Reflections on the Third or New Left Wave

The RAF’s struggle was always based on both the global balance and the conflict in the metropole. The war is not just about escalating things in the most developed sectors, rather it is about the reality of the entire imperialist system, and will be until victory. The goal determines the brutality with which imperialism conducts its war on every level and all fronts. They see it as the decisive battle because following the breach opened by Vietnam, they felt the only way to secure their power would be to eliminate all sources of antagonism – the guerrilla, the liberation movements, the states that have achieved national liberation and eventually the socialist states in the East. We are now midway through that phase. They are launching attacks everywhere, stationing missiles and waging war against the guerrillas in Western Europe, attempting to stamp out the Palestinian revolution, Grenada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia.

Brigette Mohnhaupt (Smith and Moncourt 2013: 384–385) ²

The theory of national liberation in Latin America, under whatever guise resembles 19th century nationalism. Once the “nation-state” is liberated all problems would disappear in the new revolutionary society. There exists no unarticulated fraternal society of revolutionaries, bound as it has been for generations by similar aspiration often joint exile and a common heritage of political action.

J. Bowyer Bell (Keohane and Nye, 1972: 160–161) Our focus will be on three themes that require more attention than they received in my earlier discussion of the “New Left” wave. ³ The first is its special international dimension shaped largely by the Cold War. Because the wave is a global phenomenon, various features of the Third World in Asia and Africa will be discussed to help us understand Latin America’s uniqueness better. The international impact of events in Cuba and Vietnam, key factors shaping the wave will be examined. The second theme focuses on the wave’s two types of groups: Revolutionary and Separatist. The Revolutionary category has two forms, National and Transnational. Separatist groups appear everywhere except Latin America. Earlier in the second wave the UN had played an important role encouraging groups seeking self-determination but now it reversed that effort. Our third 25concern is the wave’s dissolution, and the focus will be on the “successes” achieved. The timing of those “successes” cannot be explained without relating them to the course of the wave, a fact scholars focusing on the demise of groups oddly neglect.