The 40th anniversary of Columbia’s 1968 student protests are fast approaching, so start brushing up on your history!
An early point of contention between students and administrators happened in March 1967, when Bob Feldman, a Columbia student and Students for a Democratic Society member, unearthed documents revealing Columbia’s institutional membership in a Department of Defense think tank that was doing advanced weapons research.
Feldman recently reminded Bwog that parts One and Two of Columbia Revolt, a Newsreel documentary about the strikes of ’68, are available online. The film begins with monotone monologue and lots of shaky, low angle shots of CU buildings, but gets to the juicy stuff—students occupying buildings, cops, ambulances—pretty quickly.
5 Comments
@well hunger strikes and activism and vigils and protests = often include fucking bad ass baseball bats and hockey sticks
@Feh Baseball bats and hockey sticks > hunger strikes and vigils.
@pablo stump How apropos that an inappropriately romanticized and historically insignificant event is being hyped by a historically insignificant, paranoid, and self aggrandizing individual such Bob “I actually blog about ’68” Feldman. Hey guess what? With enough revision and time one could make the Maginot Line look like E=m(c^2). This guy is the corduroy jacketed version of the ex high school quarterback who pumps gas for a living and never shuts up about “that one time I ran 70 yards for a touchdown.” Please, the Students for a Democratic Society were no less ostracized, self-alienated, and laughed at than the ISO is now. The only difference is that back then there was a draft that brought self-interest into the equation. But hey anything can be transformed into an act of sheer benevolence and altruism if you place enough years between the event and the present. After a while only those who were part of the protest are left talking about it since everyone else has moved on with their lives. Once it’s only one voice being heard by a bunch of kids who were born in the 1980s its hard to provide an objective assessment of such past events.
@Nice Yay, someone who is not a hippie.
@Amazing This video is great. Why has no one else commented?