Between Prague Spring and French May Protest, Culture and Society
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Between Prague Spring and French May Protest, Culture and Society General editors: Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Institute for Media and Communication, University of Hamburg. Martin Klimke, New York University, Abu Dhabi. Joachim Scharloth, Technical University Dresden, Germany. Protest movements have been recognized as significant contributors to processes of political partici- pation and transformations of culture and value systems, as well as to the development of both a national and transnational civil society. This series brings together the various innovative approaches to phenomena of social change, protest and dissent which have emerged in recent years, from an interdisciplinary perspective. It contextualizes social protest and cultures of dissent in larger political processes and socio-cultural transformations by examining the influence of historical trajectories and the response of various segments of society, political and legal institutions on a national and international level. In doing so, the series offers a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional view of historical and cultural change in the twentieth and twenty-first century. Volume 1 Volume 6 Voices of the Valley, Voices of the Straits: Between the Avant-garde and the Everyday: How Protest Creates Communities Subversive Politics in Europe from 1957 to Donatella della Porta and Gianni Piazza the Present Volume 2 Edited by Timothy Brown and Lorena Transformations and Crises: The Left and Anton the Nation in Denmark and Sweden, Volume 7 1956–1980 Between Prague Spring and French Thomas Ekman Jørgensen May: Opposition and Revolt in Europe, Volume 3 1960–1980 Changing the World, Changing Oneself: Edited by Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder, Political Protest and Collective Identities in and Joachim Scharloth West Germany and the U.S. in the 1960s Volume 8 and 1970s The Third World in the Global 1960s Edited by Belinda Davis, Wilfried Edited by Samantha Christiansen and Mausbach, Martin Klimke, and Carla Zachary A. Scarlett MacDougall Volume 9 Volume 4 The German Student Movement and the The Transnational Condition: Protest Literary Imagination: Transnational Dynamics in an Entangled Europe Memories of Protest and Dissent Edited by Simon Teune Susanne Rinner Volume 5 Volume 10 Protest Beyond Borders: Contentious Politics Children of the Dictatorship: Student in Europe since 1945 Resistance, Cultural Politics and the “Long Edited by Hara Kouki and Eduardo 1960s” in Greece Romanos Kostis Kornetis Between Prague Spring and French May Opposition and Revolt in Europe, 1960–1980 Edited by Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder & Joachim Scharloth berghahn N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D www.berghahnbooks.com First published in 2011 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com © 2011, 2013 Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder & Joachim Scharloth First paperback edition published in 2013 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Between Prague Spring and French May : opposition and revolt in Europe, 1960–1980 / edited by Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder & Joachim Scharloth. p. cm. — (Protest, culture, and society ; v. 7) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-85745-106-4 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-85745-107-1 (institutional ebook) — ISBN 978-1-78238-051-1 (paperback) — ISBN 978- 1-78238-052-8 (retail ebook) 1. Protest movements—Europe—History—20th century. 2. Social move- ments—Europe—History—20th century. 3. Dissenters—Europe—History— 20th century. 4. Opposition (Political science)—Europe—History—20th century. 5. Government, Resistance to—Europe—History—20th century. 6. Social conflict—Europe—History—20th century. 7. Europe—Politics and government—1945– 8. Europe—Social conditions—20th century. 9. Europe, Western—Politics and government—20th century. 10. Europe, Eastern—Politics and government—1945–1989. I. Klimke, Martin. II. Pekelder, Jacco, 1967– III. Scharloth, Joachim. HN373.5.B43 2011 303.48’409409045—dc22 2011000704 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed in the United States on acid-free paper ISBN 978-1-78238-051-1 paperback ISBN 978-1-78238-052-8 retail ebook Contents List of Figures vii Introduction 1 Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder, and Joachim Scharloth I. Politics between East and West Chapter 1. “Out of Apathy”: Genealogies of the British “New Left” in a Transnational Context, 1956–1962 15 Holger Nehring Chapter 2. Early Voices of Dissent: Czechoslovak Student Opposition at the Beginning of the 1960s 32 Zdeněk Nebřenský Chapter 3. National Ways to Socialism? Th e Left and the Nation in Denmark and Sweden, 1960–1980 49 Th omas Ekman Jørgensen Chapter 4. Th e Parti communiste français in May 1968: Th e Impossible Revolution? 64 Maud Anne Bracke Chapter 5. 