Hello there, I recently went to the European History Museum in Bruxelles where there was a temporary exhibition about "Youth in EU History" (a very interesting museum by the way!).
Most notably, there was a whole chapter about the Sixties where several youth movements went vocal at the same time: the Hippie movement of course but there were also many student protests in France or West Germany to name a few, and even some in the Eastern Bloc (Soviet hippies). For example, in France we often talk about "May 1968" but we overlook that it was an international trend.
As far as I understand, they were the first post-WWII generation and mostly revolted against social conservationism. How do the protests in Europe relate with other movements in the world (Hippies of course but Japan was affected according to my quick Wikipedia check)? How do they differ? Was there any form of coordination between countries or even continents?
In Yugoslavia there were student protests in 1968.
The biggest one was in Belgrade where the students protested demanding more socialism and equality, they were complaining that the doctrine of workers self-management was not enforced enough and demanded that the University should be ran by student self-management bodies, some of the paroles were:”Down with the red bourgeosie!” and “Down with the marquises of socialism!”
The protests were fueled by an economic reform of 1965. which led to rising unemployment, rising of inequality.
The students changed the name of the University of Belgrade to Red University “Karl Marx”.
The aftermath was that the President Tito said on the news that the “Students were right.” As a consequence the student standard has risen, new dorms and student restaurants were built. Studying became free for all who have finished highschools.
The professors who have joined the students were moved to research institutes in the 70s and the government has “decentralised” the University by building departments or faculties in their own locations so that there was no University centre.
It’s worth mentioning that almost all of the professors that have joined the students in ‘68. became fierce nationalists in the 90s or were the biggest advocates of the restorations of capitalism that lead to shady privatisations and war which left a massive part of the population impoverished. It needs to be noted that factories, industries - the means of production in Yugoslavia wasn’t state owned but was the property of the society. The workers received nothing.