1968/2008

Planning Meeting

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:32:28 +0000

Come to a meeting about the 68/08 Issue of AREA Chicago at 2129 N Rockwell at 6pm on Tuesday June 24th, 2008. You must RSVP for this meeting at areachicago@gmail.com. Bring ideas for the issue and a willingness to contribute time and energy to this project.

More info:
The project Blog http://1968.areachicago.org featuring 10 guest correspondents from throughout the county posting 68/08 related articles and announcements

The project description http://1968.areachicago.org/2008/04/03/new-project-description/

Will the Left Ever Learn to Communicate Across Generations?

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:30:20 +0000

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education by Maurice Isserman deals mostly with the relationship between Michael Harrington and Tom Hayden. Harrington famously lambasted Hayden following the release of the “Port Huron Statement” which was an early document of the Students for a Democratic Society. The article also deals with the unintended consequences of Hayden’s open-ended enthusiasm for morally motivated street action - suggesting that it somehow paved the way for the Weather Underground. I find myself wondering how to fairly access “responsibility” for such unintended consequences. But this is a worthwhile read in that it eals with intergenerational dynamics and how those impact the political imagination.

Here is a quote from the second-to-last paragraph:

“When young people turn to radical doctrines and movements, whether in 1952, 1962, 1968, or 2008, they are apt to bring with them a mixed collection of motives and impulses: simultaneously craving autonomy and validation, guidance and self-definition. For their radicalism to be anything more than a youthful fling, they need to find within it both a meaningful sense of personal identity and a sustainable vision of how to bring about social change. They can learn from their elders, but they also need to bring a critical scrutiny to bear on received wisdom.”

The Sixties and the presidential race

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:02:36 +0000

Daniel Finkelstein in The Times Online discusses the role of the presidential candidates McCain and Obama in transforming the legacy of ‘68

Zizek on “The Ambiguous Legacy of ‘68″

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:54:00 +0000

This was printed in this month’s In These Times.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3751/the_ambiguous_legacy_of_68/

68 or its illusion?

RebeccaZ — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:58:07 +0000

From Prospect Magazine.

Len Kody “Chicago 1968″ webcomic

RebeccaZ — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:55:40 +0000

It started this week. Check it out here.

After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy at the High Museum, Atlanta

RebeccaZ — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:53:31 +0000

http://www2.high.org/main.taf?p=3,1,1,6,2

Not sure if we can call this a like-minded effort per se, but it is about a more complex understanding of legacy - not just nostalgia.

Zizek tells us the true lessons of May 68!

RebeccaZ — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:39:54 +0000

From Le Monde
In French - but translated from English, so I wonder if the original version is floating around somewhere.

Brecht Forum (NYC) Liberation, Imagination & the Black Panther Party

MalavKanuga — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:48:23 +0000

Tuesday, May 137:30 pm1968 REVISTED Liberation, Imagination & the Black Panther Party George Katsiaficas, Ashanti Alston Omowali & James PonceContinuing our year-long events series on the 40th anniversary of 1968, we will look at the impact of the Black Panther Party, which inspired thousands to join their movement to transform “the system.” Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party will offer a fresh and realistic recounting of the tumultuous history of what arguably became the most significant revolutionary organization in the US during the late 20th century.Ashanti Alston Omowali is an anarchist activist, speaker, and writer, and former member of the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army, and spent more than a decade in prison after government forces captured him and the official court system convicted him of armed robbery. Alston is the former northeast coordinator for Critical Resistance, a current co-chair of the National Jericho Movement (to free U.S. political prisoners), a member of pro-Zapatista people-of-color U.S.-based Estación Libre, and is on the board of the Institute for Anarchist Studies.George Katsiaficas has been active in social movements since 1969 when he participated in the anti-Vietnam movement. A target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program (Counterintelligence), he was honored to be classified “Priority 1 ADEX” meaning in the event of a national emergency, people like him were to be immediately arrested. After living in Berlin for 1 1/2 years and learning first-hand about the autonomous movement there, he wrote about that movement (The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life). He is the author of several other books including the classic: The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968.

Film Society of Lincoln Center (NYC)

MalavKanuga — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:46:26 +0000

http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/wrt.html 1968: An International Perspective April 29 – May 14, 2008 “Never mind Funny Girl, Oliver! Or even 2001; if you want a glimpse at this turbulent year in America’s history, check out this program of incendiary dramas, intellectually dense critiques and insightful political docs that looks at the era’s legacy. Burn, baby, burn!” – Time Out New YorkDon’t miss these special events: the return of King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis, an epic documentary on Martin Luther King rarely seen since its initial release in 1971; Dionysus in ‘69, Brian De Palma’s film of a controversial and highly influential Performance Group production of The Bacchae, directed by Richard Schechner; and A Time to Stir, a work-in-progress screening of Paul Cronin’s upcoming film on the 1968 Columbia strike that will be followed by a panel discussion on the film moderated by Richard Peña. The panelists include: Thulani Davis, Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg, Richard Forzani, Tom Hurwitz, Mark Jacobson and Allan Silver. Somehow, the notion of the ‘60s is never far from any discussion of contemporary life or politics, whether it’s the Left seeing that decade as the harbinger of hope and change or the Right decrying the breakdown of social and cultural values. And no year resonates more powerfully than 1968. The twin shocks of the student-worker uprisings in France and the student strikes at Columbia University in the spring of ‘68 set in bold relief the tensions and contradictions running through the Western world. They were joined and in some cases preceded by upheavals in Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, Czechoslovakia, West Germany and elsewhere. From this cauldron of protest and confrontation—some of it violent and bloody—emerged a wide array of movements, from a revitalized feminism to gay rights to the Greens, not to mention a newly fortified right-wing reaction to the challenges of ‘68. Such a groundswell left its mark on cinema; the modernism exemplified by the era’s various new waves had already been challenging established forms, institutions and conventions, and it was a short leap (if one were needed at all) to read those new cinemas as the artistic vanguard of the emerging New Left. Moreover, with readily available 16mm equipment and training courses, political groups could now make their own films, challenging the images offered by the establishment. This series looks at the phenomenon that was 1968 from three perspectives. The first is through filmed documents of the events themselves, including the work of the Newsreel collectives and other independent filmmakers who captured many of the key events as they were happening. The second comprises those works that look back and directly meditate on the impact of ’68 either through fiction (Regular Lovers) or nonfiction (Milestones). Finally, the third strand highlights those works that exemplify in myriad ways the continuing influence of ’68, ranging from Glauber Rocha’s celebration of mystical revolution, Antonio das Mortes, to Rosa von Praunheim’s pioneering It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives. Read A. O. Scott’s “The Spirit of ‘68″ in The New York Times (registration req’d), Melissa Anderson’s “Zero to ‘68″ in Time Out New York, J. Hoberman’s “1968: The Year of Living Dangerously” in The Village Voice and Hilton Als’ “The Outer Edge” in The New Yorker. For a listing of the films in the series go to Program Overview.Click on Calendar to view the schedule, film descriptions and to purchase tickets online.The screening schedule & film descriptions for 1968: An International Perspective is available here in brochure format. Please note: Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to download the brochure.1968: An International Perspective received major support from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. The series was programmed by Richard Peña.