May 1968 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For other events in May 1968, see 1968.

The May 1968 protest refers to a particular period in French history

History of France

The history of France goes back to the arrival of the earliest human being in what is now France. Members of the genus Homo entered the area hundreds of thousands years ago, while the first modern Homo sapiens, the Cro-Magnons, arrived around 40,000 years ago...

. It was historically significant for being the first wildcat general strike

Wildcat strike action

A wildcat strike action, often referred to as a wildcat strike, is a strike action taken by workers without the authorization of their trade union officials. This is sometimes termed unofficial industrial action...

ever, and for being the largest general strike

General strike

A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

ever, bringing the economy

Economy of France

France is the world's fifth largest economy by nominal figures and the ninth largest economy by PPP figures. It is the second largest economy in Europe in nominal figures and third largest economy in Europe in PPP figures...

of an advanced industrial country to a virtual standstill. It commenced with a series of student occupation protests. The strike involved eleven million workers for a continuous two weeks, and its impact was such that it almost caused the collapse of President Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

's government. In staging wildcat strikes, the movement contrasted with the trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

s and the French Communist Party

French Communist Party

The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...

(Parti Communiste Français, PCF), which began to side with the de Gaulle government. Groups revolted against modern consumer

Consumerism

Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...

and technical society and embraced left-wing

Left-wing politics

In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

positions that were critical of authoritarianism

Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...

and Western capitalism.

Many saw the events as an opportunity to shake up the "old society" and traditional morality, focusing especially on the education system

Education in France

The French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into three different stages:* the primary education ;* secondary education ;...

and employment. It began as a long series of student strike

Student strike

A student strike occurs when students enrolled at a teaching institution such as a school, college or university refuse to go to class. This form of strike action is often used as a negotiating tactic in order to put pressure on the governing body of the university, particularly in countries where...

s that broke out at a number of universities and lycées

Secondary education in France

In France, secondary education is in two stages:* collèges cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14...

in Paris, following confrontations with university administrators and the police. The de Gaulle administration's attempts to quell those strikes by police action only inflamed the situation further, leading to street battles with the police in the Latin Quarter

Latin Quarter

Latin Quarter is a part of the 5th arrondissement in Paris.Latin Quarter may also refer to:* Latin Quarter , a British pop/rock band* Latin Quarter , a 1945 British film*Latin Quarter, Aarhus, part of Midtbyen, Aarhus C, Denmark...

, followed by a general strike by students and strikes throughout France by eleven million French workers, roughly two-thirds of the French workforce. The protests reached such a point that government leaders feared civil war or revolution. De Gaulle fled to a French military base in Germany, where he created a military operations headquarters to deal with the unrest, dissolved the National Assembly

French National Assembly

The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....

, and called for new parliamentary elections for 23 June 1968. Violence evaporated almost as quickly as it arose. Workers went back to their jobs, after a series of deceptions by the Confédération Générale du Travail

Confédération générale du travail

The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...

(the leftist union federation) and the PCF. When the elections were finally held in June, the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before.

May 1968 was a political failure for the protesters, but it had an enormous social impact. In France, it is considered to be the watershed moment when a conservative moral ideal (religion, patriotism, respect for authority) shifted towards a more liberal moral ideal (sexual liberation) that today better describes French society, in theory if not in practice. Although this change did not take place solely in this one month, the term mai 68 is used to refer to this general shift in principles, especially when referring to its most idealistic aspects.

The events before May

On 22 March far-left groups, a small number of prominent poets and musicians, and 150 students, occupied an administration building at Paris University at Nanterre and held a meeting in the university council room dealing with class discrimination in French society and the political bureaucracy that controlled the school's funding.

The school's administration called the police, who surrounded the university. After the publication of their wishes, the students left the building without any trouble. After this first record, some leaders of what was named the "Movement of 22 March

Movement of 22 March

The Mouvement du 22 Mars was a French student movement at the University of Nanterre founded on 22 March 1968, which carried out a prolonged occupation of the university's administration building...

" were called together by the disciplinary committee of the university.

