Student movement (1968)

Student movement (1968)
Name	Student movement (1968)
Date	1968
Place	Worldwide
Causes	Protests against Vietnam War, opposition to Nuclear proliferation, demands for civil rights, reaction to Prague Spring, critique of Consumerism
Result	Diverse reforms and repression

Student movement (1968)

The student movement of 1968 was a global wave of campus-based protests involving activists connected to New Left, Students for a Democratic Society, National Union of Students, CFDT and other organizations that challenged institutions such as Harvard University, Sorbonne, University of California, Berkeley and University of Tokyo. Leading incidents linked to demonstrations against the Vietnam War, solidarity actions for the Prague Spring and campaigns for civil rights and anti-colonial causes, producing clashes with authorities including the French Police, Chicago Police Department and various national armies.

Background and causes

In the 1960s the convergence of events like the Vietnam War, the Algerian War, the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, and the suppression of the Prague Spring intersected with intellectual currents from thinkers associated with New Left Review, Herbert Marcuse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon and publications such as The New Left and Ramparts. Expanded access to institutions such as University of California system, University of Paris (Sorbonne), University of São Paulo and University of Heidelberg produced large cohorts familiar with texts by Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, Simone de Beauvoir and Karl Marx, while cultural influences from Bob Dylan, The Beatles, John Lennon and Bob Marley reinforced opposition to Nuclear Test Ban Treaty anxieties and Civil rights movement campaigns. Global communication networks involving syndicates like Agence France-Presse and broadcasters such as BBC World Service and Voice of America spread images from events including the Tet Offensive and police actions in Birmingham, Alabama that fueled organization among groups like Students for a Democratic Society and the National Student Association.

Key events and protests

Major flashpoints included the occupation of the Sorbonne and the demonstrations of May 1968 in Paris, the protests at Columbia University in 1968, the confrontation at the Democratic National Convention (1968) in Chicago, Illinois, the sit-ins at University of California, Berkeley, and mass mobilizations in Mexico City preceding the 1968 Summer Olympics. Other notable actions encompassed strikes at Universidade de São Paulo, barricades in Prague in response to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, student marches in London organized through the National Union of Students (United Kingdom), and occupations at Waseda University and University of Tokyo connected to movements across East Asia. Violent episodes involved actors like the Chicago Police Department, the Mexican Army, the French National Police, and paramilitary groups tied to entities like the Ku Klux Klan and various student wings of political parties.

National and international movements

In France the movement combined unions such as the CGT with groups influenced by Situationist International and figures like Daniel Cohn-Bendit; in the United States the Students for a Democratic Society linked civil rights organizers from Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and activists like Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman to anti-war coalitions. In Mexico the Federación Estudiantil Universitaria and leaders in Mexico City confronted the Institutional Revolutionary Party, while in Czechoslovakia students allied with reformers connected to Alexander Dubček during the Prague Spring. Movements in West Germany involved groups around Extra-Parliamentary Opposition and Rudi Dutschke, whereas in Italy the Hot Autumn precursors engaged activists linked to Lotus and Potere Operaio. In Latin America, student activism intersected with organizations such as Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional and radical currents inspired by Che Guevara, and in Japan campus struggles tied to factions like Zenkyoto influenced labor confrontations with firms such as Mitsubishi.

Government and institutional responses

Responses ranged from concessions by administrations like University of California regents and policy shifts in national cabinets including those led by Charles de Gaulle and Lyndon B. Johnson to harsh repression by security forces such as the Mexican Army at the Tlatelolco massacre, the deployment of Tanks in Prague during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and police brutality during the Democratic National Convention (1968) protests in Chicago, Illinois. Governments invoked legislation and state apparatuses like Internal Security Act-era measures and intelligence agencies—Federal Bureau of Investigation, Sûreté nationale—while universities used administrative sanctions, expulsions and dean's offices to counter occupations at institutions such as Columbia University and Sorbonne.

Cultural and intellectual impact

The movement catalyzed artistic and intellectual shifts visible in publications like The Guardian, New Left Review and alternative presses including The Berkeley Barb, and influenced cinema from directors associated with French New Wave, filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard and musicians tied to Counterculture of the 1960s including Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Academic fields reoriented around theories from Herbert Marcuse, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu while curricula at institutions such as Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley and Sorbonne incorporated studies connected to Black Power movement, Feminist movement and postcolonial scholarship influenced by Edward Said and Frantz Fanon. Cultural festivals, underground newspapers and art collectives linked to Situationist International and Fluxus propagated new forms of protest aesthetics.

Legacy and long-term consequences

Long-term outcomes included reforms in university governance at places like University of California and legislative shifts influenced by activism around the Voting Rights Act of 1965 era and anti-war politics, the radicalization and subsequent institutionalization of groups that spawned political careers and parties across Europe and Latin America, and a renewed focus on identity politics that led to movements such as Second-wave feminism and expanded LGBT rights movement. Repressive episodes produced lasting legal and historical debates exemplified by inquiries into the Tlatelolco massacre and assessments of surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during COINTELPRO. The cultural memory of 1968 continues to inform scholarship in journals like History Workshop Journal and exhibition practices at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the British Library.

Category:1968 protests Category:Student movements Category:New Left