Week 8 — Class Notes

In class we have examined the new left and communist intellectuals in the west, and we want to understand why these groups, with an emphasize on the new left, would do things or make claims that are not true.

The new left: includes mostly white young college students. They were protesting for the lack of freedom by comparing themselves to the black in the south, like they were being oppressed by the colleges. However, it is clearly not true.

Communist intellectuals: they were divided that one group believed proletariat are the real fighting force for the revolution; intellectuals were mostly peripheral. The other group believed that intellectuals should act as the leading force and lead the proletariat through the revolutions.

The new left emerged as some students felt that unions had been compromised and were no longer fighting for the revolution. So they turned to what they believed to be the most oppressed group in the society, and thus reached out to the urban poor, attempting to recruit them to join the revolution against capitalism.

Key Question: What is the cause of this social phenomenon? Why did the new left (student movements) rise in the 1970s?

• Young people felt that they should solve the problems the previous generation had.
• The new left promoted the “free speech” movement, but only then criticized and tried to silence those with ideas different from theirs.
• The baby boomer generation: born into a generation with material prosperity and in peace. As a result, children received extensive attention from parents; parents willing to take really good care of their children and spend money and time on them. Children were raised to feel that, for the first time perhaps, they themselves are important. The society at that time valued youth greatly.
• Russia: emerging secularist view on the world – the old worldview and morality are completely corrupt and must be taken down.

From the new left, we then were able to connect to the civil right movements in the 70s and the Black Panther. The differences between the old left and the new left are similar to the early and late civil right movements.

In the reading for this class, we read about the case of George Jackson.

George Jackson

• Wrote Soledad Brothers
  • How did the book appeal to the new left?
    • The new left felt that the proletariat movements are no longer revolutionary (union workers are not trying to overthrow the society). Thus, the new left needed to find another “cause” to fight for and to revolutionize the society. They then turned to the urban poor. Marx did not believe that this class could be a revolutionary force.
    • The new left’s reasoning is that they want to undo oppression in the society. And the most oppressed social classes (urban poor & criminals) would understand it best. The criminal & prisoner class thus became a possible force for the gnostic movement.
    • This is, whoever, contrary to Marx’s ideas.
• His view on the civil rights movement: 
  • America is fundamentally corrupt.
  • It has to be dismantled and rebuilt entirely.
  • Not reformism.
  • Away from early civil rights movements.
  • According to the gnostic philosophy, once an oppressed class has been identified, nothing can stop it or the revolution. Everything against it are enemies.