The events of May

Following months of conflicts between students and authorities at the University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration shut down that university on 2 May 1968. Students at the Sorbonne University

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

in Paris met on 3 May to protest against the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre. On Monday, 6 May, the national student union

Students' union

A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...

, the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France

Union nationale des étudiants de france

The National Union of Students of France is the main national students' union in France....

(UNEF) — still the largest student union in France today — and the union of university teachers called a march to protest against the police invasion of Sorbonne. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. While the crowd dispersed, some began to create barricades out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones, forcing the police to retreat for a time. The police then responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again. Hundreds more students were arrested.

High school student unions spoke in support of the riots on 6 May. The next day, they joined the students, teachers and increasing numbers of young workers who gathered at the Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...

to demand that:

all criminal charges against arrested students be dropped,
the police leave the university, and
the authorities reopen Nanterre and Sorbonne.

Negotiations broke down, and students returned to their campuses after a false report that the government had agreed to reopen them, only to discover the police still occupying the schools. The students now had a near revolutionary fervor.

On Friday, 10 May, another huge crowd congregated on the Rive Gauche

Rive Gauche

La Rive Gauche is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two: looking downstream, the southern bank is to the left, and the northern bank is to the right....

. When the riot police

Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité

The Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité are the riot control forces and general reserve of the French National Police. The CRS were created on 8 December 1944 and the first units were organised by 31 January 1945. The CRS were reorganized in 1948...

again blocked them from crossing the river, the crowd again threw up barricades, which the police then attacked at 2:15 in the morning after negotiations once again floundered. The confrontation, which produced hundreds of arrests and injuries, lasted until dawn of the following day. The events were broadcast on radio as they occurred and the aftermath was shown on television the following day. Allegations were made that the police had participated, through agents provocateurs, in the riots, by burning cars and throwing Molotov cocktail

Molotov cocktail

The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...

s.

The government's heavy-handed reaction brought on a wave of sympathy for the strikers. Many of the nation's more mainstream singers and poets joined after the heavy-handed police brutality came to light. American artists also began voicing support of the strikers. The PCF

French Communist Party

reluctantly supported the students, whom it regarded as adventurers and anarchists, and the major left union federations, the Confédération Générale du Travail

Confédération générale du travail

(CGT) and the Force Ouvrière

Force Ouvrière

The General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force is one of the five major union federations in France. In terms of following, it is the third behind the CGT and the CFDT....

(CGT-FO), called a one-day general strike and demonstration for Monday, 13 May.

Well over a million people marched through Paris on that day; the police stayed largely out of sight. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou

Georges Pompidou

Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...

personally announced the release of the prisoners and the reopening of the Sorbonne. However, the surge of strikes did not recede. Instead, the protesters got even more active.

When the Sorbonne reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous "people's university". Public opinion at first supported the students, but quickly turned against them after its leaders, invited to appear on national television, "behaved like irresponsible utopianists who wanted to destroy the 'consumer society.'" Nonetheless, in the weeks that followed, approximately 401 popular action committees were set up in Paris and elsewhere to take up grievances against the government and French society, including the Sorbonne Occupation Committee

Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne

The Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne was a radical student group that occupied the Sorbonne during the May 1968 social unrest in France....

.

In the following days, workers began occupying factories, starting with a sit-down strike at the Sud Aviation

Sud Aviation

Sud-Aviation was a French state-owned aircraft manufacturer, originating from the merger of Sud-Est and Sud-Ouest on March 1, 1957...

plant near the city of Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

on 14 May, then another strike at a Renault

Renault

Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...

parts plant near Rouen

Rouen

Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...

, which spread to the Renault

Renault

manufacturing complexes at Flins in the Seine Valley and the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt

Boulogne-Billancourt

Boulogne-Billancourt is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Boulogne-Billancourt is a sub-prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Boulogne-Billancourt....

. Workers had occupied roughly fifty factories by 16 May, and 200,000 were on strike by 17 May. That figure snowballed to two million workers on strike the following day and then ten million, or roughly two-thirds of the French workforce, on strike the following week.

