‘Paris Today, Leeds Tomorrow!’ Remembering 1968 in Leeds

Abstract

In 1968, protests against the old order swept the world. From the general strike in France and the student occupations in Paris to the Tet offensive in Vietnam, and from the Black Panthers in the US to the Prague Spring, the movement was contagious. In Britain a wave of student protests and sit-ins took place, most famously at the LSE and Hornsey College of Art but also at a wide range of other campuses and colleges, including at Leeds University. On 31 May 2018, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of ‘May 1968’, a meeting jointly sponsored by the Ford Maguire Society, International Socialism and Taking Soundings was held at the Swarthmore Centre in Leeds to remember what radical politics in 1968 in the city was like. The speakers at the meeting were all activists in 1968: Mike McGrath, Sarah Perrigo, Tom Steele, Lou Lavender and Max Farrar, and the meeting was kindly chaired by Gilda Petersen. This article brings together their recollections and reflections, with a transcript of some of the debate which followed. The introduction, editorial work, transcription and additional explanatory notes are by Christian Høgsbjerg.