A Wind Blows from the East (Coast)

A Wind Blows from the East (Coast): The 1970s "New Communist Movement" in Halifax. A Public Interview with Herb Gamberg and Tony Thomson 

Audio link (click here)

Thursday 1 March 2012, Room 1020 Rowe Building, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Hosted by the Platypus Affiliated Society at Dalhousie

co-sponsored by NSPIRG and the Halifax Media Co-op

The 1970s are usually passed over as the decade in which the social and political upheavals of the 1960s New Left were overwhelmed by a conservative tide. What is forgotten is that the 1970s were also a time of tremendous growth on the Left, most notably in the New Communist Movement. In Quebec thousands of members joined groups intent on forming a new national Communist party. In cities like Halifax and Vancouver activists formed smaller collectives in an effort to “get serious” about their Leftism. The period marked a reconsideration of Marxism and working class politics on a scale that has not been seen since. 

What is the legacy of this movement today? Why did it emerge and what lead to its stunning decline in the early 1980s? As activist prepare for the next phase of Occupy is there anything to learn from this experience?

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Background Reading:

New Infantilism: The "New Communist Movement" in Halifax (Halifax Study Group, 1978)

The Marxist turn: The New Left in the 1970s (Platypus Review)

Up in the air: The legacy of the New Communist Movement (Platypus Review)