New American Movement

New American Movement

The New American Movement (NAM) was founded in 1971 by a group of leaders of opposition to the Vietnam War to serve as a forum for discussing where and how to redirect their activities. The call to convene was issued by Michael Lerner. Lerner became distant from the organization shortly after it was founded and went on to start the magazine Tikkun.

In its early years, NAM shared much of the political framework of the New Communist Movement, but rejected the strategy of building a "vanguard party", a position prominent NAM members defended in a debate in the pages of the National Guardian. The organization was built around local groups called "chapters," which emphasized Marxist study, discussion of contemporary issues, support of local labor actions, and work in the community to raise awareness.

By the early 1980s, after a great change in the American political climate and the departure of some of its more radical members, NAM had moved away from its original neo-Leninist orientation and adopted a more traditionally social democratic outlook, culminating in a merger with the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) in 1982 to form the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). [1] At the time of the merger, NAM claimed 2,500 members.[2]

Richard Healey, son of Los Angeles Communist Party leader Dorothy Healey, was a leader of NAM from its founding in 1971. After his mother resigned from the CPUSA in 1973[3] Richard worked on recruiting her to NAM, which she joined in 1974. In 1975 Dorothy Healey joined Richard on NAM's National Interim Committee, and later became a Vice Chair of DSA in 1982.[4]

The official organ of NAM was a magazine called Movin' On. The independent journals Radical America and Socialist Revolution (later Socialist Review) were also vaguely associated with NAM, as was the weekly socialist newspaper In These Times, which had its share of supporters within NAM, DSOC, and ultimately the DSA.

References

  1. ^ Elbaum, Max (2002). Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals turn to Marx, Mao, and Che. London and New York: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-617-3.  pp. 118-20
  2. ^ Davis, Mike (1986). Prisoners of the American dream : politics and economy in the history of the U.S. working class. London: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-131-4. 
  3. ^ Progressive Los Angeles Network
  4. ^ Dorothy Healey and Maurice Isserman, Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party (Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 245-249.

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • New American — may refer to: New American cuisine The New American Bible The New American Standard Bible The New American, a publication of the John Birch Society New American Library, a book publisher The New American Poetry 1945 1960, a classic poetry… …   Wikipedia

  • New Jewel Movement — Founded 11 March 1973 (1973 03 11) Merger of Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education, and Liberation (JEWEL) and Movement for Assemblies of the People (MAP) Newspaper The New Jewel …   Wikipedia

  • New Age movement — Movement that spread through occult communities in the 1970s and 80s. It looked forward to a New Age of love and peace and offered a foretaste of the coming era through personal transformation and healing. The movement s strongest supporters were …   Universalium

  • New Religious Movement — Introduction       the generally accepted term for what is sometimes called, often with pejorative connotations, a “cult.” The term New Religious Movement has been applied to all new faiths that have arisen worldwide over the past several… …   Universalium

  • New religious movement — A new religious movement (NRM) is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider …   Wikipedia

  • New Communist Movement — Part of the series on Communism …   Wikipedia

  • New Culture Movement — The New Culture Movement (simplified Chinese: 新文化运动; traditional Chinese: 新文化運動; pinyin: Xīn Wénhuà Yùndòng) of the mid 1910s and 1920s sprang from the disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Chinese Republic …   Wikipedia

  • New American Bible — Full name: New American Bible Abbreviation: NAB Complete Bible published: 1970 Textual basis: NT: Novum Testamentum Graece 25th edition. OT: B …   Wikipedia

  • New American Poetry, 1945-1960, The —    Donald Allen, ed. (1960)    This landmark anthology, edited by Donald M(erriam) Allen (1912–2004), introduced Beat poets and other avant garde post–World War II poets to a wide reading audience on its publication by Grove Press in 1960. It… …   Encyclopedia of Beat Literature

  • New Left Movement (Peru) — Peru This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Peru …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”