Abstract
The upheaval of 1989 enabled the emergence of a new left in East Central Europe. Although the new left clearly set itself apart from communist dictatorship and picked up on democratic traditions, it found little favor.
Some groups broke up, others, such as the anarchists, persisted on the margins of society. The critics of globalization provided new impulses.
The Czech environmental movement had the greatest success. For this, however, it had to give up its basic critique of society and replace the search for a better order with the ecological optimization of existing society."