New World Resource Center

Not-for-profit, entirely volunteer run bookstore and meeting space located in Chicago. New World Resource Center is Chicago's "oldest independent left-wing and labor bookstore and meeting center, providing books, periodicals, t-shirts, etc. to progressives and activists." New World was established in 1972 primarily by members of the Committee of Returned Volunteers, former Peace Corps volunteers that became radicalized and sought more fundamental, systemic change to achieve social justice. The center was mostly a bookstore, established as a non-sectartian left-labor-progressive organization to promote collaboration and a healthy exchange of ideas amongst those adhering to disparate left ideologies. NWRC was not associated with any political party or any particular left ideology.

The first location was on N. Orchard, just north of Fullerton. Gentrification forced it to relocate to 1476 W. Irving Park Rd. in 1976, a large space that hosted films, poetry readings and meetings of all kinds. The collective's heyday was during this mid 1970s-early 1980s period when the weekly The Reader described it (in 1979) as a "one-stop for Left shopping;" it was also the hub of non-party affiliated progressive activism on Chicago's North Side. The bookstore part of the center offered a broad selection of books, pamphlets, posters, greeting cards, almost all sectarian left group papers sold on consignment, as well as a small lending library. The variety of publications included ones on Anarchism, Socialism, Marxism, left political theory, labor, anti-racism, African-American, Latin American and Latin@, feminism, environmentalism, human rights, international history/current events, media, education, Chicago left history, the arts, and other related topics. New World also carried an extensive selection of left leaning magazines and newspapers. T.M. Scruggs, "staff person" during this period, initiated a music (LPs and cassettes) and Spanish-language section, the latter becoming (by default) the largest selection available in the Upper MidWest until the 1990s; customers drove in for Spanish literature and political titles from as far away as Kansas City. New World enjoyed a reputation as a source for international politics, and many solidarity committees were founded, based or intersected in important ways with the collective. At its height the thick monthly calendar went out to over 2,000 households, a listing bundled with flyers from any group that provided volunteers at the mailing work meetings. The store declined along with progressive activism through the 1980s, and it moved to the much smaller location at 1300 N. Western Avenue, in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Over its more than three decade history New World Resource Center hosted countless author talks, film screenings, forums, discussion groups, theatre performances and occasionally music in its dedicated meeting space. Beyond being a unique store, it served as a physical and ideological point of reference for leftists and especially those opposed to the U.S. empire.