Abstract:

This study is a comparison essay aimed at explaining differences of the socialist student movement which played a significant role in the political and social life of Turkey in the late 1960s from the French student movement which pioneered May '68. When focused on historical reasons and targets of student movements in these countries, it is seen that Turkish student movement was not against state and society as distinct from French student movement. Turkish students attributed Turkey's problems to imperialism and underdevelopment whereas French students rebelled against the bourgeois state and consumer society. Also, Turkish students impressed by Marxist-Leninist theory which had just started teaching and were not affected by counter-cultural movements and criticism of Marxism, on the contrary, reacted to these kinds of approaches as distinct from French students. It has been focused on relationships between student movements and crippling general strike during the May '68 in France and newly emerging Turkish labor movement. It has been indicated that Turkish students felt obliged to help labors for gaining class consciousness and organizing because of there were no labor movement in Turkey as strong as French labor movement.

Keywords: