Social revolutionary movements of the 1960s

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I've recently come across (And become interested in) the liberation movements that sprung up in the 1960s (and 70s), in particular thinking about the black liberation movement in the US, the events that led to 1968 in France (and Prague Spring, though not sure how related that was..) and the late 60s/early 70s liberation movements in West Germany, Italy etc.

I've some knowledge of the black panthers, the red army faction etc., but I haven't found any texts that bring together the various revolutionary movements of that period across the globe. Anybody got any suggestions for reading? Or even any thoughts on the period as a whole?

[preacherman]

Check out Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power by Amy Sonnie and James Tracey.

[boiler]

Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fire-Flames-History-Autonomist-Movement/dp/1604860979/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382919776&sr=8-1&keywords=fire+and+flames+by+geronimo

Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bringing-War-Home-Underground-Revolutionary/dp/0520241193/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1382919883&sr=8-4&keywords=red+army+faction

[boiler]

Remembering the Armed Struggle: Life in Baader-Meinhof

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Remembering-Armed-Struggle-Life-Baader-Meinhof/dp/0955485045/ref=pd_sim_b_5

Red Army Faction Volume 1: Projectiles for the People

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Army-Faction-Volume-Projectiles/dp/1604860294/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1382920083&sr=8-3&keywords=red+army+faction

The Red Army Faction, A Documentary History: 2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Army-Faction-Documentary-History/dp/1604860308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382920083&sr=8-1&keywords=red+army+faction

These 3 books books are a great read. The last 2 have all the documents and statements from the RAF between the 70s and 80s. They also have a bit of history and info on the other urban guerrillas that were in west germany, revolutionary cells, hash rebels and the 2nd of june movement.

[Sasha]

fire and flames is also for free to download here: http://libcom.org/library/fire-flames-history-german-autonomist-movement

other good reads:
no surrender by david gilbert (weather underground and black liberation army)
soledad brother by george jackson
direct action by ann hansen (about an canadian urban "guerrilla" group, very honest about their own failing's)
how it all began by bommi baumann (beweging 2nd june/RAF)
anarchy in the UK, the angry brigade by tom vague
televisionairies, the red army faction story by tom vague


movies:
blackpower mixtape
The Weather Underground (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_Underground)
the city was ours (de stad was van ons): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VOTV9tcNIk
1973 Rauchhaus allein machen sie dich ein (german, no subtitles) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT7G-6_pGWs

[Sasha]

also an great introduction book is "orgasms of history": http://www.akpress.org/orgasmsofhistory.html
the book gives a short introduction/history to more than a hundred social uprisings/movements through the ages (starting with the greek cynics and spartacus to the late 1980's) many of which you probably never heard much before, a great start to dig deeper.

[argeiphontes]

Or even any thoughts on the period as a whole?

Well, I think that is was a reaction to the cultural and ideological stagnation of the 1950s. Dialectical idealism, anyone? ;) It would have been one of my favorite decades to live in, except then I'd have to deal with the disappointment of the 1970s.

Still, it had a humanizing influence on society as a whole, part of which lives on today.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Well, I think that is was a reaction to the cultural and ideological stagnation of the 1950s. Dialectical idealism, anyone? ;) It would have been one of my favorite decades to live in, except then I'd have to deal with the disappointment of the 1970s.

This certaintly could have made the shift seem more dramatic, but I think in the US places (like San Francisco) which were more untouched by McCarthyism were also the places where renewed radicalism was able to develop first. Where there might be a link for the black struggle anyway is that during the war blacks gained some mobility and racial restrictions were eased (out of practical wartime necissity, but aslo as part of a "democracy: we're all in it together - except Japanese" propaganda push that emphasized ethnic, religious, and racial tolerance in the US). But after the war, urban blacks were pushed out of jobs and therefore unable to take as much advantage of the reforms and post-war boom that white workers gained. So from the end of the war on (in the North) there were some big movements and efforts, but the gains won were a drop in the bucket compared to how much black workers were being left behind compared to the rest of the class and most of the reforms won were empty laws and contracts because the state governments wouldn't enforce them and employers would just ignore promises made once a protest was over. Just like today (and unlike in the Jim Crow south) liberals would say, "oh this discrimination is bad" but then also say, "we can't interfere in the rights of businesses and property owners) and so housing developers and employers were able to discriminate as much as they wanted.

I think the social movements in the north that began to radicalize came out of a reaction against (or an attempt to go beyond) the limitations of the liberal attempts at gaining black influence and power in the late 40s and 50s and early 60s.


