In the late sixties in France real wageswere on the rise, but large sections of theworking class were still suffering fromlow pay. This was despite foreign tradehaving tripled. 25% of all workers werereceiving less than 500 francs per month.Some unskilled workers were only get-ting 400 francs per month. Unemploy-ment was at half a million, in a periodwhich was considered a post-war boom.Trade union membership had dropped toaround 3 million, as opposed to 7 million

in 1945. Not many victories had been wonin the preceding years. Michelin boastedthat they had only talked to trade unionsthree times in thirty years. So how dideverything change so quickly in theFrance of 1968?

STUDENT ANGER

Nanterre was a university outside Paris.It was a new souless campus built to ca-ter for the increased influx of students.The place was unlike the throbbing cul-

tural live wire of the famous Latin Quar-ter (Left Bank).

On March 22nd 1968 eight studentsbroke into the Deans office as a way toprotest at the recent arrest of six mem-bers of the National Vietnam Committee.Among these was a sociology studentcalled Danny Cohn-Bendit. He had beenpart of a group who organised a strike of10,000 to 12,000 students in Novemberof 1967 as a protest against overcrowd-ing.

In the preceding 10 years the studentpopulation had risen from 170,000 to514,000. Although the state had providedsome funding this was not equal to thehuge influx of students it had asked theuniversities and colleges to take. The to-tal area covered by university premiseshad doubled since 1962 but the studentnumbers had almost tripled. Facilitieswere desperately inadequate and over-crowding was a serious issue.

Paris

A PDF booklet from the Struggle site www.struggle.ws

A detailed eyewitnessaccount of the Paris revoltfirst published in 1968

An anarchist history ofthe events

In 1968 France was on the verge of a total revolt with 12 millionworkers on strike, 122 factories occupied, and students fightingagainst the old moribund system in which they found themselves.

France in 1968

68

Six days after the occupation of theDeans office the police were called in andthe campus was surrounded. 500 stu-dents inside the college divided into dis-cussion groups. Sociology students beganto boycott their exams and a pamphletwas produced entitled Why do we needsociologists?. The students called for alecture hall to be permanently madeavailable for political discussions.

The lecturers began to split, some in fa-vour of the student demands. The collegedid provide a room, but by the 2nd of Aprila meeting of 1,200 students was held inone of the main lecture halls.

MARCH 22nd MOVEMENT

After the Easter break agitation wasmore rampant. On April 22nd (one monthafter the occupation) a meeting was heldin lecture hall B1. It was attended by1,500 students and the resulting mani-festo called for Outright rejection of theCapitalist Technocratic University andfollowed this by a call for solidarity withthe working class. It was clear that theMarch 22nd Movement (which had cometogether as a semi-formal alliance of anti-authoritarian socialist students) was win-ning the battle of ideas in the campusamongst their fellow students.

The college decided to discipline eight ofthe students involved, including Cohn-Bendit. They were called upon to appearbefore the disciplinary committee of theSorbonne on May 3rd. Four lecturers vol-unteered to defend them.

The education strike had not interestedthe Minister for Education. There weremajor industrial strikes the precedingyear at Rhodiaceta and Saviem. InRhodiaceta (a synthetic fibres factory inLyons) a strike took place involving14,000 workers over 23 days. Manage-ment went on to sack 92 militants at theend of the year and had also resorted tolock-outs. In June of 1967 Peugeot calledin riot police during a dispute and twoworkers were killed.

From March to May 1968 there was atotal of eighty cases of industrial actionat the Renault Billancourt car plant. Itwas becoming obvious that the Frenchdid not interest their leaders as AlainTouraine (a professor at Nanterre whowas prepared to defend the student ac-tion) said. These leaders were soon aboutto be awoken from their oblivious slum-ber.

RED & BLACK Flags drape theARC De TRIOMPHE

On Friday May 3rd a few students gath-ered in the front square of the Sorbonne.The students were from Nanterre andthey were joined by activists from theSorbonne college itself. The NanterreEight were about to face charges on thefollowing Monday. The eight and some

colleagues from Nanterre were meetingstudent activists from the Sorbonne todiscuss the impending Monday.

