The New Left vs. the New Right in San Diego : Radicals See Their Star on the Rise

Political and social activism appears on the rise in San Diego County--in part sparked by a renewed struggled between the New Left and the New Right. Fueling the struggle is the Reagan Administration’s involvement in the Iran arms-sale scandal, which appears for the first time to make President Reagan a vulnerable target for his political opponents. As expected, both the New Right and the New Left claim to be winning.

The New Left says public confidence in the politics of the New Right has been shattered because the scandal has tarnished the image of Reagan, for six years the standard bearer of the conservative movement. The New Right says it has been unaffected by the Reagan Administration’s problems and accuses the New Left of blowing the scandal out of proportion in an attempt to revive a movement that has been dying since the end of the turbulent 1960s.

In truth, however, both the New Left and the New Right have gained considerable ground in recent years. For the New Left, the focus of recently formed progressive groups has been issues such as American aid to the Contras in Nicaragua, women’s and minorities’ rights, and the continuing nuclear arms buildup. The New Right has seen its ranks swell as the result of increased membership in established organizations such as Young Americans for Freedom, which has nearly doubled in size in two years, and religious fundamentalists, such as the Rev. Dorman Owens, who have been among the strongest supporters of the New Right.

Frank Gormlie sees a great amount of irony in the fact that the Reagan Administration’s involvement in the Iranian arms-sale scandal has given the New Left its biggest boost in years.

After all, he said, President Reagan’s landslide victories in 1980 and 1984 were largely responsible for the rise of the New Right.

“The New Right has had its chance,” said Gormlie, editor and publisher of the Whole Damn Pie Shop, a quarterly journal of leftist opinion that is distributed through a network of San Diego bookstores and health-food restaurants.

“The New Right has twice elected a president, and over the last six years it has become stronger and better-organized than ever before,” Gormlie said.

“But now, a lot of the President’s programs are failing, and with the Iranian arms-sale crisis, more and more people are becoming disillusioned and asking questions.”

Locally, Gormlie said, the resurgence of the New Left is apparent both in the expanding audiences at leftist talks, rallies and presentations, and in the growing number of leftist and progressive groups (which he said now total more than 200) that are being formed all over San Diego County.

Some, like Friends of Nicaraguan Culture and the Teachers Committee on Central America, support the efforts of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua by sponsoring a variety of educational programs, lectures, concerts and film presentations around town.

“Four years ago, a group of us went down to tour Nicaragua and meet with some of that country’s leaders, including Daniel Ortega,” said Tanya Winter, a founding member of Friends of Nicaraguan Culture.

“When we came back, we were so appalled at the discrepancy between what we had seen and what the American people were being told by the media that we felt we had to organize some sort of grass-roots group to provide a more accurate portrayal of Nicaragua.”

The Friends have sponsored concerts with Nicaraguan folk groups like Grupo Mancotao, readings by Central American poets like Isabel Alegria and performances by the Peasant Theater troupe of Nicaragua, among other activities.

Other progressive groups, such as the Chicano Federation, the Black Writers and Artists Assn., and Womancare, are concerned with domestic issues such as minority and women’s rights.

“There’s a lot of progressive activity that’s being done by groups that don’t throw up little flags and say, ‘We’re leftists,’ ” said Peter Brown, a director with the Grass Roots Cultural Center in Golden Hill, which since 1979 has served as an umbrella agency for many progressive groups.

“But in many ways, these groups are on the cutting edge of the progressive movement in this country. They’re the ones who are actually taking steps to bring about social change instead of simply talking about it.”

Then there are the old-school leftist groups, like the Communist and Socialist Workers parties of San Diego and the League for Revolutionary Struggle, that seek to change the social and political structure of the United States as a whole, not just as it pertains to the individual issues.

Socialist Workers Party activities include the running of Pathfinder Books on B Street and hosting meetings which have included an eyewitness report from Nicaragua, a panel discussion on the crisis in the Philippines and a report on a trade union conference in El Salvador.

“We believe that society has to put human needs before profits,” said Judy White, who chairs the Socialist Workers Party of San Diego. “The left is looking toward the future; we believe that the world has changed and that the needs of humanity can no longer be met by the capitalist system.

