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From The Times

March 19, 2008

1968: we made a difference

You can mock us Vietnam War protesters if you like, but it was no fun being baton-charged

Magnus Linklater

I was just the kind of protester that Sir Tom Stoppard was railing at over the weekend. Posturing rebels, he called us. The generation that took to the streets in Grosvenor Square or the Boulevard St Michel 40 years ago filled him with revulsion.

“I was embarrassed by the slogans and postures of rebellion in a society which, in London as in Paris... seemed to me to be the least worst system into which one might have been born - the open liberal democracy whose very essence was the toleration of dissent,” he wrote.

How odd of Sir Tom, of all people, to have got it so wrong. I can tell him here and now that when the police turned on us in South Audley Street that Sunday - March 17, 1968 - as we marched in protest against the Vietnam War, the last thing on our minds were thoughts of an open liberal democracy.

One moment my friend Joanna and I were strolling in the spring sunshine in Grosvenor Square, admiring Tariq Ali's trademark red coat and Vanessa Redgrave's radical chic headband, the next we were trapped in a narrow causeway with riot police charging down towards us en masse, beating on their riot shields and sending up a roar that, as Joanna said afterwards, made them sound like the Zulu warriors in that Michael Caine film.

Whatever you may say about 1968 - and most of it has been said and said again - toleration of dissent was precisely what was not on offer. In the course of that extraordinary year, a generation that had never particularly questioned authority or thought much about its ideology found itself radicalised by the reaction of those it sought to challenge. Whether on the streets of Berlin, in Washington, on the Left Bank in Paris or in London, what had begun as a disparate series of protests - some dilettante, some serious - were drawn together by a sense that those who exerted power were hopelessly out of touch with those who sought to challenge it.

You cannot, of course, equate a stroll in Grosvenor Square with the Prague Spring or riots on the streets of Warsaw when demonstrators risked and often lost their lives as they fought to throw off the yoke of Soviet oppression, but you can argue that a global movement, mainly of the young, took palpable shape, driven by genuine causes - war in Vietnam or Algeria, Soviet tanks, civil rights in America - drawing strength from its shared experiences, and unsettling the complacency of an Establishment that had never bothered greatly to wonder what the young thought. As the journalist Mark Kurlansky observes in his book 1968 - the Year that Rocked the World, it was “a spontaneous combustion of rebellious spirit”, sparked by a sense of alienation and a shared distaste of authoritarianism.

It was never, as some have suggested, a socialist uprising. Far from it - socialism was dying on its feet. In its most extreme form socialism had by then became the played-out Marxism of Soviet Russia, and if the protesters in Czechoslovakia and Poland were drawn together by anything, it was a feeling that they wanted to share the rewards of Western capitalism rather than reject them. Gene McCarthy, the presidential candidate who came within 300 votes of defeating

Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire primary and went on to galvanise that extraordinary election year, was no left-wing firebrand. Bobby Kennedy, another hero of the time, was no champion of radicalism.

And the protest movement, if such it was, had no clear or coherent idea about what shape the politics of change should take. As Mark Rudd, who led the student uprising at Columbia University put it: “I had only the vaguest idea of what we were doing.” Daniel Cohn-Bendit said that his own cheerful brand of street protest had “little discernible ideology”. And Abbie Hoffman, the hippy protester, admitted: “We couldn't agree on lunch.”

But what did unite that generation, and gave it a sense of shared excitement, was the way it was able to challenge authority head on, question its assumptions and force it to reconsider its democratic credentials. In France, de Gaulle's patrician view that he was the very embodiment of the State was shot to pieces by the wave of student protest that won the sympathy if not the support of ordinary people; his reputation never fully recovered. The uprisings in Poland and Czechoslovakia may have come to nought, but they marked the beginning of the end of Soviet power. And while our little demonstration in Grosvenor Square can hardly be said to have stopped the Vietnam War in its tracks, it was nevertheless part of a wave of protest that would in time become an unstoppable tsunami.

