Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
1968 - Its Causes and Consequences (1968 (Events Assassinations of MLK…
1968 - Its Causes and Consequences
1968
Events
Assassinations of MLK and Bobby Kennedy, Tet Offensive, Nixon's election
Mexican Olympics - riots, Black Power protests
Soviet expansion and Prague Spring (Czech rebellion against Soviet power)
'Year of the barricades' - protests worldwide for various reasons
Very similar reasons in Western Europe and North America - increasing Marxist activity vs protesting USSR rule in E Europe
Key Issues
University reform - getting rid of faculty members, giving students control over education, protesting cuts
Vietnam War
Civil rights, Black Power etc - and other racism, Enoch Powell etc
WWII history - especially Germany
Imperialism - more new countries formed 1960 than any other decade
Cold War
State violence and democracy
Historiography
1968 as a focus -
Fraser, Farber, Daniels
Thomas, Donnelly
- 'long 68' from 50s-70s, focusing on 1968 is unhelpful periodisation, not an exceptional moment in wider context
Context
Before 1968
Free Speech Movement, Berkeley 1964 - adopted civil rights sit-in, broadcast worldwide and adopted by other protesters
Vietnam protests starting 1964/5
Berlin 1967, Ohnesorg shooting, influence of Red Army Faction
After 1968
Prague 1968 Jan Palach self-immolates protesting Soviet invasion
Autumn 1968 - 1 million in American Vietnam moratorium protests
US 1970 - 4 million protested Kent State shootings
Climax on 1968
Ferocity and scale of French May, intensity of violence at Chicago Democratic convention
Factions implode and fracture after 1968 - inspire feminism, environmentalism
Nixon lies about withdrawing but protests fade
Jarausch
- idea of 'turning point' melodramatic
Isserman, Kazin
- 'civil war'
Why did it happen?
Generation gap?
Lipset, Kenistone, Feuer
Baby Boom
Different expectations - nuclear war, Nazi past, Vietnam draft
Sense that older generation morally compromised, got it wrong
Difference in values - universities in loco parentis for under-21s, limiting movement and activities
Post-war prosperity -
Fraser
says no western country with unemployment over 4% by 1966 - younger generation not experienced world war or depression, first generation with disposable income
Parenting
Dr Spock published 1946 emphasising liberal parenting, blamed for creating indulgent/spoiled generation
But what's a generation? Protests not divided along generational lines, lots of older protesters and not all young disagreed
University expansion
British students double within 60s, 11 new universities, grants begin in 1962
US students also double but less affordable, fees rising
Unis didn't cope well, especially American - Berkeley students watched lectures on TVs from a different room, students could do whole degree never seeing a lecturer or tutor
Mass media
US - went from 88% to 96% with a TV
UK - went from 75% to 91% with a TV
Fraser, Marlowe
- people mimicking what they saw on TV
Thomas
- repurposed protests techniques
International Phenomenon
Marxists eg
Hobsbaum
- concerted international uprising of the marginal and dispossessed against a common capitalist enemy
Common threads but differ wildly in violence, development, success
International linkages limited
Similar underlying origins but not a homogenous international movement with a common cause
Aims and Opposition
Aims
Vague aims for many, sloganeering
Maoists, Stalinists, Leninists, Trotskyists, social democrats - didn't work together, infighting
'Participatory democracy' - wanted everyone to be involved, not jut government - German 'council government' - Russian 'council' = 'soviet'
'New Left' key in organising protests, mobilising moderates by causing crackdowns that brought out moderates to protect free speech - small groups pushing buttons of those in power
Most people reformists - very few real revolutionaries
Needed authorities to behave unreasonably - needed them to get violent to mobilise moderates
Opposition
Marwick
- best opposition was 'measured judgement' - thwarted revolutionaries
Different responses in different countries eg Germany lashed out more because they feared a repeat of Weimar
Accused opponents of collaborating with the enemy - USSR, Vietcong etc
West Germany
Aims
Change government and increase democracy
Government plans for universities to limit student numbers and shorted courses
Wanted more say in the running of the university
Protesting government support for the Vietnam War and the regime of the Iranian Shah
University boards banned political discussion and activity among students because of protests
German Emergency Act - would allow government to limit civil rights eg freedom of movement, confidentiality in times of war - seen as authoritarian and reminiscent of fascism
Communist Party had been banned in 1956, many feared an erosion of democracy like under Nazis
Dealing with Nazi past and actions of the previous generation
'Struggle to overcome the past' - needing to admit that events had happened, remedy wrongs, move on
Former Nazis in government and on university boards eg Chancellor Kurt Keisinger
Resentful of being blamed on international stage for crimes of parents' generation
