New American Movement

The NAM was established at a conference held in Davenport, Iowa in December 1971 by radical political activists seeking to create a successor organization to Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

The founding activists behind the NAM were vigorous opponents of the war in Vietnam who sought a new organization to serve as a forum for discussing where and how to redirect their activities.

By the early 1980s, after a great change in the American political climate and the departure of some of its more radical members, the NAM had moved away from its original neo-Leninist orientation.

[4] The NAM made use of comparatively high membership dues which were tiered on the basis of the member's income.

The group was ultimately hampered by its limited size and seeming inability to progress beyond the realm of doctrinal discourse into the world of practical politics.