May 1968 in France

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The May 1968 in France (including Paris May ) is the temporal center of the '68 movement in France . In addition to improving study conditions, political demands were made on unemployment , the consumer society (criticism of capitalism), the peace movement (especially against the Vietnam War , the Prague Spring , international solidarity) and the democratization of society.

The unrest, which was initially triggered by the evacuation of a faculty at the Paris Sorbonne University after student protests in May 1968 , led to a week-long general strike that paralyzed the entire country. In the long run, this revolt led to cultural, political and economic reforms in France.

Preconditions

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The protests begin in France

In 1967/68, political student protests also took place in Germany, the USA, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland and other countries, but never reached the extent of what happened in France : The France of the Fifth Republic , founded in 1958, had in the 1960s a Conservative government under President Charles de Gaulle and Premier Georges Pompidou . As early as November 1967, several politically active student groups demanded an improvement in study conditions, or otherwise criticized Gaullism , French conservatism , which, however, remained unanswered in the administration. In Nantes, with the occupation of the Palace of Justice and in Jussieu near Lyon, there had already been several actions and demonstrations by students.

In the university in Nanterre , a satellite town west of Paris, there were major protests by students against plainclothes police officers present on campus. In January 1968 these were photographed by students and their portraits were worn as signs during demonstrations. Sociology lectures were disrupted. On February 14th, the so-called enragés (angry) occupied the student dormitories in Nanterre.

Also in February, filmmakers repeatedly demonstrated at the Trocadéro under the direction of François Truffaut against the removal of Henri Langlois from the position of director of the Cinémathèque française, initiated by Culture Minister André Malraux . International sat u. a. Charles Chaplin for Langlois. But the government remained adamant. Among the 5,000 demonstrators were prominent artists and intellectuals such as François Truffaut, Jean-Paul Sartre , Jean-Luc Godard , Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade , but hundreds of police officers beat those involved.

In March, workers at the Garnier works in Redon went on strike . The strike spread across the city. In Nanterre, a group of 142 left-wing students of various political origins at the philosophical faculty founded the radical “March 22nd Movement”. First of all, the administration building was occupied in order to enforce university policy goals, but also the lifting of gender segregation in the student dormitories. Leading speakers in this group included a. Daniel Bensaïd and Daniel Cohn-Bendit , who was often quoted as a speaker in the press as “Dany le Rouge” in the following months and events . His first publicly known appearance took place at a swimming pool inauguration in Nanterre on January 8, 1968, when he publicly a.o. the present Minister of Sport and Youth François Missoffe . a. criticized for not caring about the sexual difficulties of youth.

The University of Nanterre was closed by the authorities on May 2nd due to the ongoing unrest.

Motives and cultural background of the protest

The economic situation in France was just beginning to deteriorate for the first time since the war, with unemployment rising. Many protests were directed against the authoritarian spirit of conservative society, against the materialism of the affluent society, which is rampant in the opinion of many students and intellectuals, and against the expanding technocracy . In addition to specific goals, such as improving study conditions and democratizing universities and society, there were also different demands for a different society . The end of the 1960s was not only a time of upheaval in France.

The left in France before 1968

In France, the left has traditionally been strong.

  • However, a large socialist party did not yet exist ; the socialist movement was divided into several smaller parties and groups.
  • Smaller Marxist and neo-Marxist currents were numerous in France, such as Trotskyists , Maoists , Leninists and operaists .
  • The French Communist Party ( PCF ), which is much more popular among the population, and the associated largest trade union Confédération Générale du travail (CGT) were interested in implementing wage increases in line with pragmatic realpolitik and otherwise maintaining stable conditions during the Cold War and maintaining their leadership role in the working class to keep. During the Second World War , French communists fought in the Resistance against the German occupiers. As one of the liberators from fascism, Stalin was traditionally not questioned by them, but defended, even when Stalinism was already being discussed critically in political Moscow in the 1960s.
Simone de Beauvoir , Jean-Paul Sartre and Che Guevara (from left), Cuba 1960

The student movement

Most of the students initially protested against the outdated and frozen education system .

