Among the Ordinary People

New Left Involvement in Working-Class Political Mobilization 1956-68

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4494865
AutoresMadeleine Davis (0009-0006-4837-269X, Queen Mary University of London, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen86
Páginas133-159
Fecha de publicación2018-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory Workshop Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hwj/dby018
OpenAlexW2884939758
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas4

The British New Left's lack of influence in working-class and labour movement politics is often adduced as evidence of political weakness and contrasted unfavourably with its evident strength in matters of ideas and theory. Yet the substance of New Left efforts to reach or create a social base for its ideas has rarely been examined. Focusing on the period between 1956 and 1968, this essay demonstrates that New Left involvement in working-class political mobilization was more persistent and significant than is usually recognized. New Leftists played a key role in the Fife Socialist League founded by miner Lawrence Daly, attempted to establish a New Left 'industrial wing', and pursued socialist educational and agitational work in working-class organizations and communities. Though not producing the 'political breakthrough' envisaged by some protagonists, these engagements need not be seen as having failed, but as having created links and resources of significance for local and community histories. Closer attention to such engagements also rebalances a historiography that has focused on internal discontinuities and theoretical debates, offering a fuller sense of the New Left's activism and of its contribution to British political economy

Historiography · New Left · Working class · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Political and Economic history of UK and US