In 1956, a new political movement emerged, explicitly socialist but rejecting both Soviet-style Communism and Labour's cautious embrace of social democracy. The New Left was concerned with ideas and culture. Those involved worked mainly outside political parties and electoral politics. In the 1960s, it helped shape the peace movement, student radicalism, the counterculture, opposition to the Vietnam war and the emerging Women's and Gay Liberation movements. It championed direct action and new forms of political communication, from agitprop poetry to silkscreen posters. Andrew Whitehead - who is working on an oral history of the New Left - traces the story of the New Left and its legacy and explores the role of Hackney politicos such as Sheila Rowbotham, David Widgery and the Grosvenor Avenue commune.