  • Since the 1950s, the number of students had more than tripled without any adequate response from the government. Most students and experts have already discussed the need to reform and modernize universities and adapt them to the new requirements of the economic system.
  • In 1966, situationists in Strasbourg voiced fundamental criticism of society and the educational system, thereby rejecting the university's more economic reform efforts. Her pamphlet on the misery in the student environment had sparked a local scandal that made her theses even more popular among students. The March 22nd Movement was in contact with them.
  • In 1967 books such as The One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse ( Critical Theory ), or the Handbuch der Lebenskunst for the Young Generations by Raoul Vaneigem and The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord (both Situationists) were published in France. They found some resonance among politically interested students. Some of these books were later held responsible for the unrest in the French press. In left-wing student circles, one read not only various classics, such as Marx or Bakunin , but also authors such as Wilhelm Reich ( Freudo Marxism ) or Charles Fourier ( early socialism ).

The student movement in France was thus also determined by political questions to which the prevailing ideologies of various directions, especially the traditional left, could no longer find answers.

“In those days the student movement got under way. From a symbolic point of view, its course immediately resembles a street devastated by fighting. The movement leads right through ideological ruins. That burned car wreck? It is similar to official Marxism, but has lost none of its fine finery. The junk there? Structures that have become unrecognizable; what have the students adopted from current structuralism? That only pure force can break these famous structures which are presented to them as objects of pure science. Humanism? He makes you laugh. The technocracy? The fists clench. The students have turned against the ideologies, and therein lies a sense of their questioning challenge. "

- Henri Lefebvre

From a leaflet distributed in Nanterre at the time:

“The ideas improve. The meaning of the words participates in it. Everything that can be discussed must be discussed. The blue will remain gray as long as it is not reinvented. Spread the word! Comrades, it is up to you to play. "

May 1968

Radicalization of protest and countermeasures

Entrance to the Sorbonne

On May 3, 1968, left-wing Sorbonne students occupied the university after a meeting in the university had been banned. There should be protests against the closure of the University of Nanterre on the morning of the same day. Because of the risk of violent riots with right-wing students from the “Occident” group, the Paris authorities had the buildings cleared by the police in the afternoon. The police used tear gas , and 500 students were arrested and taken away. Other students protested against it. Violent unrest then began in the Latin Quarter .

Several thousand demonstrators fought street battles with the increasingly overwhelmed police. Another 600 people were arrested. The Sorbonne was closed on May 4th. In response, the universities' union and student union called a university strike on May 5th. The PCF distanced itself from these protests.

On May 6th, there were demonstrations again, which came to a head in the evening. The demands were: opening of the University of Nanterre, withdrawal of the police from the Sorbonne and the release of the detained students.

After this was rejected, more than 10,000 protesters began to erect barricades . Cars were overturned, cobblestones broken from the streets and piled up. In addition to the students, young unemployed people, schoolchildren, rockers and workers , immigrants , mostly men, but also numerous women, were increasingly involved . The media initially tried unsuccessfully to recruit spokesmen for the movement for interviews.

The demonstrations and riots continued in the following days. Authorities and police reacted repressively. Although the residents' cars also went up in flames, they often reacted in solidarity and provided the demonstrators with food or offered escape routes.

The barricades

On May 10, a Friday, by evening 60 barricades were erected throughout the area between Boulevard St. Michel, Rue Claude Bernard, Rue Mouffetard and the Panthéon , especially along Rue Gay-Lussac. On the night of May 10th to 11th, at 2 a.m., the CRS riot police began to evacuate the area ( night of the barricades ). Hundreds of people were injured and 500 were arrested. The headlines in the newspapers and the radio and television broadcasts the next day were shaped by events.

A wave of solidarity with the Parisian students followed, first in all of France, and shortly afterwards in all of Europe.

On Saturday the labor movement showed solidarity with the students. The French trade unions - apart from the communist CGT , which viewed the events as right-wing action - announced rallies on Monday (on Saturday). A one-day general strike was also called for that day, May 13, in protest of the crackdown on the police.

The outrage of the population was directed less against the damage to property and the protests, but more against the violent reaction of the authorities and police with numerous seriously injured demonstrators. In addition, rumors of deaths fueled the outrage.

