May of 68 – 50 years later in debate
What was the May of 68? A Revolution or an illusion?A youth revolt against a grey Europe, where the so-called “golden years” of capitalism opened the door to irrational consumerism, or the irruption of a subversive imaginary, full of creativity and fantasy, libertarian in its essence? Maybe it was all of this. Or none of it. But the May of 68 was not only May, nor just 1968. Other events marked the period. The Prague Spring, demonstrations against military intervention in Vietnam, Italian workers and students on the streets. Years earlier, the Provo movement had already shaken the peaceful Netherlands, and student revolts had swept the American universities. Beat generation and hippie culture.
50 years later, what remained? For some, nothing! Europe remained grey, capitalism is apparently invincible (is it really?), consumerism prevails, some of the main protagonists surrendered themselves to the prevailing politics and thinking. For others, despite everything, what remained was a society that was never the same, especially (or just?) in its cultural and behavioural aspects.
To talk about and debate these issues:
Tomás Ibañéz, a participant in the May of 68, an Emeritus Professor of Social Psychology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a heterodox thinker of the libertarian movement.
Miguel Serras Pereira, an essayist, poet, translator, collaborator of the libertarian press.
Organised by: A Batalha, A Ideia – revista de cultura libertária, Barricada de Livros, Portal Anarquista.
