Colin Ward and the New Left

This article discusses the relationship between Colin Ward and the British New Left in the 1950s and the 1960s. Although Ward was deeply suspicious of Marxism, there were participants in the emerging and evolving New Left who were attracted to anarchism and the libertarian tradition. Thus the complex relationship between leading figures of the Marxist New Left and Freedom Press Group is disaggregated and similarities and differences are noted over, for example, the campaign for nuclear disarmament and the political legacy of George Orwell.