Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 16 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Exclusive to OpEd News:
OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 10/29/11

The Tipping Point: The #generation Begins To Move Beyond '68

By       (Page 2 of 2 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   2 comments
Message Allen Yee

The immigrant rights protests in 2006, which culminated into the most powerful May Day General Strike that this country has witnessed in decades, is now a distant memory for most.   A movement that began with calls to action from a group of d.js on a Spanish radio station in Chicago ended with the failure of the Dream Act in Congress.   The inability for the powerful anti-War movement to bring the war to an end led many into the arms of the new anti-War candidate"four years later and Obama is still leading the American military to occupy Afghanistan while the loyal opposition protests another anniversary of the war.   The future of the Occupy movement remains unwritten, however its ability to move forward and grow depends on its ability to remain independent of party politics.  

The Looming Shadow of "68

The series of academic symposiums and articles published in 2008 on the 40th anniversary of the 1968 rebellion only added insult to injury as the resistance movement hit an all --time low.   Generations remained haunted by the precedent set by the rebellions of the 60s, always measured and evaluated in relation to events of the Vietnam War era.   The failure to generate the same, or greater level, of societal unrest in the aftermath of the "60s, along with popular currents of postmodernism in academia, has only added to the notion that we've seen all the resistance and revolution we're going to get.   In a culture of recycled trends and nostalgia overkill, taking over downtown plazas for indefinite periods of time has brought forward a movement that embodies the spirit of "the new".   

However, in acknowledging that overestimation can be just as deadly as underestimation, the Occupy movement is till beginning with its future still unwritten.   Although polls indicate that close to 60% of the country agrees with the movement's message, that large majority has yet to convert its approval into active participation.   If, and when, that occurs, then the Occupy movement can begin to legitimately make comparisons to Tahir Square.   In addition, among the vast 99% of the population, the lowest of that 99%, particularly the Latino immigrants and Black people confined in urban ghettos across the country, has yet to come alive in this movement.   This last factor is critical in the success of the Occupy movement, not in the sense of meeting some "p.c. people of color quota", but with a historical understanding of the role Black and Latino people have had in pushing forward the levels of resistance, as with the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.  

An important lesson from that time period can be found in Daniel Ellsberg's The Pentagon Papers.   Included in Ellsberg's book, was the revelation that Richard Nixon's administration ultimately decided not to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam out of fear of the kind of social unrest and instability that it might cause domestically due to the power of the protest movement.   Today, one could hope that as the Occupy movement grows, that sometime in the future, Wikileaks reveals that the power of the Occupy movement was able to seriously limit and restrain the government from moving forward with its next major injustice.

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Well Said 2   Supported 1   Valuable 1  
Rate It | View Ratings

Allen Yee Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Allen Yee is a graduate student at CUNY-City College of New York and a filmmaker currently working on a documentary on the current surge of live-in art spaces in Brooklyn, New York.
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

The Tipping Point: The #generation Begins To Move Beyond '68

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend