I have just read a fascinating book by British author Mark Kurlansky regarding the global liberation struggles that occurred in 1968. For progressives of my generation, this was a year of great hope and inspiration – one that saw millions of students and workers protesting in the streets. I bought 1968: the Year That Rocked the World partly out of nostalgia and partly in the hope of learning something from historic struggles that might help us reclaim the so-called western democracies that are really corporate-run fascist states (”Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” – Benito Mussolini)

How the Mainstream Media Shapes Memory

Up until now, I have viewed the political significance of the sixties with the tunnel vision of someone whose recollection and understanding of those years has been shaped by the popular media. Obviously Kurlansky’s book has greatly broadened my perspective. Previously I only associated two mass movements – the US anti-war movement and the French general strike – with the year 1968. Somehow I forgot there were riots in forty US inner cities that year. Although I clearly recall Alexander Dubcek and Prague Spring, I also forget that this also occurred in 1968. This was the inspirational movement that led Czechoslovakia to relax harsh censorship laws and allowed the flourishing of freedom of the speech, press, and artistic expression. I somehow forget that this, too, occurred in 1968.

As Kurlansky points out, there were comparable protest movements in at least a dozen countries – on both sides of the Iron Curtain – that year. Moreover students and workers in different countries learned from, copied, and supported movements in other countries.

In all, Kurlansky describes mass movements in 19 countries in 1968:

• US
• France
• Czechoslovakia
• Poland
• Yugoslavia
• Romania
• Italy
• West Germany
• East Germany
• Spain
• UK
• Russia
• Nigeria
• Palestine
• Mexico
• Brazil
• Ecuador
• Chile
• Uruguay

In addition to his emphasis on the global nature of the 1968 political movement, Kurlansky stresses two other important themes in 1968: 1) the secret to a successful social movement is getting media attention and 2) the secret to getting media attention is violence.

To be continued, with a discussion of how Martin Luther King strategically incorporated violence in his non-violent protests to increase media attention.