The turn

Wall slogans from May 1968 in Paris

Prime Minister Pompidou, who cut off his trip to Afghanistan on May 11 because of the protests, announced on Tuesday an amnesty law for all arrested and convicted students. He made compromise proposals on Saturday and let the police go. The Sorbonne, located in the middle of the barricade area, was occupied again on Monday, and the participants in the union protest were invited there by the students. Many students and almost a million people took part in the announced demonstration by the trade unions. The watchword was solidarity from workers and students .

For some time now, existentialist and political slogans had been sprayed and painted on walls all over Paris. With the philosophers it was said, depending on the situation: “Ici spectacle de la contestation. Contestons le spectacle ”-“ Here is the place of questioning. Let us now question the drama ”.

The Sorbonne was littered with wall slogans:

  • "The imagination in power"
  • "Dream is reality" ( Le rêve est réalité )
  • "Unions are brothels"
  • "The power of the workers' councils"
  • “ Vive la Commune! "
  • "The advertising manipulates you"
  • "Examen = hierarchy" ( Examen = servilité, promotion sociale, société hiérarchisée )
  • "Long live Heraclitus , down with Parmenides !"
  • "Down with the consumer society "
  • "Run, comrade, the old world is after you"
  • "Down with the summary, long live the short-lived, Marxist - pessimistic youth"
  • "Art does not exist, you are art"
  • "Measure your pent-up anger and be ashamed"
  • "Under the pavement is the beach" ( Sous les pavés la plage )
  • “It is forbidden to prohibit” ( Il est interdit d'interdire ).

In many places there were handwritten notes or printed wall newspapers and posters by anarchist , situationist , Maoist or Trotskyist groups, on which the latest news was discussed and various political demands were made.

In the occupied Sorbonne, as in the streets, larger groups of people gathered time and again to exchange news, discuss politics and discuss the situation. In the Sorbonne, approaches of direct democracy were practiced in decisions and discussions .

Maurice Brinton, socialist and a witness to the events, noted in his report subjects for discussion that were on a blackboard in the Sorbonne:

  • "Organization of the fight"
  • "Political and Union Rights in the University"
  • "University crisis or society crisis"
  • "Report on political repression"
  • "Self-administration"
  • "No more selection"
  • "Teaching methods"
  • "Exam"
  • "Sexual Oppression"
  • the "colonial question"
  • "Ideology and Mystification".

"Real events determined the issues and made sure that most of the discussion was realistic."

- Brinton

Confusion among the traditional left

Other faculties and colleges were occupied on Tuesday, May 14th, such as the Academy of Arts in Nanterre, the Dramatic Arts Conservatory and the Faculty of Medicine, but also cinemas, theaters, high schools, train stations and so on. Black ( anarchism ) and red ( socialism ) flags waved on the occupied buildings and during demonstrations. Some students at the Sorbonne sent telegrams to the Politburo in Beijing and Moscow threatening to overthrow the "bureaucrats" there. Many expressed their solidarity with the Prague Spring and with student protests in Poland .

The left parties and organizations reacted cautiously at first, but then increasingly tried to influence the course of events and to lead the protests in an orderly manner. CGT loudspeaker vans drove through the streets and gave the protesters instructions on how to proceed. However, they were largely ignored. The PCF began reluctantly to show solidarity with the students, but continued to refer to them as adventurers or anarchists. During demonstrations, CGT stewards repeatedly tried to separate students and unionized workers.

The students declared the Sorbonne to be a public university accessible to everyone . Around 400 action committees were set up in Paris. At the Sorbonne there were u. a. the Action Committees of the Footballers, the North African Workers, the "Committee Workers - Students", the "Committee of Advertising Professionals", the Committee "Angry - Situationists" and the "Council to Maintain the Occupations".

There were also occupations in Nantes, Bordeaux and other cities.

Radicals and pragmatists

In the discussions at the Sorbonne, a majority initially represented more pragmatic demands, but a minority discussed more and more social issues and questioned them. Situationist René Viénet , who was involved in the Sorbonne occupation, described some of the controversies: “For example, the proposal regarding the looters was greeted with boos rather than approval. The attack on the professors was shocking. The first open denunciation of the Stalinists was astonishing. "

However, representatives of this current were then elected by the majority to the so-called "Casting Committee", the spontaneous new " executive body " (Vienet) of the Sorbonne General Assembly . Various working groups were formed.

