Out of Apathy

The New Left came into being in the late 1950s, in the aftermath of 'Hungary' and 'Suez'. Its aim was to open up a Left political space between Stalinist orthodoxy and bureaucratic social democracy. The movement affirmed a humanist socialism which extended the political agenda to incorporate a range of cultural issues, and an activism which helped mobilize support for such causes as CND's first Aldermaston marches. This collection of essays examines the effects New Left ideas have had on subsequent political formations, and the relevance of these ideas in today's political climate. Based on a conference held in 1987, in which the original participants of the movement reconsidered their New Left Experience in the light of contemporary developments, the book brings some of Britain's leading Left intellectuals into debate on such issues as Marxism and Socialist Humanism, Women in the New Left, Non-alignment and the Cold War, New Left Economic policy, and Born-again Socialism.