Yet it is plausible, as Stanley Aronowitz suggests, to construct a broader conception of the left as a force in American history.' There were the efforts of ideologically grounded party-style organizations, whose strategies, however much they differed, shared the premise that the building up of the organization as a vehicle of power constituted a crucial measure of success for the Left. Aronowitz suggests that we need to include as an integral dimension of the left the social movements: the movements for economic justice (labor, civil rights, urban movements of various sorts) and the 'new' social movements (the women's movement, environmentalism, and others focused on social 'identity').These movements are carriers of the left tradition and are at least as much the 'real thing' as any of the explicitly ideological parties.