilor; from Berlin
Councilor; from Mannheim
Other than Wolff, the names of the '67-'68 officers are
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not available; they were elected at a meeting in
September 1067 in Frankfurt. Of SDS' .27 campus units,
Frankfurt and Berlin are probably the most active and
influential: the former because it is the site of the
national office of SDS; the latter because of Berlin
itself, of the character of Berlin SDS leaders and
because SDS/Berlin is able to take advantage of the
city's unique status to hold sway over SDS' international
policies: Among the Berlin leaders are: .
Erik NOHARA
Rudi DUTSCHKE
Juergen HORLEMANN
former activist, ideological
mentor and eminence LI:at
leader of the Maoist wing
Marxist and'major activist
SDS/Berlin has spawned a number of allied communities
such as the Kommunen (Dieter KUNZELMANN0 Ulrich
ENZENSBERGER, Rainer LANGHANS, and Fritz TEUFEL), a
secondary school student association (UGS -
Unabhaengige Schuelergemeinschaft - of which Peter
BRANDT, son Of Willi BRANDT, is a member; Peter
apparently has adopted Trotskyist views), and an
"old boys" iclub, the Republikanischer Klub (Erik
NOHARA and leftist lawyer Horst MAHLER).
SDS, through its control of AStA, is an important
faction within the Verband Deutscher Studentenschaften
(VDS,�the German National Union of Students) which it
seeks to draw into more radical positions. SDS also
works closely with a number of other derman youth and
student organizations, some of which are listed below.
SDS' attitude toward the TOD is generally one of scorn,
though it does allow KPD members to join SDS; but it also
supports a lifting of the ban on the XPD. Relations between
the SDSYBerlin and the (legal) SED/Wbst Berlin are in a
similar vein, thOugh the SED is worried that SDS will draw
strength from SED youth cadre and thus it tends to keep.
SDS at more of an arm's length than the KPD does. In
general there is no evidence to indicate that orthodox
communist .strength amounts to much in SDS, nor does it
seem likely that the Chinese have been able to control
or guide SDS' Maoist wing.
SDS leaders have had for several years contact with
Soviet authorities in East Germany and with Soviet youth/,
student organitations, such as the Committee of Youth
Organizations CYO) sand the Komsomol. Erik ROWNI in
particular is usually cited as having the best contacts
with theiEast. The attitude on the Bloc's part is one of
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attraction-revulsion: they hope to make use of the
new student radicals.(particulatly to create problems
for Allied military authorities in West Berlin) but at
the same time are aware of the ideological gulf between
SDS and the communists. The East German SED is especially
worried that West Berlin "Maoism" and free-thinking will
infect their yOuth organization, the Free German Youth
(FDJ). Contacts thus between FDJ and SDS are controlled
and semi-clandestine (the East Germans also do not want
to give the. kiss of death to SDS by' too close or public
an association). The Soviet Union, at greater geographia
distance and thus not worried about infection, is more
eager to establish bilateral relations with SDS, but
they still .found it necessary to walk out of the last
SDS congress in protest against what they felt to be .
slandering of the October Revolution. SDS relations with
China appear to be confined to periodic visits by Berlin
Maoists to the Chinese Embassy in the East. Some
financial assistance and, more surely, propaganda has
been made.tvailable to Kunzelmann and Dutschke.
Within Europe, SDS it a member of two regional youth
organizations: the Brussels Conference of avant-garde
youth, and the European Student Syndicalist Conference.
The full extent of SDS' bilateral contacts is not
known (over and above, of course, those also members
of theltwo regional groups), but the following appears
in the files:
Austr4: Socialist Youth (VSS)
Holland: Provos'
Belgium: Ernest Mandel (well-known Trotskyist)
Sweden: Swedish VietnaT Committee;
probably Clarte
France: an unidentified "Marxist/Leninist"
group (pro-Chinese); Etudiants
Socialistes (PSU)
USA: Students for a Democratic Society
One recently ann9unced SDS initiative may be of more
than passing importance, an institute for documentation
and researdh on 'radical' subjects. Among the planned
assets of this institute will be personality dossiers on
'scientisti., politicians, and persons in the public
information field, With special attention to their
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cooperation with...secret services and with firms which
profit from the Vietnam war'. A monthly bulletin is
planned to "expose persons, campaigns, and programs".
The center will be directed by a council made up of an
unidentified Frenchman, an unidentified Ethiopian, Bahman
Nirumand (Iran), Ulrike-Marie Meinhof (German columnist)
and three SDSers, Juergen Horlemann, Christian Semler,
and Peter Gam. In its first specific task, the
Institute is to help organize a summer camp in Cuba to
be named after Che Guevara for 5,000 Europeans and
unknown numbers of Latin Americans and Vietnamese. USBER
Berlin notes that this camp was originally to have been
organized jointly by SDS and the French JeunesseCommuniste
Revoltitionaire.
2. .Soziaidemokratischer Hochschulbund (SHB)
To replace SDS as the party's student organization, the
SPD created the present SHE. That this move did not solve
the problem of .student activism on the left is indicated
by a statement made to an SDS congress in 1966 by SHB's
Federal Chairman: he declared that "both the SDS and SHB
have a common task: Ito' make bourgeois society.
susceptible to new developments'." Though SHB remains
within the .SPD, and SDS outside, the presumed differences
between the two have disappeared or have been shelved for
all practical purposes in pursuit of joint programs and
demonstrations. (Relations between SHE and SDS do
however seem to vary from area to area.)
The names of current SHB leaders are not available.
3. Liberaler Studentenbund Deutschlands (LSD)
Though affiliated with the Free Democratic Party (FDP)
and theoretically beholden to the adult party leadership,
LSD tends to follow in SDS' wake. Relations between LSD
and SDS, according to at least one assessment, seem to
be better than those between SHE and SDS.
�
The names of current LSD leaders are not available.
