London, 2010 - Paris, 1968

Riots on the part of students in London yesterday were the worst political violence seen in years. Today, in Paris, a general assembly attempting to involve students from all across Europe is meeting in preparation for December 14th's "European day of mobilization and conflict". Details are available here. Check out as well the Campaign for the Public University.

The influence of the student protests in Europe generally are likely to depend upon the student groups' ability to reach out to workers and the poor in order to form a collective anti-austerity social movement. This ability for student concerns to unite with those of workers and the poor, interestingly enough, was precisely what led to the power of the May 1968 riots which shut down Paris and was so influential upon thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva and others. This parallel has not, however, been missed by the current batch of student protesters who have also been drawing inspiration from the same Situationists who played a huge role in the '68 riots. The connection is seen most notably in the slogans and signs used during the demonstrations. For example "Demand the Impossible" which was a key slogan in '68.

Here are a list of slogans and signs used yesterday in London as posted over at the Really Open University.  



Graffiti

First Greece  then Paris  now London  in insurrection.
I wish I could say beautiful things but I can`t.
Demand the Impossible

Placards

Employed and Appalled
You can have my brain when you take it from my cold dead hands
Negative dialectics. Adorno (on the back – Sentimental Education.  Flaubert
One Dimensional Man. Marcuse
Society of the Spectacle  Debord  (later removed by the riot police defending Westminster  Abbey)
Down and out in London and Paris.Orwell
Life against Death. N.O.Brown
The university is a factory
Strike Occupation
Tories put the `n` in cuts
Clegg/Cameron Cu-ts
Fuck Fees. Stop  the Cu-ts
I wish my boyfriend was as dirty as the police
An arts for arts sake strike
Art against the cuts
`Let them eat credit
Fees rise  / Class divide
I am Julien Assanage
Save money eat the poor
This is not a good SIGN
This is not a placard
A tax on the rich not attacks on the poor
Apathy is Dead
Don`t make us pay for what the W/Bankers did
Smile you are now on a data base
We are doing it for estate kids