CommonSpace’s week on 50 years since May ’68 culminated in a forum on Thursday 3 May, posing the question ‘Is the Left still revolutionary?’
COMMONSPACE held a forum in Glasgow last night [3 May] exploring 50 years since May ’68, culminating our special week of coverage on the subject.
Panellists for the event were former SNP MP and Glasgow University student in 1968, George Kerevan, Paris May ’68er Margaret Ferguson, anti-racist campaigner and trade unionist Mélina Valdelièvre, and CommonSpace columnist David Jamieson.
The event can be viewed on Independence Live.
Preparing for our #May68 event tonight at Renfield St Stephens Centre. Original, double side posters from Paris ‘68 courtesy of Margaret Ferguson who was there and will be speaking tonight. pic.twitter.com/jUVly4G5aT
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Preparing for our #May68 event tonight at Renfield St Stephens Centre. Original, double side posters from Paris ‘68 courtesy of Margaret Ferguson who was there and will be speaking tonight. pic.twitter.com/jUVly4G5aT
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Kicking off our May ‘68 event now, CommonSpace editor @Ben_Wray1989 says the past can be a useful lens through to which understand the world today.
Tonight’s event will be the first of our Forums on different themes, through which we hope to engage more closely with our readers pic.twitter.com/XJpF3kpT4K
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Former SNP MP and journalist @GeorgeKerevan speaking on his perspective on ‘68 as a student at Glasgow University at the time. One of the unique features of the period, he says, was the level of student organisation pic.twitter.com/JcX85Y1EXj
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Margaret Ferguson tells of her experience arriving in Paris in the midst of the May ‘68 revolts where she experienced police violence firsthand. This heavy handed behaviour, she says, was a hangover from the Algerian war. pic.twitter.com/CS1cBmrhag
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Margaret Ferguson explains there were a series of wildcat protests in France during the 1960s, all of which were put down violently by the police. The perception that it was all about students and all about May, she says, is the result of an establishment effort to minimise it. pic.twitter.com/D4tNf1TiZT
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Mélina Valdelièvre of the @ScottishTUC Black Workers’ Committee explains that in the UK, as in the US, there was widespread racial segregation and discrimination in housing and employment in the 1960s, resulting in anti-racist direct action. pic.twitter.com/kAG9rqdXk1
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
The introduction of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, Valdelièvre explains, created a hostile environment for people who had initially been welcomed to the UK – much as we are seeing in the present day around the Windrush generation. pic.twitter.com/ptMYkSoR5m
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
CommonSpace columnist @David_Jamieson7 discusses whether the left today is too “dewy eyed” about ‘68, as Mireille Pouget argued in a column yesterday: https://t.co/Ha8NNx5SCZ pic.twitter.com/D4x0AR7Baw
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Asked whether the ‘68 generation “won socially but lost economically”, @GeorgeKerevan says that despite massive social change, for example around women’s rights, what failed ultimately was the ability to dismantle capitalism pic.twitter.com/p8ofZqvbE5
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Mélina Valdelièvre explains the importance of seeing anti-racism and socialism as interlinked movements as racism is always bound to thrive under capitalism as it is a useful tool for dividing workers @ScottishTUC pic.twitter.com/WOoRGymvuD
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Valdelièvre refers to Grenfell as a clear example of how capitalism worked to keep in place these various systems of oppression pic.twitter.com/ECyxWbbwi1
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Asked whether the right can be seen as the “new radicals” taking on the establishment, @David_Jamieson7 says it needs to be said that “when the real fights are on, you’ll see the left fighting, you won’t see the right fighting” – “they’re a ‘sitting on Twitter’ force” pic.twitter.com/oDJsbdNsr8
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
That being said, @David_Jamieson7 says the right has managed to gain credibility around challenging impacts of globalisation on economic inequality. pic.twitter.com/gJl6apGiY2
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
If the left is to recapture the spirit of ‘68, @David_Jamieson7 says, it needs to regain its boldness to challenge capitalist structures- something around which he says he is beginning to see some “green shoots” springing up now pic.twitter.com/GDrw4N0qVi
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Speaking on the EU, @David_Jamieson7 says the left should not let its parameters be set by institutions pic.twitter.com/XGb6lzxJcW
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
.@GeorgeKerevan says that in the face of a new Cold War emerging there is a need to start remobilising the international left across Europe and move away from cul de sacs of the EU debate pic.twitter.com/iwfX72PYNN
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
.@David_Jamieson7 says neoliberalism will face major challenges in the coming years due to structural problems – one being the impending impoverishment of elderly workers, the responsibility for whom will be left to younger workers – and the left will have to present the answers pic.twitter.com/tr6oPtMvGe
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
.@GeorgeKerevan says that if unity between movements is to emerge, they need to think on a global scale. We have now solved the problem of scarcity on a global level – now, he says, the issue is how to redistribute the means of production pic.twitter.com/8ST6XeTSVu
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
Asked whether or not “revolution” means a violent revolution – warned against this idea by an audience member –@David_Jamieson7 says “revolutions are not as violent processes as the societies they replace” and that revolutions are intrinsic to the kind of change being discussed pic.twitter.com/cMnH5zKM1M
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
.@GeorgeKerevan says he doesn’t associate revolution inherently with violence but says that it will not just be an “electoral event” and that those with power “will not go easily” pic.twitter.com/Uf62douk6r
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018
And that’s it from us for tonight – a great first CommonSpace Forum with some lively discussion and thought provoking questions from the audience on May 68 and more. We hope to see you again (or for the first time) at the next one! pic.twitter.com/fqJzm65pRv
— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) May 3, 2018