Felt anti-fascist ideas in constitution not put into practice
Demonstrating against rise of the right-wing
Increase in extreme left-wing counter-culture and militancy - influenced by Marxists and anarchists eg punk rock, Red Army Faction
Opposing monopoly of right-wing press - eg Axel Springer publishing house monopolised newspapers
Opposing rise of right-wing ideas - newly-formed right-wing National Democratic Party of Germany (NDP) had a lot of voters
Before 1968
Summer 1966
First sit-in mimicking Berkeley, protesting government changes to universities
4,000 students occupied the Free University of Berlin, copied across Germany
Winter 1966
Most students across Germany involved in some sort of movement or protest group via eg SDS
Government decreases university funding and turns public opinion against students
June 1967
Organised peaceful demonstrations against the official visit of the Shah of Iran - turn violent when Berlin police and Iranian secret service attack protesters
Unarmed student Benno Ohnesorg shot in the head from behind by a police sergeant who later turns out to be a KGB agent
Demonstrations against police brutality across Germany
Berlin students banned from gathering in groups so seize control of the Free University to meet and discuss
Events of 1968
Easter
Attempted assassination of SDS President Rudi Dutschke by someone 'inspired' by MLK assassination - survived with brain injuries but died of injuries in 1979
Dutschke had been named 'public enemy' by government and Springer newspapers
Organised blockades of Springer buildings and protested outside - blamed them for assassination
400 students injured and 2 killed by police action during the protests
May
80,000 students and unionists marched on Bonn to protest the German Emergency Act but failed to prevent it from being passed
Beginning of the end - blaming each other for failure, groups fell apart
By end of 1968
SDS falling apart - had been largest and strongest student organisation
Aftermath of 1968
Collapse of organised student groups
Rise of feminist movements - women felt empowered by their political work and annoyed that they hadn't been able to do much so started their own groups
1970 - foundation of the Red Army Faction - far-left terrorist/paramilitary group who disagreed with peaceful protest in the aftermath of the Ohnesorg shooting
Klimke
Ohnesorg's shooting transformed the New Left into a nationwide student revolt - before that centred in Berlin and Frankfurt - SDS got huge boost in sympathy and support
Only slowly coming to terms with past - Nazi past for political elite, Communist ban, 1962 'Spiegel scandal' - illegal arrest of journalists living abroad - climaxed in emergency laws debate
Quantitatively, 50s rearmament protests more intensive - 60s built on networks of Easter March peace and disarmament campaign
SDS
Originally associated with Social Democratic Party (most left-leaning party) but then moved further left - SDP dissociated from SDS, mutually exclusive memberships
Marxist ideas of workers as agents, but also focused on new university elite - set New Left agenda with Rudi Dutschke (East German refugee), university democracy and Vietnam opposition
Vietnam a focus because seen as model for colonial liberation and the US as an imperial power - WG support of US made it complicit
Compiled lists of Nazis in legal and political circles, exhibition called 'Unredeemed Nazi Justice'
By end of 1968 growing on local level but disintegrating on national level - no unified national strategy, splinter groups
Events
June 1967 - Iranian agents acting as pro-Shah demonstrators attacked students, police strike killed Ohnesorg
Confirmed perception of society as authoritarian - Dutschke accused of being 'left-fascist'
February 1968 Vietnam Congress - attracted 5,000 students and anti-war protesters from worldwide - closing demonstration of 12,000 marching through Berlin in solidarity with Vietnam
Three days later anti-Communist counter-protest organised by Sentage attended by 60,000, growing frustration with students
Atmosphere when Dutschke was assassinated by Bachmann - same night students smashed windows of Springer, protests across Germany
Easter Sunday- 45,000 across 20 cities tried to obstruct Springer paper deliver - 400 injured, 2 dead
Increasing violence after the emergency act passed - 'Battle of the Tegeler Weg' with 1000 demonstrators attacking police with cobblestones
Tactics inspired by America but distinct because fusion of others - transnational orientation, published English newsletters, close to US student movements and the Black Panthers, Dutschke married to an American student activist
Liberalised cultural fabric of Germany and society in terms of individuals - embedded in longer historical processes of reform and democratisation from 50s
Young generation provided catalyst and utopian ideas - challenged social conventions etc - used and changed public sphere, intertwined with rise of youth culture
All plans for socialist revolution faltered, but paved way for emergence of Green Party
In German public memory, 1968 on a par with fall of the Berlin Wall - partially overshadowed by subsequent terrorist movements
Historiography
Brown
- artists, musicians and publishers led Marxist counterculture, attempting to 'seize the cultural means of production'
