Media 68

Vietnam remains the sole example of a war that was fought not only in the jungle and the rice-fields, but in the streets, squares and universities of the whole world.
The USA defeat, more political than military, had its origins there.
The delusion would only arrive later: soon Vietnam finished representing a symbol and a hope.

Generalissimo Franco's leaving the dictatorship is on the agenda. Students and workers are the triggering element of an institutional upheaval which will end later with the return to a form of constitutional monarchy. Universities and the Asturias are the hot points of the Spanish '68, with the birth of the Comisiones Obreras.

In Italy the 1968 movement begins earlier, in the occupied universities, and continues after, until the Autumn of the workers of 1969 which marks the moment of greatest social clash in post-war Italy. One characteristic of the Italian '68 is the strong interaction, which was very controversial, with the culture and forms of politics of the left-wing parties. The other is the bitterness of the police repression both against the students and against the workers.

From March to 19 August: Poland and Czechoslovakia try to renew their real socialism. At the head of the movement are the students and workers, but also leaders such as Dubcek, who believe that it is possible to reform the Stalinist system which had been imposed on their countries. It will last until the tanks and until, on 16 January 1969 in Wenceslaus Square, the student Jan Palach burns himself to death.

The roots are in Berkeley, California, in the anti-authoritarian movement for freedom of speech. But in 1968 the USA movement also becomes black, in the ghettos, and pacifist, in the white universities. Two faces of the protest that will never really meet. Black panthers on the one side, even on the podium of Mexico City, radicals on the other.

The political and moral revolution of the German people against the shadows of the authoritarian democracy and the Nazi past. Students of the SDS against the publisher Springer and his hate campaign. The attempt on the life of Rudi Dutschke, the emergency legislation and the birth of the RAF.

A country in the hands of the students. The Gaullist regime seems to totter, after having let the police loose in the Latin Quarter and the universities. It is May, a happy season which will however be followed by the return of De Gaulle with a memorable speech to the heart of the nation and the return of the Fifth Republic.

China suggests to the West a Communism that has “not turned middle-class”; it becomes the emblem of a rural and revolutionary third world. Maoism, the peoples' Communes, the break with the USSR, the Hundred Flowers, the Cultural Revolution. A mythical and somewhat unknown country. Here, 1968 is actually the year in which the students leave the scene, the year of the normalization of the Cultural Revolution.

In November '68 the procession for the funeral of the elderly Papandreu, head of the government before the coup d'état of April 1967, turns into a demonstration against the junta of the colonels. It will be the last insurrection until November 1973, when in Athens the students of the Polytechnic barricade themselves inside the university. The end of the revolt coincides with the fall of the military dictatorship of Papadopoulos.

In the Sixties, student guerrilla warfare and revolts on the one hand and militarist authoritarianism on the other run transversally through almost all the countries of Latin America. The Cuban Revolution. Che Guevara. The massacre in the Square of the Three Cultures in Mexico City. Up to the coup of Pinochet in Chile in 1973. Capitalism-imperialism will return to dominate the entire area, excluding Cuba.

The birth of the new left in Japan, which precedes 1968 by a decade, is entwined with the period of American occupation. The national league of students (Zengakuren) sees in the authoritarian reorganization of Japanese capitalism and in its alliance with USA imperialism the main obstacles to a real democratization. In 1968, at the end of October, Tokyo is besieged by students and workers. Then, the “rearrangement” of Japanese society begins.

The London School of Economics (LSE), epicentre of the student revolt between '67 and '69. The “Dialectics of liberation” congress. The demonstrations against the war and the campaign against bacteriological weapons. But Great Britain is above all the place where the new morality is born. The rockers, the mods and the Beatles.


		Vietnam remains the sole example of a war that was fought not only in the jungle and the rice-fields, but in the streets, squares and universities of the whole world. The USA defeat, more political than military, had its origins there. The delusion would only arrive later: soon Vietnam finished representing a symbol and a hope.

		Generalissimo Franco's leaving the dictatorship is on the agenda. Students and workers are the triggering element of an institutional upheaval which will end later with the return to a form of constitutional monarchy. Universities and the Asturias are the hot points of the Spanish '68, with the birth of the Comisiones Obreras.

		In Italy the 1968 movement begins earlier, in the occupied universities, and continues after, until the Autumn of the workers of 1969 which marks the moment of greatest social clash in post-war Italy. One characteristic of the Italian '68 is the strong interaction, which was very controversial, with the culture and forms of politics of the left-wing parties. The other is the bitterness of the police repression both against the students and against the workers.

		From March to 19 August: Poland and Czechoslovakia try to renew their real socialism. At the head of the movement are the students and workers, but also leaders such as Dubcek, who believe that it is possible to reform the Stalinist system which had been imposed on their countries. It will last until the tanks and until, on 16 January 1969 in Wenceslaus Square, the student Jan Palach burns himself to death.

		The roots are in Berkeley, California, in the anti-authoritarian movement for freedom of speech. But in 1968 the USA movement also becomes black, in the ghettos, and pacifist, in the white universities. Two faces of the protest that will never really meet. Black panthers on the one side, even on the podium of Mexico City, radicals on the other.

		The political and moral revolution of the German people against the shadows of the authoritarian democracy and the Nazi past. Students of the SDS against the publisher Springer and his hate campaign. The attempt on the life of Rudi Dutschke, the emergency legislation and the birth of the RAF.

		A country in the hands of the students. The Gaullist regime seems to totter, after having let the police loose in the Latin Quarter and the universities. It is May, a happy season which will however be followed by the return of De Gaulle with a memorable speech to the heart of the nation and the return of the Fifth Republic.

		China suggests to the West a Communism that has “not turned middle-class”; it becomes the emblem of a rural and revolutionary third world. Maoism, the peoples' Communes, the break with the USSR, the Hundred Flowers, the Cultural Revolution. A mythical and somewhat unknown country. Here, 1968 is actually the year in which the students leave the scene, the year of the normalization of the Cultural Revolution.

		In November '68 the procession for the funeral of the elderly Papandreu, head of the government before the coup d'état of April 1967, turns into a demonstration against the junta of the colonels. It will be the last insurrection until November 1973, when in Athens the students of the Polytechnic barricade themselves inside the university. The end of the revolt coincides with the fall of the military dictatorship of Papadopoulos.

		In the Sixties, student guerrilla warfare and revolts on the one hand and militarist authoritarianism on the other run transversally through almost all the countries of Latin America. The Cuban Revolution. Che Guevara. The massacre in the Square of the Three Cultures in Mexico City. Up to the coup of Pinochet in Chile in 1973. Capitalism-imperialism will return to dominate the entire area, excluding Cuba.

		The birth of the new left in Japan, which precedes 1968 by a decade, is entwined with the period of American occupation. The national league of students (Zengakuren) sees in the authoritarian reorganization of Japanese capitalism and in its alliance with USA imperialism the main obstacles to a real democratization. In 1968, at the end of October, Tokyo is besieged by students and workers. Then, the “rearrangement” of Japanese society begins.

		The London School of Economics (LSE), epicentre of the student revolt between '67 and '69. The “Dialectics of liberation” congress. The demonstrations against the war and the campaign against bacteriological weapons. But Great Britain is above all the place where the new morality is born. The rockers, the mods and the Beatles.