"All university buildings are buzzing with activity, dominated by a minimum of visible organization and a maximum of strategic intelligence and tactics."

- Cees Nooteboom : In his report

A demonstration train moved to the Renault works. At the factory fence, workers and students stood facing each other and discussed. At the occupied Faculty of Literature in Paris-Censier, workers and the “Committee Workers - Students” wrote leaflets after the literature students had previously contacted the companies:

"We refuse to accept a humiliating 'modernization' which means that we are constantly guarded and subjected to conditions that are harmful to our health, our nervous system and which are an insult to our existence as human beings ... We refuse to to put our demands in the hands of professional union leaders with confidence for a longer period of time. Like the students, we must take our affairs into our own hands. "

- From a leaflet by Air France workers

"If we want our wage increases and our demands on working conditions to succeed, if we don't want them to be constantly threatened, then we must fight for a fundamental change in society now ... As workers we should strive for that To control the gear of our companies. Our demands are similar to those of the students. The administration of industry and that of the university should be ensured by those who work there in a democratic way. "

- From a leaflet by Renault workers, both quoted from Brinton's report

The workers start to strike

Poster of the Situationist International. The text reads: "Abolition of class society "

On Tuesday evening, May 14, workers at the Aviation-Sud aircraft factory in Nantes started a sit-in strike. Students came to the picket lines to show their solidarity. On May 15, the workers at Renault- Cleon followed suit , including the administration in their rooms. Workers at Lockheed in Beauvais and Unulec in Orléans also struck . On May 15, Wednesday evening, around 200-300 people from the theater environment occupied the Paris Odéon Theater. Workers of the “New Distribution Company of the Paris Press” went on a “wildcat strike” a day later. The strike spread to more and more companies, first in Paris, then increasingly in other cities.

“Comrades, the 'Sud-Aviation' factory in Nantes has been occupied for two days by the city's workers and students; the movement has now spread to several factories (NMPP-Paris, Renault-Cleon, and so on). The Sorbonne's occupation committee therefore calls for the immediate occupation of all factories and the formation of workers' councils . Comrades, distribute and duplicate this appeal as soon as possible. "

- Wording of a communique dated May 16, 3 pm, by the so-called "occupation committee" at the Sorbonne

René Viénet reports on the "slogans to be spread by all means from now on" of the Casting Committee on May 16:

"Occupation of the factories, all power to the workers' councils, abolition of class society, down with the spectacular commodity society, abolition of alienation , end of the university"

These slogans are to be spread through

“Leaflets, lectures on microphone, comics, songs, wall paintings, speech bubbles in the paintings of the Sorbonne, calls in cinemas during the film screenings or by interrupting them, speech bubbles on the posters in the metro; before making love, after making love, in the elevators ... "

- Vienet

These calls were a scandal for the PCF and CGT. The CGT immediately had notices posted in factories:

“Young workers; revolutionary elements try to sow discord in our ranks in order to weaken us. These extremists are only servants of the bourgeoisie , who are even generously rewarded for this by the companies. "

- Vienet

In the Sorbonne, officials of the student union UNEF tried to have the appeal revoked and seized the public address system. The general assembly sank into chaos, and the casting committee left the Sorbonne in protest on Friday evening, May 17th.

Further strikes and economic and political demands

On Thursday, May 16, 50 companies were occupied and 200,000 workers went on strike the next day. Almost the entire metal and chemical industry was affected. On Saturday, strikes and factory occupations spread rapidly; about 2 million people took part in them. France experienced the first “ wild general strike ” in history; he dragged on for almost a month. De Gaulle returns prematurely from Romania on May 18.

On Monday (May 20), the opposition called for the government to resign and for new elections. The application was denied on Wednesday. De Gaulle announced on Friday (May 24th) a referendum that would give him powers to carry out certain reforms in the university and the economy. In the event of defeat, he offered to resign.

“We footballers, members of various clubs in the Paris region, decided to occupy the headquarters of the French Football Federation today. How the workers occupy the factories. How the students fill their faculties. Why? To give back to the 600,000 French footballers and their millions of friends what belongs to them: the football that the bigwigs took from them to serve their selfish interests as the sport's profit makers ... "

- Call of the Action Committee of Footballers, quoted in Vienet, p. 188

" Rent strike , exchange strike , tax strike , occupation of empty apartments ..."

