1968 — A view of the protest movements
40 years after, from a global perspective.
44. Linz Conference: September 11–14, 2008
CALL FOR PAPERS
When we look back on the 68er protest movements, we are dealing
with a period of two decades, the 1960s and 1970s. For the social and political
protest movements were clearly underway worldwide before 1968 and were exhausted
definitively only at the end of the 1970s. "1968" therefore represents
only a number.
The number "1968" stands for the worldwide social movements that
were carried above all by youth and students who distinguished themselves
with a specifically "youth" mentality, culture and way of life.
They thus produced an impact that went beyond class and social strata. The
social composition of these social movements varied from place to place
and from country to country.
These social movements, which in some – in particular, non-European
– countries took on the character of social revolts, were an international
phenomenon and increasingly also internationally networked. They reached
from the three continents over the social movements of the developing countries
to the metropoleis of the capitalist world system. Inside the sphere of
state socialism, they were essentially limited to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia
as well as some dissident party currents (Poland, GDR, Hungary). With this
conference we want above all to include also non-European experiences and
put an emphasis upon transnational and transcontinental comparative analyses.
Introductory presentation
(Thursday Evening, 11.9.08)
The introductory presentation will sketch out this framework of content
and method. Two introductory papers will delimit the framework of our conference
in the form of guiding questions, thematic focal points, methodological
questions – such as, for example, the comparability of social movements
and their representation as a protest cycle – and give stimuli for
discussion.
Panel I and II: Country Case Studies
(Friday, 12.9.08)
In two panels we want to begin to concretise our intention to look at the
protest movements in a global perspective. We are aware that the choice
of countries is a concession to the limited possibilities of a two-day conference.
In the country case studies we want to examine the following fields of problems:
themes of content and focal points of the social and protest movements;
forms of protest; general and social acceptance; social composition; interaction
(practical and intellectual networks); the effects of repression by the
State; enduring effects and consequences of social movements; country specific
social movements in transnational and transcontinental comparison.
Panel I (Friday morning)
1. France and Italy
2. Argentina, Mexico and possibly also Brazil
3. USA and Canada
Panel II (Friday afternoon)
4. Poland and Czechoslovakia
5. Senegal and South Africa
6. Pakistan and India
Public podium discussion: "winners and losers
of the 68er social movements"
(Friday evening, 12.9.08)
The social movements of "1968" produced a polarised spectrum
of winners and losers. From the crisis of 1978/9, some groups took the road
to social advancement and integrated themselves into the social-political
establishment. Opposed to them were many losers who collapsed professionally,
social and psychically or were criminalised and incarcerated. Between these
two poles is the layer of those who only partially came to terms with the
situation and continued to call for a socially emancipatory perspective.
This layer, however, appears to be relatively small, so that "1968"
could become a number and is not underwritten by an enduring social memory.
In the discussion we also want to consider to what extent this problematic
was typical for all social movements or which specific differences there
were on the global level.
Panel III: Interactions and Synchronisations – practical and intellectual
networks
(Saturday morning, 13.9.08)
Were there themes and forms of protest that united the 68er social movements
worldwide? We want to concentrate on three themes that in our opinion led
to worldwide interactions and synchronisations of the protest and social
movements and as a consequence of which practical and intellectual networks
across countries and continents emerged.
1. Unifying horizons of thought and transfer of knowledge
An important conceptual precursor and companion of the social movements
was the international "New Left", which had left the traditional
and particularly communist left since the second half of the 1950s. It essentially
contributed to a critical confrontation with the authoritarian and dogmatically
ossified structures of East European State socialism and the communist parties
in the West. As a result of these confrontations, there emerged new models
of concepts of social emancipation and transformation of capitalism. The
themes and the internationally known speakers at the summer school of Korcula
(Yugoslavia) represent in an exemplary fashion an intellectual network that
exercised influence on the social movements worldwide. Important and intellectually
unifying were concepts of the Third World as well as theories on dependent
development (e.g. André Gundar Frank) and the programme and analyses
of decolonisation (e.g. Frantz Fanon). The black civil rights movement and
the black power movement made the social movements sensitive to racist politics
and modes of behaviour with their programmatic demands. In this panel we
want to locate which theorists, which texts, which literature and which
music the actors of the social movements worldwide were using and by which
their thought was influenced.
2. Vietnam War
The protest and resistance against the Vietnam War united the 68er social
movements worldwide. When the afro-American organisations and the Students
for a Democratic Society in the USA called for desertion from the US army
in their resistance against the Vietnam War, it found a world-wide echo
and led – also due to the practical engagement for the draft dodgers
– internationally to a practical solidarity, but also to political
radicalisation.
