FRANCE: Forty years on, France still fascinated by May 1968 student uprising and general strike that shook the country and nearly toppled its government

Record ID: 741240

  • Title: FRANCE: Forty years on, France still fascinated by May 1968 student uprising and general strike that shook the country and nearly toppled its government
  • Date: 2nd May 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) BRUNO JULLIARD, UNEF STUDENT UNION LEADER, SAYING: "The youth of today, they have the same desire to remake and change the society. Nevertheless they are affected by higher unemployment and a more precarious situation so their forced to set lower goals for themselves. what still exists between these two generations is the desire to question the society a cause that a majority of young people find unjust and want to change a society, one that they find unjust." BANNER READING "1968 - 2008" AND CGT WORKERS UNION LOGO PEOPLE GATHERED AT CGT UNION GEORGES SEGUY, HEAD OF CGT WORKERS UNION DURING THE 1968 UPRISING SIGNING BOOKS FOR UNION MEMBERS BOOK WRITTEN BY SEGUY (SOUNDBITE) (French) GEORGES SEGUY, CGT WORKERS' UNION LEADER DURING 1968 UPRISING, SAYING: "The violence of the repression was so great that during that night I understood that it was absolutely necessary for the unions to react to the brutality of the police towards the students, by solidarity and by respect of the right to demonstrate. I asked all the unions to a meeting the next morning where I met the CFDT, the UNEF and the National Education Federation and I suggested in a speech that I had prepared that all of France's workers stop work on May 14 for 24 hours and to demonstrate in powerful protests all across France."
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: History,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAGE3SOEG9IQMKG86ZDJYLNE8
  • Story Text: Forty years after May 1968, France still debates the outcome of the student revolt and general strike that rocked the streets of Paris and paralysed the country as students' and workers' unions say popular discontent could ignite a similar event today.
    Forty years after May 1968, France is enjoying a wave of nostalgia for the student revolt that rocked the streets of Paris, fuelled by an ongoing debate about what it all achieved.
    In 1968, sparked by a dispute over visiting rights to a female students' dormitory, the protests over university reforms and wider personal liberties led to three weeks of riots and sit-ins in the streets around the main Paris university, the Sorbonne.
    On May 11, stone-throwing students clashed with helmeted police in some of the worst scenes of chaos.

    "The youth of today, they have the same desire to remake and change the society. Nevertheless they are affected by higher unemployment and a more precarious situation so their forced to set lower goals for themselves.
    what still exists between these two generations is the desire to question the society a cause that a majority of young people find unjust and want to change a society, one that they find unjust," said Bruno Julliard, UNEF Student Union Leader.
    Georges Seguy, who was the leader of the CGT, one of the biggest workers' unions at the time, said he realised it was time for French workers to take to the streets with the students.

    "The violence of the repression was so great that during that night I understood that it was absolutely necessary for the unions to react to the brutality of the police towards the students, by solidarity and by respect of the right to demonstrate. I asked all the unions to a meeting the next morning where I met the CFDT, the UNEF and the National Education Federation and I suggested in a speech that I had prepared that all of France's workers stop work on May 13 for 24 hours and to demonstrate in powerful protests all across France," said Georges Seguy at the headquarters of the CGT workers' union.
    This decision to join forces with the students was the start of a long month of general strikes.

    "It's true that the general strike signifies the historical importance of what happened in May 1968 in France. Three days later France was paralysed by the workers' general strike," Seguy added.
    The crisis, which blew up into a general strike that paralysed the country, was so serious that President Charles de Gaulle made checks to ensure the army would be ready to intervene if necessary.
    The events of May 68 changed many things for workers in France, with the sharp increase of salaries, more paid holidays and the right for the unions, who until then could only exist outside the workplace to operate inside the workplace.
    Forty years on, many conservatives say the carefree picture of youthful protest hid a malign disrespect for social institutions that has spawned ills ranging from high divorce rates to the violent riots that hit France's poor multi-ethnic suburbs in 2005.
    President Nicolas Sarkozy has been the most prominent recent critic, pledging during last year's election campaign to "liquidate the heritage of May 1968" and restore respect for traditional values.
    For Bernard Thibault, the head of the CGT union in France, discontent on the rise in France could result in massive protests.

    "I think that our country is in such situation, especially on a social point of view, with the criticism over the economic and social orientation by today's government; this unwillingness to objectively listen to what the unions have to say on topics such as pensions, social welfare, all themes which were already there in 1968, that it can end up in a massive protest or multiple ones, and we see a few signs of this today in protests over salaries," said Bernard Thibault.
    Debates have pitted supporters who say the 1968 protests helped free up a hidebound society against critics who say they undermined vital institutions and opened the way to social breakdown.
    Behind the confrontation, the surreal humour and idealism of the students, summed up in slogans such as "Sous les paves, la plage"

    ('Under the paving stones, the beach') and "Never work", remain the strongest image of the 1968 protests.
    According to André Glucksmann, a leading member of the 1968 generation, opposed equally to the conservatism of the government of Charles de Gaulle in 1968 and a communist party they labelled as "Stalinist", the students were looking for answers.

    "World War II ended with a series of lies. For example, the Germans had the problem of their parents, for the French the idea that we had won the war when in fact we had only collaborated. All those lies were called into question by the 20 year old generation, and I think it's a demand for the truth, an experience of the truth that makes of May 68 not an aesthetics experience, nor or political or sexual experience - although all of this existed - but first a philosophical experience, the will to uncover the truth," said Glucksmann.
    Many veterans of the movement also acknowledge that the utopian vision behind the protests, while enormously powerful in many ways, was politically impractical.

    "It was a giant, a real success. '68 marked society profoundly.
    Society took on all the good lessons of '68. Politically thank God it was a failure, a defeat. We can consider our society lucky that we never had the chance to seize power." said Peter Schneider, a German writer who was a prominent activist at the time.
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