Reichardt
- youth unemployment and housing shortages led to a rise in far-left counterculture and left-wing ideologies
Klimke
- student movements triggered rise in counterculture
Siefried
- all a culmination of long-term individualitu and self-expression, not a cause of it - eg Red Army Faction not 'caused' by Ohnesorg shooting, was a logical conclusion of the political situation of the time
Herzog
- student movement was part of a larger sexual revolution
Weitbrecht
- Protestant and foreign students crucial to movement, Prot student magazines published articles on race by black Americans and racial tensions, groups of Latin American and Caribbean students collaborated with Dutschke, German students visiting London politicised by South African students
France
Context
Wegs
- protests surprising because they 'came at a time of unquestioned prosperity and national grandeur'
Causes
Vietnam War
Frustration with de Gaulle and his administration
Overcrowding of universities
The New Left
Reinterpretation of Marxist theory emphasising alienation rather than exploitation
Aimed to prevent alienation rather than a social revolution
Saw working class, intelligentsia and social fringe as leaders of social change
Students
Nanterre - occupied a building at Paris University, discussed class discrimination and political bureaucracy - 'Movement of 22nd March' opposed Gaullism and rejected university administration, protested Vietnam War, wanted student freedoms
Daniel Cohn-Bendit - student at Nanterre against administrative, political, intellectual and sexual repression, university tried to expel him but backed by the Sociology Department
Closure of Paris University - students occupied administrative buildings so they closed the university hoping it would stop the students
Sorbonne - over 400 students protested the closure of Nanterre at Sorbonne University - Bloody Sunday, students with cobblestones against the police - The Night of the Barricades, students in the Latin Quarter building barricades to block the police
Fighting from 2nd May (closure of Nanterre) to 13th May
Workers
Lack of involvement in workplaces
CFDT (French Confederation of Democratic Workers?) - 'The student struggle to democratise the university and the workers' struggle to democratie industry are one and the same'
Hated Gaullist regime - involvement of Communist Party in government made workers think change wasn't possible within the system
13th May - 24hr labour strike in Paris, occupations of factories
17th May - 10 million workers across France involved including TV producers and journalists
Eventually forced Communist party to support demands for reform
Response
De Gaulle received support from French soldiers stationed in West Germany and announced new elections to be held in June
De Gaulle accused Communists of beginning unrest so gained support of anti-Communists - context of Cold War so framed as either Gaullism or Communism
Mass demonstrations for de Gaulle in Paris, demoralised rioters
De Gaulle majority at June election but resigned within a year because opposition within party - but Gaullists in power until 1970s
Students got joint-management of universities and establishment of more universities to solve overcrowding
Workers got higher wages but still the lowest-paid in Western Europe and no co-management of factories
Until 1968 French universities calm - Italian and German students doubted them
But their 1968 affected both society and government
Vietnam a symbol of misplaced priorities of military-industrial complexes
De Gaulles' focus on international affairs and ignoring domestic problems eg university overcrowding - a thousand students in each class having to buy copies of the lectures
Ministry of Education tried to deal with overcrowding by making exams harder - students called for exams to end
University at Nanterre had been created to relieve Sorbonne overcrowding
November 1967 - Nanterre sociology faculty resisted introduction of Fouchet Plan - had refused to let students discuss changes or participate in committee debate - protest failed but paved the way because convinced students that a moderate demand was bound to fail
Over next four months, radicals began to being together main issues - opposition to Gaullism, rejection of university organisation, student freedom, Vietnam
Cohn-Bendit fought for students to decide own living conditions - sexual freedom - no more in loco parentis - university attempted to expel him but Sociology Department Assembly refused
Support of faculty members made students more outspoken - Vietnam Committee leaders arrested 22nd March, students invaded and occupied Nanterre administrative buildings
Many buildings meeting-places for student groups - by April many instructors and professors joined groups - breakdown in binary unnerved Dean and decided to close university 2nd May after far-right students planned to attack them
Nanterre ceased to be centre, moved to Sorbonne and Latin Quarter - might have stayed there if hadn't been escalated by police violence
