As a New Leftist of sorts I agree. The Civil Rights movement was one of
the founding movements of the Sixties and New Left and much of that was
working class in origin, not something that escaped us.
We in SDS were talking about the working class, the labor movement and
community work from the get go. It was always part of the agenda.
For a time we were campus based because thats where the organizing for
organizers was and where radical politics could develop. It was more
difficult to develop radical and revolutionary politics in mass based
efforts. Folks needed to learn and develop ideas and strategies first.
We always had ties to the Black community where the major organizing,
especially among the radicals was working class and community based.
So in both of the fields we always pushed for moving more of our activities
to the community and work place. When SDS was breaking up in 1969, many of
us easily moved into working class organizing full time. It wasn't much of
a jump.
In our groups in LA, folks got jobs in major industrial facilities and went
right to work in unions and forming radical caucuses.
Moved into poor and working class neighbors and organize there.
In some areas one might assume the New Left and/or student movement was
made up of upper middle class types but most folks I knew were from working
class origins or what past for the "middle class" at the time.
At 07:01 PM 3/19/2002, you wrote:
>Quoting William Mandel <wmmmandel@earthlink.net>:
>As a contributor to the forthcoming book "Re-Examining the New Left,"
>I'll chime in here, regarding the subject of new leftists who went
>into organizing labor. In 1986, the University of Illinois Press
>published my study of this exact subject: The New Left and Labor in
>the 1960s. Not only to I spend some time showing that a significant
>segment of new leftists either expressed an interest in the working
>class and/or actually became organizers, I note that the New Left
>itself was in many ways rooted in the old left/labor nexus. The Port
>Huron statement for one, as many know, was written at the UAW's Port
>Huron retreat. Several "social activist" unions, most prominently
>the United Packing House Workers, helped SNCC. Other left-wing unions
>were involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements from the
>start. This does not mean that all of the New Left was pro-labor or
>that even if and when it saw itself as prolabor that the labor
>movement welcomed its support.
>Ironically, I do not discuss this subject in the aforementioned
>book. Instead, I present a case study of the civil rights movement
>in Cambridge, MD. But I would welcome further discussion of the
>subject of the relationship between the new left and labor.
>Yours, Peter B. Levy
>Associate Professor of History
>York College
>
> > I know nothing whatever about the role of the post-SDS new
> > left going
> > into organizing the blue collar work force in the 60s-80s. I
> > do know
> > that in the Berkeley and San Francisco areas, I, a defected
> > Old Leftist
> > (CP until 1956) and at that time still a Marxist, enjoying
> > considerable
> > standing among youth because of my role in the 1960 HUAC
> > hearing
> > ("Operation Abolition," "Berkeley in the Sixties," "KPFA on
> > the Air")
> > and as an FSM Executive Committee member, then continued to
> > believe that
> > the future lay with the blue-collar working class and
> > successfully urged
> > quite a number of well-known young activists to take that
> > route. Some
> > became union leaders. Some are now retiring.
> > I would guess that in other localities as well, former or
> > continuing
> > CP members played that same role. I know that, as opportunity
> > offered, I
> > presented that idea in my Pacifica broadcasts heard in New
> > York and Los
> > Angeles as well as the Bay Area.
> > Bill Mandel
> >
> > Bob Anderson wrote:
> > >
> > > I have not seen the book but any text on this subject has to
> > start including
> > > some of the new documentation of the role of the post-SDS
> > new left who went
> > > into organizing the blue collar work force in the 60-s80s...
> > my
> > > dissertation, for one, studies this in the Pittsburgh steel
> > industry.
> > > Rivethead is another, and I suspect Barbara Kingsolver would
> > fit this
> > > description. This is perhaps one of the greatest activities
> > of the new left
> > > and it is barley mentioned or included in any texts.
> > >
> > > bob anderson
> > > albuquerque, nm
> > >
> > > > From: William Mandel <wmmmandel@earthlink.net>
> > > > Reply-To: sixties-l@lists.village.virginia.edu
> > > > Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 20:08:52 -0800
> > > > To: sixties-l@lists.village.virginia.edu
> > > > Cc: sixties-l-digest@lists.village.virginia.edu
> > > > Subject: Re: [sixties-l] The New Left Re-Examined
> > > >
> > > > Knowing nothing about this unpublished new book, I would
> > like to
> > > > recommend, as the best book thus far on the Sixties, one
> > that has had
> > > > little attention in the usual sources because it does not
> > set out to be
> > > > academic, although contributed to largely by professors
> > (Leon Litwack,
> > > > Clayborne Carson, etc.]. Presented as a coffee-table
> > picture book, it is
> > > > titled THE WHOLE WORLD'S WATCHING: Peace and Social
> > Justice Movements of
> > > > the 1960s and 1970s, and was published last year by the
> > Berkeley Art
> > > > Center Association. The 23 essays are on, and virtually
> > all by, the full
> > > > spectrum of movements: anti-HUAC, civil rights, FSM,
> > Vietnam War, peace,
> > > > women's, lesbian and homosexual, Latino, Native American,
> > disability,
> > > > environmentalism. It is the thoughtfulness of the authors,
> > plus the fact
> > > > that all were either participants or contemporary
> > observers of the
> > > > events, that makes it so fine a contribution to
> > historiography. The
> > > > Berkeley Art Center Association is at 1275 Walnut St.,
> > Berkeley, CA,
> > > > 94709. <berkeleyartc@earthlink.net> .