These strikes were not led by the union movement; on the contrary, the CGT tried to contain this spontaneous outbreak of militancy by channeling it into a struggle for higher wages and other economic demands. Workers put forward a broader, more political and more radical agenda, demanding the ousting of the government and President de Gaulle and attempting, in some cases, to run their factories. When the trade union leadership negotiated a 35% increase in the minimum wage, a 7% wage increase for other workers, and half normal pay for the time on strike with the major employers' associations, the workers occupying their factories refused to return to work and jeered their union leaders. In fact, in the May '68 movement there was a lot of "anti-unionist euphoria," against the mainstream hierarchical unions, that were more willing to compromise with the powers that be than enact the will of the base.

On 25 May and 26 May, the Grenelle agreements

Grenelle agreements

The Grenelle Agreements or Grenelle Reports were negotiated 25 and 26 May, during the crisis of May 1968 in France by the representative of the Pompidou government, the trade unions, and the Organisation patronale...

were conducted at the Ministry of Social Affairs

Minister of Social Affairs (France)

The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment (French: Ministre des Affaires sociales et de l'emploi is a cabinet member in the Government of France. The position was originally known as Minister of Labor...

. They provided for an increase of the minimum wage by 25% and of the average salaries by 10%. These offers were rejected, and the strike went on. The working class and top intellectuals were joining in solidarity for a major change in workers' rights.

On 27 May, the meeting of the UNEF, the most outstanding of the events of May 1968, proceeded and gathered 30,000 to 50,000 people in the Stade Sebastien Charlety

Stade Sebastien Charlety

Stade Sebastien Charléty, known simply as Stade Charléty or just Charléty, is a multi-use stadium in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, France. Officially, the current capacity of the stadium is 20,000 people. The stadium opened in 1938 and was designed by French architect Bernard Zehrfuss...

. The meeting was extremely militant with speakers demanding the government be overthrown and elections held.

The French Socialists saw an opportunity to act as a compromise between de Gaulle and the Communists. On 28 May, François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

of the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left

Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left

The Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left was a conglomerate of French left-wing non-Communist forces. It was founded to support François Mitterrand's candidature at the 1965 presidential election and to couter-balance the Communist preponderance over the French left...

declared that "there is no more state" and stated that he was ready to form a new government. On 29 May, Pierre Mendès France also stated that he was ready to form a new government; unlike Mitterrand he was willing to include the Communists. Although the Socialists did not have the Communists' ability to form large street demonstrations, they had more than 20% of the country's support.
Also on 29 May, de Gaulle postponed the meeting of the Council of Ministers scheduled for the day, and secretly removed his personal papers from Élysée Palace

Élysée Palace

The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....

. He told his son-in-law Alain de Boissieu

Alain de Boissieu

Alain de Boissieu was a French general, Free French, Compagnon de la Libération, Army chief of staff and son-in-law of general Charles de Gaulle.-Life:...

"I do not want to give them a chance to attack the Elysée. It would be regrettable if blood were shed in my personal defense. I have decided to leave: nobody attacks an empty palace." De Gaulle refused Pompidou's request that he dissolve the National Assembly as he believed that their party, the Gaullists, would lose the resulting election, telling Pompidou "I am the past; you are the future; I embrace you". De Gaulle then mysteriously disappeared, telling no one in the government where he was going. The canceling of the ministerial meeting, and the president's disappearance, stunned the country.

Pompidou unsuccessfully requested that military radar be used to follow de Gaulle's two helicopters, but soon learned that he had fled to the headquarters of the French military in Germany, in Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...

, to meet General Jacques Massu

Jacques Massu

Jacques Émile Massu was a French general who fought in World War II, the First Indochina War, the Algerian War and the Suez crisis.-Early life:Jacques Massu was born in Châlons-sur-Marne to a family of military officers; his father was an artillery officer...

