Third World Liberation Front
The Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) was a significant student movement that emerged in California college campuses during the late 1960s, originating at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Initially formed as a response to university administrative policies, it quickly shifted focus to address the lack of ethnic studies programs that reflected the diverse backgrounds of the student body. The TWLF engaged in extensive activism, including a five-month strike, which successfully led to reforms such as the hiring of more faculty of color and the creation of academic programs dedicated to the histories and issues of marginalized communities. The movement inspired similar activism at the University of California, Berkeley, where students adopted the TWLF name and called for the establishment of a "Third World College" dedicated to ethnic studies. Despite some incidents of violence during protests, the TWLF played a pivotal role in advancing academic diversity and representation. In 1999, the legacy of the TWLF was revived at UC Berkeley in response to proposed cuts to ethnic studies programs, leading to further advocacy and institutional reforms. The concept of "third world," while considered outdated and potentially offensive today, was historically linked to a geopolitical framework during the Cold War that identified nations not aligned with major powers. Overall, the TWLF highlights a critical period in student activism focused on social justice and educational equity.
Third World Liberation Front
The Third World Liberation Front (TWLF, also stylized as twLF) was a student movement that originated on California college campuses in the late 1960s. Initially arising as protests against university administrative policies, the TWLF later evolved into demonstrations criticizing the general lack of available student-focused ethnic studies programs. The TWLF initiated a series of student strikes and activism campaigns, during which some isolated incidents of violence broke out. Despite the turbulent nature of the TWLF protests, the movement succeeded in prompting officials at two California colleges to adopt significant academic and administrative reforms.
In 1999, new demonstrations took place at the University of California, Berkeley, where students adopted the Third World Liberation Front banner. These demonstrations arose in response to proposed cuts to the academic departments established by the 1960s activism. Participating students succeeded in influencing university policy through direct-action campaigns.
Background
The term “third world” has fallen out of common use in the twenty-first century and, in the twenty-first century, is considered by some to be offensive. However, it was widely used in the twentieth century and relates to a geopolitical model that divided the international community into three groups, or “worlds,” during the era of the Cold War (1947–1991). The “first world” consisted of the United States and its allies in Western Europe and North America as well as other developed countries in the Anglo-American sphere of influence. The “second world” was led by the Soviet Union, and included Soviet satellite states in Europe’s Eastern Bloc, other countries with Communist governments, and their allies. “Third world” countries held no allegiance to either the United States or the Soviet Union. While a small number of developed nations with advanced economies technically held this status, the term was generally understood to apply to underdeveloped and impoverished nations with little strategic value to the Cold War superpowers.
During the 1950s, the civil rights movement began to emerge in the United States as the country’s Black community and its allies launched calls for reform. At the time, racial segregation policies remained in place throughout much of the American South, and Black Americans and members of other non-White racial groups faced egregious forms of systemic racism. The resultant discrimination had broad, damaging impacts on the economic, political, and social lives of disadvantaged groups. By the early 1960s, the civil rights movement had blossomed into a major national phenomenon, leading to a series of historic successes that culminated in the Civil Rights Act (1964) and other landmark legal reforms.
The civil rights movement also brought increased attention to many other forms of racism, discrimination, and exclusion. During the late 1960s, the United States experienced a rising wave of student activism as campus-based groups protested these and other injustices. It was against this backdrop that the Third World Liberation Front formed in California.
Overview
In 1968, the original iteration of the Third World Liberation Front formed at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Its membership consisted of activists from the school’s Black Student Union and other sympathetic and allied student groups. The group emerged from a series of student protests that began in June 1967, when demonstrators challenged the school’s policy of sharing certain students’ academic records with officials from the Selective Service Office (SSO), which was administering the military draft of US citizens into the Vietnam War (1955–1975). Early in the 1967–1968 school year, an editor of the SFSU student newspaper published an opinion piece that criticized US racial politics, prompting a violent backlash from within the school’s Black student community. The editor was targeted and assaulted on campus on multiple occasions, with the high-profile incident recruiting growing numbers of Black student activists.
At SFSU, the Third World Liberation Front worked toward academic and administrative reforms. The group called on the school to hire more faculty members of color, create academic programs relevant to the histories and issues faced by communities of color, and improve diversity and racial representation in the school’s overwhelmingly White student body. The group also called for an end to SFSU’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program, which was operated by the US Air Force (USAF). The TWLF staged a five-month strike, which ended when student activists persuaded SFSU administrators to agree to a set of fifteen demands that broadly aligned with their goals.
A multiracial group of students at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) adopted the Third World Liberation Front name in 1969 as they launched a similar set of demonstrations. Some sources differentiate the SFSU and UC Berkeley groups by using the standard acronym TWLF for the original SFSU-based movement, and the stylized twLF acronym for its UC Berkeley counterpart. The UC Berkeley group carried out a series of strikes and protests across a three-month period, calling for the school to establish an academic institution that the twLF called a “Third World College.” Activists envisioned the Third World College as a space where students and professors of color could robustly pursue their underserved academic interests in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Indigenous American history and culture. UC Berkeley responded by establishing its now-renowned Department of Ethnic Studies.
In 1999, a UC Berkeley activist group again adopted the twLF banner in staging a series of protests against planned cuts to the Department of Ethnic Studies and other academic programs of particular interest to students of color. Using tactics such as sit-ins, hunger strikes, occupations, and public rallies, the 1999 twLF group reached an agreement with UC Berkeley officials that tempered the planned cutbacks and led to the establishment of the school’s Center for Race and Gender.
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