The year 1968 witnessed one of the great upheavals of the twentieth century, as social movements shook every continent. Across the Global North, people rebelled against post-war conformity and patriarchy, authoritarian education and factory work, imperialism and the Cold War. They took over workplaces and universities, created their own media, art and humour, and imagined another world. The legacy of 1968 lives on in many of today's struggles, yet it is often misunderstood and caricatured.
Voices of 1968 is a vivid collection of original texts from the movements of the long 1968. We hear these struggles in their own words, showing their creativity and diversity. We see feminism, black power, anti-war activism, armed struggle, indigenous movements, ecology, dissidence, counter-culture, trade unionism, radical education, lesbian and gay struggles, and more take the stage.
Chapters cover France, Czechoslovakia, Northern Ireland, Britain, the USA, Canada, Italy, West Germany, Denmark, Mexico, Yugoslavia and Japan. Introductory essays frame the rich material - posters, speeches, manifestos, flyers, underground documents, images and more - to help readers explore the era's revolutionary voices and ideas and understand their enduring impact on society, culture and politics today.
Recenzijos
'This extraordinary collection brings together the great manifestos, political programmes, and other original writings that inspired - and were inspired by - the movements and uprisings of 1968... indispensable for anyone interested in the global upheavals of that annus mirabilis' -- Jeff Goodwin, NYU, editor of The Social Movements Reader and author of No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991 'Read Voices of 1968 to understand how, why and where deeply rooted activist currents coalesced into a global uprising that changed the world. Here are the transnational threads of hope and possibility desperately needed in an era of neoliberalism' -- Robyn C. Spencer, CUNY, author of The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party 'The many revolts and uprisings of 1968 have frequently been told through narratives which have depoliticised them. This valuable collection of original documents and writings reasserts the diverse forms of radicalism and struggles for radical change in this pivotal year. It's a significant resource for hope and struggle' -- David Featherstone, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, and author of Solidarity: Hidden Histories and Geographies of Internationalism 'Here are voices from the marvellous year of 1968, as they spoke then. Some speak to projects we still struggle to realise half a century later. If a few are slightly mad, most are empowering, we know them as our own. We are their inheritor' -- Colin Barker, Senior Lecturer Emeritus, Manchester Metropolitan University, editor of Revolutionary Rehearsals and author of Festival of the Oppressed 'This is a direly needed document collection of great value. To the best of my knowledge, this is the most comprehensive such publication on global 1968 in any Western language' -- Gerd-Rainer Horn, author of The Spirit of '68: Rebellion in Western Europe and North America, 1956-76 'These revolutionary texts, many translated into English for the first time, contribute to challenge the whitewashing of this extraordinary year of anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, antiracist, feminist and LGBT struggles' -- Franēoise Vergčs, Chair Global South(s), Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris 'An invaluable collection of original material from this most epic of years ranging right across Europe and the USA for its sources' -- Philosophy Football
Acknowledgements
What Was 1968? by Salar Mohandesi, Bjarke Skęrlund Risager, and Laurence Cox
1. United States
Paul Potter: The Incredible War (1965)
General Gordon Baker, Jr.: Letter to Draft Board 100, Wayne County, Detroit,
Michigan (1965)
The Diggers: Trip Without a Ticket (1967)
Tom Hayden: Two, Three, Many Columbias (1968)
Redstockings Manifesto (1969)
The Black Panther Party and Young Patriots Organization: Right On! (1969)
Young Lords Party: 13-Point Program and Platform (1970)
2. Canada
Front de Libération du Québec: Message of the FLQ to the Nation (1963)
Charles Gagnon and Pierre Valličres: Letter to Stokely Carmichael (1968)
Keith Byrne, Rosie Douglas, and Elder Thébaud: Black Writers Congress: The
Organizers Talk (1968)
Native Alliance for Red Power: Eight-Point Program (1969)
Workers Unity: Salt of the Earth Two for the Price of One (1971)
Corporation des Enseignants du Québec: Phase One (1971)
Vancouver Womens Caucus: Lesbians Belong in the Womens Movement (1972)
3. Mexico
National Strike Council: List of Demands (1968)
National Strike Council: For a Worker/Peasant/Student Alliance (1968)
Gilberto Guevara Niebla, Ana Ignacia Rodrķguez, and Marķa Alice Martķnez
Medrano: Eyewitness Accounts (1971)
Jaime Sabines: Tlatelolco, 68 (1972)
Party of the Poor: First Principles (1972)
First Indigenous Congress: Resolutions (1974)
La Revuelta: Editorial (1976)
4. Japan
Akiyama Katsuyuki: To the Fighting Students and Workers of All Japan and the
Whole World (1967)
Iwadare Hiroshi: Without Warning, Riot Police Beat Citizens As
Well: Dispatch from Our Reporter Inside the Maelstrom (1968)Council on Armed
Revolution, Red Army Faction, Communist
League: Declaration of War (1969)
AMPO Interviews Makoto Oda (1969)
Tanaka Mitsu: Liberation from the Toilet (1970)
Ui Jun: Pollution and Residents Struggle (1974)
5. West Germany
Students Trade Union Working Group, SDS Munich, Liberal Students Association
Munich, Social Democratic Higher Education Association Munich: Murder (1967)
Rudi Dutschke and Hans-Jürgen Krahl: Self-Denial Requires a Guerrilla Mindset
(1967)
Kommune I: Consumer, Why are you Burning? (1967)
H. Heinemann: Observations on the Tactics and Deployment of West Berlins
Fascistoid Press (1967)
Womens Liberation Action Council/Helke Sander: Speech to the twenty-third
SDS Delegate Conference (1968)
Wimmins Council of the Frankfurt Group: Statement of Accounts (1968)
Red Army Faction: Build the Red Army (1970)
Walter Mossmann: Watch on the Rhine (1974)
6. Denmark
Ole Grünbaum: Emigrate (1968)
Erland Kolding Nielsen: Democracy or Student Rule? (1968)
Lisbeth Dehn Holgersen, Åse Lading, Ninon Schloss and Marie-Louise Svane:
Something is Happening, But You Dont Know What It Is, Do You, Mr. Jones?
