1968 movement in Italy

The '68 movement in Italy was inspired by distaste for traditional Italian society and international protests. In May 1968 all universities, except Bocconi, were occupied. In the same month a hundred artists, including Gio Pomodoro, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Ernesto Treccani and Gianni Dova occupied for 15 days the Palazzo della Triennale.^[1]

Movement '68

The background of the movement came from the newly transformed economy of Italy. The country had recently increased industrialization and a new modern culture began to develop. The movement has its roots in the strikes and university occupations of the 1960s, along with international headlines about socialist political triumphs in the Cold War.^[2]

Students of working or peasant backgrounds mainly drove the movement in an effort to change traditional capitalist and patriarchal society. The new education system allowed for a large populous to be educated and with such an education, question societal functions.^[3] The unrest began with student protests which were initially underestimated by politicians and the press, this soon turned to "the struggle of workers".^[4]

In the first moments of the student protest, the right-wing in the universities were among the movement's leaders. The Battle of Valle Giulia at Rome University on 1 March 1968 was the last action in which students left and right-wing were together, because on 16 March following the assault on the University La Sapienza, there was a gap between "movementists" and reactionaries.^[5] The left came to dominate the movement and the right-wing debates on what actions should be used to further the movement.^[6]

Aftermath

The counter-cultural attitudes of the movement end up creating conflicts within the Italian Left.^[7] The movement did bring a form of solidarity among the youth and a new politicized generation was created.^[8] There is debate about when and how a new political generation formed. Was there even a non-political previous generation at all?.^[9]

See also

• Years of Lead (Italy)

References

Protests of 1968
Movements	1968 movement in Italy African-American Civil Rights Movement Anti-nuclear movement Black Consciousness Movement Black Power movement Black Power Revolution Chicano Movement Cultural Revolution Gay liberation German student movement Hippie movement Human rights movement in the Soviet Union Mexico 68 Northern Ireland civil rights movement Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Prague Spring Red Power movement Sexual revolution The Troubles Women's liberation movement
Events	1968 Polish political crisis 1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity 1968 Red Square demonstration Båstad riots Battle of Valle Giulia Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 Central Park be-ins Columbia University protests of 1968 East L.A. walkouts King assassination riots March of the One Hundred Thousand May 1968 events in France Memphis Sanitation strike Occupation of the Old Student House Occupation of the Student Union Building Poor People's Campaign Presidio mutiny Rodney riots Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968 Tlatelolco massacre
Related	Anti-Capitalism Black Power Counterculture of the 1960s Desegregation Flower power Free love Hippie Antisemitism in Poland New Left Racism in the United States School discipline Second-wave feminism Segregation in Northern Ireland Student activism Vietnam War Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia