2.3 - Protest and personal freedom - student protests Flashcards
(10 cards)
Why did students, in particular, protest in the 1960s?
The targets of student protesters included the college authorities conformity, materialism, war and racism. Unprecedented numbers of students protested in the 1960s because of some or all of the following reasons:
· President Kennedy encouraged idealism in his July 1960 speech he had urged Americans to face the challenges posed by issues such as peace and prejudice many she took up his challenges and demanded peace in Vietnam and enter prejudice against ethnic minorities. In his inaugural address in 1961 he said ask not what you your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country for many of the young change and improvement seemed possible in their optimistic affluent society led by this charismatic and idealistic young president
· The civil rights movement gave practise an inspiration to many student protesters
· students resented college authorities who treated them as children and supported an unjust war in Vietnam
the rocketing student population decided it could protest without risk because everyone else seemed to be protesting there was safety in numbers and students had no jobs to lose or families to support
What was the SDS and what were their main aims?
· SDS (student for a democratic society) was one of the most influential student organisations established in 1960 by Tom Hayden and other University of Michigan students who were inspired by the socialist of the 1930’s, the Beat Generation and student participation in CRM
· 1962: representatives of SDS, SNCC, CORE and the student peace union met port Huron, Michigan they called upon students to:
· change the political and social system
· to liberate the poor, ethnic minorities and all enslaved by conformity
· to support a peaceful foreign policy
SDS emphasise the potential of the individual currently stifled by the impersonal nature of the big universities bureaucracy and centralisation of all power and called for a participatory democracy and a New Left consisting of younger people to awaken Americans from a ‘national apathy’
Why were there protests at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964-5?
· The leader of the December 1964 protests at the University of California at Berkeley was Mario Savio. Savio had participated in SNCC’s Mississippi freedom summer and black voter registration campaign and wanted to raise money for SNCC however the university authorities did not allow fund raising and political activity on campus
· this prompted thousands of Berkeley students to protest against this infringement upon this constitutional right to free speech
· they occupied the administration building until police ejected them and made 800 arrests this student movement became known as the Berkeley free speech movement (FSM) and its slogan was you can’t trust anyone over 30 the students gained considerable support from the Berkeley teaching staff said the university backed down and allowed political discussion on activities on campus
· however there was another flare up in 1965 when a student was arrested for displaying the f word
FSM triggered nationwide student protests students criticised the universities as impersonal bureaucratic and excessively regulatory the age of majority was 21 to university sewed in loco parentis and demanded a say in university government antiwar students disliked universities undertaking research for government defence agencies
Give at least 5 specific examples of methods of protest against the Vietnam War.
anti war sentiment predated the escalation of the Vietnam War but the Vietnam War led tens of thousands more students into anti war activism
· Student Peace Union: established in 1959 the protest outside the White House in 1961 against the testing of nuclear weapons it had 3000 members by 1962
· In may 1964 thousand Yale University students staged a protest March in New York City
· during 1965 many universities help teachers with anti war lectures and debates 20,000 participated in a Berkeley teaching
· protest frequently lead to disorder for example in 1965, 8000 marches mostly from Berkeley clashed with the Oakland police and vandalised cars and buildings
· Largest anti war protest to date was staged by the SDS in Washington DC
in 1967 the ‘New Left’s natural mobilisation committee to end the war’ (Mobe) organised demonstration in Washington as part of the Stop the Draft week. Over 100,000 attended the March chanting ‘hell no we won’t go’. Draft cards were publicly burned across America several thousand Berkeley radicals tried to close down the Oakland draught headquarters. faced with 2000 police who attacked them with clubs, the demonstrators retaliated with cans, bottles smoke bombs and ball bearings placed on the street to stop police horses high on drugs some vandalised cars parking metres stands and trees by 1968 many of the protests were violent the main targets were campus administration buildings and the offices of the reserve officer training corps students presented the military attempting to recruit promising graduates through these officers across the nation many of these offices or buildings were burned or bombed the trigger for many of the protests in 1968 was the events at Columbia University in New York City
Why were there major protests at Columbia University (NYC) in 1968?
In 1968 students at Columbia University had multiple grievances.
