International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

The long May 68 in the Spanish state

Manuel Garí — 2018-11-21T14:10:54Z

In the decade from 1964 to 1974, just before the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, time accelerated in the Spanish state. It was the final years of the Franco regime. A time when changes around in the world were multiplying. A time when new experiences were proliferating, led by the political and social left.

- Features / Spanish state, 1968

50 Years of the 1968-69 Revolution

Lal Khan — 2018-11-21T13:52:47Z

Fifty years ago this land witnessed the most glorious moments of its history. Pakistan's virgin proletariat and the oppressed classes were storming heavens. They had entered the arena of history and were determined to take their destiny in their own hands. Revolutionary periods are historical exceptions. They don't occur every day. Such an amazing revolutionary torrent had swept across the country from November 7th,1968 till the fall of the formidable dictatorship of Ayub Khan on March 26th, 1969. It had challenged the state and system and victory of a socialist revolution was on the horizon.

- Features / Pakistan, 1968

1968 and the Spanish State: The Year in its Context

Josep María Antentas — 2018-06-20T15:58:41Z

Understanding the Spanish 68 requires an understanding of the rise of anti-Francoism in the previous years and its evolution after the state of exception declared in January 1969.

- Features / Spanish state, 1968

Fifty years after the revolutions of â€˜68

Pedro Fuentes — 2018-06-18T13:19:57Z

The fiftieth anniversary of May â€˜68, like the centennial of the Russian Revolution, is far from a mere ritual commemoration. Both mark high points of the struggle of the workers for their self-emancipation, and their lessons are incorporated into our history and give continuity to the struggle for socialism. History is alive in these central events of the class struggle. The revolutions of 1968 had objective and subjective consequences that have been fundamental in the last decades of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st.

- Features / Features, 1968

The spirit of 1968 is inextinguishable – even 50 years later

Hilary Wainwright — 2018-06-17T20:05:26Z

This rebellious era shaped radical activists – and aggressive capitalists. What can we learn from 1968, for democratic change today?

- Features / Britain, Features, 1968

Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia: 1968 as the antipodes of 1989

Catherine Samary — 2018-06-16T09:42:54Z

From March 2 to April 14, 2018, a series of initiatives dedicated to "May 68 seen from the South" were held in France, initiated and supported by the Sortir du colonialisme network, Cedetim, the Institut Tribune socialiste (ITS), the IPAM Foundation, the Gabriel Péri Foundation, the Fondation de l'écologie politique, the Copernicus Foundation, Espace Marx and the Centre d'histoire sociale du XXe siècle. The French magazine “Contretemps” will be publishing articles on “the 1968 years” including some contributions on “May 68 seen from the Souths” throughout 2018. This article by Catherine Samary is a modified version of her contribution to the latter.

- Features / Poland, Features, 1968

1968: a revolution too early to judge

Ilya Budraitskis — 2018-06-16T06:10:08Z

The events of 1968 have been stripped of their meaning and are now more a symbol of capitulation than revolution. Accepting this is the first step to making its legacy relevant again

- Features / Russia, Historical events and figures, 1968

Malaysia's “Second Emergency” (1968–89)

Gregor Benton — 2018-06-13T14:34:12Z

The impact of revolutionary developments in Vietnam and China on the May events of 1968 in France and other Western countries has long been acknowledged. Less notice has been paid outside Asia to their repercussions on other Southeast Asian countries, which also experienced a revolutionary high tide in 1968. The upsurge of armed struggle in Malaysia in 1968 is rarely mentioned in general studies on the period, and is not often talked about even in Malaysia.

- Features / Malaysia, Historical events and figures, 1968

Storm in the Philippines

Alex de Jong — 2018-06-09T10:35:39Z

“1968” came to the Philippines two years late. When it did arrive, it exploded with fury. In 1970, the Philippines was a democratic republic but president Ferdinand Marcos' authoritarian tendencies and desire to remain in office beyond his term limit were already visible. There were many other grievances that added fuel to the fire, such as the corruption, poverty, and deep inequality in what was then one of the most prosperous countries of South-Asia, and, as in many other places across the world, the war in Vietnam was a cause of anger.

- Features / Philippines, Historical events and figures, 1968

1968 – It was just the beginning

Daniel Bensaïd — 2018-06-07T16:15:38Z

Although the fiftieth anniversary of May 1968 provides the opportunity for new celebrations, new tributes and testimonies, for extensions of previous historiographical research, few writings take seriously the political questions raised by this event. However, ten years after the beautiful month of May, in 1978, the event was still live, and even though social setbacks were being announced and the crisis was beginning to install itself, it was still politics and not history that people were discussing with regard to May 1968. Hence the interest in plunging back into the debates of that time, with this article by Daniel BensaÃ¯d, published in 1978 in a review of the Revolutionary Communist League, Les Cahiers de la taupe (No. 23, dated May-June 1978).[Contretemps]

- Daniel Bensaïd archive / France, Daniel Bensaid, Historical events and figures, 1968