- Demands of the Workers-Students Committee of May 21

While the CGT called for higher wages, calls for the government to resign were raised among the strikers.

“We, the workers in the FNAC shops , went on strike, not to satisfy our specific demands, but to take part in the movement that is currently mobilizing 10 million manual and mental workers. [...] We take part in this movement [...] in order to question the entire leadership of the country and all structures of society ... "

- FNAC employees : Open letter to the employees of the trade and other wage earners as well as to the students of May 24th

“Do you know that millions of women get less than they are legally entitled to? Do you accept that? Everything can change in this country if we all refuse, stupid and surrender, to accept the injustices and nonsense of an already bankrupt policy. "

- From a leaflet of the Democratic Women's Movement

The more moderate demands of the strikers were otherwise among other things. a. Wage increases , 40-hour week, social security , “pension entitlements” and a “free university”.

There were already bottlenecks in the fuel supply. The country's infrastructure was also largely paralyzed in other ways.

The government, but also the CGT, repeatedly advocated an end to the strikes. On May 24, Charles de Gaulle announced the implementation of educational reforms demanded by the students, and wage increases for the workers and clerks on strike. On May 25, the Gaullists and the PCF called for demonstrations to be temporarily banned. On May 27, a representative of the CGT (Georges Séguy) was whistled when he presented the so-called "Grenelle Agreement" negotiated between the government, employers' associations and trade unions at Renault-Billancourt. Although the minimum wage was supposed to increase by 35% and the other wages were supposed to increase by 7%, the workers continued their strikes.

At the same time, François Mitterrand gave an impulsive speech to supporters of the socialist parties in the Charlety Stadium in Paris on May 27, in which he announced that he was ready to take over government.

A so-called “people's government” has now been demanded from the CGT. On May 29th, she organized a rally that was attended by several hundred thousand people shouting slogans like “Adieu, de Gaulle!”.

De Gaulle and the end of the riots

De Gaulle flew on May 29, a Wednesday, in secrecy by helicopter to Baden-Baden to meet the commander-in-chief of the French armed forces in Germany , General Jacques Massu . There was irritation and it was said that he had fled. Jacques Patin, according to a former employee, reportedly said de Gaulle to confidants: “I want to put the spotlight on myself! They pretend that I don't exist anymore; ah, they'll see! ”After he had secured the support of the military in Germany , he gave a radio speech the next day (May 30th) in which he announced new elections for June 23rd. De Gaulle stressed that he was the legitimate holder of state power. He warned against "subversion" and a continuation of the strikes, which would inevitably benefit the PCF:

"This power that will take advantage of victory is that of totalitarian communism."

De Gaulle 1969 with Richard Nixon and his cabinet

He urged workers to return to work and threatened a state of emergency . On May 30, there was a march of several hundred thousand (the exact number is disputed) conservative opponents of the riot, led by André Malraux and Michel Debré , from Place de la Concorde to Place de l'Étoile .

"This morning someone called me and said, 'What do you think is going to happen, is there a civil war?' I said I didn't know, and in fact I don't know. Everything now depends on the workers. The sun is shining, the trees are green, the street cafes full, every thought of war or violence is absurd, it's unbelievable. However, this morning I saw stones being heaved onto the roof of the Odeon. And I saw these photos with the tanks. "

At that point the protest movement broke up. As a result, many strikers ended their occupation and started working again. The unions appealed to the rest of the strikers to finally give up. Some of the factories were evacuated by the police in the near future. On June 18, the strike ended completely with the resumption of work at Renault. From June there was intensified state repression against the radical left. The PCF, on the other hand, saw itself confirmed:

“All of our activities have been in the service of the people. I affirm that it was above all the calm and determined attitude of the Communist Party that prevented a bloody adventure in our country. "

- KPF party secretary Waldeck Rochet

Effects

French politics, which was surprised by the events as well as sociologists and journalists, only reacted when conditions were almost civil war in most French university towns. De Gaulle had left the "handling" of the events to the then Prime Minister Georges Pompidou . In retrospect, the government sometimes developed conspiracy theories about the influence of agents of the GDR or other states behind the events.

