Modern History Workshop: Revolution 1968 (Alan O'Connor)

Monday evenings 8pm

This workshop will explore the student/workers uprisings of 1968 which swept many countries and in some cases seriously challenged the elected governments. The focus will be global and we will examine state violence against students in Mexico City, protests against the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement in the USA, as well as the famous student/worker revolution in Paris. We will also examine media coverage of 1968 and its effects on the movement, as well as controversy about the legacy and significance of 1968 for social movements today.

There will be a photocopied kit of readings (one reading of about 20 pages each week) which will cost about $10. The course is limited to 15 people.The aim of the Workshop is to produce a collective website about the global student and worker uprisings of 1968. We will be using TWiki web software, which is both simple to use and intended for collectively written documents.

Readings will be taken among from the following sources. Participants are welcome to suggest changes and additions.

Cohn-Bendit, Daniel^? and Gabriel, Obsolete Communist: The Left-Wing Alternative (Penguin, 1969) Reprinted by AK Press. reviewed

Cockburn, Alexander and Robin Blackburn, Student Power (Penguin, 1969)

Fields, Belden, 'French Maoism,' in The Sixtes Without Apologies, edited by Sohnya Sayres (Minnesota, 1984).

Fraser, Ronald, 1968: A Student Generation in Revolt^? (Chatto & Windus, 1988).

Gallant, Mavis, Paris Notebooks (Stoddart, 1997). Originally published in The New Yorker, 1968. A Canadian writer in Paris.

Gitlin, Todd, The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and the Unmaking of the New Left (University of California, 1980)

Halloran, James D., Philip Elliot and Graham Murdock, Demonstrations and Communication (Penguin, 1970)

Katsiaficas, George, The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968^? (South End Press, 1987) The best book on 1968 in a global context.

Labro, Philippe "This Is Only A Beginning", New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1969.

Mailer, Norman, The Armies of the Night (Signet, 1968) http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/subcultures/ideas/buzzpounds/pounarmies.html

Marshall, Peter, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (Fontana, 1993)

Oglesby, Carl (ed), The New Left Reader (Grove Press, 1969)

Passerini, Luisa, Autobiography of a Generation: Italy 1968^? (Wesleyan University Press, 1996).

Peck, Abe, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press (Pantheon, 1985)

Poniatowska, Elena, Massacre in Mexico (Missouri, 1975) Originally published in Mexico.

Quattrocchi, Angelo and Tom Nairn, The Beginning of the End: France, May 1968 (Panther Books, 1968) Reprinted by Verso in 1998. A good place to start--accounts by an Italian anarchist and a English socialist.

Ross, Kristin, May '68 and its Afterlives^? (University of Chicago, 2002).

Seale, Patrick and Mauren McConville^?, French Revolution 1968 (Penguin, 1968).

Singer, Daniel, Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968 (South End Press, 2002). Originally published in 1970. Articles by Singer available online at http://www.danielsinger.org/articles.html

Spender, Stephen, The Year of the Young Rebels^? (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969).

Vienet Rene, Enrages and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, France, May 1968^? (Autonomedia, 1992). Originally published in France in 1968.

Williams, Raymond (ed.) May Day Manifesto 1968 (Penguin, 1968)

Some web resources on May 1968

* Encyclopedia article http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968 * Overview http://flag.blackened.net/af/org/issue49/may.html * Situationists http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/May68docs.htm * May 1968 by Kolokolnikov http://www.media68.com/docs/kolokol.htm * Paris: May 1968 http://www.geocities.com/cordobakaf/maya.html * Remembering May 1968 http://www.neravt.com/left/may1968.htm

Students for a Democratic Society (USA)

* Port Huron Statement(1962) http://www.sdsrebels.com./port-huron.htm * Speech by SDS leader (1965) http://www.sdsrebels.com/oglesby.htm

schedule

Jan 12 Introductions, 1968 in a global context, introduction to Twiki software.

Jan 19 An anarchist account of May 1968 in Paris: Angelo Quattrocchi, from The Beginning of the End: France, May 1968

Jan 26 A Global Analysis of 1968: George Katsiaficas, The Imagination of the New Left, chapter 2 'Social Movements of 1968'

Feb 2 What a Situation!: Rene Vienet, Enrages and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, chapter 6 'Depth and Limits of the Revolutionary Crisis'

Feb 9 Demonstrations and the mass media :Todd Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching, chapter 5 'Certifying Leaders'.

READING BREAK - NO CLASS THIS WEEK

Feb 23 The Black Panthers : Huey Newton, 'A Prison Interview' in Carl Oglesby (ed.), The New Left Reader.

Mar 1 Against the Vietnam War :Norman Mailer, The Armies of the Night

Mar 8 Massacre in Mexico City :Elena Poniatowska, Massacre in Mexico, from 'The Night of Tlatelolco'

Mar 15 Riots in Paris :Cohn-Bendit, Obsolete Communism, chapter 1 'The Student Revolt'

Mar 22 The legacy of 1968 :Kristin Ross, May '68 and its Afterlives, chapter 1 'The Police Conception of History'