. Massu persuaded the discouraged de Gaulle to return to France; now knowing that he had the military's support, de Gaulle rescheduled the meeting of the Council of Ministers for the next day. His wife Yvonne

Yvonne de Gaulle

Yvonne de Gaulle , born as Yvonne Charlotte Anne Marie Vendroux, was the wife of Charles de Gaulle. They were married on April 7, 1921. She was sometimes known as "Tante Yvonne"...

gave the family jewels to their son and daughter-in-law

Philippe de Gaulle

Philippe de Gaulle is a French admiral and politician. The son of General Charles de Gaulle, he is a former Senator and was Inspector-General of the French Navy. He married Henriette de Montalambert de Cers in 1947 and had four children including Dr. Charles de Gaulle, Yves de Gaulle and Pierre de...

—who stayed in Baden for a few more days—for safekeeping, however, indicating that the de Gaulles still considered Germany a possible refuge. Massu kept as a state secret

State Secret

State Secret is a 1950 British drama film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns and Herbert Lom. It was released in the United States under the title The Great Manhunt.-Cast:...

de Gaulle's loss of confidence until others disclosed it in 1982; until then most observers believed that his disappearance was intended to remind the French people of what they might lose. Although the disappearance was real and not intended as motivation, it indeed had such an effect on France.

On 30 May 400,000 to 500,000 protesters (many more than the 50,000 the police were expecting) led by the CGT marched through Paris, chanting, "Adieu, de Gaulle!" ("Farewell, de Gaulle!") While Communist leaders later denied that they had planned an armed uprising, they had overestimated de Gaulle's strength as shown by his escape to Germany. The movement was largely centered around the Paris metropolitan area

Paris metropolitan area

The Paris aire urbaine is a statistical area that describes the reach of commuter movement to and from Paris and its surrounding urban area...

, and not elsewhere. Had the rebellion grown in strength, perhaps by occupying key public buildings in Paris, the government would have had to use force to retake them. The resulting casualties could have incited a revolution, with the military moving from the provinces to retake Paris as in 1871

Paris Commune

The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...

. Maurice Grimaud

Maurice Grimaud

Maurice Grimaud was the French Prefect of Police, or police chief, of the city of Paris during the May 1968 general strikes and student uprisings. He is credited with avoiding an escalation of violence and bloodshed during May 1968 unrest.Grimaud was born in Annonay, Ardèche, on November 11, 1913...

, head of the Paris police

Prefecture of Police

The Prefecture of Police , headed by the Prefect of Police , is an agency of the Government of France which provides the police force for the city of Paris and the surrounding three suburban départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne...

, played a key role in avoiding revolution by both speaking to and spying on the revolutionaries, and by carefully avoiding the use of force.

On 30 May Pompidou persuaded de Gaulle to dissolve the National Assembly and call a new election by threatening to resign. Over radio De Gaulle announced the new election, scheduled for 23 June, and ordered workers to return to work, threatening to institute a state of emergency

State of emergency

A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...

if they did not. Immediately after the speech, about 800,000 supporters marched through the Champs-Elysées waving the national flag

Flag of France

The national flag of France is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured royal blue , white, and red...

; the Gaullists had planned the rally for several days. The Communists agreed to the election, and the threat of revolution was over.

Events of June and July

From that point, the revolutionary feeling of the students and workers faded away. Workers gradually returned to work or were ousted from their plants by the police. The national student union called off street demonstrations. The government banned a number of leftist organizations. The police retook the Sorbonne on 16 June. Contrary to de Gaulle's fears, his party won the greatest victory in French parliamentary history in the legislative elections held in June

French legislative election, 1968

- National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...

, taking 353 of 486 seats versus the Communists' 34 and the Socialists' 57. On Bastille Day

Bastille Day

Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...

, there were resurgent street demonstrations in the Latin Quarter

Latin Quarter

, led by leftist students wearing red arm-bands and anarchist students wearing black arm-bands. The Paris police and the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité

Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité

responded with brutal repression starting around 10 pm and continuing through the night, on the streets, in police vans, at police stations, and in hospitals where many wounded were taken. There was, as a result, much bloodshed among students and tourists there for the evening's festivities. No charges were filed against police or demonstrators, but the governments of the UK and West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

filed formal protests, including for the indecent assault of two English schoolgirls by police in a police station.