Cohn-Bendit and other 22nd March leaders were going to face a Disciplinary Council 6th May - 400+ students gathered at Sorbonne to discuss action - Sorbonne rector called the police and students were bodily thrown into police vans - police not entered university grounds since 1700s, tradition guaranteed safety on students within walls
Thousands of students rebelled in Latin Quarter demanding their release - Bloody Sunday three days later injured 400+ police and unknown number of students but continued until 13th May
Public opinion swung to students as protests continued because of police violence - Latin Quarter residents sheltered protesters, builders pulled up cobblestones for them to throw etc
10-11th May - Night of the Barricades - police attack and beatings of students launched greater repercussions
Kicked off general strike -
Wegs
says can only be explained by May 68 student protests because not wages (refused wage increase) and Communist party and unions didn't approve of workers joining students
Workers protesting lack of decision-making power, asking for greater comanagement - 1945 ordinance to set up workers' councils but by 1965 only 6000 of 25,000 had established them
Also joined by white-collar workers wanting to change bureaucracies, make CEOs accountable etc - strike of nationalised TV stations showed not just for students and workers
Wegs
- all 'a reaction against the centralisation of authority that had stripped the individual of his right to make decisions'
30th May - de Gaulle finally acted - had gone to West Germany to ensure support of troops there, people expected him leaving to be sign of stepping down
De Gaulle believed worker wages and student excess main reasons but didn't want to give in - blamed Communist party for instigating strikes, said choice was communism or Gaullism - answered with massive support from bourgeoisie and provincials, one million staged a mass demonstration in Paris in support
Demoralised protesters - workers ended strikes, students left seized colleges, radical leaders arrested, leftist student groups outlawed
June election de Gaulle improved majority by 99, left's representation dropped by 94 - but popularity short-lived, resigned within the year from opposition within own party
Universities gained many demands - increased number of universities from 22 to 65, joint management, greater autonomy
Labourers got wage increases but still lowest-paid in W Europe, won right to be represented through unions, flexible hours
Historiography
Seidman
- 'nothing happened' - just a 'blip' in French history
Touchard, Beneton
- eight schools of interpretation by 1970 - mostly sociologists
Touraine
- 'a new social conflict'
Morin
- 'a generational revolt'
Crozier
- 'crisis of institutions'
Bourdieu
- 'critical movement in the development of society'
Ross
- not a cultural revolution, actually a political revolt, struggle against social order
Jackson
- Ross too dismissive of role students and their demands played eg Cohn-Bendit and sexual freedom
USA
Context
Time of political turmoil and tension - civil rights, MLK assassination, Vietnam
Geographical importance - national rather than local protests
Lots of conflict - black vs white, liberal vs conservative, liberal vs radical, young vs old
Reston
- 'longest and most divisive conflict since the War Between the States'
Insurgencies in every industrial nation, mostly led by under-25s
US not as dramatic as some others but still major
Historiography
Horn
- Vietnam the 'catalyst' for rapid growth of student movements - 1968 the construction of a new society focused on freedom and choice
Isserman, Kazin
- emergence of a new generation united by dissatisfaction
Kulansky
- student protests universalised the civil rights movement
Forman
- African American students inspired by Gandhi, W.E. Bois and African independence movements
Ross
- memory of the events 'dissolved or dissipated' by later commentary
Macedo
- cultural transformation - Old Left to New Left
Hobsbawn
- 'seemed to mark the 'end of the feast''
da Cruz
- Columbia University took 20 years to fully recover
Winter: Tet Offensive
Vietcong attacked RVN cities on lunar new year (Tet) during a ceasefire including raid on American embassy - 80,000 Vietcong, 40,000 died
Embassy raid crushed before noon, suicide mission - but still had success
Before Tet government assuring people they were winning the war, Westmoreland's 'light at the end of the tunnel' - no-one convinced anymore
Water Cronkite, trusted newsreader, said 'more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in stalemate'
Secretary of defense said 'the roof falling in'
Suddenly more visible and uncomfortable - RVN police executing prisoners, carpet-bombing of cities
New York Times
headlines request from army to send another 206,000 GIs to Vietnam after Tet - immediate public outcry
Public discomfort highlighted by inflation from expensive war and lack of foreign faith in US economy
During election, primaries indicated Bobby Kennedy (Democrat nominee challenging LBJ) or Nixon would get more votes than LBJ
LBJ's foreign policy 'Wise Men' (architects of Cold War, ties with Wall Street) said escalating the war would mean more civil unrest in ghettos and on campuses because they were neglecting domestic problems and make the financial crisis worse
Secretary of state - 'We can no longer do the job we set out to do in the time we have left and we must begin to take steps to disengage'
