| Protests of 1968 | |
|---|---|
| Part of thecounterculture of the 1960s and theCold War | |
 Demonstrations against the Vietnam War in Amsterdam, 1968 | |
| Date | 5 January 1968 – 29 March 1969 (1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks and 3 days) |
| Location | Worldwide |
| Caused by | |
| Goals | |
| Resulted in | Social revolutions (including theCarnation Revolution) |
Theprotests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, which were predominantly characterized by the rise ofleft-wing politics,[1]anti-war sentiment,civil rights urgency, youthcounterculture within theSilent andbaby boomer generations, and popular rebellions againstmilitary states and bureaucracies.
In the United States, the protests marked a turning point for thecivil rights movement, which produced revolutionary movements like theBlack Panther Party. In reaction to theTet Offensive, protests also sparked a broad movement inopposition to the Vietnam War all over the United States as well as in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. Mass movements grew in the United States but also elsewhere. In most Western European countries, the protest movement was dominated by students.
The most prominent manifestation was theMay 1968 protests in France, in which students linked up withwildcat strikes of up to ten million workers, and for a few days, the movement seemed capable of overthrowing the government. In many other countries, struggles against dictatorships, political or sectarian tensions and authoritarian rule were also marked by protests in 1968, such as the beginning ofthe Troubles in Northern Ireland, theTlatelolco massacre in Mexico City, and the escalation of guerrilla warfare against themilitary dictatorship in Brazil.
In the countries of Eastern Europe undercommunist parties, there were protests against lack of freedom of speech and violation of other civil rights by the communist bureaucratic and military elites. In Central and Eastern Europe, there were widespread protests that escalated, particularly in thePrague Spring in Czechoslovakia,in Warsaw, Poland, andin Yugoslavia. Outside the Western world there were protests inJapan andEgypt.
Multiple factors created the protests in 1968. Many were in response to perceived injustice by governments—in the US, against the Johnson administration—and were in opposition to the draft, and the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War.
AfterWorld War II, much of the world experienced an unusualsurge in births, creating a large agedemographic. Thesebabies were born during a time of peace and improving economics for many major countries. This was the first generation to see televisions arrive in homes.[2] Television had a profound effect on this generation in two ways. First, it gave them a commonperspective from which to view the world.[3] The children growing up in this era shared not only the news and programs that they watched on television, they also got glimpses of each other's worlds. Secondly, television allowed them to experience major public events.Public education was becoming more widely attended, creating another shared experience.Chain stores andfranchised restaurants were bringing shared shopping and dining experiences to people in different parts of the world.[4]
TheCuban Missile Crisis and theCold War was another shared experience of this generation. The knowledge that anuclear warfare could end their life at any moment was reinforced with classroom "duck and cover" bomb drills[5] creating an omnipresent atmosphere of fear. As they became older, the anti-war, civil rights, peace, andfeminist movement for women's equality were becoming forces in much of the world.
TheEastern Bloc had already seen several mass protests in the decades following World War II, including theHungarian Revolution,the uprising in East Germany and several labor strikes in Poland, especially important ones inPoznań in 1956.
Waves ofsocial movements throughout the 1960s began to shape thevalues of the generation who were students during 1968. In America, thecivil rights movement was at its peak, but was also at its most violent, such as theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on 4 April by awhite supremacist. InNorthern Ireland, religious division paved the way for adecades-long violent conflict betweenIrish republicans andIrish unionists. Italy and France were in the midst of asocialist movement. TheNew Left political movement was causing political upheavals in many European and South American countries. In China, theCultural Revolution had reached its peak. TheArab–Israeli conflict had started in the early 20th century, theBritish anti-war movement had remained strong andAfrican independence movements had continued to grow in number. In Poland in March 1968, student demonstrations at Warsaw University broke out when the government banned the performance of a play byAdam Mickiewicz (Dziady, written in 1824) at thePolish Theatre in Warsaw, on the grounds that it contained "anti-Soviet references". It became known as theMarch 1968 events.
