The New Left was a term applied to activists, educators, and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had focused mostly on labour unionization and questions of social class. The”New Left” was associated with the hippies and college campus protest movements. At the core of this was the Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS. They sought to correct the perceived errors of “Old Left” parties in the post-WWII period.
Post-left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that promotes a critique of anarchism’s relationship to traditional leftism. Some post-leftists seek to escape the confines of ideology in general, also presenting a critique of organizations and morality. The contemporary network of collectives CrimethInc. is an exponent of general post-left anarchist views.
Primitivism is a particularly extreme class of post-leftist anarchism that believes that civilization is the root cause of oppression. Some notable primitvists, such as John Zerzan, advocate humanity’s return to more close-knit, tribalistic hunter-gatherer societies as a means of reclaiming our lost humanity. Others, such as Derrick Jensen, argue that destruction of civilization is the only way that we can prevent the complete destruction of our planet, and begin to rebuild society along a more sustainable framework.
Insurrectionalist Anarchism is the belief that insurrectionary tactics will provide a catalyst for social change, by motivating disillusioned citizens to rise up and destroy the existing social order. Insurrectionalists believe that tactics of building mass movements necessarily require working with discredited or outdated organizations, such as unions, and that struggles for reforms are at best useless, or at worst, simply opportunities for the ruling class to prolong its own existence through the placation of large segments of the population - thereby sapping their desire for revolution.
Mass Anarchism is based on the argument that without a popular base of support, revolution is impossible. Mass anarchists struggle towards winning people over to the ideals of anarchism by participating in a wide variety of existing social struggles and emphasizing anarchism’s historical values of decentralization, class struggle, secular anti-statism and direct democracy.
Manarkid is a play on words described as: Man + Anarchist + Kid. ‘Manarchism’ is a huge problem on the left. Patriarchy is often viewed as a side issue, rather than one of the most integrated systemic causes of oppression. Manarchism typically manifests in young males who have not made the connection between all forms of oppression. It is especially the case for those wearing the badge of Anarchy as if it meant people should be free from all restraints ( including personal responsibility, and recognizing how individual actions will affect the greater community at large) - which is clearly a mistaken interpretation of the origins and true meaning of the word.
Hipster is a slang term that is often used to describe types of young, recently-settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with interests in non -mainstream fashion and culture, particularly alternative music, indie rock, independent film and magazines. Some say that the subculture’s original menace has long been abandoned and has been replaced with the form of not-quite-passive aggression called snark.
“Hipsters manage to attract a loathing unique in its intensity. Critics have described the loosely defined group as smug, full of contradictions and, ultimately, the dead end of Western civilization”
Dan Fletcher, Time Magazine
