Summary Counterculture and Youth Movements in the 1960s-70s
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Course
IB History of the Americas HL
Institution
The Shri Ram School
Book
History of the Americas 1880-1981
Notes on the youth movements and counterculture movements in the USA, Canada and Latin America, including anti Vietnam War protests, the Free Speech Movement, the hippie movement and other such movements during the period
Counterculture and Youth Movements in the 1960-70s
USA
Background
- 1950s postwar culture returned generally to the accepted norm of gender roles and
domesticity
- Certain people refused to accept this such as the Beat Generation
- Jack Kerouac’s book ‘On the Road Again’, Allen Ginsburg’s poem ‘Howl’, rock music
(especially Elvis) and modernist painters such as Jason Pollock encouraged this new
counterculture, where people rejected the set roles by their parents and embraced
new standards of behavior and sexuality
- Kennedy had set out a common belief that capitalism and democracy worked and
profited everyone and thus they should be carried out and spread to other countries
and that communism was the common enemy. However, as the baby boomers got
to college, they were disillusioned and began rejecting the ‘establishment’
Cultural Changes
- People started wearing ‘hippie’ clothes: bell botom or patchwork jeans, bright t-
shirts, kurtas etc. Men grew their hair out and women lef their hair natural
- Meditation, yoga and eastern spirituality became popular
- They started listening to rock, pop and Motown with the most popular artists being
The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Supremes, The Temptations, Joan Baez, the Beach Boys,
The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix etc
- LSD and marijuana became increasingly popular and the popularity of alcohol fell
- Hippies began setng up communes and organic farms where they lived an
alternative life and discussed important issues
- In 1969, there was a 3-day music festival called Woodstock where all the popular
bands of the time played. It was considered the ultimate hippie event
- People began to preach ‘free love’ and sex became less taboo
- Modern art of people like Andy Warhol began to become popular
- They started their own publications
- Haight Ashbury in San Francisco became a popular place for hippies to live
- The Diggers Free City Collective operated in the Bay Area in the late 1960s and aimed
to create a city where all services were free. They collected excess food from
restaurants and supermarkets and cooked it in communal kitchens to give out. They
also gave free clothing and shelter and performed street plays
- In 1967, 100,000 youths travelled to San Francisco to appeal the hippie culture,
despite pleas from the city authorities to stop coming. They carried this hippie
culture back to their own hometowns and from universities it spread to high schools
and junior highs. This was known as the Summer of Love
- Monterey Pop became increasingly popular due to a 3 day free music festival in June
1967 in Monterey, California where various people like Jimi Hendrix, Jeferson
Airplane and the Moms and Pops participated. Forerunner to Woodstock
- The California government was very frustrated by this, especially governor Ronald
Raegen and made various arrests. A notable example of government reaction was
People’s Park. In April 1969, a number of merchants and local citizens built a park on
, UC Berkeley land without ofcial permission in one weekend, where they cleared the
lot and planted a number of plants. The Reagen government sent in ofcials in May,
who destroyed the people’s eforts and barricaded the park. This led to a major
protest by students and locals, to which the police responded with shooting and
barricading, leading to the death of 1 student and the injury of hundreds. The
National Guard had to be employed and teargas was sprayed over the Berkeley
campus area using a helicopter
- The book ‘The Silent Spring’ published in 1962 made people aware of environmental
issues and led to teach-ins about the environment. Although the government didn’t
want to implement too many environmental situations because of the cost, they did
implement the Clean Air Act in 1967 and the EPA was formed in 1970
Students for a Democratc Society (SDS)
- Started in 1960 by Tom Hayden and spread to many college campuses
- Was meant to get together students, liberals, radicals, lef-wing supporters, activists
etc who had a problem with the government and its actions
- Its manifesto was set across in the Port Huron statement, which said that they were
unhappy with the disregard for man, potential nuclear holocaust, destroyal of
natural resources, racial injustice etc practiced by the government and they wanted
to replace this with uniqueness, positivity, peace and love
- Tried to break the membership out of college campuses into low income
neighbourhoods but didn’t really succeed. However, they had huge numbers in
colleges
- In 1964, there was a teach-in at the University of Michigan which gave anti-war
lessons. College campuses across the country followed suit
- They took an active role in the Vietnam War Movement, which made the SDS even
more popular as they got national coverage
- Increased membership led to organizational difculties as lefists, establishment
sympathizers and Maoists and anarchists all wanted control of the organization but
was still very popular
- Organized a major strike in 1968 against the Vietnam War
- Joined with the Worker-Student alliance to help striking workers
- It split into three factions: the Revolutionary Young Movement (RYM), the
Progressive Labour Party and the Weathermen (used violence against the actions of
the government)
Free Speech Movement
- Started by the student run party SLATE in Berkeley
- In 1960, Berkeley students went to San Francisco to protest the HUAC hearings
regarding communist teachers
- The authorities used fire hoses on them and declared them communists
- 31 students were arrested the next day and then 5,000 students protested the
hearings. SLATE was elected in Berkeley for the next year and constantly raised
issues about the administration not addressing issues like housing discrimination,
compulsory ROTC etc
- In 1964, the Berkeley administration created restrictions on speech and political
activity
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