May ’68: France’s watershed moment
Forty years ago a revolutionary fervour gripped the streets of Paris as anti-establishment fury raged across the world. FRANCE 24 looks back on the legacy of that incendiary spring.
On March 22, 1968, a group of students occupied the administrative offices at the University of Nanterre, in the west of Paris, providing the spark for a conflagration that would develop from simple demands for student rights to revolution.
In the weeks and months to come, students, workers, artists and writers would take to the streets in demonstrations against state power that would challenge French President Charles de Gaulle’s government, paving the way for its eventual decline.
By May ’68, the March 22 Movement — as it came to be called — had spread to Paris, with the centres of discontent centered around the historic Sorbonne university in the heart of the French capital’s Latin Quarter.
By May 13, a general strike mobilised a million protesters on the streets of Paris and some of the movement’s leaders — such as Daniel Cohn-Bendit — became household names.
Forty years later, the legacy of May ’68 is still a controversial subject in France. “There is no one school of thought that came out of ’68,” philosopher Serge Audier tells FRANCE 24, “but rather an extraordinary nebulous movement linked to the emergence of third-worldism and to the rejection of the war in Vietnam.”
The legacy of ’68
The revolution of May ’68 began with university students but spread far beyond, changing the fundamentals of French society and culture. Ahead of the 40th anniversary of the revolts, some ask whether their legacy continues. (Report: S. Silke)
May ’68: A multitude of ideas
There is no such thing as a single May '68 ideology, says the philosopher Serge Audier in an interview with FRANCE 24.
May ’68: Then and now
The May ’68 revolution helped several political figures and celebrities gain wide recognition early in their lives and leave their mark on history.
1968 around the world
The year 1968 marked a turning point for the entire world. The Sixties shook the West and its quiet existence while the Soviet system tightened its grip on its population.
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RETROSPECTIVE
A look back on the events of May '68. Nadia Charbit reports
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THE FRANCE 24 DEBATE
What is the legacy of May 1968? (05/05)
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