Transform – a journal of the radical left – launches a special issue to mark the 50th anniversary of the dramatic events of 1968: the Vietnamese Tet offensive, the Prague Spring, the uprising of the black communities in the US, the revolutionary wave on the streets of Paris in May, all seemed to herald a new generalised advance towards socialism.
These events galvanised a generation into political activity. But the hopes raised in this new left by les événements of 1968 were largely unfulfilled, underestimating the power of resistance of the capitalist class. Experience and the unfolding of the class struggle showed revolution in the West was still a long way off.
Fifty years from 1968 the world has moved on; but the fundamental processes that were revealed in that year of tumult are still unfolding. The struggles against imperialism, racism and war continue, as do those for social, political and economic liberation and democracy.
1968 was a turning point in world history, and Transform marks the 50th anniversary by addressing a number of these themes. Come along and hear from the authors, including Marina Prentoulis, Chris Hazzard, Sinn Féin MP for South Down, Michael Wongsam, Francisco Dominguez and Kate Hudson. Chaired by Professor Mary Kaldor.
Transform is linked to the transform! network of the European Left and is published by Public Reading Rooms www.prruk.org
Kate Hudson is a British left-wing political activist and academic who is the General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and Media Officer of Left Unity. She served as Chair of CND from 2003 to 2010. She has been an officer of the Stop the War Coalition since 2002.
Mary Kaldor is a Professor of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit in the LSE Department of International Development. Professor Kaldor also directs the unit’s largest research project, the Conflict Research Programme (CRP), an international DFID-funded partnership investigating public authority, through a theoretical lens of the political marketplace and the concept of civicness, across a range of countries in Africa and the Middle East.
The Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit (CCS) is based in the Department of International Development and works in understanding conflict and violence in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, bridging the gap between citizens and policymakers.
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