Left Wing

Left Wing, political groups or ideologies favoring radical reform or revolution to change the social order with the aim of greater freedom and well-being for ordinary individuals. Communists have also been called left wing, despite the totalitarian nature of communist societies. Within a group, the term is sometimes applied to the more liberal members, while conservative members are known as the right wing.

For information on:

• liberal tradition of Western democracies, see Liberalism; Radicals; Jacobins
• left-wing groups in the United States, see Progressive Party: League for Progressive Political Action; Progressive Party: The Election of 1948; American Labor Party; Black Panther Party; New Left
• communism and socialism, see Communism; Socialism; Red Brigades; Shining Path
• theoreticians of the left, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; Herbert Marcuse; Vladimir Ilich Lenin; Karl Marx; Leon Trotsky