Unemployment and Social Breakdown

The sixties saw the birth of the student protest movement. The Vietnam war was the catalyst. Students across the world rioted, most famously in Paris and on American campuses. British students and young people played their part, occupying campuses and university buildings across the country. They stayed in possession of the Hornsey College of Art for most of May and June.

Today’s student protests are evocative of that time, but with one significant difference. For most of the past four decades students have seemed disinterested in politics. But the threat of a major hike in tuition fees has brought them out onto the streets. Their radicalisation has spilled over into other issues; last weekend’s protests against Topshop and Vodaphone almost certainly benefited from the publicity given to to the student demonstrations.

The big difference between the sixties and now however is the state of the employment market. The sixties were a time of prosperity and full employment, students could afford to be radical because they knew there would be jobs waiting for them if and when they morphed back into conventional society. Today’s students  do not have that luxury. Austerity is threatening and unemployment is high. In many ways today’s students are far braver, and more willing to go out on a limb than those in the sixties.

The sixties student protest movement fizzled out as the Vietnam War came to an end and affluence proved more appealing than direct action. Today’s protests, connected as they are with issues that directly impact on the lives of the protestors, threaten to become more deep rooted. Unemployment needs to fall in order to improve the lives of workless families. But it also needs to fall in order to pre-empt a more dangerous social breakdown.