The announced new elections made the ruling Gaullists even stronger with 358 out of 487 seats.

“We will do everything we can to reconcile the French with one another and the young people with the Republic . However, if another attempt is made to create disorder, we will be obliged to maintain order. "

- Pompidou on June 27, 1968

Georges Pompidou was replaced by Couve de Murville in July 1968 . In 1969 Charles de Gaulle resigned after a referendum he had proposed was rejected by the population. He died in 1970 in what was seen as the end of an era. The Conservatives ruled France for more than ten years. Pompidou replaced de Gaulle and remained president until his death in 1974. The Gaullists turned into the Neo-Gaullists ( RPR ) and eventually merged with other parties in the UMP party .

After the May riots among French workers in elections, the PCF lost its importance in the long term, but the radical left established itself low but permanently ( Ligue communiste révolutionnaire ). With the unification of various socialist currents, the rise of the Parti socialiste français began ; In 1981 she finally came to power. As in other countries, a green party ( Les Verts ) was founded in France in the 1970s , albeit less successfully than in Germany, for example. In the later 1970s, the left-wing extremist terrorist organization Action Directe (AD) emerged , which was comparable to the German RAF .

As a result of May 1968, however, as in other countries, there were also cultural, social and political reforms in France, and a new style found its way into society. Some of the protagonists of May '68 gained political offices, others later taught at universities and attempted a march through the institutions . Most institutions and structures, such as the education system, survived May 1968 largely unchanged. However, the Center universitaire expérimental de Vincennes was founded in 1969 , later run as the University of Paris VIII , in which the May 1968 participants could continue to represent their positions.

Many French universities, which until then had resided in downtown buildings, often centuries-old, were forced to move to remote suburbs as a result of the unrest. Government agencies saw the students and thus their university as a generalized potential troublemaker. They should disappear from the confusing, “sensitive” city centers. For example, almost the entire University of Bordeaux moved from Bordeaux to the sleepy suburb of Talence in 1968 .

Jean Baudrillard 2004

The French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Jean Baudrillard both taught French students in 1968 and followed their discussions, Baudrillard even in Nanterre. Their later philosophy shows that they were shaped by these events, like post-structuralism as a whole.

The anthropologist Marshall Sahlins was also a witness to the May riots in Paris.

The events of May 1968 are also portrayed or processed in films such as Jean-Luc Godard's Tout Va Bien (1972, German “Alles in Butter”), Milou en Mai by Louis Malle (1990) or Bernardo Bertolucci's Die Träumer (2003).

Assessments: quotations

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

“A huge social crisis arose from a myriad of very different factors, the effects of which were clearly evident as early as 1960. In addition to many other aspects, this also includes the ' permissiveness ' that young people increasingly enjoyed, while at the same time the family was shaken to its foundations and the 'sexual revolution' spread. Both father and mother were subject to the competition inherent in consumer society, and growing concern about their situation and job security prompted them to give up their authority and educational role. [...] The children no longer felt comfortable in their own skin and rebelled against the uncertain future. "

- Jacques Patin, former employee of de Gaulle

“It's happening here, it's happening in New York, in Berlin, in Belgrade. It's not something that can be pushed aside or conveniently stripped off.
It is an indictment against the university as an instrument of a self-destructive society - and on the way through the university against the entire compromised community ...
How it will turn out is absolutely impossible to estimate, but the way it was, it can never be again . "

- Cees Nooteboom

“The first impression was as if a huge lid were suddenly lifted, as if thoughts and dreams that had previously been held back were suddenly transferred into the realm of the real and possible. By changing their surroundings, people change themselves. People who have never dared to say anything suddenly felt that their thoughts were the most important thing in the world - and they talked that way too. The shy ones became communicative. The hopeless and lonely suddenly discovered that common power was in their hands. The traditionally apathetic suddenly learned how much they were involved in the cause. A tremendous surge of community and cohesion gripped those who had previously viewed themselves as isolated and powerless puppets, ruled by institutions that they could neither control nor understand. People just got down to it now, talking to each other without any trace of bias. This state of euphoria lasted the entire fortnight that I was there. An inscription painted on a wall is the best way to express this: 'Already ten days of happiness'. "

- The socialist Maurice Brinton on the discussions at the occupied Sorbonne

"It seems to me that the children of the next century will learn the year 1968 in the same way as we learn the year 1848. "

- The political philosopher Hannah Arendt in June 1968 to the philosopher Karl Jaspers about the importance of the 1968 movement

“May '68 was a demonstration, an eruption, an emergence in its pure form… Man's only hope lies in a revolutionary emergence: that is the only way to put aside her shame, or to react to what is intolerable is. "

- Gilles Deleuze : Control and Becoming , Negotiations: 1972–1990, Columbia University Press, New York 1995

"When you fought yesterday in Valle Giula / with the police officers / I did it with the police officers!"

