The 1968 student movement was the "articulated restlessness and rage for much of the youth of a middle class which had come of age during Mexico’s acclaimed modernizing 'miracle' and which afterward opened the floodgates of cynicism and everyday resistance to a political system bent on maintaining control". According to Zolov, the student movement made only six demands, including "freedom of political prisoners, abolition of the riot police, the dismissal of the Mexico City chief of police, and justice against those responsible for repression". The 1968 student movement wasn't just students; peasants, businessmen and Mexico's working class also took part the fight for democracy. In 1968, the student movement "challenged the legitimacy of the system and proved, by the bloody repression it suffered, that Mexican Government had an authoritarian core". Protesters wanted a mass movement that would force the government to reform the official party and provide greater opportunity for political participation.