Zekun Chen

ASA 002

Section A01

Week 2 Blog

A Breakout Catalyst

The article “Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the Way for Campus Activism” by Robby Cohen illustrates the detail of Berkeley Free Speech Movement in 1964 via documentary narration. Meanwhile, the author points out the contribution of this movement in terms of its influence to the latter political events. After reading this article, I had been moved by the braveness of these college students. Back to that time, although students in UCB were not the major participants in political events such as the Civil Right Movement, they displayed their urgency to stand for the justice and valorously took into action to champion such  urgencies. Meanwhile, I am surprised by the consequentially impact generating from this event. As far as I am concerned, this event is parallel to the catalyst in a chemical reaction.  For instance, FSM marked the transition between the silent generation in 1950s and the activism in 1960s. As for the tactics to fight political sensor ship, Free Speech Movement also provided an evidence for the effectiveness of non-violent tactics when thousands of students sit-in around a police car to ask for the release of Mario Savio. Thus, Berkeley FSM  is indeed a breakout catalyst for the latter movements.

Question: What is the influence of FSM for political events outside US in the same time period?