“Socialism lets us rationally use the resources of this planet in a way that the free-enterprise system is just not able, or willing, to do.”

“Leftism is essentially a radical viewpoint that looks at problems by going right to the source,” Gormlie said.

As a campus radical in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Gormlie was one of the tens of thousands of idealistic youths around the country who believed they could change the world by preaching the message of the New Left.

Along with other UC San Diego radicals, he protested the Vietnam War, spoke out against the draft, campaigned against the Nixon presidency and championed the civil rights movement through pickets, demonstrations and sit-ins.

At times, the radicals’ zealousness got them into trouble. In 1970, Gormlie picketed the UC San Diego chancellor’s office in support of Angela Davis, who was fired from UCLA because of her membership in the Communist Party.

Along with several other protesters, Gormlie was arrested and spent five days in jail.

Today, Gormlie, 38, is clinic manager with the community health center in Mission Beach. Over the years, Gormlie said, the issues he’s fighting for--and against--have changed. Nicaragua and U.S. aid to the Contras has replaced Vietnam and the draft; Reagan has replaced Nixon in the Oval Office; apartheid in South Africa has replaced the civil rights movement in America.

But his underlying beliefs are still the same, Gormlie said--and so are the beliefs of most other one-time student radicals. And that is why the New Left has been able to rise up again as quickly as it has, years after its supposed death, he said.

“Since my days at UCSD, the New Left pretty much disappeared in its organizational form. But it didn’t in content. By the middle 1970s, a lot of the New Left’s ideas had been implemented.

“The Vietnam War and the draft had ended, the civil rights movement had made incredible progress, the government finally began showing some concern for the environment, and in 1984 we even had a woman vice presidential candidate.

“The people who had originally identified with the New Left simply felt they had done their job, so they went about their lives and started careers, built families and bought VCRs.

“But now, we are once again faced with some pretty important issues, like the situation in Nicaragua, apartheid and the Iran arms-sale scandal. And since the ideas of the 1960s are as valid as they have ever been, all we’re trying to do now is carry them into the ‘80s.”

When Gormlie was arrested for picketing the UCSD chancellor’s office, Dan Epperly was 8 years old.

Today, he is one of many college students around the country who have picked up the banner of the New Left.

Epperly, 24, is an editor with the New Indicator, a leftist publication that has served the students of UCSD, in one form or another, since 1966.

Like Gormlie, Epperly believes the resurgence of the New Left is largely due to the failure of the Reagan Administration to solve the nation’s domestic ills, as well as its problems in dealing with foreign affairs.

“The leftist movement is experiencing a lot of growth right here on campus,” he said. “I think this latest stuff, with Reagan and the Contras, is starting to have an impact. A lot of people are becoming disillusioned with the right, and they’re starting to look more toward the left for some answers.”

Another center for leftist activity on the UCSD campus is the Che Cafe, named after Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara.

Since the spring of 1980, the student-run cooperative has showcased a lively mix of progressive entertainment and educational programs, including poetry readings, concerts and lectures.

“The goals of the New Left are the same as they have always been,” said Sue Spalding, 22, who works at the cafe. “They are to take a look at what’s going on and make an analysis, and then make sure people get all the rights that they are entitled to.”

Recent events may have helped the New Left become stronger than it has been in years but that momentum could be lost as easily as it was won, members of the New Left admit.

“The New Right is very frightening, because it is based on a policy of hatred,” said Tanya Winter of Friends of Nicaraguan Culture. “We’re not just dealing with conservatives; we’re dealing with fanatical ultra-rightists whose only objective is to destroy anything that smacks of progressive change.

“I think it’s obvious with all the attention focused on the Iranian arms-sale scandal that there is a deep polarization of thought,” added Gormlie.

“To me, that means we’re heading in the direction of having another internal political crisis like we did during the reign of Richard Nixon. As a result, we might go back to clashing, head-on, the New Right against the New Left.

“But ultimately, I think the New Left will be even stronger and more visible than it was in the 1960s. The Contra -gate thing is a real opening for us because the whole country is caught up in an air of questioning.