Still, it had a humanizing influence on society as a whole, part of which lives on todayYeah this is definately the legacy we have to deal with today. It's mixed, any movement that doesn't root out the source of the problem (crudely put, capitalism) will probably end up with a new version of the old oppression when the movement fades (is crushed and/or co-opted as was the case with Black radicalism). So it's a mixed bag. White people don't wretch at the thought of breathing the same air as black people anymore - for the most part - but new racist ideas are now common; the jim-crow system and legal segregation/red-lining are illegal, but a new system based around criminilization of black people has replaced it. People are more open to the idea of a world without racism imo, but the cut-throat conditions of neoliberalism also make people much less supportive of programs to adress structural problems.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I've recently come across (And become interested in) the liberation movements that sprung up in the 1960s (and 70s), in particular thinking about the black liberation movement in the US,

This might be too specific, but the book "American Babylon" adresses questions about this in a micro sort of way. It's specifically about Oakland (so it goes into the Panthers quite a bit) but it really helped me gain a better picture of how that radicalism developed and it's relation to longer-standing attempts at (liberal) reforms among urban blacks in the decades before.

[Devrim]

I think that there is very little in common between mass working class movements like that of Paris in 1968, and groups of disaffected middle class youth, such as the Red Army Faction, running around with weapons.

The first wave of the Red Brigades was linked to activity within the class, and a real movement, but they were the exception to the rule. The overwhelming majority of these sort of groups didn't have this connection at all, and were more a petit bourgeois echo of really movements that were taking place within society than anything important in themselves. The disaffected middle class student radical unable to conect with the real movement within the working class picks up a gun, or plants a bomb.

I think the remaining interest in these sort of groups today is mostly due to petit bourgeois romanticism and machismo.

Devrim

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I think that there is very little in common between mass working class movements like that of Paris in 1968, and groups of disaffected middle class youth, such as the Red Army Faction, running around with weapons.

The first wave of the Red Brigades was linked to activity within the class, and a real movement, but they were the exception to the rule. The overwhelming majority of these sort of groups didn't have this connection at all, and were more a petit bourgeois echo of really movements that were taking place within society than anything important in themselves. The disaffected middle class student radical unable to conect with the real movement within the working class picks up a gun, or plants a bomb.

I think the remaining interest in these sort of groups today is mostly due to petit bourgeois romanticism and machismo.

Devrim

I tend to agree with a lot of what you're saying, but then there are few movements in the world today that call themselves leftist and have any real connection with the wider working class. Their memberships may or may not be nominally working class, but they don't actually manage to make any sort of connection between their activities, and the activities of the wider working class.

Whether or not groups such as the RAF succeeded any more at that, you are probably correct, but something actually struck me from reading some of their later writings (when their thinking had evolved from the initial '3rd world resistance in the metropolis' crap) that they saw themselves as connecting the political struggle to the destruction of the state, i.e. operating in the hole between the political movement and the state. Not that we need, or desire at all, another group of gun-toting students running around, but there is something in the idea that we need more than just left parties, in order to actually stir the wider working class, and in order to counter the activities and propaganda of the state.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Also thank you everyone for the helpful reading tips :)

[Devrim]

Not that we need, or desire at all, another group of gun-toting students running around, but there is something in the idea that we need more than just left parties, in order to actually stir the wider working class, and in order to counter the activities and propaganda of the state.

I suppose a lot of this depends on how you see the relationship between revolutionaries and the class. I don't think that revolutionaries can move the working class by willpower alone.

Devrim

[Zukunftsmusik]

Subversion of Politics (http://www.akpress.org/subversionpoliticsakpress.html?___SID=U) (haven't read it, only flicked through it, but it looks very interesting.)

[Sasha]

Subversion of Politics (http://www.akpress.org/subversionpoliticsakpress.html?___SID=U) (haven't read it, only flicked through it, but it looks very interesting.)

yeah, that one is pretty decent (esp because its also talks at length about the italian autonomia), there is a free download at the authors website: http://www.eroseffect.com/books/subversion.html
just ignore the last chapters though (where he tries to write some over compassing "ideology" for autonomism which just is plain bullshit)

[Sasha]

this book on the italian autonomia is also a must have if only for the gorgeous layout (the preview on amazon really does it no justice, trust me, its one of the prettiest books i have): http://www.amazon.com/Autonomia-Post-Political-Semiotext-Sylvere-Lotringer/dp/1584350539

[bcbm]

regarding italy:

'storming heaven: class composition and struggle in italian autonomist marxism (http://libcom.org/library/storming-heaven-class-composition-struggle-italian-autonomist-marxism-steve-wright)' by steve wright
'never again without a rifle: the origins of italian terrorism' by alessandro silj
'memoirs of an italian terrorist' by giorgio
'the unseen (http://libcom.org/library/unseen-nanni-balestrini)' by nanni balestrini
'strike one to educate one hundred' by chris beck
'armed struggle in italy 1976-78 (http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/armed-struggle-in-italy-1976-78.html)'

[Os Cangaceiros]

Storming Heaven is pretty good if you want knowledge about the history & (especially) the theoretical aspects of Italian autonomism, reading through it is the literary equivalent of eating cardboard though (IIRC the book itself was adapted from the author's PhD thesis). Really dry and uninteresting, which from me is saying something since I'm interested in that subject naturally.

[Os Cangaceiros]

"Memoirs of an Italian Terrorist" is good though, I remember getting that recommendation from this board in fact. They should make a dreary post-modern movie about existential pain based on that book, LOL, it's basically the author complaining about his life very often, interspersed with his "terrorist duties" (most of which seemed really boring). His girlfriend gives him shit and he struggles to find anything interesting, it's a very relatable story. I like how the book just fucking ends, too, there's no big conclusion or point to anything in the book.

[bcbm]

"Memoirs of an Italian Terrorist" is good though, I remember getting that recommendation from this board in fact. They should make a dreary post-modern movie about existential pain based on that book, LOL, it's basically the author complaining about his life very often, interspersed with his "terrorist duties" (most of which seemed really boring). His girlfriend gives him shit and he struggles to find anything interesting, it's a very relatable story. I like how the book just fucking ends, too, there's no big conclusion or point to anything in the book.

i think everyone who has some romantic notion about 'the armed struggle' should read it; it really dispels any illusions about such a lifestyle. its basically like the worst job ever. read newspapers all day to figure out who your enemies are, tail them for months and then maybe you get to maim or murder them, except by this point you have followed them so long you kind of feel for them so there is no reward in that either. when you're not doing this you get to play pinball or maybe visit a prostitute and hate yourself. the glorious urban struggle.

i like the allusions to the few characters in the mix who seem like andreas baader types and his resentment towards them. he is busy being a hard worker (irony intended) for the struggle while they're playing around.

i think the bits set in the present where he is with his family on vacation are the saddest. like they know or at least suspect what is going on, and he knows it, but tries to play cool and in the end they just all pretend and this is the only enjoyment he has had in months (years?) while he secretly writes the book and reflects on the better days before he went underground.

not to insult those who have lived this life and struggled (whether it was the right thing or not) but i think it is important to understand this isn't some fun 'shoot guns and fight the man' sort of thing, its a serious deal and most of the time it is banal as fuck and basically wrecks you as a human being. i think a few of the raf memoirs touch on this too. on that note i should add

'the german guerrila: terror, reaction, resistance' from cienfuegos press which features an illuminating interview with hans joachim klein.

[Os Cangaceiros]

IIRC from the book, significantly one of the only times the main character really felt energized politically was when he participated in one of the mass demos (the one with the famous picture of some demonstrators shooting at the police). But the struggle became atomized and that was the end of the potential...

[Os Cangaceiros]

Also, to add to the list of writings:

"Detroit: I Do Mind Dying (A Study in Urban Revolution)" by Marvin Surkis
"Transnational Moments of Change: Europe 1945, 1968, 1989" by various authors

It's too bad that TMOC is pretty expensive, IMO it has one of the best synopsis of working class movements in 1968, including often overlooked elements like the working class element of Prague 1968.

[RedMaterialist]

I would think that the most successful revolution of the 50s, 60s and early 70s was the Vietnamese revolution against the French and U.S.

[Celtic_0ne]

Weatherman Underground

[human strike]

this book on the italian autonomia is also a must have if only for the gorgeous layout (the preview on amazon really does it no justice, trust me, its one of the prettiest books i have): http://www.amazon.com/Autonomia-Post-Political-Semiotext-Sylvere-Lotringer/dp/1584350539

Strange question but are the images in that book in colour? The PDF I have is all black and white.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Thank you for your contributions guys. Gonna smash the shit out of these recommended books when i've got time.

[bcbm]

I would think that the most successful revolution of the 50s, 60s and early 70s was the Vietnamese revolution against the French and U.S.

cuba? algeria? others but gotta run

[Ravachol]

Another great novel on Italian autonomia is 'The unseen' (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3188606-the-unseen) by nanni balestrini (who was involved in autonomia), it's a partially fictionalized (eg. compressing multiple real life ppl in one character,etc.) account of the rise and decline of autonomia and its written in an experimental 'stream of consciousness' style which you have to get used to but becomes quite involving after a few pages.

[Sasha]

Strange question but are the images in that book in colour? The PDF I have is all black and white.

black and white but the first pages are printed on yellow paper...

[bcbm]

Another great novel on Italian autonomia is 'The unseen' (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3188606-the-unseen) by nanni balestrini (who was involved in autonomia), it's a partially fictionalized (eg. compressing multiple real life ppl in one character,etc.) account of the rise and decline of autonomia and its written in an experimental 'stream of consciousness' style which you have to get used to but becomes quite involving after a few pages.

you can find the complete text in a link in my earlier list.;)

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

One of my personal favorites was the Young Patriots Organization.

This was a group that grew out of an SDS project called Jobs Or Income Now (JOIN). They were a left-wing organization based out of the North side of Chicago, whose primary purpose was the support the (predominantly white) migrant workers coming into Chicago from the Appalachian regions. They eventually became a part of Fred Hampton's Rainbow Coalition (no relation to the Jesse Jackson group). They were anti-racist, anti-war, and anti-police brutality.

And get this, they wore confederate flags on their jackets and berets during events.