May 1968

Be young and shut up...1968 is known as the “Year that Changed Everything”. It was the year of the global civil rights movement and global protest. The Vietnam War broke out; Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were slain; the Black Panthers protested at the Mexico City Olympics, where John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised there fists in protest; young Chicano and Black students at UC Santa Barbara and UCLA were fighting for a change in the nature of education; the Prague Spring reforms were established in Czechoslovakia; Finally, as always France had to have its say in the matter. According to my French professor, it all started when a group of boys wanted to be allowed access to the girls’ dormitories at night. During the time of the sexual revolution, birth control, and “free love”, it seemed easy enough, right??? Non…the boys bulldozed the night guard’s office and the next day the city erupted.

On May 2, 1968, the dean of the University of Paris at Nanterre closed the university. The next day students of the University of the Sorbonne in Paris met to discuss the shut down of the university and possible expulsions of several students. On May 6, over 20, 000 students marched to the courtyard of the Sorbonne with policemen lying in wait with their batons. Thousands were arrested and brutally beaten. Seeing the brutality of the police caused the general public to join in the cause. Students from not only high schools and universities formed unions, the UNEF being the largest in France even today. They demanded that the students be set free, police be removed from the campuses, and that both Nanterre and the Sorbonne be immediately reopened. For weeks the city was literally at a standstill. Barricades were made all over the city and police cars were set on fire. Labour unions also got involved and factory workers established sit-downs at their own factories known as usines occupées. African-Americans in Paris during this time, noting the similarities with the students struggle and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., assisted with the protests.

It got so that bad that even President Charles de Gaulle ran away. On the Wednesday he was supposed to meet with the National Assembly, he was no where to be found. Since the presidential helicopter was gone, the members telephoned Madame de Gaulle to see if he went home for lunch. He was not there;) It was later found out that de Gaulle was in Germany to ensure that the French army stationed there would be ready to infiltrate the city if things did not die down. He later performed a national broadcast on the radio to order workers to return to work. Eventually, order was restored but May 68 is definitely a month that will live in infamy. Today with the general greve (strike) of French teachers, 40 years later the people are still looking back to that May for inspiration.
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