North America

Lawrence Donegan: Chaotic US university protests could hand Trump the presidency

History echoes across Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus. Generations of activists have gathered in this place in support of free speech, civil rights and Black Power, and to protest against the Vietnam War, racism and George W Bush’s misadventures in Iraq. Cops have beaten up protestors here, flags have been set alight, Left and Right have fought pitched battles. Martin Luther King spoke from the steps of Sproul Hall in May 1967, railing against “White America, but not all white Americans” for deserting the fight for racial justice.