Movements of the 1980s (Web-Conference, registration required)

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many social movements and uprisings were erupting in large and small cities across Western Europe, such as the movimento del’ 77 in Italy, the Hausbesetzungen in Berlin, the fight against runway west in Frankfurt, the krakers in Amsterdam, revolts against ethnic discrimination, police violence and austerity politics in several British cities in 1981, the squat of the Reitschule in Berne or the movement Lôzane bouge.

A web conference about a largely forgotten historical moment of political mobilization, in cooperation with the International Network of Urban Research and Action INURA.

Programme:

16.00 – 16.30:

Philipp Klaus and Christian Schmid: Movements of the 1980s / The Zurich movement

16.30 – 17.30:

Virginie Mamadouh: Squatting and alternative movements in Amsterdam before 1980

Arie van Wijngaarden: Squatting in Amsterdam in the 1980’s

Tino Buchholz: What happened to Dutch pragmatism & civil squatting?

Stijn Oosterlynck: The Pandinistisch Verblijvingsfront in Ghent

Roger Keil and Philipp Oswalt: The Startbahn West movement in Frankfurt

17.30 – 17.45: break

17.45 – 18.45:

Michael Edwards: London – Fragments of action and intellectual work in the 1970s

Marc Saunders: Despite the City: The struggle on the London Docklands

Marvi Maggio: The movement of 77 (movimento del settantasette) in Torino

Lorenzo Tripodi: Media activism in Italy in the 1980s and 1990s

18.45 – 19.00: Final discussion

We have a guiding question for this conference: Until today, there is almost no overall discussion on these movements of the 1980s in Europe, despite the fact that they had sometimes important impacts and consequences in many local contexts, and were also connected in many ways. What were the commonalities of these movements, in what ways were they different from the movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and why is there so little discussion about these experiences?