- Pier Paolo Pasolini

“May 68 didn't really make a difference anywhere. The movement was symbolically very important, it changed the brains, i.e. the ways of thinking and perceptions of hierarchies, authority, the relationship between the sexes - but in reality, and especially in the school system, it has not achieved much. I remember going from faculty to faculty in 68 and saying: I agree with you, but be careful: there is nothing worse than a failed revolution! Because it is just as scary as a successful revolution and yet it did not succeed. We are now actually in a conservative revolution, I mean, partly determined by the fear that many intellectuals and others had in May '68, not just in Europe, it was a universal revolution from Berkeley to Moscow. "

- Pierre Bourdieu 1998
Dutschke spoke at the Vietnam Congress, February 17th and 18th, Berlin

See also

May 68 in the context of the history of France:

Related in the political arena:

Cultural context

Theory related to May 68:

Other, see also

literature

  • Alain Ayache (Ed.): Paris, May 1968. This is where the revolution speaks. 1968 ("Slogans and statements, heard, experienced and collected by A. Ayache")
  • Thomas P. Becker, Ute Schröder: The student protests of the 60s . Böhlau, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-412-07700-3 .
  • Murray Bookchin : The May / June Events in France . In: The forms of freedom. Essays on ecology and anarchism . Wetzlar 1977, ISBN 3-88178-009-2 , pp. 82-99. (from an anarchist perspective)
  • Maurice Brinton : Time of the Cherries. Paris diary. In: Die Aktion , issue 175/180. May 1998. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg. ISSN  0516-334X . (Illustrative report by a libertarian socialist).
  • Maurice Brinton: May 68 - The Subversion of the Offended. bahoe books , Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-903022-11-9
  • Cornelius Castoriadis : The Movements of the Sixties . In other words: autonomy or barbarism , Lich / Hessen 2006.
  • Emil-Maria Claasen, Louis Ferdinand Peters: Rebellion in France . Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, dtv-report , Munich 1968.
  • Daniel Cohn-Bendit , with Gabriel Cohn-Bendit: Left radicalism - cure for violence against the old age disease of communism , Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1968. (French: Le Gauchisme, remède à la maladie sénile du communisme - ie “remedies”, not “cure for violence ")
  • Daniel Cohn-Bendit : We loved it so much, the revolution. 1987 (about his turn to realpolitik)
  • Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Reinhard Mohr : Nineteen sixty-eight: The last revolution that did not yet know about the ozone hole. Wagenbach, 1988
  • Angelika Ebbinghaus : The '68. Key texts of the global revolt. Promedia, Vienna 2008. ISBN 978-3-85371-278-8 .
  • Ingrid Eichelberg: May 68 in the French novel. The search for human happiness in a better society. 1987
  • Norbert Frei : Paris, May 13, 1968. 20 days in the 20th century. Cultural protest and social reform. dtv (with a focus on students and cultural change)
  • Thomas Hecken : Counterculture and Avant-garde 1950–1970. Situationists, beatniks, 68ers . 2006 (Cultural)
  • Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey : The imagination in power! May 1968 in France. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1995, ISBN 3-518-28780-X .
  • Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey: The 1968 movement. Germany - Western Europe - USA. 2001
  • James Jones : May in Paris. S. Fischer, 1971
  • Michael Kimmel : Student Movements in the 1960s . Facultas University Press, 1998
  • Gerd Koenen : The Red Decade. Our Little German Cultural Revolution 1967–1977. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-462-02985-1 .
  • Wolfgang Kraushaar : Nineteen sixty-eight as myth, cipher and caesura . 2001 (critical review)
  • JJ Lebel, JL Brau, P. Merlhés: La Chienlit. Documents on the French May Revolt . Melzer, Darmstadt 1969.
  • Henri Lefebvre : Uprising in France . 1969
  • Michael Lommel: Paris May in French cinema.
  • Gisela Mandel: Paris May 1968. Documentation. Pamphlet-Verlag G. Rosenberger, Munich 1968.
  • Arno Münster: Paris is on fire. The May Revolution 1968. Foreword Claude Roy. Heinrich-Heine-Verlag, Frankfurt 1968 (eyewitness report; 24 b / w photos from May in the appendix)
  • Cees Nooteboom : Paris, May 1968 . Suhrkamp, ​​2003 (The young Nooteboom witnessed the events and wrote a report)
  • Laurent Salini: France's Workers, May 1968 . In: Marxist Leaves , 1970
  • Jean-Paul Sartre: May 68 and the consequences, I and II . Speeches, interviews, essays, Rowohlt TB, 1982
  • Lutz Schulenburg (ed.): Change life, change the world! 1968 - documents and reports. Edition Nautilus , Hamburg 1998. ISBN 3-89401-289-7 . (Documents and reports from the protagonists in France and many other countries).
  • Matthias Horx , Albrecht Sellner , Cora Stephan (Hrsgb) .: Infrared - Against the utopia of total life. Berlin 1983 (the programmatic turning away from the life ideals of the 68s, the actual beginning of the new middle class )
  • Wolfgang Stetter: Trade Union Apparatus and Workers' Interests. The Politics of the CGT in May 1968. Campus Verlag, 1992
  • Horst Stowasser : Paris May 1968 . Chapter 37 in: Pure Freedom. The idea of ​​anarchy, history and future . Eichborn, Frankfurt 1995., ISBN 3-8218-0448-3 . (Contemplation of the beginning of the renaissance of anarchism ).
  • Peter Gärtner, Karl H. Gräfe, Horst Kreschnak, Bernd Rump (eds.), Frank Tschimmel: The year 68 - setting the course or industrial accident . Between the Prague Spring and Paris May. GNN - Society for news acquisition and news distribution, Verlagsgesellschaft für Sachsen / Berlin mbH, 1998
  • René Viénet : Paris May '68. Angry and situationists in the occupation movement. Edition Nautilus, 1977 or pirated print 2006
  • Sebastian Voigt : The Jewish May '68: Pierre Goldman, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and André Glucksmann in post-war France (writings of the Simon Dubnow Institute) . Göttingen 2015.
  • Willi Baer, ​​Karl-Heinz Dellwo (Ed.): Paris May 68 (Library of Resistance, Volume 16), Hamburg, Laika Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-3-942281-86-7

