The Bay Area Third World Strikes, 1968-1969: Coalitional Activism and Chicanx Campus Politics

The Bay Area Third World Strikes, 1968-1969: Coalitional Activism and Chicanx Campus Politics. This essay looks at the 1968-1969 Third World Strikes at San Francisco State and UC Berkeley through the lens of coalitional politics and activism. While the paper looks closely at Chicanx campus politics, the goal is to move away from a nationalist or Maoist reading of the two strikes. During these two events, Chicanx activism has to be read in conjunction with African American, Asian American, Native American, and white campus politics. This coalitional politics represented a temporary rupture of U.S. political behavior and manifested a utopic moment when an alternative political possibility was glimpsed. The essay ends exploring the limits of coalitional politics and activism, especially as nationalism and identity politics came to the fore.