Students in France began protest initially at the Paris University in May 1968. The immediate cause was irregularities in electing officers to Students board. But it spread and morphed into a form of civil unrest with workers also joining. The ghost has now returned after 56 years. Read for more:
The civil unrest of May 1968 spread fast as workers and populace got together to protest against not only the French administration but against the perceived injustices meted out to the French people as a whole at national level. Besides, protestors called for political as well as social reform. Lot of things started to fall apart. At one point General de Gaulle who was President at that time thought of using the army against these protestors. Wise sense prevailed even though his Gaullist party organised counter protest without much success. The General himself secretly fled to the then West Germany to allow things to cool down. Finally wisdom dawned and the ideas of protestors were given a hearing, even after French government gaining control over the situation.
Protestors dispersed, yet they drove home two points. Firstly, it is the Cold war which is the chief cause of all these bad political and societal consequences that gripped not only France but also the entire Globe. Secondly, there has to be a new mechanism to balance the bi-polar society. Later on non-alignment movement consisting of more than seventy nations in Afro-Asia was brought to the centre stage heralding social, financial and political reforms. In sum May 1968 is indeed, a geopolitical event.
Today we are witnessing similar situation in American and European universities. The peaceful protest that began in the campus of University of Columbia by the students against genocide committed on the Palestinian people in Gaza and West Bank by Israel was marred by the unlawful arrest & detention of students by the authorities leading towards wide spread agitation against university administration, local administration extending thereafter into opposing the Federal government by spilling out to the streets. Many if not most universities in America as well as in Europe saw students coming out in support of Palestine. As the authorities in these countries are attempting to suppress these protests the chance of it a repeat of May 1968 cannot be discounted.
Now the situation is changed. It is geoeconomics that is stupid. Students are aiming at the jugular vein that funnel Israeli funds to the universities and related sponsorships & scholarships. They are calling for this to be scuppered so that universities could function independently without being at the beck and call of Jewish diaspora. This is just a beginning. As these protests spread across the Atlantic, the capitalistic cabal which runs the neo colonial capitalism is in for big trouble. Hence, the brutal crackdown. But can they avert a multipolar order arising in the horizon that could shift geoeconomics clout away from the cabal to the BRICS?
Cheers!
Muthu Ashraff Rajulu
Business Strategist
Mobile: + 94 777 265677
E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com
Blog: Business Strategist
No comments:
Post a Comment