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Posts Tagged ‘riots’

France Riots of 1968

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018

May 2, 2018

Fifty years ago today, on May 2, 1968, the closure of a university in the French capital of Paris led to a month of violent protests, occupations, and strikes that shut down the country and nearly led to civil war. The unrest grew out of student grievances and poor wages, but it was part of a larger international cultural movement that rejected many of the customs and traditions of conservative society and government. The events of Mai 68 (May 68) temporarily crippled France’s economy and infrastructure and inspired a new generation of revolutionary spirit.

May 31, 1968. View of the Gaullist demonstration in the streets of Toulouse. Credit: Toulouse Municipal Archives (licensed under  CC BY-SA 4.0)

People march in support of President Charles de Gualle in Toulouse, France, on May 31, 1968. Credit: Toulouse Municipal Archives (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The late 1960′s were a turbulent time worldwide, and 1968 in particular was a difficult year. In the United States, the “hippie” counterculture was at its peak, racial tensions increased after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and there were daily protests against the increasingly bloody Vietnam War (1957-1975). In Czechoslovakia, a liberal reform movement known as the Prague Spring was taking place. Many people in France—university students in particular—were inspired to create their own cultural revolution and a more liberal and open society. Chief among student aims were an end to class and racial discrimination and the removal of French President Charles de Gaulle.

Student protests at the University of Paris Nanterre began in March 1968 and the school was shut down on May 2. Students at the Sorbonne in central Paris protested the suburban school’s closure. Police reacted harshly and the Sorbonne was closed as well. On May 6, thousands of students, teachers, and supporters confronted police at the Sorbonne. The police advanced on the protesters with billy clubs and tear gas, and the protesters eventually dispersed. Many people were hurt, and hundreds of people were arrested.

On May 10, some 40,000 protesters attempted to return to the Sorbonne, where they clashed with police blocking the streets. Protesters hurled paving stones, turned over cars, started fires, and erected barricades facing the lines of police. To clear the streets, police eventually charged the barricades, beating protesters and arresting hundreds more people. Much of the Latin Quarter, the neighborhood of the Sorbonne, was badly damaged. In France and elsewhere, people were shocked by the violence and the harsh police actions, and sympathy grew for the protesters.

On May 13, more than 1 million people marched in solidarity with the students in Paris. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou announced the release of arrested students and reopened the Sorbonne. The embattled students occupied the university, demanded changes, and protests continued. Many workers, with their own demands and grievances, followed the revolutionary spirit and occupied their factories. Before long, a general strike shut down French commerce and transportation, and the country ground to a halt. President de Gaulle, who had briefly fled the country, hinted at using the military to restore law and order. On May 30, de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and called for new elections in June. De Gaulle’s ruling Gaullist party rallied the president’s supporters and organized large counter-marches in many French cities.

By June, the protesters had won some changes in their universities and factories, and calm was gradually restored. As much as the protesters inspired sympathy, however, they also inspired antipathy among Gaullist supporters. Motivated conservative voters dominated the June elections, cementing de Gaulle in power—at least for a while—and things returned somewhat to normal. In April 1969, de Gaulle asked for constitutional reforms and said he would resign if the voters did not approve them. The French people voted against the reforms, and de Gaulle resigned.

Tags: 1968, france, may, paris, riots
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, History, People | Comments Off

Shooting Death of Teenager Sparks Demonstrations in Missouri Town

Thursday, August 14th, 2014

August 14, 2014

The Saint Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, was buffeted last night by a fifth night of protests amid growing anger over the shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager by a local police officer. Michael Brown was fatally shot on August 9 while walking home with a friend from a convenience store. According to the Ferguson chief of police, the officer who shot Michael Brown was assaulted by Brown, who had tried to grab the officer’s gun. The friend walking with Brown disputes that account, insisting that Brown’s hands were raised when he was shot multiple times.

Last night, scores of police officers in riot gear fired tear gas on the demonstrators after they ignored an order to disperse. The order came after four previous nights of sometimes violent protests and looting that resulted in dozens of arrests and the burning of a shop. Several people were arrested again last night, including two journalists covering the situation. They were arrested while writing on laptops seated inside a McDonald’s.

The journalists noted that Brown’s death laid bare long simmering tensions between the local African-American community and the police–tension rooted in the way the police treat blacks compared with how they treat Ferguson’s white residents. The town’s population of 21,000 is two-thirds African American, while only 3 of the 53-member police force are black.