(1970)
Jacob Ludvigsen: The Militarys Forbidden City on Christianshavn was
Quietly Taken by Ordinary Civilians (1971)
Aqqaluk Lynge: Will We be Squeezed to Death in Your Bosom, Mother Denmark:
The Fourth World and the Rabid Greenlanders (1975)
7. France
La Jeunesse Communiste Révolutionnaire: February 21: A Tribute to Vietnamese
Heroism (1968)
Action: Why We Are Fighting (1968)
Fredy Perlman: Liberated Censier: A Revolutionary Base (1968)
Slogans (1968)
Alsthom Workers on Self-Management (1968)
Le Groupe dInformation sur les Prisons: Manifesto (1971)
Manifesto of the 343 Women (1971)
Moktar: Everytime We Advance the Liberation of the Arab People, We Also
Advance the French Revolution (1971)
8. Italy
Occupiers of the Sapienza University: The Sapienza Theses (1967)
Movement for a Negative University/Renato Curcio: Manifesto for a Negative
University (1967)
The Struggle Continues (1968)
Potere Operaio: The Lessons of the Revolt in France (1968)
Lucio Magri: One Year Later: Prague Stands Alone (1969)
Workers Committee of Porto Marghera: As We Work, We Workers Produce Capital:
How We Reproduce Capitals Rule Over Ourselves (1970)
Red Brigade: Communiqué no. 3 (1970)
Padua Womens Struggle Movement/Mariarosa Dalla Costa: First Document (1971)
9. Britain
Why Vietnam Solidarity? Policy Statement by the International Council of the
Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (1966)
Dave Slaney: The Occupation of LSE (1968)
J.W.: Network: or How We Beat the Gallery System (1969)
International Times: People Round about Living in Fear (1970)
Black Womens Action Committee: The Oppressed of the Oppressed (1971)
Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto (1971)
10. Northern Ireland
Campaign for Social Justice: Londonderry: One Man, No Vote (1965)
Derry Housing Action Committee: 68 DHAC 69 (1969)
Russell Kerr, John Ryan and Anne Kerr: Three Eyewitnesses Report on
Londonderry (1968)
Bowes Egan and Vincent McCormack: Burntollet (1969)
A Republican in the Civil Rights Movement (pseudonym): Britain and the
Barricade (1969)
Peoples Democracy/Eilish McDermott: Speech to the National Association for
Irish Justice (1969)
11. Yugoslavia
Ivica Percl: Honored Professor (1968)
Resolution of the Student Demonstration (1968)
Letter from Students to Workers (1968)
Political Action Program (1968)
Proclamation of the Revolutionary Students of the Socialist University Seven
Secretaries of the Young Communist League of Yugoslavia (1968)
D. Plamenic: Discussion held by the General Assembly of the Philosophy and
Sociology Faculty (1968)
12. Czechoslovakia
Action Program of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1968)
Milan Hauner: Rudi Dutschke in Recovery (1968)
Ludvķk Vaculķk: Two Thousand Words that Belong to Workers, Farmers,
Officials, Scientists, Artists, and Everybody (1968)
Extraordinary Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia: Proclamation
Adopted at the Opening of the Congress (1968)
Information from the Local Councils of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia,
the Municipality, and the National Front to the Citizens of the Town (1968)
Aktual/Milan Knķįk: Russians, Go Home! (1968)
Workers Councils: The Guarantee of Democratic Administration and Managerial
Activity (1969)
A Letter from Jan Palach addressed to the Union of Czechoslovak Writers (1969)
Salar Mohandesi is an Assistant Professor of History at Bowdoin College and a founding editor of Viewpoint Magazine. His current project, From Anti-Imperialism to Human Rights, traces the history of transnational anti-Vietnam War activism. Bjarke Skęrlund Risager is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto where he works on a project on resistance to gentrification and precarity under post-industrialisation. He recently co-edited Contested Property Claims: What Disagreement Tells us about Ownership (Routledge, 2018). He is the co-editor of Revolution in the Air?: 1968 in the Global North (Pluto, 2018). Laurence Cox is Associate Professor in Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth. A long-time activist, he co-founded the social movement journal Interface and researches popular struggles for a better world. He is co-author of We Make Our Own History: Marxism, Social Movements and the Twilight of Neoliberalism (Pluto, 2014) and co-editor of Revolution in the Air?: 1968 in the Global North (Pluto, 2018). With Alf Gunvald Nilsen he edits the Pluto Press series Social Movements / Activist Research.