3. Reception of the Chinese Cultural Revolution
How was the Chinese Cultural Revolution received by the social movements
in the majority of cases and interpreted on a worldwide scale? Why was its
authoritarian, undemocratic and violent side not taken seriously or even
accepted by broad elements of the social movements? The reception of and
orientation towards the Chinese Cultural Revolution belong, in our opinion,
to the complex of still unanswered questions regarding how the initially
anti-authoritarian social movements arranged themselves in the majority
from the beginning of the 1970s in authoritarian and hierarchically structured
party models. To what extent were there unitary paradigms – going
across countries and continents – in the reception of the Chinese
Cultural Revolution, to what extent were there country specific differences,
and when there were such differences, in what did they consist?
Interregnum
Before we thematise on Saturday afternoon the effects and consequences of
the 68er social movements, we will summaries and emphasise the questions,
controversies, methodological challenges and possible gaps of the previous
panels. The task of this "thematic accentuation" is to show connections
and separations between the panels and thus to begin to prepare the closing
discussion.
Panel IV: Effects and consequences of the 68er social
movements
(Saturday afternoon)
1. Changed life styles and attitudes
In which fields have the social movements effected enduring social and mental
changes? This is the case, in our opinion, for the women’s movement,
which made us conscious of the discrimination and oppression of women anchored
in many areas of everyday social life and levelled out the gender relation
to a certain extent. In the context of these debates, attitudes in relation
to different sexual orientations and ways of life were also changed. Similar
impulses emerged from the ecology movement. There emerged in this context
important theoretical debates and social concepts that still today –
despite an extensive political integration via the green parties –
produce their effects and have led to significant modifications in social
and economic relations to the environment.
Without an analysis of the relation of the generations to each other it
is not possible to understand the social psychology of the social upheaval
of the 1960s and 1970s. An essential motivation to become politically active
came, particularly in Germany, from confrontation with the period of fascism
and the war generation of the parents. The historically comparative approach
will help to clarify to what extent these questions were also relevant for
social movements in other countries.
On the other hand, the effects of the social movements on the socio-economic
cycle are contested. Certainly, at the end of the 1960s/beginning of the
1970s there were not without influence on the field of production, because
they placed the tayloristic constitution of the factory in question. To
what extent the social movements also give an impulse for the transformation
of labour relations guaranteed by the welfare state (which have since become
extensively socially insecure and precarious) is a question that has not
yet been answered. Similarly, the question of to what extent the requirement
for individual sovereignty of time and self determined life planning that
came out of the social movements were used in this process of transformation
requires further attention.
2. Authoritarian movements and violence
A central problem of the historical analysis of "1968" in Europe
is the change of the anti-authoritarian social movements from the beginning
of the 1970s into partially authoritarian and hierarchically structured
organisations ("K-groups", Maoism), while other groups responded
to the impending decline of the social movements with paramilitary structures
and armed violence. It is important for us to analyse the "K-groups"/Maoism
as well as the armed groups/terrorism in this context.
In this panel we will also deal with the frequently authoritarian political
orientations of the armed groups in the non-European countries – like,
for example, the Maoist, Leninist or Stalinist concepts. Commonalities with
and differences from the "western" social movements of these years
will be discussed.
3. What is normal? The anti-psychiatry movements
In many countries there were widespread efforts towards a humanisation and
de-institutionalisation of psychiatry. The historical reconstruction of
these anti-psychiatry movements would give important insights into the social
psychology of the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, during which
a "normalisation", as far from domination as possible, of deviating
psychic, "abnormal" ways of behaviour was also a concern. In this
context a series of text were published that were read worldwide and enduringly
influenced attitudes in relation to people who – for whatever reason
– deviate from the social norm.
Closing discussion: "What remains from the 68er
social movements?"
Organisational Notes:
The languages of the conference are German, English and French. A paper
should not be longer than 20 minutes. Accommodation and meals are provided
for those presenting papers. Travel costs (economy flights, 2nd class train
travel) will be arranged after discussion with the ITH office in Vienna.
There will be no honorarium for papers. A publication in the form of an
anthology is planned.
Please send proposals for contributions (title and short summary of approximately
1-2 pages) and a short CV (maximum 15 lines) to the ITH by the 31.10.07.
Deadlines:
- Delivery of proposals to the CFP: 31.10.07
- Confirmation of the provisional programme: January 2008
- Delivery of Papers and summaries: 30.06.08
Organising Committee:
Marcel van der Linden, Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis,
Amsterdam (Co-ordinator)
Angelika Ebbinghaus, Stiftung für Sozialgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts,
Bremen
Feliks Tych, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warszawa
Contact information:
Eva Himmelstoss
International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH)
Altes Rathaus, Wipplingerstr. 8, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
E-Mail: ith@doew.at