The women's liberation movement caused generations of females to question the global status quo of unequal empowerment of women, and the post-war baby boomer generation came to reassess and redefine their priorities about marriage and motherhood. Thepeace movement made them question authority more than ever before.[6] By the time they started college, the majority of young people identified with ananti-establishment culture, which became the impetus for the wave of rebellion and re-imagination that swept through campuses and throughout the world. College students of 1968 embraced progressive, liberal politics. Their progressive leanings and skepticism of authority were a significant impetus to the global protests of 1968.
Dramatic events of the year in the Soviet Bloc revealed that theradical leftist movement was ambivalent about its relationship tocommunism. The 2–3 June1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia, were the first mass protest in the country after the Second World War. The authorities suppressed the protest, while PresidentJosip Broz Tito had the protests gradually cease by giving in to some of the students' demands. Protests also broke out in other capitals of Yugoslav republics—Sarajevo,Zagreb, andLjubljana—but they were smaller and shorter than in Belgrade.[7][8]
In 1968, Czechoslovakia underwent a process known as the Prague Spring. In August 1968 during theWarsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakian citizens responded to the attack on their sovereignty with passive resistance. Soviet troops were frustrated as street signs were painted over, their water supplies mysteriously shut off, and buildings decorated with flowers, flags, and slogans like, "An elephant cannot swallow a hedgehog." Passers-by painted swastikas on the sides of Soviet tanks. Road signs in the country-side were over-painted to read, in Russian script, "Москва" (Moscow), as hints for the Soviet troops to leave the country.
On 25 August 1968 eight Russian citizens stageda demonstration on Moscow's Red Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. After about five minutes, the demonstrators were beaten up and transferred to a police station. Seven of them received harsh sentences up to several years in prison.
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The protests that raged throughout 1968 included a large number of workers, students, and poor people facing increasingly violent state repression all around the world. Liberation from state repression itself was the most common current in all protests listed below. These refracted into a variety of social causes that reverberated with each other: in the United States alone, for example, protests for civil rights, against nuclear weapons and in opposition to theVietnam War, and forwomen's liberation all came together during this year. Television, so influential in forming the political identity of this generation, became the tool of choice for the revolutionaries. They fought their battles not just on streets and college campuses, but also on the television screen with media coverage.
As the waves of protests of the 1960s intensified to a new high in 1968, repressive governments through widespread police crackdowns, shootings, executions, and even massacres marked social conflicts in Mexico,Brazil,Spain,Poland,Czechoslovakia, and China. InWest Berlin, Rome, London, Paris, Italy, many American cities, andArgentina, labor unions and students played major roles and also suffered political repression.
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The environmental movement can trace its beginnings back to the protests of 1968. The environmental movement evolved from the anti-nuclear movement. France was particularly involved in environmental concerns. In 1968, the French Federation of Nature Protection Societies and the French branch ofFriends of the Earth were formed and the French scientific community organized Survivre et Vivre (Survive and Live). TheClub of Rome was formed in 1968. TheNordic countries were at the forefront of environmentalism. In Sweden, students protested againsthydroelectric plans. In Denmark and the Netherlands, environmental action groups protested about pollution and otherenvironmental issues.[9] TheNorthern Ireland civil rights movement began to start, but resulted in the conflict now known asThe Troubles.
In January, police used clubs on 400 anti-war/anti-Vietnam protesters outside of a dinner for U.S. Secretary of State Rusk.[10] In February, students fromHarvard,Radcliffe, andBoston University held a four-day hunger strike to protest the Vietnam war.[11] Ten thousandWest Berlin students held a sit-in against American involvement inVietnam.[11] People in Canada protested the Vietnam War by mailing 5,000 copies of the paperback,Manual for Draft Age Immigrants to Canada to the United States.[12] On 6 March, five hundredNew York University (NYU) students demonstrated againstDow Chemical because the company was the principal manufacturer ofnapalm, used by the U.S. military in Vietnam.[13] On 17 March, an anti-war demonstration inGrosvenor Square, London, ended with 86 people injured and 200 demonstrators arrested.[14] Japanese students protested the presence of the American military in Japan because of theVietnam War.[15] In March, British students (opposing the Vietnam War), physically attacked the British Defense Secretary, the Secretary of State for Education and the Home Secretary.[15] In August, the1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was disrupted byfive days of street demonstrations by thousands of protesters. Chicago's mayor,Richard J. Daley, escalated the riots with excessive police presence and by ordering up theNational Guard and the army to suppress theprotests.[16] On 7 September, thewomen's liberation movement gained international recognition when itdemonstrated at the annual Miss America beauty pageant. The protest and its disruption of the pageant gave the issue of equal rights for women significant attention and signaled the beginning of the end of "beauty pageants" as any sort of aspiration for young females,[17] and 'square' themed content in general.
