The Third World War

THE THIRD WORLD WAR The term “New Left” is vague. Since the New Left is, first, revolutionary activity and sentiment, you cannot point to one organization and say, “This is the New Left.” There is no official “New Left International” or “New Left Party.” There are only individuals, groups and organizations that in one or another degree express New Left sentiments and act along New Left lines.

Generally speaking, the romanticism of the New Left is more attractive to the young than to the old except for a few arrested adolescents like Dwight Macdonald who are titillated by New Left antics. As everyone knows, the university campuses have been the hot house for New Left growth, and the most conspicuous New Leftists have been students or relatively young teachers. In this country Students for a Democratic Society has become the best-known organization with a New Left orientation. In West Germany, it is the Socialist Students’ League, led by Karl-Dietrich Wolff (who spent an activist year in the United States); in France, the National Union of Students (UNEF); in Britain, the Radical Student Alliance, led by an immigrant from Pakistan, Tariq Ali; in Italy, the Movimento Studentesco; in Japan, the Sampa Zengakuren. Such organizations, however, have no monopoly on New Leftism. The New Left attitude and mode of action are present within many other campus groups and have found their way off campus into almost all organizations of the Left.

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James Burnham

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THE THIRD WORLD WAR The term “New Left” is vague. Since the New Left is, first, revolutionary activity and sentiment, you cannot point to one organization and say, “This is the New Left.” There is no official “New Left International” or “New Left Party.” There are only individuals, groups and organizations that in one or another degree express New Left sentiments and act along New Left lines.

Generally speaking, the romanticism of the New Left is more attractive to the young than to the old except for a few arrested adolescents like Dwight Macdonald who are titillated by New Left antics. As everyone knows, the university campuses have been the hot house for New Left growth, and the most conspicuous New Leftists have been students or relatively young teachers. In this country Students for a Democratic Society has become the best-known organization with a New Left orientation. In West Germany, it is the Socialist Students’ League, led by Karl-Dietrich Wolff (who spent an activist year in the United States); in France, the National Union of Students (UNEF); in Britain, the Radical Student Alliance, led by an immigrant from Pakistan, Tariq Ali; in Italy, the Movimento Studentesco; in Japan, the Sampa Zengakuren. Such organizations, however, have no monopoly on New Leftism. The New Left attitude and mode of action are present within many other campus groups and have found their way off campus into almost all organizations of the Left.