The crowd began to swell and the collegeauthorities panicked. By 4pm theSorbonne was surrounded by police andthe Campagnies Republicaines deSecurite (CRS riot police). Students werebeing arrested by the CRS, on the basisthat they were spotted wearing motorcy-cle helmets. News spread rapidly and stu-dents came from all over the city. Fight-ing began to free those who had alreadybeen arrested. Such was this battle be-tween students and police that the col-lege closed.

This was only the second time in 700years that the Sorbonne was forced toclose, the other time being in 1940 whenthe Nazis took Paris.

The National Union of Students (UNEF)and the Lecturers Union (SNESup) im-mediately called a strike and issued thefollowing demands

1. Re-Open the Sorbonne.2. Withdraw the Police.3. Release those arrested.

These unions were joined by the March22nd Movement. The original discontenthad arisen from overcrowding but it nowbegan to take on a larger perspective.

POLICE RIOT

On Monday May 6th the Nanterre 8passed through a police cordon singingthe Internationale. They were on theirway to appear before the University Dis-cipline Committee. The students decidedto march through Paris. On their returnto the Latin Quarter they were savagelyattacked by the police on the Rue St.Jacques.

The students tore up paving stones andoverturned cars to form barricades. Po-lice pumped Tear Gas into the air andcalled for reinforcements. The BoulevardSt Germain became a bloody battle-ground with the official figures at the endof the day reading: 422 arrests and 345policemen injured. This day was to go intothe annals of 68 as Bloody Monday.

A long march followed on the Tuesdayand by outmanouvering the police Red &Black Flags were draped from the Arc DeTriomphe and the Internationale echoedaround the streets. The week continuedon in a similar fashion and the streetswere alive with crowds and talk of poli-tics. By Wednesday public opinion wasshifting.

STOMACH FOR A FIGHT

The middle classes were appalled by thebrutality dished out to the students bythe police and large sections of the work-ing class were inspired by the studentsstomach for a fight against the state. OnFriday (May 10th) 30,000 students, in-

cluding high school students, had gath-ered around the Place Defret-Rochercau.They marched towards the Sorbonnealong the Boulevard St. Germain. Allroads leading off the boulevard wereblocked by police armed for conflict.

Fifty barricades were erected by the dem-onstrators in preparation for an attackby the police. Jean Jacques Lebel a re-porter wrote that by 1am Literally thou-sands help build barricades ...women,workers, bystanders, people in pyjamas,human chains to carry rocks, wood, iron.

Our barricade is double: one three foothigh row of cobble stones, an empty spaceof twenty yards, then a nine foot high pileof wood, cars, metal posts, dustbins. Ourweapons are stones, metal, etc found inthe street. reported one eye witness.

Radio reporters said that as many assixty barricades were erected in differ-ent streets. France stayed up to listen toreports on Europe One and Radio Lux-embourg. The government had yielded ontwo of the three demands but would notrelease those arrested. There was to beno Liberez nos comrades! .

THE BEAT GOES ON

The barricades were attacked by the po-lice. They used tear gas and CS grenades.Students and demonstrators used hand-kerchiefs soaked in baking soda to pro-tect themselves from the nauseous gas-ses. Fighting continued throughout thenight. Houses were stormed by the po-lice and people were dragged and clubbedas they were thrown into vans. The po-lice, and in particular the CRS, were mostbrutal in their treatment of the demon-strators.

There were reports of pregnant womenbeing beaten. Young men were strippedand some had their sexual organs beatenuntil the flesh was in ribbons. At the endof this battle of the streets there were 367people injured, and 460 arrested. On Sat-urday morning troop carriers werebrought in to clear the barricades andthey were booed and hissed as they drovedown the Boulevard St Germain.

On Monday May 13th the students werereleased but the spark had alreadystarted the forest fire. The trade unionscalled a one-day strike and a march wasorganised in Paris for the same day. Over200,000 people (a conservative figure)turned up for the march shouting DeGaulle Assassin. The leader of the gov-ernment was now singled out as an en-emy by the people. After the march there

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was a call for the crowd to disperse andmany did but a large group of studentsdecided that they would occupy theSorbonne.

COMMUNISTS UP TO THEIR OLDTRICKS

The PCF (French Communist Party) hadcondemned the Nanterre rebels from thestart. Their future General Secretary,Georges Marchais, published an articleentitled False revolutionaries to be un-masked. In this article he claimed theMarch 22nd Movement were mostly sonsof the grand bourgeois, contemptuous to-wards the students of working class ori-gin a