On 28 March, theMilitary Police of Brazil killed high school studentEdson Luís de Lima Souto at a protest for cheaper meals at a restaurant for low-income students. The aftermath of his death generated one of the first major protests against themilitary dictatorship in Brazil and incited a national wave of anti-dictatorship student demonstrations throughout the year.
In what became known asPrague Spring, Czechoslovakia's first secretaryAlexander Dubček began a period of reform, which gave way to outright civil protest, only ending when theUSSR invaded the country in August.[18] On 25 August, anti-war protesters gathered in Red Square only to be dispersed. It was titled the1968 Red Square demonstration.
The French May 68 protests started with student protests over university reform and escalated into a month-long protest. The trade unions joined the protest resulting in ageneral strike.[citation needed]
On 1 March, a clash known as theBattle of Valle Giulia took place between students and police in the faculty of architecture in theSapienza University of Rome. In March, Italian students closed the university for 12 days during an anti-war protest.[19]
Protests in Japan, organized by socialist student groupZengakuren, were held against the Vietnam War starting 17 January, coinciding with the visit of theUSSEnterprise toSasebo.[20] In May, violent student protests erupted at multiple Japanese universities, having started earlier in the year from disputes between faculty and students for more student rights and lower tuition fees. Students occupied buildings and clashed with staff, holding "trials" in public.[21]
Mexican university students mobilized to protest Mexican government authoritarianism and sought broad political and cultural changes in Mexico. The entire summer leading up to the opening of the1968 Summer Olympics had a series of escalating conflicts between Mexican students with a broad base of non-student supporters and the police.[16] Mexican presidentGustavo Díaz Ordaz saw the massive and largely peaceful demonstrations as a threat to Mexico's image on the world stage and to his government's ability to maintain order. On 2 October, after a summer of protests against the Mexican government and the occupation of the central campus of theNational Autonomous University (UNAM) by the army, a student demonstration inTlatelolco Plaza in Mexico City ended with police, paratroopers and paramilitary units firing on students, killing and wounding an undetermined number of people.[22][23] The suppression of the Mexican mobilization ended with the 2 October massacre and the Olympic games opened without further demonstrations, but the Olympics themselves were a focus of other political issues. The admittance of the South African team brought the issue ofApartheid to the 1968 Summer Olympics. After more than 40 teams threatened to boycott, the committee reconsidered and again banned the South African team. The Olympics were targeted as a high-profile venue to bring the Black Movement into public view. At a televised medal ceremony, black U.S. track starsJohn Carlos andTommie Smith each raised one black-gloved hand in theblack power salute, and the U.S. Olympic Committee sent them home immediately, albeit only after the International Olympic Community threatened to send the entire track team home if the USOC did not.
