”Hei me itse nyt tehdään!” Muistoja nuoruudesta teinikuntatoiminnassa ja nuortaistolaisessa liikkeessä

In this article, we analyse how participation and agency in the youth movements of the late 60s and early 70s are remembered and reconstructed in autobiographical interviews and life writings conducted in the 2010s. Our research focus is on the memories and experiences of student associations in upper secondary schools and radical left-wing youth movement (“taistolaisuus”) in Finnish schools and universities. The 1960s is renowned as a decade of revolutions, one of them the rapid rise of youth radicalism around the Western countries. In Finland, the youth movement swiped over young people and young adults from different social classes and on several educational levels. “The spirit of the age” touched and activated young people in secondary schools and universities, and furthermore, steered their activity towards the New Left and even communist ideas and actions.

Moreover, shared ideas and ideals created a strong sense of belonging and community within the young people. In this article, we study how this sense of belonging and community are remembered and reconstructed in autobiographical narratives told by young people. These memories are full of participation: rallies, mass demonstrations, and different kinds of happenings, singing groups, parties, and such. We ask how this communal activity of the youth is remembered and depicted in the present, almost 50 years later.