It is easy to deride the middle-class rebels who wore Che Guevara T-shirts or worshipped Malcolm X before going on to hold down executive positions or comfortable professorships in the bosom of the Establishment that they had sworn to destroy. But if, by the end of that momentous decade, it was no longer acceptable for a police force to beat dissenters to within an inch of their lives or a communist dictatorship to crush freedom of expression under its boot, then they deserve some of the credit.

More than that, it was a decade when barriers of all kinds - physical, intellectual, social - were torn down, never to be rebuilt. As one French dissident put it: “The real sense of '68 was a tremendous sense of liberation... A whole system of order and authority and tradition was swept aside. Much of the freedom of today began in '68.”

Posturing? Certainly. Embarrassment? Just look at that Viva Zapata moustache. But to call it a protest without a cause, and to suggest it changed nothing is to miss the point of an unforgettable year.

Tariq Ali? Vanessa Redgrave? Says it all really.

Ken Leyland, Liverpool, U.K.

By disguising as "liberals" , you rebels have pushed your nations into irredeemable demise. What have you got now? Third world is now still plagued by corruption and starvation . There is only population growth and not economic one. You are now faiing uncontrolled immigration and terrorism, and because of those, your personal freedom has been greatly curtailed. Shame on you lot!

James Wong, Macau,

But you called the returning Soldiers "Baby killers" therefore you get no soup.

Terry, Tucson, AZ

would someone please explain to me the mentality of protestors in those days- or these days for that matter? you call yourself liberals and then you march in support of a communist vietnemse government that was basically the puppet of chairman mao- where you basically saying we want the great leap forward too?

Yea iragis have died because of the invasion, but then they where accidental deaths, whereas halabdja was the murder of however many thousands of people by a countries leader who just wanted to test out his latest wmd. Where were your protests then?

if we were to invade zimbabwe to get rid of mugabe- i assume you would protest in favour of that evil little fasisct? it doesnt matter that he has turned the breadbasket of africa into a starvation riddle hole, and caused thousands upon thousands of deaths?
or what about sudan/darfour? would u protest in favour of them murdering their own people?

will, grimsby, britain

Police in London didn't have batons. They had the small,old fashioned truncheon. There were no riot police, just ordinary coppers that had to use the equipment. Are you sure you were in Grosvenor Square? Still at least when they charged at you, you didn't get hurt. I mean , you must have been in terrible danger. Had you been in another country it could have been awful, you poor heroic thing.

Paul Groom, London, London

in the end, it was only fashion.

william smith, venice ,

Strange isnt it that you feel Stoppard was so wrong and you were so right!
Theres a marked difference between rioting for the cause of 'throwing off a yoke of oppression' and being trendy posers for a cause about which you had little knowledge and certainly no experience. Most were there to cause trouble, not to stroll in the sun admiring headbands!
Anyway you can be proud that your efforts have brought South Vietnam the autocracy and despotism we see today in a 'united' country and which it so sadly lacked before! Well done!

Mike Asacret, Cambridge, Cambs

"No fun being batton-charged", I enjoy it when I see the old TV footage!
Oh and well said Serf

David Perry, Wigan,

It is difficult to admit that something in your past was completely pointless. People who had been beaten at school used to pretend that it had somehow 'done them good'. The protesters of 1968 were just privileged kids showing off, a minor rebellion by non-essential units in the Cold War. They did a little harm. Those events should be seen now as a fond but rather embarrassing memory.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Mike, Johannesburg, South Africa

In America, at least our cowards had the excuse of the draft to avoid. To compare the riots in the communist countries where the people were trying to escape tyrrany to the riots in the west where people were trying to support the tyrrany of Communist North Vietnam is beyond ludicrous, it approaches insanity

Mike, Fort Worth, TX, USA

The 68 Generation was probably the most worthless, pathetic waste of space this planet has ever seen. They are now in power across the continent, much to the cost of us all. Ironicly, they are collectively the most illiberal group of leaders we have seen in generations.

The world was changing anyway, all they did was to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Us later generations have to pay for their indulgence.

"The uprisings in Poland and Czechoslovakia may have come to nought, but they marked the beginning of the end of Soviet power."

The LSD must still be at work. It was Reagan, Thatcher, John Paul and co, exactly the type of people the 68ers hate, who brought us the end of Soviet power. As usual, the right stood up to tyranny, rather than suck up to it like the left does.

