Friday, February 01, 7:30 pm
1968 REVISITED
Columbia University, Harlem & the World
Kazembe Balagun, Thulani Davis, Bryan Mercer, Mark Rudd & Others TBA
The Brecht Forum
451 West Street
Directions
Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers
During the world-wide revolutionary upsurges of 1968, Columbia University was the site of a series of important and interconnected struggles. As the protest movements against the seemingly endless war in Vietnam continued to escalate in size and militancy, Columbia students and community members were simultaneously organizing against the Universities plans to expand into Harlem, displacing thousands of mostly black residents. These campaigns, targeting both the war at home and abroad, led to several interesting alliances and coalitions both on and off campus.
[Having been at Columbia in 1968, I have always believed that if it hadn't been for the coalition between Black and white students at Columbia College the university would have acted quite differently - the police would have been called in much sooner and the rebellion would not have had the chance to build on campus.- Dan]
40 years later the world has changed dramatically, yet we still find ourselves fighting many of these same struggles. Another endless war, a new series of proposed expansions by Columbia, a new generation of activists and organizers who are pushing back on neo-liberalism and empire.
An intergenerational dialogue between former and current student organizers who, drawing on a rich history and the current political context, discuss strategies for moving forward.
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