Despite the size of de Gaulle's triumph, it was not a personal one. A survey taken immediately after the crisis showed that a majority of the country saw de Gaulle as too old, too self-centered, too authoritarian, too conservative, and too anti-American

Anti-Americanism

The term Anti-Americanism, or Anti-American Sentiment, refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, culture or government of the United States...

. As the April 1969 referendum

French constitutional referendum, 1969

A constitutional referendum was held in France on 27 April 1969. The reforms would have led to government decentralization and changes to the Senate...

would show, the country was ready for "Gaullism without de Gaulle".

Slogans and graffiti

It is difficult to identify precisely the politics of the students who sparked the events of May 1968, much less of the hundreds of thousands who participated in them. There was, however, a strong strain of anarchism

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

, particularly in the students at Nanterre. While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the millenarian and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers (the anti-work graffiti shows the considerable influence of the Situationist movement).

All power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We want structures that serve people, not people serving structures.
The revolution doesn’t belong to the committees, it’s yours.
Je suis Marxiste – tendance Groucho. (I’m a Marxist – of the Groucho
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...

variety.)
Comrades, let’s lynch Séguy! [Georges Séguy, head bureaucrat of the Communist Party-dominated trade union]
Man is neither Rousseau’s noble savage nor the Church’s or La Rochefoucauld’s depraved sinner. He is violent when oppressed, gentle when free.
A single non-revolutionary weekend is infinitely more bloody than a month of total revolution.
Those who lack imagination cannot imagine what is lacking.
A cop sleeps inside each one of us. We must kill him. Drive the cop out of your head.
We don’t want to be the watchdogs or servants of capitalism.
“The cause of all wars, riots and injustices is the existence of property.”(attributed to St. Augustine
St. Augustine
-People:* Augustine of Hippo or Augustine of Hippo , father of the Latin church* Augustine of Canterbury , first Archbishop of Canterbury* Augustine Webster, an English Catholic martyr.-Places:*St. Augustine, Florida, United States...

)
Commute, work, commute, sleep . . .
Since 1936 I have fought for wage increases. My father before me fought for wage increases. Now I have a TV, a fridge, a Volkswagen. Yet my whole life has been a drag. Don’t negotiate with the bosses. Abolish them.
The future will only contain what we put into it now.
The more you consume, the less you live. Commodities are the opium of the people.
Abolish copyrights: sound structures belong to everyone.
This concerns everyone.
L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire. (Boredom is counter-revolutionary.)
L'imagination prend le pouvoir! (Imagination takes power!)
Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible. (Be realistic, ask the impossible.)
Prenez vos désirs pour la réalité. (Take your desires for reality.)
On achète ton bonheur. Vole-le. (They are buying your happiness. Steal it.)
Presse: ne pas avaler. (On a poster with a bottle of poison labelled: "Press: Do not swallow.")
Même si Dieu existait, il faudrait le supprimer. (Even if God existed it would be necessary to abolish him.)
Le patron a besoin de toi, tu n'as pas besoin de lui. (The boss needs you, you don't need him.)
L'été sera chaud! (Summer will be hot!)
On ne revendiquera rien, on ne demandera rien. On prendra, on occupera. (We will beg for nothing. We will ask for nothing. We will take, we will occupy.)
Travailleur : tu as 25 ans mais ton syndicat est de l'autre siècle. (Worker: You are 25, but your union is from another century.)
Nous ne voulons pas d'un monde où la certitude de ne pas mourir de faim s'échange contre le risque de mourir d'ennui. (We don't want a world where the guarantee of not dying of starvation brings the risk of dying of boredom.)
In a society that has abolished every kind of adventure the only adventure that remains is to abolish the society.
Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié ne font que se creuser un tombeau. (Those who make revolutions half way only dig their own graves.)
Run, comrade, the old world is behind you!
Sous les pavés, la plage. (Under the paving stones, the beach.)
Vivre sans temps mort et jouir sans entrave. (Live without wasted time and enjoy without hindrance.)
La barricade ferme la rue mais ouvre la voie. (Barricades close the street but open the way.)
When the National Assembly becomes a bourgeois theater, all the bourgeois theaters should be turned into national assemblies. (Written above the entrance of the occupied Odéon Theatre)
Warning: ambitious careerists may now be disguised as “progressives.”
Stalinists, your children are with us!
Be cruel.
I love you!!! Oh, say it with paving stones!!!
Under 21? [Picture of a brick] Here is your ballot!

Film

Released in August 1967, Jean Luc Godard's film La Chinoise
La Chinoise
La Chinoise is a 1967 French political film directed by Jean-Luc Godard about young revolutionaries in Paris.-Plot summary:La Chinoise is a loose adaptation, if not parody, of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1872 novel, The Possessed...

portrays the lives of a small group of Marxist revolutionary students and proved to presage the events of May 1968. His 1972 film Tout va bien
Tout va bien
Tout va bien is a 1972 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin and starring Jane Fonda and Yves Montand.-Overview:...

(made with Jean-Pierre Gorin
Jean-Pierre Gorin
Jean-Pierre Gorin is a French filmmaker and professor, best known for his work with Nouvelle Vague luminary Jean-Luc Godard during what is often referred to as Godard's "radical" period....

and the Dziga Vertov Group
Dziga Vertov Group
The Dziga Vertov Group was formed in 1968 by politically active filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin. Their films are defined primarily for Brechtian forms, Marxist ideology, and a lack of personal authorship...

) portrays attitudes four years after the May movement.
Jacques Rivette
Jacques Rivette
Jacques Rivette is a French film director. His most well known films include Celine and Julie Go Boating, La Belle Noiseuse and the cult film Out 1....

's 1971 film Out 1
Out 1
Out 1 is a 1971 film directed by Jacques Rivette, one of the major filmmakers of the French New Wave. Notorious for its unwieldy length of twelve hours and forty minutes, it is also referred to as Out 1: Noli me tangere...

is a sprawling impression of post-May 1968 angst.
René Viénet
René Viénet
René Viénet is a French sinologist who is famous as a situationist writer and filmmaker. Viénet used the situationist technique of détournement — the diversion of already existing cultural elements to new subversive purposes.- Career :...

's 1973 film Can dialectics break bricks?
Can dialectics break bricks?
La Dialectique Peut-Elle Casser Des Briques?, in English, "Can Dialectics Break Bricks?", is a 1973 Situationist film produced by the French director René Viénet which explores the development of class conflict through revolutionary agitation against a backdrop of graphic kung-fu fighting.The film...

dealt with the concepts surrounding May 1968, parodying the events within the narrative.
Guy Debord
Guy Debord
Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...

's 1973 film The Society of the Spectacle dealt with the motivations around the events of May 1968. The film also contains large amounts of archival footage of the events.
Alain Tanner's 1976 film Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 is a 1976 Swiss film directed by Alain Tanner and written by Tanner and John Berger. The location of the shooting was Geneva....

follows the lives of couples in the wake of the social and political tumult of May 1968, the various people including a history professor, a trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

ist and a bohemian.
Chris Marker
Chris Marker
Chris Marker is a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La jetée , A Grin Without a Cat , Sans Soleil and AK , an essay film on the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa...

's 1977 film A Grin Without a Cat
A Grin Without a Cat
A Grin Without a Cat is a 1977 French essay film by Chris Marker. It focuses on global political turmoil in the 1960s and 70s, particularly the rise of the New Left in France and the development of socialist movements in Latin America...

is a three-hour-long film documentary portraying the history behind the social unrests of the sixties. Made with archival images, it deals with May 1968 in depth.
Goran Paskaljević
Goran Paskaljevic
Goran Paskaljević is a Serbian film director. He was raised by his grandparents in Niš, following the divorce of his parents, and 14 years later returned to Belgrade where he worked in his stepfather's cinema....

's 1984 film Varljivo leto '68 (The Elusive Summer of '68) tells a story of a young man growing up in a small Yugoslav
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...

town, during the students' protests provoked by the events in France.
Milou in May
Milou en mai
Milou en mai is a 1990 film by Louis Malle. It is released as Milou in May in the UK and as May Fools in North America. The film portrays the impact of the French revolutionary fervour of May 1968 on a French village....

is a 1990 film by Louis Malle
Louis Malle
Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...

which portrays the impact of revolutionary fervour on a French village.
Roman Coppola
Roman Coppola
Roman Coppola is an American film director and music video director.-Early life:Coppola was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, the son of set decorator/artist Eleanor Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola was born in the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine while his father was in Paris...

