The dialectics of liberation: the old left, the new left and the counter-culture

Abstract

The parliamentary old left was widely seen as confronting a serious crisis of social change and political realignment as a result of the affluence associated with the long period of economic growth after 1945. The second great proposition to consider is that of the new left, understood as referring to a range of views considering organised labour as having become too incorporated to remain a progressive force and looking instead to new, youthful and largely middle-class, movements to bring about a liberation of social institutions from traditional authoritarian and alienated forms. The third great proposition to consider is that of the counter-culture. For many of those who took part, the Dialectics of Liberation Congress had a paradoxical outcome: what had been intended as a critical inquiry into the social and psychological roots of violence had turned into a celebration of the use of violent means in pursuit of progressive ends.