The New American Movement (NAM) was organized by members of the New Left in 1971 following the splintering of the radical movement at the last convention of Students for a Democratic Society in July 1969. At its first national meeting in Davenport, Iowa, in November, 1971, about 400 delegates united in opposition to Nixon-era economic policies, establishing these national priorities for NAM: rebuilding a new, truly mass-based movement based on a democratic socialist economic policy, opposition to the war in Vietnam and American imperialism, an attack on corporate power and the capitalist ruling class, and women's rights and child care action. At workshops held during the convention, delegates developed specific local action on a variety of issues: landlord-tenant problems, utilities, wage and price guidelines, sex discrimination in employment, diminishing social services, and unequal taxation. Convention delegates included former Students for a Democratic Society members who had been alienated by the increasing factionalism and militancy of the movement in the late 1960s, and members of many other groups and factions. To avoid further factional disputes, representatives of both SDS and the Progressive Labor Party were excluded from the first national meeting.
NAM's second convention in Minneapolis in June 1972, was considered its founding convention. At that time, NAM had about 600 members in 40 chapters. Throughout NAM's history, individual chapters retained much autonomy, working closely with other anti-war, women's, and political groups on local issues.
