THE NEW LEFT The New Left was mainly used in reference to activists and educators who fought to bring about a wide range of reforms. At the core of this was the SDS. The New Left can be defined as a loosely organized, mostly white student movement that advocated for democracy, civil rights and various types of university reforms and protested against the Vietnam war. A radical leftists political movement was active especially during the 1960s and 70s, composed largely of college students and young intellecuals whose goals included equality, de-escalation of the arms race nonintervention in foreign affairs, and other big changes in the political, economic, social, and educational systems. The 1960s was a time of people around the world struggling for more of a say in the decisions of their society. The emergence of the personal computer in the late 70s and early 80s and the longer gestation of the new forms of people-controlled communication facilitated by the Internet and Usenet in the late 80s and today are the direct descendents of 1960s.The era of the 1960s was a special time in America. Masses of people realized their own potential to affect how the world around them worked. People rose up to protest the ways of society which were out of their control, whether to fight against racial segregation, or to gain more power for students in the university setting. The "Port Huron Statement" created by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a document which helped set the mood for the decade. The antiwar movement actually consisted of a number of independent interests, often only vaguely allied and contesting each other on many issues, united only in opposition to the Vietnam War. Attracting members from college campuses, middle-class suburbs, labor unions, and government institutions, the movement gained national prominence in 1965, peaked in 1968, and remained powerful throughout the duration of the conflict. Encompassing political, racial, and cultural spheres, the antiwar movement exposed a deep schism within 1960s American society. During the 1960’s, the United States experienced a huge cultural revolution, a revelation that gained momentum around the globe, but mostly the United States. A movement that was known as the New Left, which included a group of revolutionists that saw problems with the generally accepted way of life, a life without significant women’s rights, civil rights, equal rights, nor a reason for war. Through protest and organizations the New Left planned to change the way society operated, their goals were clear and they used pure motivation to achieve them. However, the black community was not the only ones seeking equal rights, women across the United States believed that sex should not alter the opportunities you have in life. They not only formed a group for the movement, they took it to the constitution with the Equal Rights Amendment, an amendment that sought to equal the rights of both sexes. Gloria Steinem, a prominent feminist writer, spoke in front congress and established herself as one of the major leaders for the movement. The generally accepted fact was that “women are inferior to men,” Gloria Steinem writes. However, this can easily be disproved, women live longer than men, and women survived concentration camps longer, and are more protected against heart attacks. Just to keep the balance even, nature conceives 20 to 50 % more male than females. In no war are they inferior, especially when you consider women built the first houses, tilled the fields, and developed languages. Society claims that “women are already treated equally,” women are expected to be in a man’s life to serve. They do not get the same freedoms to work, nor receive the same pay and advancement. They are treated as if they are second best in life. The desire for equal civil rights spawned multiple anti-segregation groups such as the Black Panther Party and Black Power. Groups that consisted of African Americans of all classes tired of a life with white sorority. Both groups aimed for racial equality, a new will for a single society, and a complete end to segregation. They knew this task would not be easy, but black activists, such as Stokely Carmichael, chairman of a nonviolent committee (SNCC), addressed the problems with “a program aimed at winning political power for impoverished Southern Blacks,” this program worked in both the North and South for power, the SNCC knew that before anything else, they must establish a sense of power. Thus sparking the creation of the Black Panther Party, this aimed to help black communities realize their true strength. However, this went against the ideas of the black society as a group of propertyless, thus powerless people in a country where that’s the top value. For any of this to work Stokely believes “the need for psychological equality is the reason… blacks must organize in the black community” It must be in the black communities head that there is no reason they are not equal in strength. Only they can fight for what they believe they deserve. It has been put into the whites head that they are supreme, moving into their own communities and integrating into their own school systems.