ABSTRACT
The Third Camp idea which had first become translated into various novel forms of internationalism, non-alignment or 'positive neutralism', had a fatal weakness. Left internationalism had been rooted in a faith in groups of countries or states, or the Comintern, rather than in a trans-national alternative. The vain but classic hope of Socialist Internationalism had been that massive non-cooperation, a general strike, refusal of military service, or the desertion of, or fraternization between, troops could prevent any imperialist war. This contradistinction of notions of trans-nationalism and internationalism proved critical to the basic problem for the New Left (NL) facing nationalistic developments in the Third World, and economic nationalism at home. Criticism of the Vietnam War by the NL excluded critiques of authoritarian leftism. The tendencies towards alignment in the NL cannot be understood outside the development of a variety of positions styling themselves anti-imperialist.