4. �Humanistisghe Union
(No solid,information on this organization, though it
too is part of SDS' entourage.)
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S. Die Falken
Another SPD youth organizations Die Falken has its
pun history. of leftist tendencies (including some
accents of 'Trotskyism') and contact with Eastern :
youth/student associations. Relations between Die*,
Falken and,SDS are reportedly encellent. Prominent
among Die Fall= are Wolfgang HOMANN, Peter BISCHOF.
and Heinz BEINERT.
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NETHERLANDS
PART I
1. .(The Provos)
The Provas*., young pseudo-anarchists who come closest
to being the epitome of the New Left's Anti-establishment
currents, became active in Amsterdam in June 1965. Their
'ideology' where it can be defined is not the �
phil000phical.anarchism ,of an earlier period. It is
one of.active'opposition to authority: parental, military,
police, and governmental authority. Its hallmark is the
'h'appening', which the Provos transformed from an
avant-garde art form into a method of political action.
Though no small number of youth were attracted to the
provo pattorn, their numbers never were an accurate
measurement of their destructive potential. The Provos
have now disbanded (July 1967). The only sin recognized.
by the movement was Organization.. When leaders of a
'provotariat' began to emerge; when affiliation with
other groups became a question; when their activities
(such as dssisting American deserters) demanded they
open an office .,- when their Eve began to eye the apple
of bureaucracy, they elected to take the novel step of
casting out their Eden.
The international activities of the Provos were very'
much loose sorts of endeavors. Provo leaders were sent
to England (for a IDestruction in Art Seminar'), to
Berlin to. 'train' the Maoist communes (from which they
reportedly came home in disgust, feeling that the
Berliners weren't really serious),'and even to Eastern
Europe. A First (and presumably the last) International
Provo Congress was held in November 1966, attended by
delegates from Belgium, the United States, England,
and among others, one delegate from Prague. .
*Capital 'P' provos is commonly meant as reference
to the provo movement as a political and social fact
of life; lower-cabb 'p' prove refers to the life style.
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Among the names associated with the Provos are:
Irene Donner VAN DER visited Czechoslovakia
WEETERING (usually goes in July 66
by her maiden name, DONNER)
Peter BRONKHORST, and visited Prague to
Enrico RIJKS "lecture on the
Provo movement"
Roel van DUYN ' the ideologue of
the movement
�Rob STOLK an active member of
PSJW (see below)
Luud SCHIMMELPENNINK inventor of the major
� Provo campaigns
Bernard de VRIES elected to the
Amsterdam City Council
Hans METZ 'secretary and fundman'
for the Provos
The comparative youth of these individuals insures that,
though the 'capital P' Provos may be officially dead,
the i1ower7case p' provos will remain around awhile.
BronXhorst was born in 1946; de Vries in 1941; Metz in
1945; van Duyn in 1943; Stalk in 1946.
2. Studentenvakbeweging
Student Syndical Movement (SVB)
About SVB we have little information at hand. It was
founded in:1963, the first outside:of French-speaking
Europe to adopt the syndicalist ideas formulated by
UNEF. ,SVBis an influential minority in the Dutch
national student union (NEX), whose moderate leadership
it hoped to overthrow. It has lent its numbers to'
many of the radical, non-communist Vietnam protest
groups mentioned below, and many of its members are
also members of other groups which range on the
political spectrum from the Provos to the 'orthodox'.
Communist Party of the Netherlands (which, one hastens
to add,, is not typical of European CPs*).
SVB is a member of CESE, the European regional group
of syndicalist unions, and it is the current host-union
*The CPN at the moment has no hold on the SVB
Executive, nor oa the SVB/Amsterdam Executive; SVB-CPN
relations have deteriorated markedly. .
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of the CESE' secretariat. Franciscus Van HAAFTEN was
its representative to the founding CESE meeting in
Brussels. Maartin ABELIN is currently the head of
CESE's secretariat in Amsterdam. The names of current
� SVB officers are not available; Ton REGTIEN is a
principal leader and one whose name should be entered
here.
On other ;members of the Dutch New Left community there
is even less ready information. The more important are
mentioned below in context of their participation in
Vietnam, protest organizations.
. PART 'II
VIETNAM PROTEST COMMUNITY
3. Jonkerencomite Vietnam
Youth Committee Vietnam
In June 1963 an Amsterdam leftist with close contacts
in Trotskyist and Pacifist-Socialist Party circles, Han
Meyer, called a meeting of many organizations on the left
active on the Vietnam issue. The meeting agreed to form
an initiative :group which, in September, became the Youth
Committee,Vietnam. Its membership originally' included:
General Dutch Youth Movement (ANJV) - youth league
of the UP.
Organization of Progressive Student Youth (OPSJ) -
student league of the CPN
Federation of Youth Groups/Amsterdam Section (PJG) -
youth wing of the Labor Party (PvdA)
� Pacifist-Socialist Youth Working Group (PSJW) -
a youth wing of the Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP)
Kerke en yrede.- Dutch. affiliate of the
International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFoR)
Socialist Youth (SJ) - youth organization of
left-socialist orientation
Socialist', Meeting Groups (SOK) - Trotskyist �
Committee, 29 November 1.962
- communist student group
'Politeia' - left socialist student group
101ofspocirt' - a student group
.the Surinamese.,Student Association of Amsterdam
. .
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"the liddnesian student group in Holland
Almost immediately the different tendencies in the
Youth Committee began to tear at the fabric of
unity'. The communist ANJV took exception to the
appointment of Huib RIETHOF of'SVB as President
of the National Board, despite the fact that their
candidate from ANJV, Paul GEERLIGS, was named
Secretary. The Labor Party (PvdA) organizations
went through a period of on-and-off, affiliation, first
withdrawing and setting up new,committees with the
communists, then reaffiliating. The Provos were
admitted to membership in the Youth Committee, to
which the coMmunists again took exception. The net
result was a somewhat tenuous communist hold on the
Youth Committee. Though a large nUmber of the original
organitations.are 'still on the books as members, a
few of the more radical founded a collateral committee.