 

Tags: african americans, missouri, protest, riots, shooting
Posted in Business & Industry, Crime, Current Events, Government & Politics, History, Law, People | Comments Off

Tensions High in West Bank

Friday, July 25th, 2014

July 25, 2014

Palestinian protests planned as a “day of rage” in the West Bank erupted this morning in violence, with at least five Palestinians killed by Israeli security guards. Palestinians took to the streets, chanting “with our soul and blood, we will redeem Gaza,” to demonstrate their anger at the deaths of more than 800 Palestinians since the latest Israeli-Hamas conflict began on July 8. Sporadic disturbances also broke out in East Jerusalem following prayers on this the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Following an international outcry over yesterday’s missile strike on a United Nations (UN) school in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has increased efforts to broker a cease-fire.

The strike on the UN school, which was being used as a displaced persons shelter in northern Gaza, left 16 people dead and dozens more injured. “Many have been killed–including women and children, as well as UN staff,” declared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a statement issued to the media. It is yet unclear who was behind the strike. A spokesperson for Hamas condemned it as “Israeli brutal aggression that targeted” Palestinians left homeless by Israeli strikes. The Israeli military suggested that the hit was self-inflicted, noting that rockets from Gaza sometimes fall and explode within Gaza.

A Hamas supporter waves Islamic flags on the roof of the Palestinian Parliament building in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Today in the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians protested Israel's strikes on Gaza. (AP/Wide World)

Simmering tensions among Palestinians in the West Bank have raised the specter of a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising. Middle East experts note, however, that such uprisings, by their nature, are not planned. “The intifada does not start by a decision and end by a decision,” stated Othman Abu Gharbiya, a member of the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah central committee. Nevertheless, he noted, “no doubt we are passing through a dangerous time.”

The current Israeli-Hamas hostilities began when a Palestinian boy was murdered on July 2 in an apparent reprisal for the murder of three Israeli teenage boys, whose bodies were found in the West Bank on June 30. Besides the Palestinian death toll, 33 Israelis–30 soldiers and 3 civilians, have been killed so far in the conflict.

Additional World Book article:

  • Israel 1987 (a Back in Time article)
  • Israel 2000 (a Back in Time article)
  • Middle East 2007 (a Back in Time article)

Tags: ban ki-moon, death, gaza strip, israeli-palestinian conflict, riots, united nations, west bank
Posted in Current Events, Economics, Government & Politics, History, Military, Military Conflict, People, Religion | Comments Off

Anti-American Protests Spread Through Middle East

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

September 13, 2012

Anti-Amercian protests have spread across the Middle East and North Africa, in the wake of the violent anti-U.S. demonstrations in Egypt and Libya on September 11. Today in Yemen, demonstrators stormed the grounds of the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, the capital, and burned the American flag before being driven back by security forces. In Egypt, protests erupted for a third day outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo, where at least 70 people were injured in scuffles with police. In Iran’s capital, Tehran, crowds chanting anti-American and anti-Israel slogans demonstrated outside the Swiss embassy, which handles U.S. interests in the absence of formal diplomatic relations with Washington. (The United States has not maintained diplomatic relations with the Iranian government since revolutionaries seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held a group of Americans, primarily embassy employees, as hostages.) Protesters also staged demonstrations in Iraq, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. In Afghanistan, officials have reportedly suppressed Internet access to prevent users from viewing the offending video online to forestall public unrest.

The Middle East and North Africa (World Book map)

The United States ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed on September 11 in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens and the other victims died as rioters attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun fire. In Cairo on September 11,  an angry mob scaled the wall of the U.S. embassy and pulled down and burned the American flag. The violence in both Libya and Egypt was initially linked to a highly inflammatory, anti-Islamic film.

The film, Innocence of Muslims, was reportedly written and produced by an anti-Muslin filmmaker, possibly of foreign extraction, living in California. A 14-minute trailer for the film was posted on the video-sharing website YouTube. However, U.S. officials are investigating whether the attack in Libya was triggered by the inflammatory film or whether it was pre-planned by some terrorist organization to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Additional World Book articles:

  • Diplomatic corp
  • Foreign Service
  • Iran 1979 (a Back in Time article)
  • The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)

Tags: chris stevens, egypt, libya, middle east, muslim, riots
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, Military | Comments Off

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