Chapter 6 - ‘We Represent Nothing’

Summary

Chapter 6 describes the crisis of representative politics in the mid- to late 1960s, at the national level, the level of youth organisation, and within the university. This crisis prompted a turntowards the occupation as a political tactic, the general assembly over representative organisations, and a preference for forms of direct democracy. The protest movements demanded autonomy, although they were not always clear how this would operate. However, forms of direct democracy such as the occupation had a short life-span and generated criticism for demagogy and its domination by student leaders. I argue that the protest movements found it difficult to reconcile their anti-hierarchical drive and the intense politicisation that led towards formation of a new political party.