Dragon
Senior Member
- Sep 16, 2011
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The SDS/Weather Underground created the term "New Left" and progressives refer to themselves as "progressive."
SDS and the Weather Underground were not the same organization, and neither of them invented the term "New Left." In fact, it emerged from French politics (as "nouvelle gauche") used by Claude Bourdet, the editor of France Observateur, in an attempt to define a third leftist position distinct from the Stalinists and the Social Democrats who dominated the left at that time (the 1950s). The term was adopted by dissident British and American Communists after the confused response of the Communist Parties in those countries to the Hungarian revolution of 1956. The new left was basically a revolt against the old left.
SDS was a large and influential left-wing organization in the 1960s and 1970s (which was reincarnated in 2006, incidentally) and is considered part of the new left, but certainly did not invent the name. The Weather Underground splintered away from SDS and formed a very small group that engaged in bombings. It's also considered part of the new left, but was not nearly as important or influential although it made lots of headlines. Its political agenda was much more radical than that of SDS, as well as its methods.
"Progressive" is a very broad term that basically means the same as "liberal." The new left was all progressive, but not all progressives were new leftists (or old leftists, or whatever).