4. Actie Grpep Vietnam
Action Group Vietnam (AGV)
From all evidence it is the Action Group Vietnam which.
has been in the forefront of most of the more violent
demonstrations and more illegal actions of the Dutch
Vietnam protest community: The Action Group was
' established in. April 1966, representing the undiluted
radicalism;of the Provos, the radical-socialist SJ,
the pacifist-socialist PSJW and of the Pacifist Socialist
Party itself. The communists are not members. The
Action Group -- or at a minimum, its Pacifist-Socialist
member --'has its more sensational reputation from its
assistance to American military deserters, a program
which began in the amorphous Provo quarter and which
.has been taken up by the PSP. O.M. BOETES, a PSP
Senator, has p'ublicly announced his activity and
unqualified support for this program (which is targeted
against the Dutch military as well); Herman HOENEVELD,
an SJ offiCial, has also been identified in the press
as being attively involved in this effort.
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� 41"
GREAT BRITAIN
PART I
1.. New Left Review
7-Urlisle Street, London WI
If the intellectual wing of the new radicalism had
a birthplace, it was probably in the pages of two
journals which -first appeared in 1957: Universities
and Left Review, and The New Reasoner. These
TUBITEFfions two yearT-rater merged into New Left
Review, but separately they neatly symboliii two of
:the more important resources of the New Left:
Universities and Left Review was the voice of the
college intelii-Efarr The New Reasoner drew its
strength from the Comm'airsti-Mtellectuals who left
the CP as a result of the 20th CPSU Congress, Poland
and Hungary. These were soon joined by some of the
less sectarian Trotskyists.. NLR was a half-way house
between left-socialists and dirsadent communists, and
it still reflects the ambivalence of its origins.
About NLR's .history we have little ready information,
but it-influence on the development of new radicalism
outside of England has been noted by several commentators.
NLR's Editor, Perry Anderson, provided-some background
YO-the course of the movement in Great Britain in an
article in NLR (#29, January-February '65):
The New Left had begun a handful of intellectuals;
it Wned a certain --,minority -- middle-class
audience; it never touched any 'section of
the yorkimg class: .... The hope of becoming
a major political movement haunted at, and
ended by dissipating its initial'assets. The
existence, in the CND (Campaign for Nuclear
Disr6mment), .of a genuine mass movement with
a base, but without any articulated ideology,
seemed to offer a vacuum designed for the
New Left:to fill. It tried to do so, in 1960-
61, pnd paid the price.
The price was that the New Left "had lost the virtues
of intel1ectu4Lenergy without gaining those of
political efficacy;" it had got down into the arena
of political maneuvering, had had a certain success
but, when'thw,tide in favor of policies of unilateral
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disarmament ebbed, the New Left was stranded. The ad
hoc alliance of the Left dissolved, and the three �
components of its 1960-61 period of strength
separated. "The Labour [Party] Left had ceased to
provide any serious opposition to party policy. CND
was visibly disintegrating. The New Left was
volatilized. The inheritor of the crises had another
name: Wilson." (Notes on the Labour Party Left and
on CND follow.)
As for the New Left or at least NLR -- it was
"volatilized" toward. Trotskyism and7UF 'Fidelismo'.
Perry. Anderson is a member of the Bertrand Russell
Peace Foundation and of the Nottingham Group of
Trotskyists; Robin Blackburn,' a member of NLR's
Editorial Committee, and Quittin HO.re, majing
editor, are also members of both. Alexander
Cockburn of the Editorial Board attended the. '68
Havana Cultural Congress (as did Blackburn); and
Anderson is a member' of an 'investigating -
committee' to support Regis Debray, On the current
masthead of NLR are the following: Perry ANDERSON
(Editor)r Quiiifiri HOARE (Managing Editor); (Editorial
Committee), Anthony BARNETT, Robin BLACKBURN, Ben
BREWSTER, Alexander COCKBURN, Ronald FRASER, Jon
HALLIDAY, Nicolas KRASSO, Branka MAGAS, Julien
MITCHELL, Roger MURRAY, Tom NAIRN, Lucien RE'!,
Bob ROWTHORN, Gareth'STEDMAN JONES, and Tom WENGRAF.
2. National Association of Labour Student
Organizations (NALSO)
The extremist wing of the Labour party's following
among yoUnger members of the left appears to be
concentrated in NALSO, about which we have little
information. The direction of NALSO's drift may be
indicated by the matriculation of a NALSO officer,
Nigel Harris, into the ranks of the Trotskyists;
he is pow the editor of International Socialism,
a �Trotkyist journal. A clue to the current relations
between NALSO and the Labour Party was found in a ,
report dated January, '67 that NALSO was to be
officially,:read.out of the Party.
3: Radical Student Alliance (RSA)
What the intellectual New Left sought in the CND (and
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did not find) was at activist core; RSA has seemingly
-- and perhaps quite accidental to NLR's efforts --
provided that core. RSA' s origins iFF somewhat murky.
Though .formally established only in January 1967, it
was earlier planned and represented in a group of
student activists, some of whom were members of or
closely connected with the CPGB. There was. some
suspicion that RSA was originally coficeived as a
CPGB front, and that the communist International.
Union of Students was aware of its planned appearance
before the British student was. But whatever its
origins, it is. not so easily dismissed as a tool of
the CPGB. Its line contains elements of American
goals of participatory democracy and of French formulae
of student-workers and a student syndicalist movement.
It seeks a unilty of intellectual and 'practical' work_
(theorizing and political organizing), and defines:
itself as "the, potential vehicle for a student
movement, on a-national level".
� An immediate question for RSA is its policy toward NUS,
the British national, student union (officially titled,
National Union of Students of England, Wales, and
North Ireland; Scotland, for a variety of reasons,
has a separate national student union). Whether it
will remain as a radical caucus seeking to take
command from within NUS, Or withdraw to become a
radical alternative, has not been:finally.decided.
