Rutgers University Center for European Studies

Venue: New Brunswick, NJ
Time: 08.-09.11.2018
Proposald due: 01.05.2018

The year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of 1968. On account of the Paris May and the Prague Spring, not to mention major demonstrations that took place in Bonn, Rome, Warsaw, and beyond, that year has come to be considered the high-water mark of postwar social activism in Europe. But that high point did not last long; instead, 1968 was quickly cast as the swansong of traditional social movement mobilization. That is, in addition to all else, the year came to stand for the breakdown of politics defined through conventional categories of class and ideology.

The West German case is informative: Already in September 1968, West German women formally challenged the misogynist male leadership of the main student movement organization, the Socialist German Student League (SDS). By 1970, the SDS had dissolved itself altogether, as outside pressures exacerbated internal fissures. Social scientists sorted the activist groups that succeeded it into a handful of categories, ranging from “armed resistance” cells like the Red Army Faction (RAF) and dogmatic Communist sects or “K-Groups,” to “Citizens’ Initiatives” concerned “only” with local issues or environmental matters, and other “lifestyle” movements. Read more and source … (Web)