Movies

Web links

Commons : Posters from May 1968  - Collection of images

Classifications

media


Individual evidence

  1. ^ Voigt, Sebastian: The Jewish May '68 Pierre Goldman, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and André Glucksmann in post-war France . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-37036-0 .
  2. ^ Henri Lefebvre: Uprising in France , p. 22f
  3. ↑ media.de.indymedia.org
  4. ^ Remond, René: History of France. France in the 20th century II 1958 to the present. 1995. German publishing house, Stuttgart.
  5. ↑ Quoted from Vienet p. 64 and p. 169
  6. ↑ Vienet S. 171
  7. ↑ Vienet S. 74
  8. ↑ Enycl. Larousse: événements de may 1968 (French)
  9. ↑ Quoted from Vienet
  10. ↑ Quoted from Vienet, pp. 190f
  11. ↑ Quoted from Nooteboom, p. 41
  12. ↑ Quoted from Patin's report
  13. ↑ Discours du 30 may 1968 in the French-language Wikisource , radio speech
  14. ^ Cees Nooteboom, p. 24. A report with photos had previously appeared in the newspaper France Soir , according to which tanks were rolling towards Paris
  15. ^ Pompidou on Radio Luxembourg, June 27, 1968, quoted from Nooteboom
  16. ^ Cees Nooteboom: Report from 1968
  17. ^ Pier Paolo Pasolini, Il PCI ai giovani in L'Espresso , 16 giugno 1968.
  18. ↑ Pierre Bourdieu in an interview ( Memento of March 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) in 1998