For the present, RSA remains within,, but its most
recent effort to unseat the moderate leadership failed.
Among the,nam9s associated
Fer0s NXHOLSON '
Dav'id WIDGERY
David ADELSTEIN
Matshall.:BLOOM.
� '
with RSA are the following:
National Student Organizer
of the CPGB
journalist; possibly fronts
for the CPGB
leader of a Berkeley-styled
student 'revolt' at the
London School of Economics
American student at LSE
(now in Washington) who had
a major role in the student
'revolt'
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4. Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (BRPF)
3.74 Shavers; Place,, London SW1
The Russell Foundation was founded in September 1963
along with a 'companion 'outfit, the Atlantic Peace
Foundation, to provide a "permanent structure for
the peace movement" and to be devoted to the
investigation of "the causes of war and to pursue
such measures as may eliminate or diminish the risk
of war". Beneath this meritorious language, of
course, is a more obvious commitment to an ill-defined
ideological.position bearing many of the marks of
the New Left -- simultaneously also bearing the marks
.of.dissident communist (e.g., Trotskyist) orientation.
The: Foundation's major effort to date was the highly
touted International War Crimes Tribunal, the history
and intricacies of which we do not propose to delve
into here. The Foundation is not however limited to
Vietnam and the Far East alone. It has an evident
and active interest in the national liberation
movements of Latin America, in the Arab-Israeli
problems'of the Near East, and in developments in the
United States. An allied unit is the Bertrand Russell
Centre for Social Research which plans a series
entitled "Studies in Imperialism and the Cold War".
The .first volume published under the Centre's
auspices is a collection of essays, Containment and
Revolution; (Beacon Press, 1967) edited by lavi'd
Horowitz. It contains analyses written by such diverse
individuals as Isaac Deutscher, William Appleman
Williams (University of Wisconsin), Todd Gitlin
(American 8DS) and John Gittings (formerly of the Royal
Institute of International Affairs and now with the
Institute of International Studies, University of
Chile)..
An early list of Directors of the Foundation named the
following. (Those marked with an.asterisk are members
of the .Nottingham Group of Trotskyists.)
Bertrand Russell
Hamza ALAVI
*Perry ANDERSON
*Robin BLACKBURN
*Kenneth COATES
Emile,de ANTONIO
*Christopher FARLEY
*Ouintin HOARE
*David HOROW4TZ
(Pakistani)
Editor of NLR
NLR Editorilr Committee
Trader of the Nottingham Group)
(American)
Managing Editor, NLR
American; more recently resigned
from this post
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Mark LANE
Dennis PHOMBEAH
Lucien REY
*Ralph SCHOENMAN
a
American; author of Rush
to Judgment
Tanzanian
(French?)
American; Lord Russell's
,private secretary
More recently the staff has been pared down and
is more clearly of Trotskyist' orientation.
PART, II
. VIETNAM PROTEST COMMUNITY
5. 'Campaign.for Nuclear Disarmament/Committee
,of 100/Peace News
The 'great mothl issue' of the late fifties and
early sixties (at least until Vietnam displaced it,
though it had begun a decline earlier) was the
nuclear arms race and disarmament. Its organized
expression was the CND, which sprang into prominence
after the famous Aldermaston peace march of 1958.
CND was at its height a combination of Christian
pacifism, anarchism, and British liberalism (a
movement of direct lineage from earlier campaigns
against the slave trade, the Boer War, etc.).
Its failure was that it proved to be limited to a
single issue; it,was.a movement of protest, not a
coherent and comprehensive ideology of protest:
the energies of the CND were not carried over into
attacks on and alternatives for other issues. It
was this failure that the New Left recognized and
sought toi:cure,. The momentary adoption of a
platform of unilateral disarmament by the Labour
Party was4perhaps the high-water mark of the CND
community; When that policy was rejected, CND began
to disintegrate.
A more radical wing of Christian pacifists and 'Christian
Marxists' separated out and was responsible for the
Committee of 100. But this too has failed to jell
into an opposition of influence and breadth on the
left -- despite the many well-knoun names associated
with the entili disarmament campaign structure --
and the Committee of 100 ha, recently begun to
%
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disband and fall apart as a national organization.
Perhaps the sole surviving expression of the once
powerful CND approach is Peace News, about which
Perry Anderson comments: "TeTriTiffts an interesting
attempt to transcend,the traditional limitations of
pacifist and anarchist thought in the direction of '
greater concreteness. The result still lacks
coherence." (N. Anderson's branding of
Peace News as being in part anarchistic must be
taken.niFtly. It is apparently used in a defamatory
sense. Anderson's group of Trotskyists is at war
with another group which has access to the pages
of Peace News -- though in the above quote the word
'TrBITRViit-T�should not be thought a replacement
for..'anarchistiO
6. British Council for Peace in Vietnam
374 Gray's Inn Road, London W.C.I
Among the many 'peace in Vietnam' committees (that
is, other, than the CPGB's British Peace Council),
two collections merit a brief mention. Foremost is
the Lord Fenner-Brockway-group with which is
associated .a large number of impressive names and
titles, We will not attempt to list these names,
nor to divine the shades of difference in approach
between this organization and a myriad of others.
The British Council's basic orientation can be.
surmised from a.list of its affiliated organizations:.
Parliament
Universities:
Churches:
MP's Ad Hoc Committee for
Peace in Vietnam
Universities Ad Hoc Committee
for Peace in Vietnam
Cambridge' University Committee
for Peace in Vietnam
Student Christian Movement
(observer-member) � �
Union of Liberal Students -
'Colleges and, Universities CND
National Association of
Labour 'Student Organisations
Anglican Pacifist Fellowship.
Baptist Pacifist Fellowship-
Christian Action
Christian Socialist Movement
Fellowship of Reconciliation �
Friends Peace Committee
(observer-member)
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Churches:
Liberals!
