The Politics of Protest [week 8]

Moment of Madness?May-June 1968

Key individuals who defined the era

Civil rights in 1968

-South Carolina State massacre- Columbia University protests

- Berkeley demonstration

Vietnam protests in 1968

-The Tet Offensive- support for anti-Vietnam drive in

West Germany- victories for Eugene McCarthy and

Robert Kennedy- Lyndon Johnson ‘abdicates’

Students in 1968

-Battle of Valle Giulia, Rome- shutdown of university system

- marches in Warsaw- Paris Demonstrations

When you clashed with the policemen at Valle Giulia, I

sympathised for them. Because policemen are children of the poor.

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Popular protest in 1968

-May Day demonstrations- Prague protests

- General Strike in France- troop alert in Paris

Dubcek Novotny

The Prague Spring

-Need for self-determination- Power struggle within Czech

Communist Party- Dubcek’s Action Programme

The State Strikes Back

-Prague protests crushed- Conservative victories in UK and US

- The many faces of de Gaulle

Happy Sad Angry Intrigued

It’s a moment I shall never forget. Suddenly, spontaneously, barricades were being thrown up in the

streets. People were piling up the cobblestones because they wanted, many for the first time, to throw

themselves into a collective, spontaneous activity. People were releasing all their repressed feelings,

expressing them in a festive spirit. Thousands felt the need to communicate with each other, to love one

another. That night has made me forever optimistic about history. Having lived through it, I can’t ever say,

‘It will never happen’.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit

That’s all, folks!