France and internationally A short chronology of the events which swept France in May and June 1. Starting as a student revolt, the events culminated in mass workplace occupations and a general strike of 1. Followed by a short international chronology. May 6. 8 - 4. 0 years on. It was a festival without beginning or end; I saw everyone and no- one, for each individual was lost in the same enormous strolling crowd; I spoke to everyone without remembering either my own words or those spoken by others, because everyone's attention was absorbed at every step by new objects and events, and by unexpected news.— Bakunin, Confessions. May 1. 96. 8 has entered into legend - to the point where when new waves of struggle break out in France young people get irritated by the inevitable comparisons to 6. The 2. 00. 6 anti- CPE movement is only the most recent example. Yet May 6. 8 was the most advanced movement of an exceptional year of struggle that remains a high- point of the post- WWII era. Hopes and possibilities were raised high - yet the revolution never came, even though the idea of revolution (though often limited and confused) was a part of the general ferment and atmosphere in a way that seems extraordinary now, looking back from where we are. Our times are in many ways the era of counter- revolution that followed - the outcome of the defeat of the struggles of the 1. Revolt flared in many places; across Europe, in France and Italy particularly - and in the East, the Prague Spring. In Mexico there was a massacre of demonstrators to ensure social peace prior to the Olympics of that year. Yet May 6. 8 in Paris remains the iconic image associated with the year. There was something in the air that year - the events that led up to May were all part of it. But if the student disruptions at Strasbourg in December 1. Columbia University - Student Revolt 1968 CorvetteNanterre in March 6. Situationist inspirers cannot claim to have been the spark that led to the huge upheaval of May, they can claim a contribution; and the Situationist International can claim that they foresaw more clearly than others that such a revolt was becoming possible. The SI can also claim to have written most of the best leaflets and texts during and after the events, as well as many of the grafittied slogans. But no political group can claim 6. Though part of its weakness was that it allowed the unions and Communist Party to eventually limit and fragment the movement.) 1. Stalinist) union bureaucrats to keep control; the occupations of workplaces were used by unions to keep the workers separated from the wider movement of students and other youth. 22 March 1968; student radicals and associates invaded an administration building at Nanterre University and held a meeting in the university council room dealing. Personal recollections of the 1968 student uprising at Columbia University. I was an active participant, but not a member of any particular faction (the only. The Middle East Institute of Columbia University, founded in 1954, has helped to set the national pace in developing an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the. I am currently pursuing my PhD in the department of English at Duke University. I recently defended the first chapter of my dissertation, Lost Bodies/Found Objects. Columbia University; Columbia University in the City of New York: Latin: Universitas Columbiae Neo Eboracensis. Those who went to the factories to engage with workers were usually met with locked gates manned by union stewards. The Communist Party and unions were exposed, for all who didn't already know, as the agents of counter- revolution and the party of order and business as usual. Chronology of events in France. March 1. 96. 8; student radicals and associates invaded an administration building at Nanterre University 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. Later, leaders of what came to be known as the "Movement of 2. March" were called together by the disciplinary committee of the university. Columbia University - Student Revolt 1968 ChargerThursday 2 May 1. University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration shut down that university. Students at the University of the Sorbonne in Paris met on 3 May to protest against the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre. Sunday 5 May; Radicals occupied the administration building and held a general assembly. The police surrounded Nanterre, closing down the university. Monday 6 May; Nanterre students came together in the centre of Paris and, after continual harassment and over 5. The national student union, and the union of university teachers called a march to protest against the police invasion of the Sorbonne. A complete ban on demonstrations and the closure of large sections of central Paris brought thousands of angry students onto the streets. In the face of increasing police brutality, more than 2. 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; “Literally thousands helped.. 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. By the end of the night, 3. The same day, high school student unions spoke in support of the riots.
The next day, they joined the students, teachers and increasing numbers of young workers who gathered at the Arc de Triomphe to demand that: (1) all criminal charges against arrested students be dropped, (2) the police leave the university, and (3) the authorities reopen Nanterre and the Sorbonne. Negotiations broke down after 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. Tuesday May 7th; a 5. Paris’ Latin Quarter. When the police fired tear gas, protestors answered with molotov cocktails. When they were told to disperse, the protestors answered with chants of “Long Live the Paris Commune!” Friday May 1. Another huge crowd congregated on the Rive Gauche. When the riot police again blocked them from crossing the river, the crowd again threw up barricades, which the police then attacked at 2: 1. 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 cocktails. After massive demonstrations, the Education Minister started negotiations. But in the streets, 6. After the massive protests, the police were forced out of the Latin Quarter. Students seized the sections of Paris which police had sealed off and created an assembly to spread the struggle. Occupations and demonstrations soon spread throughout France. From Sorbonne University (previously cordoned off by police but taken back by the students) came leaflets, proclamations, telegrams and posters. Graffiti like “Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible!”, “Beneath the paving stones – the beach!” and “All Power to the Imagination!” were painted on walls. One wall had the phrase “The most beautiful sculpture is a paving stone thrown at a cop's head!”The Parti Communiste Français (PCF) reluctantly participated in, with the major union federations - the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and the Force Ouvrière (CGT- FO) - calling a one- day general strike and demonstration for Monday, 1. May. Monday, 1. 3 May; well over a million people marched through Paris; the police stayed largely out of sight. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou personally announced the release of the prisoners and the reopening of the Sorbonne. The surge of strikes did not, however, recede. In fact, the protesters got even more enraged. When the Sorbonne reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous "people's university". Around 4. 00 popular action committees were set up in Paris, including the Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne, and elsewhere in the weeks that followed to take up grievances against the government and French society. Tuesday 1. 4 May; a sit- down strike begins at the Sud Aviation plant near the city of Nantes, where workers lock management in their offices. In the following days, other workers began occupying factories, then another strike at a Renault parts plant near Rouen, which spread to the Renault manufacturing complexes at Flins in the Seine Valley and the Paris suburb of Boulogne- Billancourt. Wednesday 1. 5 May; that night, the National Theatre in Paris was seized and made into a permanent assembly for mass debate. Thursday 1. 6 May; by now workers had occupied roughly fifty factories. Friday 1. 7 May; 2. Saturday 1. 8 May; two million workers on strike. Monday 2. 0 May; during this week numbers escalated to ten million, or roughly two- thirds of the French workforce, on strike. Sorbonne University went down to support the Renault strikers. Communist Party urged their members to try and stop the revolt. 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 3. May 2. 4th; the Paris Stock Exchange is set on fire by protestors. As street demos grew and occupations continued, the state prepared to use brutal force to crush the revolt. Army generals readied 2. Paris with force and police had occupied communications centres like TV stations and Post Offices. Communist Party officials helped manipulate strikers into returning to work. In the case of the Metro, they visited one station and told workers that other stations had re- opened, then they proceeded to move around all the stations saying this. Friday May 2. 5 and Saturday May 2. Grenelle agreements were signed at the Ministry of Social Affairs. They provided for an increase of the minimum wage by 2. These offers were rejected as inadequate by workers and the strike went on. Wednesday 3. 0 May; several hundred thousand protesters (4. Paris. Thursday 3.
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