's 2001 film CQ
CQ (film)
CQ is a 2001 film written and directed by Roman Coppola. It was screened out of competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.It is a homage to 1960s European spy/sci-fi spoofs like Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik and the documentary spoof David Holzman's Diary. The cinematography is done by Robert...

depicts the Paris film-making world of the late 1960s and makes repeated reference to the events of May 1968.
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

's 2003 film The Dreamers is about three young students and their experiences in May 1968, although it features the events mainly as a backdrop and not predominantly within the primary plot.
Philippe Garrel
Philippe Garrel
Philippe Garrel is a French director, cinematographer, screenwriter, editor and producer. His movies have won him awards at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival...

's 2005 film Regular Lovers
Regular Lovers (film)
Regular Lovers is a 2005 film directed by Philippe Garrel and starring his son, actor Louis Garrel. The director's father, actor Maurice Garrel, also appears in the film in a supporting role...

is a three-hour-long rejoinder to The Dreamers that portrays the May 1968 events through the eyes of a group of young artists who grow increasingly absorbed in a world of drugs and free love upon what they see as the failure of the May 1968 events.

Literature

Robert Merle
Robert Merle
Robert Merle was a French novelist.-Biography:Born in Tébessa in French Algeria, he moved to France in 1918. A professor of English Literature at several universities, during World War II Merle was conscripted in the French army and assigned as an interpreter to the British Expeditionary Force...

's book Derrière la vitre is a novel set in the May 1968 events.
Rocío Durán Barba's book Tengo algo que decir: 1968-2008 is a novel about this revolution and the consequences of the movement.
Alfredo Bryce Echenique's book La vida exagerada de Martín Romaña has a few chapters surrounding the events of May 1968.
The Merry Month of May
The Merry Month of May
The Merry Month Of May is author James Jones's 1971 novel concerning the events of the 1968 student revolutions in Paris. It is centered around a rich American family, the Gallaghers, living as expatriates in Paris....

is James Jones
James Jones (author)
James Jones was an American author known for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath.-Life and work:...

's 1971 novel concerning the 1968 events in Paris. It is centered around a rich American family, the Gallaghers, living as expatriates in Paris.
Mavis Gallant
Mavis Gallant
Mavis Leslie Gallant, , née Mavis Leslie Young is a Canadian writer.-Biography:An only child, Gallant was born in Montreal, Quebec. Her father died when she was young, and her mother remarried. Gallant received her education at seventeen different public, convent, and French-language boarding...

wrote two essays covering the May 1968 events for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

. Entitled "The Events in May: A Paris Notebook", Parts I and II have been anthologized in her essay collection Paris Notebooks: Essays and Reviews.
Michel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq , born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1958—or 1956 —on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker and poet. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire;...

's book Atomised refers to a group of "68 veterans" who found the Lieu du Changement: a liberal attempt at utopia.
Graham Robb
Graham Robb
Graham Macdonald Robb FRSL is a British author.Robb was born in Manchester and educated at the Royal Grammar School Worcester and Exeter College, Oxford, where he studied Modern Languages...

's book Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris has a chapter dealing with the events of May 1968.
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...

's 2009 novel "Inherent Vice" starts with the quote Sous les pavés, la plage.

Music

The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

' song "Street Fighting Man
Street Fighting Man
"Street Fighting Man" is a song by English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones featured on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet. Called the band's "most political song", Rolling Stone ranked the song #295 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.-Inspiration:Originally titled and recorded...

" was heavily influenced by the student riots.
Vangelis
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis...

released an LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

, dubbed a poème symphonique, entitled Fais Que Ton Rêve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit, which was a musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...

