"Be realistic – demand the impossible." (30% of Communist voters agreed.)[5]. Over the next several days, they inspired similar walkouts at fifteen other schools. [9], 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!" And there's no reason we can't come together with the students like we did in 1968.". This was the first generation to see televisions arrive in homes. The events were broadcast on radio as they occurred and the aftermath was shown on television the following day. Italy and France were in the midst of a socialist movement. On Bastille Day, there were resurgent street demonstrations in the Latin Quarter, led by socialist students, leftists and communists wearing red arm-bands and anarchists wearing black arm-bands. There was no gasoline, no trains, no mail delivery. And it ended in one of the greatest upheavals in French society since the revolution. But the struggle is the same. Walsh, Michael. A man flies the French tricolor flag over crowds marching to the Arc de Triomphe during the Paris students' strike. In March 1968, a journalist from France's Le Monde newspaper claimed that the French were too bored to take part in the upheaval that had begun sweeping other countries that year. Christian Brincourt was a young reporter with Luxembourg's RTL on the barricades. [16], The Socialists saw an opportunity to act as a compromise between de Gaulle and the Communists. The peace movement made them question authority more than ever before. It culminated in a riot, seen as part of television coverage of the convention, when Chicago police waded into crowds in front of the convention center and beat protesters as well as assaulted media figures in the building. The unrest in Paris in May 1968 began with a series of student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism and traditional institutions, values and order. '"[9] 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. ", in Les droites en France (1789–2008), CNRS Editions, 2008, p. 61–68, This page was last edited on 7 October 2020, at 05:38. [1] It was the largest general strike ever attempted in France, and the first nationwide wildcat general strike.[1]. De Gaulle — who had been the country's moral leader and commander of the Free French forces fighting Germany in World War II — didn't take the students seriously until it was too late, historian and biographer Jean Lacouture said in a 2017 documentary. A union-led general strike on 13 May included 200,000 in a march. "And they wanted to help us. The protests that raged throughout 1968 included a large number of workers, students, and poor people facing increasingly violent state repression all around the world. In January, police used clubs on 400 anti-war/anti-Vietnam protesters outside of a dinner for U.S. Secretary of State Rusk. As the April 1969 referendum would show, the country was ready for "Gaullism without de Gaulle". Bless their hearts. "When you fight in the streets, something happens," he says. Students in 108 German universities protested to get recognition of East Germany, the removal of government officials with Nazi pasts and for the rights of students. The protests spurred movements worldwide, with songs, imaginative graffiti, posters, and slogans. Reg Lancaster/Getty Images And train workers are in the streets, protesting Macron's overhaul of the state rail company. Passers-by painted swastikas on the sides of Soviet tanks. Following months of conflicts between students and authorities at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris (now Paris Nanterre University), the administration shut down the university on 2 May 1968. The period is considered a cultural, social and moral turning point in the history of the country. Some of the major student activists on the barricades are now politicians, prominent journalists and other members of the French establishment. )[5], Not knowing that the Communists did not intend to seize power, officials prepared to position police forces at the Élysée with orders to shoot if necessary. "[18], With de Gaulle's closest advisors stating that they did not know what the president intended, Pompidou scheduled a tentative appearance on television at 8 p.m.[17] The national government had effectively ceased to function. His Rivers of Blood speech thrust immigration into the political spotlight and attempted to normalize bigoted anti-immigration sentiment. Mass movements grew not only in the United States but also elsewhere. The protests then spread from students to factory workers. That it did not also guard Paris City Hall despite reports of that being the Communists' target was evidence of governmental chaos. College students of 1968 embraced progressive, liberal politics. While Communist leaders later denied that they had planned an armed uprising, and extreme militants only comprised 2% of the populace, they had overestimated de Gaulle's strength as shown by his escape to Germany. Instead, the protesters became even more active. African American World. 1968: The Year of the Barricades. Students and police facing each other in a Paris street during the student riots. 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. While the blue-collar workers' lives and demands had nothing to do with the students', they saw hope for change in their movement. Violence evaporated almost as quickly as it arose. And there was a generation of young people yearning for greater freedom. So people started to really think about it. The events of May 1968 can still divide the French. hide caption. ("Farewell, de Gaulle!"). [27], The German student movements were largely a reaction against the perceived authoritarianism and hypocrisy of the German government and other Western governments, particularly in relation to the poor living conditions of students. No charges were filed against police or demonstrators, but the governments of Britain and West Germany filed formal protests, including for the indecent assault of two English schoolgirls by police in a police station. Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, and the occupation of universities and factories. Conservatives like former President Nicolas Sarkozy charge the events of that year degraded public morals and respect for authority. Even today, it's unclear exactly what happened, but de Gaulle returned and addressed the nation on the radio the next day. The major left union federations, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and the Force Ouvrière (CGT-FO), called a one-day general strike and demonstration for Monday, 13 May. Black Power. They were brutally dispersed by Paris police. There was peace and prosperity in France. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images, We Insist: A Timeline Of Protest Music In 2020. Anti-riot police charge through the streets of Paris during violent student demonstrations on May 6, 1968. Workers were joined by students at the University of Madrid to protest the involvement of police in demonstrations against dictator Francisco Franco's regime, demanding democracy, trade unions and worker rights, and education reform. The post-crisis survey showed that a majority of the country saw de Gaulle as too old, too self-centered, too authoritarian, too conservative, and too anti-American. American artists also began voicing support of the strikers. The civil rights movement unified and gained international recognition with the emergence of the Black Power and Black Panthers organizations. During the upheaval, Paris' Latin Quarter became a battlefield. I love America for that very reason. [22] On March 8, the 1968 Polish political crisis began with students from the University of Warsaw who marched for student rights and were beaten with clubs. [8] Television, so influential in forming the political identity of this generation, became the tool of choice for the revolutionaries. In the countries of Eastern Europe under communism, there were protests against lack of freedom of speech and violation of other civil rights by the Communist bureaucratic and military elites.