Young Socialist Men in 1960s Britain

This article examines the political, social and psychological experiences of a group of young working-class men who in the early-to-mid 1960s became active members in branches of the Labour Party Young Socialists. Concentrated in London's East End, these branches had become increasingly open to the politics of International Socialism, a tiny libertarian Trotskyist group that provided these young men with a political education and a social circle, and propelled them into a bourgeoning activist network. Activism in their groups occurred at a crucial moment of personal and political transition – social maturation from child to adult intersected with the formation of a new and distinctive extra-parliamentary culture on the British left that came to full fruition around Britain's anti-war movement, the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. The formation of this collection of inner lives occurred simultaneously in the context of real social and economic shifts in the men's local landscapes as well as the wider international Cold War climate. Drawing upon oral history interviews with former Young Socialist members, this article explores the cultural and social expression of these working-class men, looking at subjectivity and gender to understand how their sub-culture provided for childhood structures of feeling and early class identity and to consider what meaning they derived from active socialist involvement. Against the historiography of sixties youthful protest politics, the men's testimonies show that experiences of inner transformation were not exclusive to enclaves of Britain's university students. The oral history interview provided a route through which to open up the subjective experience of early Trotskyist involvement and for the men to claim a valid space in the individual and collective memories of sixties political activism.

Communism · Historiography · Oral history · Political science · Political subjectivity · Politics · Socialism · Sociology · Solidarity · Subjectivity · Anthropology · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US

• Gifted Children, Youth Culture, and Popular Individualism in 1970s and 1980s Britain

  Open Access•Jennifer Crane•The Historical Journal•2022

  Incluir item

• A Phenomenology of Working Class Experience

  Open Access•W Peter Archibald, Simon J Charlesworth•The Canadian Journal of Sociology•2001

  Incluir item

• Subculture

  Dick Hebdige•1991

  Incluir item

• Gender and Working Class Identity in Britain during the 1950s

  Stephen Brooke•Journal of Social History•2001

  Incluir item

• Structures of feeling and socio-cultural formations

  Open Access•Paul Filmer•British Journal of Sociology•2003

  Incluir item

• Slipping Out of View

  Michael Roper•History Workshop Journal•2005

  Incluir item

• Working Papers in Cultural Studies

  Paul Buhle•Radical History Review•1979

  Incluir item

• The past is before Us

  Sara Dunn, Sheila Rowbotham•Feminist Review•1989

  Incluir item

• Becoming a Woman and Other Essays in 19th and 20th Century Feminist History

  Open Access•Norma Clarke, Sally Alexander•Feminist Review•1996

  Incluir item