1968 in Yugoslavia: Student Revolt between East and West 84 Boris Kanzleiter II. Protest Without Borders: Recontextualization of Protest Cultures Chapter 6. “Johnson War Criminal!” Vietnam War Protests in the Netherlands 103 Rimko van der Maar Chapter 7. Shifting Boundaries: Transnational Identifi cation and Disassociation in Protest Language 116 Andreas Rothenhöfer Chapter 8. A Tale of Two Communes: Th e Private and the Political in Divided Berlin, 1967–1973 132 Timothy Brown vi | Contents Chapter 9. “Stadtindianer” and “Indiani Metropolitani”: Recontextualizing an Italian Protest Movement in West Germany 141 Sebastian Haumann III. Th e Media-Staging of Protest Chapter 10. Mediatization of Provos: From a Local Movement to a European Phenomenon 157 Niek Pas Chapter 11. Th e Revolution Will Be Televised: The Global 1968 Protests in Norwegian Television News 177 Rolf Werenskjold Chapter 12. Performing Disapproval toward the Soviets: Nicolae Ceauşescu’s Speech on 21 August 1968 in the Romanian Media 199 Corina L. Petrescu IV. Discourses of Liberation and Violence Chapter 13. Guerrillas and Grassroots: Danish Solidarity with the Th ird World in the 1960s and 1970s 213 Karen Steller Bjerregaard Chapter 14. Sympathizing Subcultures? Th e Milieus of West German Terrorism 233 Sebastian Gehrig Chapter 15. Th e RAF Solidarity Movement from a European Perspective 251 Jacco Pekelder V. Epilogue Chapter 16. Th e European 1960–70s and the World: Th e Case of Régis Debray 269 Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey Chronology of Events of Protest in Europe 1968 283 Rolf Werenskjold Bibliography 308 Contributors 331 Index 335 Figures Figure 11.1. Demonstrations by regions 1965–1970—NRK Dagsrevyen 186 Figure 11.2. Th e total monthly distribution in percentage of the coverage of demonstrations, strikes, and riots in the Norwegian televison news in 1968 188 Figure 11.3. Broadcasting priority demonstrations 188 Figure 11.4. Demonstrations in 1968 by regions 189 Figure 11.5. Demonstrations in the First World in 1968—Dagsrevyen 190 Figure 11.6. Demonstrations in the Second World in 1968—Dagsrevyen 190 Figure 11.7. Demonstrations in the Th ird World in 1968—Dagsrevyen 191 Introduction Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder, and Joachim Scharloth From 28 July until 6 August 1968, Sofi a, the Bulgarian capital, staged the 9th World Youth Festival. In the middle of the Cold War, 20,000 visitors from more than 130 countries poured into the city to celebrate the unity of Communist and socialist youth across the globe. Events, however, would soon make a mock- ery of the festival’s motto, “For Solidarity, Peace, and Friendship,” and turn Sofi a into a showcase of ideological divisions among the Left in East and West.1 Signs of discord emerged as early as the opening ceremony in Sofi a’s Vasil Levski National Stadium when the West German delegation chanted “Dubček, Dubček” as they passed the dignitaries’ loge. Th is provoked severe consterna- tion among Bulgarian offi cials, who did not look kindly upon the Czechoslovak Communist leader’s reform eff orts. Tensions continued to mount when the Bulgarian secret police tried to pre- vent a demonstration against the Vietnam War that West German SDS president Karl-Dietrich Wolff had called for. Pushed away from the local U.S. embassy, Wolff gave a speech standing on a wall of the nearby Georgi Dimitrov Mauso- leum, in which he denounced Bulgaria’s political censorship and the lack of free and open exchange during the festival. Among other things, he derided the prohi- bition on carrying portraits of Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, or Mao Zedong. Th e situation escalated a few days later, when a Bulgarian delegate compared Wolff to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels after the German SDS leader had complained about the manipulation of the list of speakers. As an in- dignant Wolff stormed to the podium, other Bulgarians caught him and dragged him out of the building, smashing his glasses in the process. Th ereafter, turmoil erupted. Delegates from Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden, and the Netherlands left the scene in protest. Disregarding traditional Cold War al- legiances, participants from Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia followed suit.2 Th at delegates from these two Communist countries joined their Western counterparts in protest not only reveals the ideological rifts among the young, organized Left at the end of the 1960s. It also highlights the gap between the party line and political attitudes at the grassroots level. Moreover, the events in Sofi a illustrate that confl icts emerging from this gap between political expecta- tions and reality among the younger generation were not confi ned to the liberal democracies of the West, but were also fought out within and among the Com- munist countries of Eastern Europe. Opponents of established political dogmas 2 | Introduction and power structures on both sides of the Iron Curtain occasionally even over- came the limitations imposed by their national contexts and joined forces with their peers in other countries against perceived oppression and injustice at home and abroad.