The youth of 1975 and N17
his summer was a special time. The events, which dragged on into the autumn, were quite dramatic. They brought to mind the early years of the post-1974 period, revived old friendships, prompted meetings and sparked long-winded debates. Politics, individuals, historical events, and ideological transformations all came under the microscope during this long summer. This was inevitable, as the past 27 years make up a whole life. They include the history of the youth of 1975, the period of the students’ intense politicization in the early years after the end of the military dictatorship – students who have now come to dominate the political and financial domains. It is the history of those who experienced the anarchist wave, the sit-ins, the rallies and the movements – the catchment from which guerrilla groups recruited their members. Today, an independent observer can look back on the conditions, the environment, and the surrounding atmosphere of an era which drove a section of the youth against the established system. The confrontation in universities between student party organizations and the anarchist movements, the clashes on the anniversaries of the 1973 Polytechnic uprising, the 1979 sit-ins, the events at the Chemistry School, the radicalization of a section of youth from the years of the military coup, who remained active in the post-1974 era and who comprised fertile ground for the evolution and subsequent growth of terrorism. And this is not an attempt to incriminate an entire political spectrum, as many critics would rush to do. Examining the political conditions at the time does not mean incriminating a specific political movement, but trying to provide an explanation and answers demanded by a society that is now held ransom by television reality shows, which display bad taste and which falsify and distort historical facts.