Labor � Movement:
Youth:!.
Peace:
Medical:
Women:
Other.:,
�
.Pax
'llnitarian and Free Christian
Peace Fellowship
National League of Young.
' Liberals
A.S.S.E.T.
.Association of Scientific
: Workers
Amalgamated Union of Foundry
- Workers (no. 6
Fire Brigade Union
Coeperative Party (obserV'er-
: member)
.b.A.T.A. (observer-member)
,Independent Labour Party
LCS Educational Committee
LSC Political Committee �
London Typographical Society
Tobacco Workers Union
T & GWU (Taxi Section)
(observer-member)
Youth CND
Youth for Peace in Vietnam
CND �
Consultative Committee for
Peace Organisations
Labour CND
Labour Peace Fellowship �
National Peace;;Council (observer-
member) �
Peace Pledge Union
Russell Peace Foundation
Teachers' CND i
Medical Aid:for Vietnam
Socialist Medical Association ,
Liaison Committee for Women's
Peace Groups,
Women's International League
for Peace.and Freedom ..
British Vi4tnat Committee
Committee qf 100
Movement for Coldnial Freedom
7. War Resisters/Fellowship of Reconciliation/
. Peace Pledge Union
The sub-world of Christian 'pacifism is a definite force
in the British Vietnam protest community, and in the
British New Left. Mott of the international organizations
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to which British pacifist groups belong are mentioned
in the Internationals section; they are cited here
because of:their influence, both within the domestic
community and as the single most important voice in
the internationals.
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BELGIUM
I. Mouvement des Universitaires Beige de
i l'Expression Francaise (MUBEF)/Vereniging
der Vlaamse Studenten (VVS)/Studenten
I Werkbeweging (SVB) .
1
:1
The national student union of Belgium is split into
French- and Flemish-speaking units, MUBEF and VVS
, respectively. Both have tended to follow the lead
1
1
: of the French UNEF and both call themselves �
; syndicalist. VVS is a member of the Secretariat of
I the International Union of Students (IUS), holding
the position of secretary. Its representative in
! Prague is Josef WELLENS. .
Within the VVS there is an influential conservative
element, and Flemish leftists have created a
counterpart in 1967 to the Dutch SVB (q.v.) to unify
and increase their. influence. The European syndical
minority-now apparently views the B�elgian SVB as
the legitimate:syndicalist unit in Belgium and has
established relations with it, thus causing a bit
of acrimony between ,VVS and other European student
unions. 'Some of the individuals associated with the
SVB ,
Paul GOSSENS
Willy. LEMMENS
Ludo MARTENS
Frans,LEMAIRE
Guy MI.CHEL
Wallei DE BOCK
Herwig LEROUGE
Louis VAN D1JCK
Johaft.PHILIPPEN
Marko.FRANCO
2. Revos.
1 . � .
�
The Revos It'e the Belgian equivalent of the Dutch
.Provos. They do not appear to'be nearly as important
as the PrOVos, nor are they particularly active.
Federation des Jeunes Gardes Socialistes (FJGS)
The FJGS i one of the socialist youth wings which
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1
have severed their ties with the orthodox socialist
parties. The FJGS was expelled -- or withdrew --
from the Parti Socia,liste Beige in 1965. It is a
member of the 'Brussels Conference' of avant-garde
youth organizations and served as the host for the
first meeting of this regional collection. From
all evidence its leadership includes a
substantial Trotskyist element which his at least
been able to move it further toward the left.
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All RIA
1. Verband Sozjaliti'scher Studenten (VSS)
�
.VSS is th6 student atm of the socialisf party (SP0e).
It has tended for some time toward the left, and in
1966 VSS members elected a "radical" slate into office. �
Its junior. version for secondary-school students,
Verhand Sozialistischer Mittelschueler (VSM), has' had
a separate and longer history of leftist control. VSS
publishes Die Alternative; VSM, Die Rote Tafel.
-
Though its 'relations with the SPOe are, understandably
enough, strained, VSS' ha had some encouragement .and
support.from the SP0e/left. In general, though', it goes
alone. Communist Party (KP0e) strength in VSS seems to
be minimal. One source Commented, "It is most unlikely
that the Communists are actively giving regular
guidance to the VSS and VSM leaders, who incidentally
disagree with each other frequently and show little
evidence of central direction. The KPOe has had little
Success among young people and is not believed to have
many reliable .cadres Which it could infiltrate into
the socialist youth organizations. .A number of the
intellectual elite of the far left, among socialist
youth, moreover, are strongly opposed to Communism."
The radical slate voted into office by VSS in 1966
consisted of: ;
GunterIRENAK
Walter,PAPUSEK
GunterIBLECHA
Erich.SCHMIDT
Hans WASCHEK
Chairman
Deputy Chairman
Deputy Chairman
..Secretary
Treasurer :
In VSS' Vienna Center, a particular source of leftist
strength, figures the name of Peter KREISKY, the Son of
the former,Foreign Minister and current leader of the
Socialist Party.
The only continuing foreign Contacts shown in current
material on VSS are with SDS Germany. .This isolation
is unlikelito remain true for long, VSS and VSM sent
delegates to th6 Frankfurt meeting of.European Student
Committee on Vi'etnam (see below).
2. Young Revolutionary Marxists
A small group Oich slit off from the Pro-Chinese
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Marxist/Leninist Party of Austria (MLP0e)
around January 1967, this organization is listed as
a question:mark. Not enough is 'known.. It apparently
decided that Franz Strobl's MLPOe was too staid and
tended toward revisionism, and broke away. It
publishes Punka.
This group's apparent leader is Helmut HRONEK (b. 28
May 1941).
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SCANDINAVIA
The information available on Scandinavian New Left
organizations is too sparse to permit solid judgments
of its strength and extent in Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden.* The usu.1 rock under which one finds
evidence of a New Left, the national student union,
is unrewarding. The national unions of Scandinavia
are more or less solidly in the hands of moderates.
It is in he quOrant occupied by the Socialist
People's parties that a search for a New Left must
take place. These parties are within the broad span
of the dissident left to Which the name New Left has
applied,'.hUt they raise again the unsolved problem
of distinguishing between the committed party
militant and non-party radical.** �
�
DENMARK
The Socialiist*eople's Party of Denmark:, and
presumably; its counterpart in Norway, has had some
difficultyjn keeping its youth arm. (SUF, the Socialist
*Finland, ps always a special situation, will not
he considered here. In the opinion,of,a senior
Finnish securit,1;, official, the New Left has if
anything o4y rpcently appeared there. And while it
is distinct from the 'Teddy-boy' element, youthful
anti-establishment dissidence has for the most part
been contained within the established party structures.
**A recent paper on the left in Europe included
these parties in the general�classification of
New Left, or "outsiders". As suggested elsewhere,
this identification is not completely iatitfactory
-- hut then no other alternative is any more
satisfactory'. The paper also suggested that in the
Socialist People's parties the New Left was the
"strongest'.and most united" in Europe. .Whether there
is this identiti, will not be debated he're; but it
could be al-gued:that 'New Left' string0 in Scandinavia
is not found inrits numbers and influence but in
accidents or elections and parliamentaiy coalitions.
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Youth Forum) in line. Its original intent was to
forge a unity, of the radical left (SUF, the left-
wing communist youth and left-socialist youth).
While it 'allowed' itself to be affiliated to
Aksel Larsen's adult party, there was apparently
some opposition to this move. And its list of
officers in 1964 included a few wearing the
Trotskyist sweatshirt. Since 1964 it appears in
fact to have moved away from anything resembling
complete allegiance to the adult party. The same
may be true of the student wing (SF).
Another Danish group, the Voltinteers for Vietnam, is
more easily branded as trotskyoid. The volunteer
corps as an international collection is mentioned
elsewhere,in this paper. With respect to a third,
. the Clarte movement, we have no information readily
at hand and can only raise the question.
NORWAY
However questionable the origins of the Norwegian
Socialist People's Party may have:been (being
originally a splinter from the orthodox socialist
party as compared to the Danish SF's having been a
splinter from the pro-Soviet communist party), the
support that party has gathered from those of
anti-establishment bias is real. 'Norwegians, it
must be borne in mind, are perhaps the most
conservative in Europe. The Norwegian student
union is rightist as compared to others on the
continent, and the .Norwegian SF's.. youth wing� is
small ;and, by comparison, undernourished. Perhaps
closer; to.the normal New Left patern is the semi-
clandestine Radical Socialist Union (RSU)', a faction
working within SP which proclaims itself based on
Marxist ideas with nationalist attitudes to the left
of the SF And to the right of 'the NKP (Communist
Party). RSU plans to remain secret until 1971, perhaps
more to aid public exposure of its thin ranks
than as a policy of tactical efforts from within.
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SWEDEN
1
1
The Swedish Clarfe, on the other hand, is usually included
by other New Leftists as 'a member of the confrerie.
But the charge is also made that Clart'; "has not been
able tb live up to its traditions and to develop a
coherent socialist consciousness. Furthermore, it
is now deeply and bitterly split between a Maoist
tendency, now in control, and others (Social Democrats
and Sermanssonites [after the head of the ultra
-
revisionist Swedish communist party])". This bill
of particulars seems to he correct, .though the Maoists
may have more recently lost control of Clart6. ,
ConfirMed in thie New Left congregation is another
Swedish entity, Zenit. its publisher, Goran
Therborn, writes of-Zenit With the usual egotism.
of the New Left: "Zenit was started in 1957 as a
journal of the syndicalist youth, but has in later
years been the main forum of the Swedish 'New Left':
Its circulation is smaller than that of the more
famous Clartg,�but It' has been of crucial importance
in depriNTWEraliling the Swedish Left,:presenting �
International Socialist discussion, and in contributing
to -- in certain respects one might say introducing --
analytical and ptrategic thinking." Zenit has
recently allied itself with the International Socialist
Journal, published in. Rome by th-e�TITSIUPinzif�(of the
PS1UP).
� 1:
The remarks of.the former chairman of the Swedish CP
youth organization, Kjell Johansson, are amusing. In
a recent article, Johansson wrote, "The (Swedish]
new left is a S,ocialist trend. .... Its political
platform and profile is clearly Marxist. Its
inspiration Is taken from Marxist c,lasics --
Gramsci, Andre Gorz, Perry Andersibn,!.fErnestj
Mandel, and others": Among the Swedish New Left., .
Johansson singles out Goran THERBORN, 6unnar OLOFSSON,
C.H. HERMANSSON [head of the Communist Party!] and �
Christophti HOGSTEDT: among 'its publications, Zenit
and Tidsignal. ,Johansson's appraisal may be taken
with a grain of salt. '
Though certainly not a-member, of the strictly-defined
New ,Left, one particular Swedish peace organization
must be Mentioned: the Swedish Vietnam Committee,
the latest in a series of names appropriated for the
1
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efforts of Berth l Svahnstrom (though it must be
acknowledged that Svahnstrom is not without support;
the Committee is not a facade). It is this .
Committee which now has charge of over twenty American
deserters tn Sweden., For this, its stature in the
Vietnam protest community is excelled only by
BEHEIREN, the Japanese peace group which found and
exfiltrated the 'Intrepid Four'. Svahnstrom from
all evidence is not a communist (at least in the
sense of party membership). But before a large
international World Conference on Vietnam in the
summer of '.67 (for which he was largely responsible),
Svahnstrom demonstrated his eagerness to cooperate'
with and front for the apparatchiki of the old-line
comildnist-'front World Council of Peace.
��;
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ITALY
The type of New Left found elsewhere in Europe does
not seem to be present in Italy. Perhaps the primary
reason for this absence is the PSIUP which has 'coopted'
the left-socialist/Marxist area of the spectrum.
