A scholarly gem which is indispensable reading for anyone interested in how social change occurs, especially in the advanced industrial countries.--Carl Boggs, National University

This book is an important corrective to the all-too-common view that global capitalism is triumphant, that there is no basis for opposing the values it promotes.--Barbara Epstein, University of California at Santa Cruz

Since the modern anti-globalization movement kicked off with the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, a new generation has been engaging in anti-capitalist direct action. Its aims, politics, lifestyles, and tactics grow directly out of the autonomous social movements that emerged in Europe from the 1970s through the mid-1990s. In fact, today's infamous Black Blocs are the direct descendants of the European Autonomen. But these important historical connections are rarely noted, and never understood.

The Subversion of Politics sets the record straight, filling in the gaps between the momentous events of 1968 and 1999. Katsiaficas presents the protagonists of social revolt--Italian feminists, squatters, disarmament and anti-nuclear activists, punk rockers, and anti-fascist street fighters--in a compelling and sympathetic light. At the same time, he offers a work of great critical depth, drawing from these political practices a new theory of freedom and autonomy that redefines the parameters of the political itself.

George Katsiaficas--Fulbright fellow, former student of Herbert Marcuse, and long-time activist--is Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. Author or editor of more than 10 books, he is Managing Editor of the journal New Political Science.

Tying his intellectual concerns to social movements in South Korea, Germany and dozens of countries, social theorist George Katsiaficas traces the evolution of history from the global eruption of 1968 and the Black Panther Party to the 1980 Gwangju Uprising and Occupy Wall Street. His theory of the Eros effect helps us to understand social movements as a logical unfolding of the practice of thousands if not millions of people as they rise up to change their lives. In certain circumstances, the unexpected happens and is a source of hope to those that dream, aspire, work, and love for a better life. This book gives many examples, both historic and contemporary, of general strikes, insurrections, and revolutions from around the world, constituting the concrete realization of freedom in history. The material included in this work inspires hope?hope to life more freely and cooperatively?and it can motivate us to take risks and be daring, to believe that bold new ideas can lead to fundamental changes in our society.

Tying his intellectual concerns to social movements in South Korea, Germany and dozens of countries, social theorist George Katsiaficas traces the evolution of history from the global eruption of 1968 and the Black Panther Party to the 1980 Gwangju Uprising and Occupy Wall Street. His theory of the Eros effect helps us to understand social movements as a logical unfolding of the practice of thousands if not millions of people as they rise up to change their lives. In certain circumstances, the unexpected happens and is a source of hope to those that dream, aspire, work, and love for a better life. This book gives many examples, both historic and contemporary, of general strikes, insurrections, and revolutions from around the world, constituting the concrete realization of freedom in history. The material included in this work inspires hope?hope to life more freely and cooperatively?and it can motivate us to take risks and be daring, to believe that bold new ideas can lead to fundamental changes in our society.

This book brings to life social movements of the 1960s, a period of world-historical struggles. With discussions of more than fifty countries, Katsiaficas articulates an understanding that is neither bounded by national and continental divides nor focused on Great Men and Women. Millions of people went into the streets, and their aspirations were remarkably similar. From the Prague revolt against Soviet communism to the French May uprising, the Vietnam Tet offensive, African anticolonial insurgencies, the civil rights movement, and campus eruptions in Latin America, Yugoslavia, the United States, and beyond, this book portrays the movements of the 1960s as intuitively tied together.

Student movements challenged authorities in almost every country, giving the insurgency a global character, and contemporary feminist, Latino, and gay liberation movements all came to life. A focus on the French general strike of May 1968 and the U.S. movement's high point in 1970--from the May campus strike to the revolt in the military, workers' wildcat strikes, the national women's strike, the Chicano Moratorium, and the Black Panther Party's Revolutionary Peoples' Constitutional Convention in September--reveals the revolutionary aspirations of the insurgencies in the core of the world system. Despite the apparent failure of the movements of 1968, their profound influence on politics, culture, and social movements continues to be felt today. As globally synchronized uprisings occur with increasing frequency in the twenty-first century, the lessons of 1968 provide useful insights for future struggles.

Using social movements as a prism to illuminate the oft-hidden history of 20th-century Korea, this book provides detailed analysis of major uprisings that have patterned that country's politics and society. From the 1894 Tonghak Uprising through the March 1, 1919, independence movement and anti-Japanese resistance, a direct line is traced to the popular opposition to U.S. division of Korea after World War Two. The overthrow of Syngman Rhee in 1960, resistance to Park Chung-hee, the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, as well as student, labor, and feminist movements are all recounted with attention to their economic and political contexts. South Korean opposition to neoliberalism is portrayed in detail, as is an analysis of neoliberalism's rise and effects. With a central focus on the Gwangju Uprising (that ultimately proved decisive in South Korea's democratization), the author uses Korean experiences as a baseboard to extrapolate into the possibilities of global social movements in the 21st century.

Previous English-language sources have emphasized leaders--whether Korean, Japanese, or American. This book emphasizes grassroots crystallization of counter-elite dynamics and notes how the intelligence of ordinary people surpasses that of political and economic leaders holding the reins of power. It is the first volume in a two-part study that concludes by analyzing in rich detail uprisings in nine other places: the Philippines, Burma, Tibet, China, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia. Richly illustrated, with tables, charts, graphs, index, and endnotes.

Ten years in the making, this magisterial work--the second of a two-volume study--provides a unique perspective on uprisings in nine Asian nations in the past five decades. While the 2011 Arab Spring is well known, the wave of uprisings that swept Asia in the 1980s remain hardly visible. Through a critique of Samuel Huntington's notion of a Third Wave of democratization, the author relates Asian uprisings to predecessors in 1968 and shows their subsequent influence on uprisings in Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s. By empirically reconstructing the specific history of each Asian uprising, significant insight into major constituencies of change and the trajectories of these societies becomes visible.

This book provides detailed histories of uprisings in nine places--the Philippines, Burma, Tibet, China, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia--as well as introductory and concluding chapters that place them in a global context and analyze them in light of major sociological theories. Profusely illustrated with photographs, tables, graphs, and charts, it is the definitive, and defining, work from the eminent participant-observer scholar of social movements.

Fifty documents, including Vietnam's declaration of independence in 1945, the final declaration of the 1954 Geneva Conference, CIA reports, US presidential addresses, anti-war leaflets, thoughts by Vietnamese and American intellectuals, and statements by the Vietnamese government and NLF. Paper edit

Fifty documents, including Vietnam's declaration of independence in 1945, the final declaration of the 1954 Geneva Conference, CIA reports, US presidential addresses, anti-war leaflets, thoughts by Vietnamese and American intellectuals, and statements by the Vietnamese government and NLF. Paper edit

Did the U.S. really win the Cold War? Is the fall of Communism only a temporary setback for Marxism, or has the freemarket prevailed, once and for all? In this work, the last ten years are examined by the most important Marxist scholars and journalists.

Did the U.S. really win the Cold War? Is the fall of Communism only a temporary setback for Marxism, or has the freemarket prevailed, once and for all? In this work, the last ten years are examined by the most important Marxist scholars and journalists.