· they opposed the university’s involvement in weapons research as this research assisted government therefore the students felt the university was supporting the Vietnam War
· there was also controversy about the relationship between the university and adjacent Harlem ghettos and it’s black and Hispanic populations
· since 1958 Columbia University expansion programmes had led to the eviction of several 1000 Harlem residents from properties own by the university
· in 1968 the university planned to construct a gym in a public park the Harlem population would be able to access the gym but through a separate door students interpreted this as a segregationist policy and opposed the construction of ‘Gym Crow’ although defender said at the separate door was necessary because the gym was situated on a hill the grievances generated protests in which 1000 of Columbia 17,000 students participated. Students seized 5 university building that covered the walls with pictures of Malcolm X and communist heroes such as Karl Marx and Che Guevara the police youth clubs and made 692 arrests the university shut down for that term and abandoned the gym and many defence contracts
hundreds of similar occupations followed across the USA
How far did student protestors achieve their aims?
· Protesters achieve that aims student civil right back to explain important part in the dismantling of the Jim Crow laws he stopped courses on black history and culture in universities. Student complaints about the university authorities were redressed as seen with the relaxation of controls on the free speech and political activism in Berkeley and the ending of the defence contracts at Columbia many people believe that the anti war protests help persuade Johnson to hold escalation and Nixon to end the war
· however some protesters failed to achieve their aims the opposition of SDS and the new left to American materialism proved ineffective veterans of SES and then you left complained that their worthwhile ideas about the consumer culture were discredited by the counterculture selfishness an excess
assessments of student protest invariably depend on the political stance of the assessor some people credit the student protesters with improving the quality of American life particularly from ethnic minorities with ensuring the US withdrawal from Vietnam others believe that student protests promoted violence offered little that was constructed and damaged the Great American liberal tradition many contemporary Americans dislike protesters and the counterculture and this contributed to a conservative reaction that helped gain the republican Richard Nixon the white house in the election of November 1968
What were the beginnings of student protests and what were the Columbia grievances
- 1950s: student groups taking part in any on- or off-campus political activities banned from campus
- Berkeley Free Speech Movement, 1964-5: ‘you can’t trust anyone over 30’
- Strong links with SDS, CORE, SNCC, and later feminism
- Columbia Grievances: university weapons research, separate entrance to a new gym in public park for Harlem residents - ‘gym crow’
- Learning from CRM with tactics of non-violent sit-ins, and pressure from crowds
- Unity of Left Wing Activism
- Effective, worked (in 1968) which is at the peak of the anti-Vietnam sentiment
Context of Vietnam
- North Vietnam - communist, ho chi minh, (Viet Cong) - guerillas marched down ho chi minh trail
- South Vietnam: capitalist, US support and troops from 1961-3 onwards by 1968: 500,000 US troops there
- Public opinion increasingly turned on the war especially after the 1968 Tet Offensive (surprise attack by north, sent shock waves across US)
- 1969 publication of My Lai massacre of Vietnamese civilians by US troops
- US troops withdrew in 1973- Paris Peace Accords by 1975 north conquered south
- US used Napalm (incendiary) & Agent Orange (defoliant chemical)
- Protests against: anti-war teach-ins initially (lectures and debates) then publicly burning draft cards, marches (majorities)
- Protests against Vietnam War in Washington DC on Oct 21, 1967
‘Stop the Draft Week’ - 100,000 attended (1967)
Why did students take such a strong issue with Vietnam
- The draft- conscription of american men to vietnam war about 1/4-1/3 of soldiers were drafted- a lottery based on birth date but 80% of those in army poor
- Black americans disproportionately drafted - approx 11% of all civilian population, 1967: 16.3% of all draftees, 23% of all combat troops in vietnam
- 1965: black americans accounted for nearly 25% of all combat deaths
- 1967: % had dropped considerably to 12.7% but the perception that black americans more likely to be drafted and killed remained widespread
Muhammed Ali, MLK openly opposed war (MLK form 1967)
FSM
- Combination of ideologies, rise of ‘New Left’
- Strong links with socialism and anti-imperialism (vietnam) and wanted radical restructuring of economy and what they saw as global capitalist exploitation
Founded by Tom Hayden, was a ‘beat’ in 1950s
- Strong links with socialism and anti-imperialism (vietnam) and wanted radical restructuring of economy and what they saw as global capitalist exploitation