Additionally, Italian political parties seem to be
more permitssive.of internal dissension than counterparts
in other countries -- and the, stultifying discipline
of a bureaucratic party, which is a major reason for
the non- or anti-party rebellion of the, New Left, is
therefore less of a factor.
But white 'a 'proper New Left' does not seem to exist
(unless of 'course the PSIUP is given that label), a
number of Italian organizations are included by other
Europeans 'in the New Left confrerie. These are:
1. Union Goliardica d'Italia (UGI)/National
Union of University Students of Italy (UNURI)
UNORI, recognized as the national student union,
contains four political factions, two of which in
coalition have controlled the union ,since the early
sixties: UGI (an amalgam of students belonging
to the PCli the PSIUP, and the PSI), and INTESSA
(Christian-Democratic). In its international
politics UNURI follows in UNEF's wake, .tempered a
bit by the moderating pressures of the Christian-
Democratic INTESSA. But UNURI's internal politics
have proven to be so volatile and its governing
coalition sp fragile that since 1964 it has more or
less given yp any participation in international
events: it.is a member of neither the communist-
front International Union of Students nor of the
non-communist International Student Conference.
UGI, the. soCialist/communist group,'Ilas maintained
some contact with other European student groups,
as for example with French student 'parties'. But
it cannot hp said to be a major force among European
regional New Left organizations.
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7. (Provos)
Italy has a small counterpart to the more famous
Dutch Provos, hut compared to the Dutch it hardly
merits attention. Its most recent effort was 'an
attempt, t6 'dump LSD into the water System of g
hotel used by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands during
a state visit.
3. PSIUP Youth Federation (FG/PSIUP) .
The Fd/PSIUP is an observer-member.Of the Conference
of avant-garde youth.' It maintains an observer in
the Budapest headquarters of 'the communist World
Federation of Democratic Youth.. '
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SlItTZERLAND
The only Swiss group which the European radicals
seem to recognize as a member of the New Left is
the Action Syndicale Universitaire (ASU), an
association of French-speaking Swiss students
(largely from Geneva, but with growing membership
in Lausanne, Neuchatel, and elsewhere). ASU,is
small; it follows UNEF's lead,
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INTERNATIONAL
.; PART I
1. 'Brussels Conference' of avant-garde youth
drganizations
The 'Brussels Conference' grew out of an effort to
coordinate the anti-Vietnam war activities of a
number of radical leftist youth organizations. Its
first meeting, held following a demonstration in
LAge, was in Brussels in March 1967. Its. membership
consists of the following:
Members:
BELGIUM F4deration des Jeunes Gardes
Socialistes
Union des Etudiants Socialistes/
� � Bruxelles
NETHERLANDS 'Politeia' - left-socialist
student group
Pacifistisch Socialistische
Jongerenwerkgroep (PSJW) -
Pacifist-Socialist Youth
Working Group
Socialistische Jeugd - left-
sociali'st youth group
GREAT BRITAIN Young Socialists of Labour/,
' 'Rebel' Group
Young Socialists of Labour/
; Mitcham Section
GERMANY Sozialistischer Deutscher
Studentenbund (SDS)
Die Falken
ITALY' Falce Martello - described
as the left-wing of the
FGICI, the PCI's youth wing
VANCE Jeunesse,Communiste R4vo1utionnaire
;
.0bserYers:
fFRANCE Etudiants Socialistes Unifies
' (PSU)
I , i ,
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ITALY . Federazione Giovanile/PSIUP
CANADA - Young Socialist Forum
UNITED STATES . Young Socialist Alliance
(Trotskyist)
At the Conference a program of demonstrations, posters,
pamphlets, and bulletins was agreed to; a coordinating
committee .composed of one delegate from each member was
established.; a,secretariat was, at least nomina ly, set
up in Brussels in the care of the FJGS.
A second meeting, described as a meeting of the
coordinating committee was held duting the SDS Congress
in Frankfurt, �September 1967. This meeting adopted
the Latin,Amertcan Solidarity Organization (LASO)as its
own, and noting that since "those of Soviet and Chinese
orientation were silent on the themes developed by
that conference", it pledged itself to spread the
Fidelista,line throughout Europe. Another of its
decisions'was.to hold in Berlin an,international youth
meeting onrVietnam, a plan ,which was received with
some concern by the,Berlin-government and Allied
military authorities (the meeting Was successfully held
in February). 0:Among thoge.attending the Frankfurt
meeting were representatives of SDS Germany, ESU/PSU
France, JCR France, FG/PSIUP Italy,,Faice Martello
Italy, FJGS Belgium; tIES Belgium, aid (a new addition)
the Vietnam Solidarity Campaigh/Youth Section of Great
Britain. A list of individuals who attended the
Brussels Conference is available, unfortunately not
giving the:national organizations wl4ch they represented.,
2. European Student Committee for Peace in Vietnam
On the reported initiative of the Austrian socialist
youth (VSS1, the German socialist Student organization
(SDS) held,a meeting in Frankfurt in February 1966 to
establish the European Student Committee .for Peace in
Vietnam. Attefiding at that meeting,wer,e representatives
of:
ITALY;
FRANCE
1;
,1
Unione Goliardica d'Italia (UGI)
Federation:Geherale des
Etudiants des Lettres (FGEL)
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- the student union of the
Faculty of Letters of Paris,
one of the most radical and
active of French student unions
GERMANY SDS
AUSTRIA
NETHERLANDS'
. �
' SWEDEN
DENMARK
Observers:
VSM-Socialist secondary school
students group
VSS-socialist university students
group
'Politeia' - left-socialist
student .group
Clarte
Socialisti*Studenterforbund -
left-sodialist student forum
NETHERLANDS ASVA - General Students
Association of Amsterdam
GERMANY LSD - ',Liberal Party students
union
SHB - Social-Democratic students
union
The headquarters staffing of this Committee was
delegated to SDS. In fact little has happened under
the name of this Committee and its.pfogram has been
superseded by those of the avant-garde youth
organization and the European Syndicalist Student
Conference.