In November 1968, the mass student movement erupted in Pakistan against the military dictatorship ofAyub Khan. The movement was later joined by workers, lawyers, white-collar employees, prostitutes, and other social layers.[24] Unprecedented class solidarity was displayed and the prejudices of religion, sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, clan or tribe evaporated in the red heat of revolutionary struggle.[25] In 1968 at the height of the movement against him, young protesters in Karachi and Lahore began describing Ayub Khan as a dog ("Ayub Khan Kutta!"). Troops opened fire, killing dozens and injuring hundreds of students and workers.[26] In March 1969, Ayub Khan resigned and handed power to Army chiefYahya Khan.[27]
On 30 January 300 student protesters from theUniversity of Warsaw and the National Theater School were beaten with clubs by state arranged anti-protestors.[28] On 8 March, the1968 Polish political crisis began with students from theUniversity of Warsaw who marched for student rights were beaten with clubs. The next day over two thousand students marched in protest of the police involvement on campus and were clubbed and arrested again. By 11 March, the general public had joined the protest in violent confrontations with students and police in the streets. The government fought a propaganda campaign against the protestors, labeling themZionists. The 20 days of protest ended when the state closed all of the universities and arrested more than a thousand students. MostPolish Jews left the country to avoid persecution by the government.[29]
In South Africa, the (white-only)University of Cape Town (UCT) Council's decision to rescindArchie Mafeje's (black) offer for a senior lecturer position due to pressure from the Apartheid government angered students and led to protests on 15 August 1968 followed by a nine-daysit-in at the UCT administration building. Protesters faced intimidation from the government, anti-protestors, and fellowAfrikaans students from other universities. The police swiftly squashed support for the sit-in. In the aftermath, Mafeje left the country and did not return until 2000.[30]
Compared to other countries, the repercussions of 1968 were much smaller in Spain, mostly being protests and strikes repressed by Franco's regime. Workers were joined by students at theUniversity of Madrid to protest the involvement of police in demonstrations against dictatorFrancisco Franco's regime, demanding democracy, trade unions and worker rights, and education reform.[31] In April, Spanish students protested against the actions of theFranco regime in sanctioning amass forAdolf Hitler. At the beginning of spring the University of Madrid was closed for thirty-eight days due to student demonstrations.[19]
On 3 May activists protested the participation of twoapartheid nations,Rhodesia and South Africa, in the international tennis competition held inBåstad, Sweden. The protest was among the most violent betweenSwedish police and demonstrators during the 1960s, resulting in a dialogue between theSwedish Government and organizers to curb the escalation of violence. The match was later played in secrecy, with Sweden winning 4–1.[33]
AtStockholm University leftist students occupied their Student Union Building atHolländargatan from 24–27 May to send a political message to the government. Inspired by the protests in France earlier that month, the Stockholm protests were calmer than those in Paris.[34] In reaction to the protests, right-wing students organizedBorgerliga Studenter, or "Bourgeois Students", whose leaders included future prime ministersCarl Bildt andFredrik Reinfeldt. The Student Union building would later be absorbed by theStockholm School of Economics.
In Tunisia, a wave of student-led demonstrations and street protests in front of campuses began in March, inspired by protests in Poland and the1968 protests in Egypt. Student protests, however, were quelled by police and the movement was crushed; in the short-lived period there were peaceful protests and demonstrations for one week.
A series of art school occupations quickly spread throughout the UK during May and July 1968. The occupation atHornsey College of Art (nowMiddlesex University) remains an emblematic event in the modern history of British universities. Cambridge students were involved in theGarden House riot on 13 February 1970.
On 24 August 1968, theNorthern Ireland civil rights movement held its first civil rights march, fromCoalisland toDungannon. Many more marches were held over the following year.Loyalists (especially members of theUPV) attacked some of the marches and held counter-demonstrations in a bid to get the marches banned.[35] Because of the lack of police reaction to the attacks,nationalists saw theRUC, almost wholly Protestant, as backing the loyalists and allowing the attacks to occur.[36] On 5 October 1968, a civil rights march in Derry was banned by the Northern Ireland government.[37] When marchers defied the ban, RUC officers surrounded the marchers and beat them indiscriminately without provocation. More than 100 people were injured, including a number of nationalist politicians.[37]
The incident was filmed by television news crews and shown around the world.[38] It caused outrage among Catholics and nationalists, sparking two days of rioting in Derry between nationalists and the RUC.[37] A few days later, a student civil rights group –People's Democracy – was formed in Belfast.[35] In late November, O'Neill promised the civil rights movement some concessions, but these were seen as too little by nationalists and too much by loyalists. These protests started turning violent, and a year later, the1969 Northern Ireland riots marked the beginning ofThe Troubles, a sectarian conflict that would divide Northern Ireland for roughly 30 years.