Serf, Istanbul,

I went on an anti Iraq war march in Sydney in 2003. talking to poeople I was amazed they all knew the answers to everything regarding a complex subject without a single doubt Just like Jehovas witnesses.

Whilst they seemed polite, intelligent, and educated. There was no evidence of free thinking. I found this perplexing. Are they all brainwashed by some secret organisation, cloned, or what?

ged, Manchester,

It is a shame that the baby boomer generation who so bravely manned the barricades in the 60's are so instrumental in taking away the freedoms that other generations genuinely fought for. ID cards, CCTV, universal DNA databse, erosion of the principle of innocence until proven guilty are all being advocated by the so-called radical generation.

chris, CARDIFF,

"But if, by the end of that momentous decade, it was no longer acceptable for a police force to beat dissenters to within an inch of their lives or a communist dictatorship to crush freedom of expression under its boot, then they deserve some of the credit."

I suspect there were miners in the 1980's who would disagree that the first came about. Anyone who remembers Anna Politkovskaya will disagree that the second came about.

My elder siblings were all in the 1960's, but I missed it, being tail-end Charlie by 8 years. Whether it was the summer of love, or the summer of petrol bombs, it all seemed to me more about self-indulgence than about anything else.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Well, the narcissim is still there, nearly beyond parody -- 'Tariq Ali's trademark red coat and Vanessa Redgrave's radical chic headband'. Oh the glory!

I was at Grosvenor Square, too, watching from above from a first floor window, enjoying a glass of vodka. The 'sense of alienation ' I remember clearest is of a panicked police horse, hit just below the eye by a dart thrown deliberately from about six feet by an LSE student (yep, dumb enough to advertize it) in an anorak. I was maybe fifteen feet from the horse and can still remember its screams --that is what they were-- above the din. Heroic it wasn't.

Somewhere in the crowd, if he's to be believed, was a young Bill Clinton. I've often wondered what would have happened if he'd taken that dart instead.

Stopard's right on the money. Oh, and you were wrong about Vietnam, too, and still are.

Fred Quintus, York,

Oh get over it! The generation protesting in 1968 was been, and continues to be, the most narcisistic and self-indulgent generation on earth. This is the generation that promoted no-fault divorce, the destruction of the family and the me-at-any-cost mindset.

As someone who by unfortunate accident is lumped into this demographic, I lament the whole mindest, culture and ethos of that generation. Far more harm than good has come from it..

karl, Seattle, WA

South Audley Street... very twee demonstrating indeed. What did Linklater do?

Take a break from getting his new pair of Purdys fitted?

The 68 demonstrators were nothing but a "herd of independent minds" milling about without an original thought in their heads.

They changed nothing. They were tiresome then and tiresome now.

They belong in the Marxist Museum with the other artifacts of those with history on their side. Like Fidel Castro.

Thomas Lipscomb, New York, NY

As a fellow protester against the US Vietnam invasion, but on the streets of Brisbane, I can only concur with what Mr Linklater says. We knew, and everyone should now know, that we were right about Vietnam.
Unfortunately, the US has learnt nothing, and ignores the death of some 3-4 million Vietnamese at the hands of their military invasion.
Consequently 5 years after the invason and military occupation of Iraq, and the killing of some 3/4 million Iraqi's, opposition to such terrorist policies is still needed

Bob McNaught, Brisbane , Australia

Whilst everybody was demonstrating in a free nation my Mother-In-Law was having to deal with the fact that her family in Poland were suffering more and more inpositions from a NAZI government in all but name - Soviet COMMUNISTS. Then of course the Prague invasion came along.

Funny I don't remember many protests against that on the streets of London and Paris in 1968 !!!!!

Ian Payne, WALSALL,

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Magnus Linklater

Magnus Linklater's journalistic career spans 40 years, taking him from editor of Londoner's Diary at the Evening Standard to editor of Spectrum and the Colour Magazine at The Sunday Times and editor of The Scotsman. He joined The Times in 1994 and writes a weekly column on Wednesdays. He was chairman of the Scottish Arts Council from 1996 to 2001, and often writes on Scottish issues