/folk recording collage
Sound collage
In music, montage or sound collage is a technique where sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage, the use of portions of previous recordings or scores...

reflecting the May 1968 strikes. Vangelis was in Paris at the time recording with Aphrodite's Child
Aphrodite's Child
Aphrodite's Child was a Greek progressive rock band formed in 1967, by Vangelis Papathanassiou , Demis Roussos , Loukas Sideras , and Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris . Their band's name was derived from the title of a track from another Mercury act, Dick Campbell, from his Sings Where It's At album...

.
The video for Röyksopp
Röyksopp
Röyksopp is a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø, formed in 1998. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland....

's single "Only This Moment
Only This Moment
"Only This Moment" is the first single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. The track features Kate Havnevik on guest vocals and co-writing.-Track listing:#"Only This Moment " – 3:41...

" depicts events from the May 1968 riots.
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...

's song "Bye Bye Badman", from their eponymous album, is about the riots. The album's cover has the tricolore
Flag of France
The national flag of France is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured royal blue , white, and red...

and lemons on the front (which were used to nullify the effects of tear gas).
Renaud
Renaud
Renaud, born Renaud Séchan, is a French singer, songwriter and actor.Renaud may also refer to:* Renaud , a male French given name* Renaud , a 1783 opera by Antonio Sacchini* Renaud, Quebec, part of Laval, Quebec...

wrote the song "Crève Salope" during the protests, and it became a favourite of the protesters.
The Pretenders' song 'When Will I See You' references the slogan 'soyez realistes - demandez l'impossible' and mentions 'when the people come out in the streets at night', and being one of the 'starry eyed'.
The Sterehoes' song 'May 68' refers to the events, featuring the quotation "Be young and shut up".
There are numerous references to Paris, May '68 in the songs and artwork of the 1983 album Did You Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss? by Arizona Punk Rock band The Feederz
The Feederz
Feederz were a punk rock band from Arizona. They were known for their song Jesus Entering from the Rear, which featured on Alternative Tentacles', their Let Them Eat Jellybeans compilation, and for their provocative album covers. Feederz had strong Situationist tendencies, verging into communism...
The Refused
Refused
Refused was a Swedish hardcore punk band originating from Umeå, Sweden, formed in 1991. In total the band released five EPs and three albums, before splitting up in 1998...

song "Protest Song '68" was inspired by the events.
The Sweet
Sweet (band)
Sweet was a British rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s as one of the most prominent glam rock acts, with the classic line-up of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer Mick Tucker.Sweet was formed in 1968 and achieved their first...

song "The Six Teens" refers to the events - "And tried to make us all aware, Too bad, too late"
The artwork for all releases by The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.- Background...

during the Push The Button era were based on protest signs from this movement.

Video Games

The event was referenced in a briefing file with Cecile Cosina Caminandes in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

is a video game produced by Konami and Kojima Productions that was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2010. Peace Walker is the fourth Metal Gear title for the PSP, although it is only the second to be considered part of the series' main canon, following Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops...

Art

There is a painting by Joan Miró
Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...

called May 1968
May 1968 (Miró)
May 1968 is a painting by Joan Miro which he created between 1968 and 1973. It is part of the permanent collection of the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona...

, shown at the Fundació Joan Miró
Fundació Joan Miró
The ' is a museum of modern art honoring Joan Miró and located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia.-History:...

in Barcelona.

External links

The Philippe Zoummeroff Collection of May 1968 protest posters at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
The Paris, May 1968 Posters of a Revolution at the Victoria University Library at the University of Toronto
May 1968: 40 Years Later, City Journal, Spring 2008
Maurice Brinton: Paris May 1968
Posters from May 1968
More Posters from May 1968
Picture gallery
Pictures of May 1968 in Paris by Jean-Claude Seine
May 1968, Essex students revolt
May Events Archive of Documents
May 68 : A Contested History, Chris Reynolds, Sens Public Review
May 68, the revolution in pictures Pictures and sounds of the revolution, in France and in the whole world
Marking the French Social Revolution of 1968, an NPR audio report
Barricades of May ’68 Still Divide the French New York Times
Situationist International Online
The CNT-AIT in may 68 (in french or spanish)

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