In the United States, theCivil Rights Movement had turned away from the south and toward the cities in the north and west with the issues ofopen housing and theBlack Consciousness Movement. The civil rights movement unified and gained international recognition with the emergence of theBlack Power andBlack Panthers organizations.[39] TheOrangeburg massacre on 8 February 1968, a civil rights protest inOrangeburg, South Carolina, turned deadly with the death of three college students.[40] In March, students in North Carolina organized a sit-in at a local lunch counter that spread to 15 cities.[41] In March, students from all five public high schools in East L.A. walked out of their classes protesting against unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. Over the next several days, they inspired similar walkouts at fifteen other schools.[42] On 4 April, theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr. sparkedviolent protests in more than 100 American cities, notablyLouisville,Baltimore andWashington, D.C.[43] On 23 April, students atColumbia University protested and alleged the university had racist policies; three school officials were taken hostage for 24 hours.[13] This was just one of a number ofColumbia University protests of 1968. The August1968 Democratic National Convention became the venue forhuge demonstrations against the Vietnam War and the Johnson Administration. It culminated in a riot, seen as part of television coverage of the convention, when Chicago police waded into crowds in front of the convention center and beat protesters as well as assaulted media figures in the building. At the1968 Summer Olympics during a televised medal ceremony, track starsJohn Carlos andTommie Smith each raised gloved fists in solidarity with black power, which results with them getting suspended from the Olympics.[citation needed]
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TheWest German student movement were largely a reaction against the perceived authoritarianism and hypocrisy of the West German government and other Western governments, particularly in relation to the poor living conditions of students. Students in 108 West German universities protested to get recognition ofEast Germany, the removal of government officials with Nazi pasts and for the rights of students.[19] In February, protests by professors at theUniversity of Bonn demanded the resignation of the university's president because of his involvement in the building of concentration camps during the war.[44]
Protests inYugoslavia, primarily centered at theUniversity of Belgrade, had a significant impact on the political landscape under the leadership ofJosip Broz Tito.
In 1968, Yugoslavia was under a unique communist self-management system, with Tito as its leader since the end of World War II. Despite enjoying relative independence from Soviet control, there were tensions within the country related to economic challenges, growing inequality, and authoritarianism. Students, in particular, felt frustrated by the gap between the promises of socialism and the reality of social and economic hardships.
Particular grievances focused on the following points:
The protests began on 2 June 1968, in Belgrade, following a small clash between students and the police over a canceled theater performance. As police violence escalated, more students joined in, and the protests spread to other Yugoslav cities, such as Ljubljana and Zagreb. Protesters demanded better living conditions, economic equality, greater access to education, and freedom of expression. They carried slogans like "Down with the Red Bourgeoisie" and "We refuse to live in a world where man exploits man."
Initially, Tito's government responded with force, deploying police and military to suppress the protests. However, as the protests grew, Tito shifted to a more conciliatory approach. On 9 June 1968, in a televised address, Tito surprised the nation by acknowledging some of the students' grievances and expressing support for certain reforms. Despite Tito's conciliatory rhetoric, once the protests subsided, his government did not implement substantial reforms. In the months that followed, the government tightened its control over universities and suppressed dissenting voices.
Ultimate, the protests resulted in the following:
The 1968 protests are seen as a critical moment in Yugoslavia's history, highlighting the regime's failure to adapt to the demands of a new generation. Despite living under socialism, young people felt marginalized and disillusioned. The protests also foreshadowed the political and social challenges that Tito's successors would face after his death in 1980.
These protests revealed the cracks within the Yugoslav socialist system and signaled the difficulties the country would experience in the following decades, leading to its eventual breakup.
In October, theRodney riots inKingston, Jamaica, were inspired when the Jamaican government ofHugh Shearer banned Guyanese university lecturer Dr.Walter Rodney from returning to his teaching position at theUniversity of the West Indies. Rodney, a historian of Africa, had been active in theBlack power movement, and had been sharply critical of the middle class in many Caribbean countries. Rodney was an avowedsocialist who worked with the poor of Jamaica in an attempt to raise their political and cultural consciousness.
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