Campus Uprising, Adbusters #83

No one can predict with absolute certainty when the passions of youth will erupt. While the seeds of revolution are historically sown on campus, the evolution of a student uprising into prolific social change is anything but formulaic. But when something's rotten in the state of culture, the youth are the first to smell it.

The 20th century saw many students rise up, uniting behind a demand for change and igniting the imagination of the larger society. These student squalls have left a sea of toppled governments in their wake. In 1968 French President Charles de Gaulle fled to a military base in West Germany to escape student unrest in France. In 1987 South Korean students orchestrated the successful overthrow of President/Dictator Chun Doo Hwan, marking the second time South Korean students deposed a regime. (In 1960 the student-led April Revolution ended the autocratic rule of Syngman Rhee.) Of course, victory is never absolute and many student movements fail to achieve their entire vision. The "8888 Uprising" for democracy in Burma, for example, ousted the regime of General Ne Win in 1988 only to be brutally repressed by a military coup.

Today it's apparent that a student movement more powerful than any we've seen before is brewing. Since the start of 2009 there have been over 30 occupations by students in the UK and the US protesting tuition hikes, financial aid cuts and the massacre in Gaza. Many of these occupations have led to swift and significant victories for the students, while university administrators have callously repressed others. More than the students' specific demands, their contagious fervor indicates that they sense something fundamentally wrong within our society. Chances are that in the coming months we will witness their passion spill from the campus onto the streets as society is swept up in a summer of rage.

Given the remarkable number of occupations in this year alone, students everywhere are quickly learning that collectively they have the power to effect real and immediate change. Protests against budget cuts have been organized at Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, University at Buffalo, Binghamton University, University of Arizona and elsewhere. Movements for university divestment from Israel are becoming prominent and forceful as activists at Hampshire, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore and Macalester colleges have all initiated impassioned campaigns.

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