Student revolts of 1968 is a European event

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It is been over fifty years since the student protests of 1968 swept across Europe and the United States (Dulffer, 2018). These protests and strikes became an essential chapter in the national history of many countries across the globe most especially in Western Europe. The events of May 1968 are considered as the core of social changes over a period of two decades as they had a profound and long-lasting effect on the recent history and the international shared memories. For example, according to Testard-Vaillant (2018), recent opinion polls indicate that the French people believe that in Europe the protests represented the most significant event after the World War II. Up until today, the protests and strikes of 1968 remain important to the European people as many feel lives were positively impacted that year, as the participants in the revolt questioned the recognized social conventions and authority. Therefore, the student revolts of 1968 are considered as a European event. 

In France, the May 1968 protests and strikes were caused by the students demanding increased involvement into the educational system. Reynolds (2011, p.103) asserts that universities across Europe maintained leadership structures that were highly bureaucratic as they were characterized by old-fashioned examination systems. This was complemented by the continuous outcry over the Vietnamese war as well as the congestion in the available institutions of higher learning. Before the protests and strikes of 1968 gained momentum, only a few minor student groups were willing to participate in the upsurge. This situation resulted from the fact that many students came from the middle-class background that was not susceptible to social inequality (Dulffer, 2018). The decision to expel a few members of the 22nd March movement acted as one of the causes of the aforementioned protests and strikes. The revolt developed fast as the students’ leaders and organizations focused on pushing the movement so that to maximize the chances of diffusing their message across Europe.

In Poland, the first student protests resulted from the decision to cancel the scheduled performance of Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. According to Kanzleiter (2011, p.89), the cancellation of the performances led to Polish students start the fight for more democracy and freedom of expression. This is despite the politicization of the youths in Europe had started the hippy movements in the United States. The censorship of Adam Mickiewicz saw scientists, academics, and writers participating in the 1968 Polish revolt. The reaction of the government of Poland was rush and irrational as it resulted into the emigration and denaturalization of a significant number of Polish Jews through running an anti-Semitic campaign (Cornell & Grimes, 2015, p.671). The reaction to this decision is that the revolt in Poland was fuelled even the more with other students across Europe condemning the decision of the Polish government to use the anti-Semitic campaign as a way of quelling the protests....