Conf4rence des Etudiants Syndicalistes
Europeens (CESE)
1 Prins Hendrikkade 13, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The idea for a European regional meeting of !syndicalist'
student groups apparently grew from the bilateral contacts
and seminars held by SDS/Berlin and FGEL/Paris (student
association of the faculty of Letters) in the period
between late '65 and early '66. The first CESE
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exploratory meeting was held in Geneva in June 1966,
and a secOnd in December. The CESE was formally
established at a meeting' in Brussels in March 1967.
Attending this meeting were:
BELGIUM
,h
NETHiRLANDS
. GERMANY
FRANCZ
SWITZERLAND
Vereniging der Vlaamse"Studenten
(VVS)
Mouvement des Universitafres
Belge de l'Expression Francaise
(MUBEF)
Union des Etudiants Socialistes
CUES)
Studentenverkbeweging (SVB)
AStA/Berlin - student government
. of the Tree University
� controlled by SDS .
Union Nationale des Etudiants
de France (UNEF)
Action Syndicale Universitaire
(ASU)
GREAT BRITAIN Radical Student Alliance (RSA)
SPAIN .Sindicato Democratic� de
Estudiantes de Espana (SDEE)
PORTUGAL Secretariado dos Encontros
de Estudiantes Portugueses
' no Estringeiro (SEEPE)
IRELAND 'Union of Students of Ireland
: (US1) ; �
I t
The purpose of � this organization is.to coordinate'and
assist student participation in the democratization
of education, "with all its political, social, and
economic implications". Its intention is to create
an intermediate bloc between East and West. Its all-
consuming priority of the moment is Vietnam.
A second meetirig of the CESE was held around September in
Berlin, sponsored by AStA (read SDS). .Among the.
decisions of that meeting was one to establish a
provisional secretariat in AmsterdaM, facilities Provided
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by SVB Netherlands. 'Each member is permitted to
send A representative to Amsterdam to staff the
secretariat. Its head is Maartin ABELIN of SVB.
PART II �
VIETNAM PROTEST COMMUNITY
There are not unexpectedly a number of formal
international organizations and ad hoc gatherings
on the Vietnam issue, ranging fromTWE Christian-
pacifist International Fellowship of Reconciliation
(IPOR) to the single-shot meeting in Brussels of
"International Conference of Solialrity with the
Vietnamese People" which collected an interesting
group, of orthodox, pro-Soviet Communists, pro-
Chinese communists, Trotskyists, left-socialists,
New Leftists, and virtually every other shade of
'peieeniki,and 'vietnik'. 'A few of these are listed
here for identification purposes.
4. Corps des Volontaires Civiles pour le Vietnam
This appears to be.a Trotskyist initiative, though
undoubtedly with the emotional �backing of a few of
the mere radical sectors of the New Left. Sections
of this planned international brigade are said to
exist in France (Jacques GRIMBLAT)t, Switzerland
(Marc-Henri TROLLIET), Denmark) Holland, and nascent
units.plse0ere. The idea of international
brigade, either fighting alongside the Viet Cong
or working!,on civil reconstruction projects in the
North,,has.,cropped up in the plans of organizations
other than �those with Trotskyist influence. And
these iorojects have been discussed at various points
with D'AV and NLF Vietnamese. the official Vietnamese
position hs been a polite 'no thanks', and it appears
highly doubtful that any organized international
brigade will be allowed to send members into Vietnam.
Nonetheless as a political tactic, the Corps is an
excellent idea which has proven a useful tool to radical
leftists who seek to.establish their' militancy on the
'Vietnam quRstion,
4 �
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S.
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S. War Resisters' International (WRI)
88 Park Avenue, Enfield, Middlesex, Great Rritain
WRI is an old.-line pacifist organization which was
founded in 1921. Its program has consistently been
one of opposition to all war and military service,
and it has not hesitated to adopt extra-legal programs
to further its objectives. One of its current
programs has had a certain notoriety: inducement and
assistance to U. S. military deserters. WRI has
affiliates in most of the European ,countries and the .
United States... (Its American affiliate, War Resisters'
League, is'active here in the draft resistance program.).:..
Though the WRI does not refuse the Support of .
communists, nor; of communist internationals (e.g., the
World Council of Peace), it does not appear to contain,
a significant communist faction. (An exception may
be its German affiliate which local authorities have
viewed with concern for some time.), Among its ,
international officers are such names as Danilo Dolci
(Italy), Johan Galtung (Norway), Devi Prasad (India),
and Bayard,Rustin (USA).
6. International Confederation for Disarmament and
Peace (ICDP)
Hendon Ave., London N. 3.
�
�
The ICDP was cneated'to be a non-partislan international
organization open to all organizationsfinterested in
peace and.willing to "oppose the policies of any
government, including its'. own, if they.depart from
these objectives". Language of this type would seem
to exclude.the.range of Communist fpni, instrumentalities
in the peace field, and many of thelICAP's initial
members consideted it to be the legitiMate replacement
for the World Council of 'Peace, the ,international
communist,fronti Several within the ICDP have
nonetheles argued for cooperation 10.th the WCP, and
the matter of relations with the WCP was decided not
by formal approval of the' membership but by the .
willingneSs of many of its top officers tb enter into
cooperation and, by the natural mutuality of interest
in opposition tO.American policy on-Vietnam.'
The ICDP is probably the most influential- of the non-
communist.peace,organizations, not so much as an
organization in;its own right but ai the umbrella
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covering a score of important and effective
national and international groups. Among the ICDP's
affiliates are the WRI, the International Fellowship
of Reconciliation, the various national Quaker
pacifist units, various sections of the CND, the
American SANE, etc.
)1
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