New American Movement

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The New American Movement (NAM) was founded in 1971 by a group of leaders of opposition to the Vietnam War to serve as a forum for discussing where and how to redirect their activities. The call to convene was issued by Michael Lerner. Lerner became distant from the organization shortly after it was founded and went on to start the magazine Tikkun.

In its early years, NAM shared much of the political framework of the New Communist Movement, but rejected the strategy of building a "vanguard party", a position prominent NAM members held in a debate in the pages of the National Guardian. By the early 1980s, after a great change in the American political climate and the departure of some of its more radical members, NAM had moved away from these positions and adopted a more traditionally social democratic outlook, culminating in a merger with the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee in 1982 to form the Democratic Socialists of America. [1] At this time NAM claimed 2,500 members[2].

NAM was led for most of its life by Dorothy Healey, who had resigned from the Communist Party USA in 1973[3] but continued to hold to very similar political views. Barbara Ehrenreich was also a prominent NAM member [citation needed], and the journal Socialist Review was strongly associated with NAM.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Elbaum, Max (2002). Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals turn to Marx, Mao, and Che. London and New York: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-617-3. pp. 118-20
  2. ^ Davis, Mike (1986). Prisoners of the American dream : politics and economy in the history of the U.S. working class. London: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-131-4.
  3. ^ http://www.progressivela.org/history/fifties.htm
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