LBJ decided against increasing troops, announced on TV that he would halt most bombing and was willing to begin peace talks - withdrew from election - approval rating jumped 13 points
Spring: Memphis and Morningside Heights
Hadn't been a good year for MLK - organisation for 'Poor People's Campaign for jobs and a national income hadn't worked, feared another round of urban violence fuelled by white resistance and Black Power rhetoric
MLK had been travelling periodically to Memphis to support strike by black sanitation workers - 'I AM A MAN' march - marches disrupted by militants smashing windows and attacking police, accused MLK of being out of touch
April 3rd - came back to Memphis to organise another march
April 4th - day of meetings and organisation - sat out on a motel balcony to relax - assassinated by escaped white convict
Riots in 120 cities - smashed every store window in Haight Street, San Francisco; National Guard called out in Baltimore and Kansas City; 'shoot to kill' orders in Chicago for arsonists and looters
Washington DC riot -
Stokely Carmichael
'it's time to end this non-violence bullshit' - $25 million damage
Isserman, Kazin
- riot was 'irrational' - 12 black Washingtonians dead, damage concentrated in theatre district - but also a 'carnival of the oppressed'
MLK's influence beginning to wane but now completely collapsed - no more non-violence
Columbia University
Bordered Harlem - lots of student radicals
Disrupted MLK memorial meeting saying that the school administration was racist
Hundreds of students and radicals occupied five barricaded buildings - demanded end to building a segregated gym and sever ties to military research institute
Buildings taken back after eight days - black students arrested peacefully so no Harlem riots, white students refused so police went in with clubs and blackjacks
More successful at stirring up opponents than support - politicians criticised Columbia for not calling in police sooner - 'the next target can be City Hall, the State Capitol, or even the White House'
Sparked hundreds of similar confrontations but most ordinary working-class Americans felt more in common with the police than with the students
Summer - Chicago and Atlantic City
Chicago
Officials had lobbied to get Democratic convention held in Chicago, mayor said he could handle civil unrest
By summer 1968 impossible to have a peaceful gathering - warring camps based on staying in Vietnam and clamping down on protests vs ending the war
Gene McCarthy - inspired anti-war students but little rapport with blue-collar workers and black or Latino voters
Bobby Kennedy - supported by blue-collar and voters of colour, distrusted by students because he only entered race after LBJ said he wasn't running
Kennedy assassinated after he won California race so options seemed to be McCarthy or more war
National Mobilisation Committee/Mobe was umbrella anti-war group, planned peaceful march on amphitheatre - 'Yippies' were hippie anarchists, planned non-violent but 'eventful' march
12,000 police mobilised, 6000 National Guard called up and 7500 army troops flown in
500,000 turned up for the march but no more than 10,000 attended a protest - intimidated by armed front - violence from police vs protesters shown live on TV for 17 minutes
Demonstrators thought it was evidence of police sadism and brutality, and attacks on reporters assaulting the First Amendment - but most Americans sided with police, 2:1 approved of mayor's actions, 90% of letters to CBS were criticising them as being too supportive of demonstators
10% of whites thought the police had used too much force vs 63% of African Americans
Atlantic City
200 women protested against Miss America - growing unpopularity but still model for how women should look and behave
New York Radical Women - experience in civil rights and New Left but tired of male leadership and being expected to stay in the backgroud
Coming-out party for feminist upsurge
Autumn: Campaign
Unusual to hear enthusiasm for either Nixon or Humphrey
80% of Americans believed that public order had 'broken down'
Third party led by George Wallace (Alabamian racist) focused on law and order - if he made it a close race GOP would have to get his support, wanted to roll back civil rights
Having to be careful about Vietnam - no-one believed they were winning but they couldn't admit to wanting to withdraw
Nixon - had a 'secret plan' to end the war but no surrender
Humphrey - 'would be willing to stop the bombing' for peace but would start again if they showed 'bad faith'
Starting in 1968 beginning of long-term decline in voter numbers
Humphrey defeated Wallace by emphasising his state's illiteracy rate and labour laws and saying he would ruin the blue-collar workers who had lifted themselves into the middle class
Source
Speech by Reagan in 1968
Had campaigned previous year for Governor on stopping welfare and stopping protests - probably part of 1968 presidential campaign
Public criticisms of universities for tolerating student protests
'Bloody Thursday' in 1969 when he called in police and -
National Guard over protests, student died, carpenter blinded, city of Berkeley occupied by National Guard for two weeks