Social and Demographic
Developments		 The Rise of Ecological Awareness






The Protest Generation



In the 1960es a new generation was growing up, which neither remembered World War II nor the difficult years following it. This generation, especially on continental Europe where univesity education had been opened to basically every high school graduate, had to deal with overcrowded, understaffed, outdated educational facilities.
After World War II, the area of entertainment had internationalized; Hollywood movies, Rock and Roll and Beat music was popular everywhere, as were the topics they thematized. Among the young generation, especially among the university students, a movement of so-called ROWDIES emerged, which were critical of many aspects of life, of excessive consumerism, of authoritarian structure in general, of discrimination against minorities, of war in general and the Vietnam War in particular, of censorship and moral rules they regarded outdated and oppressive.
A branch of the protest movement was called HIPPIES, characterized by unregulated hairstyle, love for rock music, a liberal view regarding the consumption of drugs, a liberal view of sexuality (MAKE LOVE NOT WAR etc.). Open air concerts such as WOODSTOCK are characteristic for the movement, cities such as SAN FRANCISCO and AMSTERDAM attracted large numbers of Hippies. Many songs of the time criticized the VIETNAM WAR (Buffy St. Mary : Universal Soldier etc.).
Some tried to live according to their ideas of an ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE, moving into COMMUNES where they shared property and obligations. POLITICAL DEMONSTRATIONS, not always peaceful, were a regular feature of the day.

The protest generation had legitimate issues, in the US the ongoing Vietnam War, where many young Americans lost their lives; RACIAL SEGREGATION, the assassination of political leaders advocating change such as MARTIN LUTHER KING and ROBERT F. KENNEDY, in France overcrowded universities, substandard wages, an utterly failed policy of wanting to hold on to its colonial empire for too long, in Germany a generation of parents who had forfeited all authority over them by not preventing the crimes against humanity committed under Nazi rule, by fleeing into excessive consumerism after the war; anti-communist excesses under McCarthy and after etc.

In 1968 these protests reached a climax; in the U.S.A., Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated, in France the government, fearing another revolution when workers joined the students in demonstrations, passed a series of costly laws extending the welfare state and improving the conditions at universities. In (socialist) Czechoslovakia the PRAGUE SPRING drew world attention, as did the TET OFFENSIVE in Vietnam.

After 1968 the protest generation disintegrated. It had given birth to a number of movements, which were here to stay. Among them the ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT, criticizing especially NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY. There was the reinvigored PACIFIST MOVEMENT (SWORDS TO PLOUGHSHARES) and a movement of those who called themselves 'autonomous' , 'alternatives' or 'anarchists' who were willing to use violence against institutions. Finally there were organizations of URBAN TERRORISTS. Protest had not disappeared in 1968, it only had specialized, and lost its general explosiveness.

In the countries under fascist or military dictatorship (Spain, Portugal, Greece, some Latin American countries) and in the socialist countries of Eastern Central Europe, protest was much less tolerated and suppressed at an early point.
Yet the socialist administrations were well aware that they could not go to far. The Polish government had given up on the idea of collectivizing individual farms and of interfering too much in the Catholic church, knowing that both factors contributed much to Polish identity. In East Germany, the authorities had not collectivized small workshops such as bakeries, as the public was not willing to consume factory bread instead of fresh quality bakery bread.
In East Germany, the NUDIST MOVEMENT developed in open confrontation with state authorities; all public beaches basically were taken over by the nudists. Protest was there, only taking on a different shape as in the countries of the west; often it was non-cooperation, refusal to follow certain instructions rather than explicit protest.
During DESTALINIZATION (1956 following) many dared to speak out, often to face renewed repression. In Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968 a spirit of liberalization encouraged many to openly speak out against social and political ills, ultimately suppressed by SOVIET CLAMPDOWN.


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This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on July 9th 2001, last revised on November 11th 2004

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