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DESCRIPTION:The subject for the meeting will be 'May 68: the return of the working 
 class after 40 years of counter-revolution'.\n\nHere's the basis of the 
 presentation, which will be followed by several hours of discussion. All 
 welcome...\n\n=================\nMay 68 - The student riots. Ah, the 
 idealistic 60s, all that talk about class struggle and revolution - it's 
 all a bit out of date now, no?.\n\nNo: May 68 in France was not a student 
 riot. The brutal repression handed out to the students in the Latin Quarter 
 was just the spark that lit a far wider movement a movement of the working 
 class, the most massive unplanned general strike in history.\n\nIt was an 
 event of historic importance. For over four decades the international 
 working class had been dragged through the depths of defeat and 
 counter-revolution as the bourgeoisie attempted to wipe out all remnants of 
 the international revolutionary wave which shook the world in the wake of 
 October 1917 in Russia. Stalinism, fascism, the 'war for democracy' of 
 1939-45, the cold war between the eastern and western imperialist blocs, 
 the propaganda about the alleged integration of the working class into 
 'consumer society' All these were the difference faces of that 
 counter-revolution.\n\nMay 68 marked a dramatic break with this dark period 
 and opened the way to an international wave of workers' struggles that 
 included the Hot Autumn in Italy in 69, the Cordiba uprising in Argentina 
 in the same year, the massive strikes in Poland in 1970, the struggles of 
 dockers, transport workers, miners and many others in Britain in 
 1972-4.\n\nFar from being integrated into capitalist society, the working 
 class in the late 60s and 70s showed its capacity to respond to the first 
 stirrings of the underlying economic crisis of the system. This crisis has 
 never gone away but has got deeper and more widespread in the 40 years 
 since 68. And despite many set-backs, difficulties, and changes in shape 
 and experience, the working class has not been defeated, a fact 
 demonstrated by the development of a new series of struggles around the 
 world since 2003 and the emergence of a new generation of young people 
 asking fundamental questions about the future that capitalism has in store 
 for humanity.\n\nThat is the true heritage of 68: the renewal of the class 
 struggle as the only basis for challenging the present system of society - 
 a system which is still guarded by the same forces that helped to sabotage 
 the movement forty years ago: parliament and elections, the trade unions, 
 and the parties of the 'left'. The heritage of 68s is above all the whole 
 experience of self-organisation through action committees, of passionate 
 debates in general assemblies, the revival of the idea of the workers 
 councils and the rediscovery of buried revolutionary political traditions: 
 in sum, the perspective of proletarian revolution as the only realistic 
 alternative to a capitalist society in utter decay.\n\nCome to this meeting 
 and discuss this analysis and the perspectives for activity that follow 
 from it.\n\nVisit our website: http://en.internationalism.org.\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/07/20/18517991.php
SUMMARY:ICC Public Forum: May 68
LOCATION:Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609-1113
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/07/20/18517991.php
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