Springtime: The New Student Rebellions
From the US to Europe, students have been in the vanguard of protest against their governments’ harsh austerity measures. Tracing these worldwide protests, this new book explores how the protests spread and how they were organized, through the unprecedented use of social networking media such as Facebook and Twitter. It looks, too, at events on the ground, the demonstrations, and the police tactics: kettling, cavalry charges and violent assault.
From Athens to Rome, San Francisco to London and, most recently, Tunis, this new book looks at how the new student protests developed into a strong and challenging movement that demands another way to run the world. Consisting largely of the voices that participated in the struggle, Springtime will become an essential point of reference as the uprising continues.
Paperback, 296 pages
ISBN: 9781844677405
September 2011
$14.95 / £9.99 / $18.50CAN
Other Editions
Ebook, 296 pages
ISBN: 9781844678242
September 2011
$10.99 / $18.50CAN
Blog
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Remembering the Victory at Stalingrad 70 years on
Verso authors Seumas Milne and Clare Solomon joined Geoffrey Roberts author of Stalin's General : The Life of Georgy Zhukhov and Susan Richards of OpenDemocracy Russia to discuss the meaning of Stalingrad 70 years on. Gregg McDonald's film of the event also includes performances by Thee Faction and the Trans-Siberian March Band.
The Philosophy Football 70th Anniversary of the Victory of Stalingrad Night combined political commentary and military history with some great live music. A showcase event for a different way of doing politics, mixing ideas with having a good time, learning from the past, looking forward to a better future, and all on a Saturday night out.
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N9: Students to march and join Occupy LSX
On Wednesday, the voice of British students will resonate again in the streets of London. A national march against fees, cuts and privatisation has been called for next Wednesday 9 November, by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, with the support of NUS, UCU and UK Uncut. Starting from Malet Street, this time the students will march not to Parliament, but on the City of London, to join the Occupy LSX protesters. The march will then end at Moorgate Junction, next to London Metropolitan University—one of the university which is suffering most from the public spending cuts as well as having more black and ethnic minority students than all the universities of the Russell group.
The British student movement rose exactly one year ago, with the occupation of Millbank, as is chronicled by the Verso anthology Springtime: The New Student Rebellions, edited by the former ULU President Clare Solomon and Tania Palmieri. As Matt McGregor has written in a review for Bookslut, the book, with its "impressionistic accounts of protests and occupations, compelling radicalism, and excellent historical backgrounds, is a success". Reading the svelte, brisk contributions collected in Springtime —"more a series of clicked links than a typical academic anthology"—one year later, one is under the impression that the student movement has opened a season of change:
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Springtime is not over!
With the new academic year approaching, Verso's anthology on the 2010 student movement, Springtime, gains further attention in the British press. In the Tribune, Ian Sinclair reviews the book, describing it as "an exciting mixture of eyewitness accounts, sharp analysis and pages of tweets and photo essays."
Sinclair points out that Springtime revolves around "two clever narrative devices" that make the book stand out. On the one hand, it pairs twenty-first century student protest with the events and the protagonists of the era of youth radicalism par excellence—1968. On the other, by juxtaposing different national cases, Springtime sheds light on the political core of the student mobilization:
Comparing and contrasting student rebellions in California, France, Italy, Greece and North Africa, some common points of experience emerge. The widespread police brutality strongly suggests the police are not a neutral force in service to all of society but are there to protect the interests of the government and the establishment. It is clear the central threat to higher education across the industrialised world is neo-liberal politics.
Discussions
Begin a discussion about this book-
there have been student mobilizations in croatia too for the past 2 years. little of that is known outside the country, of course. anyway, here's a statement of solidarity from croatian students with middlesex students from may 2010. just to give you some idea about the ideological thrust of it all, after two decades of first nationalist, then (neo)liberal hegemony: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/middlesex110510.html
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What to read on the revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East?
We are all avidly following the progress of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and beyond - combing the pages of the press, chasing down blog links, watching footage. But what recommendations would people make for a longer and more detailed view of the social, historical and economic context of the revolutions? -
there have been student mobilizations in croatia too for the past 2 years. little of that is known outside the country, of course. anyway, here's a statement of solidarity from croatian students with middlesex students from may 2010. just to give you some idea about the ideological thrust of it all, after two decades of first nationalist, then (neo)liberal hegemony: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/middlesex110510.html
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What to read on the revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East?
We are all avidly following the progress of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and beyond - combing the pages of the press, chasing down blog links, watching footage. But what recommendations would people make for a longer and more detailed view of the social, historical and economic context of the revolutions?
Other Books Of Interest
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Occupy!
Edited by Carla Blumenkranz, Keith Gessen, et al.