> > www.berkeleyartcenter.org. I have
> > > > no idea as to whether examination copies are offered.
> > > > William Mandel
> > > >
> > > > John C Mcmillian wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >> Hi,
> > > >> Along with Paul Buhle, I've co-edited a book called "The
> > New Left
> > > >> Re-Examined," which (fingers crossed) is coming out next
> > fall from Temple
> > > >> University Press. Briefly, this is a collection of
> > revisionist
> > > >> essays on the New Left, written by scholars who are too
> > young to have had
> > > >> any first-hand experience with the movement. They come
> > from a variety of
> > > >> perspectives, but most of them dissent, in some fashion,
> > from the current
> > > >> orthodoxy of historical writing on the New Left. The
> > Table of Contents is
> > > >> listed below.
> > > >>
> > > >> Anyhow, I'm writing this listserve because Temple wants
> > the names and
> > > >> addresses of of professors who teach courses on the
> > Sixites, or on American
> > > >> Radicalism, who might be interested in assigning such a
> > book - presumably to
> > > >> send them examination copies. So if anyone fits this
> > description, please
> > > >> feel
> > > >> free to send me a private email and I'll put you on the
> > list!
> > > >>
> > > >> Many thanks,
> > > >>
> > > >> John
> > > >>
> > > >
> > > > ========================================================
> > > >
> > > > My autobiography, SAYING NO TO POWER (Creative Arts,
> > Berkeley, 1999),
> > > > was written for the general reader. However, if you teach
> > in the social
> > > > sciences consider it for student reading. It is a history
> > of how the
> > > > American
> > > > people fought to defend and expand its rights in my
> > lifetime, employing
> > > > the form of the life story of one who was involved in most
> > serious
> > > > movements: labor, student, peace with the USSR, civil
> > rights South and
> > > > North, civil
> > > > liberties (I seriously damaged the Senate Internal
> > Security Committee,
> > > > the McCarthy Committee, and the House Un-American
> > Activities Committee
> > > > with spectacular testimonies that may be heard/seen on my
> > website,
> > > > http://www.billmandel.net ), the RADIO OF DISSENT (37
> > YEARS ON
> > > > PACIFICA),
> > > > with very extensive information on its history) and the
> > feminist
> > > > movement,
> > > > although I am male. The book contains some fifty pages on
> > my late wife,
> > > > Tanya, appearing appropriately throughout the book. They
> > may be found in
> > > > the index under Mandel, Tanya. My activities began in
> > 1927. I am 84. The
> > > > book
> > > > is available through all normal sources. If you want an
> > autographed
> > > > copy,
> > > > send me $23 at 4466 View Pl., Apt. 106, Oakland, CA.
> > 94611
> > > > ========================================================
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> > ========================================================
> >
> > My autobiography, SAYING NO TO POWER (Creative Arts, Berkeley,
> > 1999),
> > was written for the general reader. However, if you teach in
> > the social
> > sciences consider it for student reading. It is a history of
> > how the
> > American
> > people fought to defend and expand its rights in my lifetime,
> > employing
> > the form of the life story of one who was involved in most
> > serious
> > movements: labor, student, peace with the USSR, civil rights
> > South and
> > North, civil
> > liberties (I seriously damaged the Senate Internal Security
> > Committee,
> > the McCarthy Committee, and the House Un-American Activities
> > Committee
> > with spectacular testimonies that may be heard/seen on my
> > website,
> > http://www.billmandel.net ), the RADIO OF DISSENT (37 YEARS
> > ON
> > PACIFICA),
> > with very extensive information on its history) and the
> > feminist
> > movement,
> > although I am male. The book contains some fifty pages on my
> > late wife,
> > Tanya, appearing appropriately throughout the book. They may
> > be found in
> > the index under Mandel, Tanya. My activities began in 1927. I
> > am 84. The
> > book
> > is available through all normal sources. If you want an
> > autographed
> > copy,
> > send me $23 at 4466 View Pl., Apt. 106, Oakland, CA. 94611
> > ========================================================
> >
John Johnson
Change-Links Progressive Newspaper
change@pacbell.net or change-links@change-links.org
http://www.change-links.org
Subscribe to our list server. Email change-links-subscribe@egroups.com
(818) 982-1412
Cell (818) 681-7448.
===
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