London 1968 at Tate Britain

There's an interesting free display at Tate Britain gallery of material from radical movements and associated artists from London in 1968. It includes film and press cuttings from the Hornsey art school and London School of Economics occupations and a selection of posters produced by the Poster Workshop in Camden.

King Mob 'General Ludd' poster printed at Poster Workshop

Posters from the London School of Economics occupation printed at Poster Workshop -
'we are all foreign scum' - this was a response to a 1968 speech in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Tom Iremonger who declared that 'The British people are fed up with being trampled underfoot by foreign scum' (the context was the supposed involvement of 'foreign' 'agitators' in anti-Vietnam war protests)

Also included are some materials from English situationist influenced group King Mob which were very critical of the mainstream student left. 

London 1968 is on until 31 October 1968 

The noise of history

'All around me there was an incredible rushing noise, which I knew was composed of shouting and screaming and firecrackers and stamping hoofs, but sounded to me like a great wind, like history'

(Hari Kunzru, My Revolutions, 2007)

Grosvenor Square, London, 1968

Kunzru's quote is from his novel of late 60s/early 70s radical politics, in which the narrator describes taking part in the anti-Vietnam War demonstration by the US Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square. But that exhilarating noise of history, the sound of the crowd in motion, has been heard in many times and places.

London Political Graffiti 1968

From the excellent Oz Magazine archive, here's some images of London graffiti from Oz number 13 (June 1968), photographs apparently from 'a series of postcards being prepared by JLTY, 49 Kensington Park Road, W11'

'Pop is Dead'
'Crime is the highest form of sensuality'
'Burn Baby Burn'
'A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear, A drowsy, stifled, unimpassioned grief'
(Coleridge quote in Moorhouse Road W2)
'All you need is dynamite'
'Burn it all down'
'Cars are dead' (from Denbigh Terrace W11)