CHAPTER 8 1968 MAUD ANNE BRACKE The ‘Spirit of 1968’: Cultural Revolt On 24 August 1968, following news of the invasion of Czechoslovakia, Fidel Castro appeared before the Cuban population to defend Moscow’s action. he inva- sion, he claimed, had been necessary, as ‘Czechoslovakia [was] moving toward a counter-revolutionary situation, toward capitalism and into the arms of imperialism’, although he also acknowledged that ‘frankly, [the invasion] has no legality’. 1 Two months later, in October, mass youth demonstrations in Mexico City resulted in the largest mas- sacre by state authorities in 1968: over 300 protesters were killed, over 2,000 wounded, and again around 2000 imprisoned. 2 A protest movement that had started with a march in support of the Cuban Revolution, and had repeatedly sought Castro’s endorsement, was violently crushed with no sign of solidarity whatsoever from the Cuban leader. Castro’s responses to these globally resonating events illustrate the dilemmas facing communist parties and movements in the face of the student and worker protests of 1968. On the one hand, the Cuban Revolution, which had gradually been drawn into the ‘world communist movement’, appeared to symbolize the continuing ability of the latter to mobilize revolutionary impulses, especially in the hird World. On the other, communist regimes in 1968 were challenged by radical movements inspired by the discourses, imagery, and inspiration of various traditions within the historic commu- nist movement. In contexts as diverse as Czechoslovakia, France, and China, oicial communist parties found themselves under ire from radical movements, especially of youth. A snapshot of the state of communist parties and movements around 1968 might lead to the conclusion that in those parts of the world where communist ideology originated—the USSR and Eastern Europe—communist rule was in crisis and begin- ning a process of decline, whereas in the developing world, particularly Asia, it was a movement in expansion. As a summary, this is not untrue, but the situation was more complex. Communist ideology was able in the 1960s to inspire individuals and groups OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRSTPROOFS, Wed Sep 25 2013, NEWGEN oxfordhb-9780199602056-e-Ch08.indd 156 oxfordhb-9780199602056-e-Ch08.indd 156 9/25/2013 5:31:29 PM 9/25/2013 5:31:29 PM