Difference between revisions of "Anarchy 89/Overtaken by events: a Paris journal"

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'''Wednesday-Thursday, May 15th-May 16th.''' The {{w|Paris dis­turb­ances|May_1968_events_in_France}} have been very poorly re­ported in the {{w|English|England}} press. First, the dis­turb­ance may have arisen out of com­plaints about the Uni­vers­ity sys­tem, but it has gone far beyond that now. It started with a row at {{w|Nan­terre|Paris_Nanterre_University}}, a uni­vers­ity out­side {{w|Paris}}, when the uni­vers­ity was close for an in­defin­ite period, and seven stu­dents were sum­moned to ap­pear before a uni­vers­ity board. The {{w|Sor­bonne|Sorbonne_University}} started to get active, in the big main court­yard; the ''{{w|recteur|Rector_(academia)}}'' called in the police to clear out the stu­dents who had gathered to dis­cuss mat­ters. The police carted the stu­dents off and there were demon­stra­tions against this action, and against the police. The Sor­bonne was closed, and the uni­vers­ities pro­posed to strike on Monday, May 6th, demon­stra­tions all day long, fin­ish­ing with 20,000 march­ing. The police charged the march at {{w|St. Germain des Prés|Saint-Germain-des-Prés}}, and the bar­ri­cades started to go up. The police use {{w|gas|Tear_gas}}. It fin­ishes up with police hunt­ing stu­dents through the streets, beat­ing them with {{w|trun­cheons|Baton_(law_enforcement)}}. On Tuesday, another long march, about 40,000-50,000 people, stu­dents and work­ers. The {{w|red flags|Red_flag_(politics)}} lead the march and the {{w|Inter­na­tion­ale|The_Internationale}} is sung at the {{w|Arc de Triomphe|Arc_de_Triomphe}}. More demon­stra­tions on Wednes­day, when the left wing parties, hostile hitherto, jump on the band­wagon. Thurs­day, the Sor­bonne is to be re­opened: the police are on the scene, and the stu­dents de­mand with­drawal of police, open­ing of all the col­leges again, and the free­ing of the ar­rested stu­dents. The {{w|Trotsky­ists|Trotskyism}} hold a meet­ing where the whole af­fair begins to open out into a re­volu­tion­ary move­ment. On Friday comes the ex­plo­sion: thou­sands of stu­dents on a demon­stra­tion march are stopped by a dam of police: the stu­dents re­tire into the {{w|Latin Quarter|Latin_Quarter,_Paris}}, filling the {{w|Bou­levard St. Michel|Boulevard_Saint-Michel}} up to the {{w|Luxem­bourg|Jardin_du_Luxembourg}}. They spread out and start erect­ing bar­ri­cades to fight the police if they charge. At 2 in the morn­ing, the police at­tack, using gas {{p|201}}gren­ades, tear gas, trun­cheons … fight­ing goes on until 5:30, around about 60 bar­ri­cades: many stu­dents are in­jured and seven are still miss­ing, no one knows where. On Satur­day, tension: the {{w|trade unions|Trade_union}} call for a {{w|gen­eral strike|General_strike}}. The stu­dent milit­ants oc­cupy an annex of the Uni­vers­ity, and use the premises for dis­cus­sions and de­bates. On Sunday, the unions dis­cuss and pre­pare their demon­stra­tion. On Monday the strike takes place, and work­ers and stu­dents march to­gether to demon­strate against the police and the gov­ern­ment. On Tues­day the gov­ern­ment gives in, and says that the stu­dent de­mands for as­soci­a­tion in the organ­isa­tion of the Uni­vers­ity will be met: and the news­papers give the im­pres­sion that this is what it is all about.
 
'''Wednesday-Thursday, May 15th-May 16th.''' The {{w|Paris dis­turb­ances|May_1968_events_in_France}} have been very poorly re­ported in the {{w|English|England}} press. First, the dis­turb­ance may have arisen out of com­plaints about the Uni­vers­ity sys­tem, but it has gone far beyond that now. It started with a row at {{w|Nan­terre|Paris_Nanterre_University}}, a uni­vers­ity out­side {{w|Paris}}, when the uni­vers­ity was close for an in­defin­ite period, and seven stu­dents were sum­moned to ap­pear before a uni­vers­ity board. The {{w|Sor­bonne|Sorbonne_University}} started to get active, in the big main court­yard; the ''{{w|recteur|Rector_(academia)}}'' called in the police to clear out the stu­dents who had gathered to dis­cuss mat­ters. The police carted the stu­dents off and there were demon­stra­tions against this action, and against the police. The Sor­bonne was closed, and the uni­vers­ities pro­posed to strike on Monday, May 6th, demon­stra­tions all day long, fin­ish­ing with 20,000 march­ing. The police charged the march at {{w|St. Germain des Prés|Saint-Germain-des-Prés}}, and the bar­ri­cades started to go up. The police use {{w|gas|Tear_gas}}. It fin­ishes up with police hunt­ing stu­dents through the streets, beat­ing them with {{w|trun­cheons|Baton_(law_enforcement)}}. On Tuesday, another long march, about 40,000-50,000 people, stu­dents and work­ers. The {{w|red flags|Red_flag_(politics)}} lead the march and the {{w|Inter­na­tion­ale|The_Internationale}} is sung at the {{w|Arc de Triomphe|Arc_de_Triomphe}}. More demon­stra­tions on Wednes­day, when the left wing parties, hostile hitherto, jump on the band­wagon. Thurs­day, the Sor­bonne is to be re­opened: the police are on the scene, and the stu­dents de­mand with­drawal of police, open­ing of all the col­leges again, and the free­ing of the ar­rested stu­dents. The {{w|Trotsky­ists|Trotskyism}} hold a meet­ing where the whole af­fair begins to open out into a re­volu­tion­ary move­ment. On Friday comes the ex­plo­sion: thou­sands of stu­dents on a demon­stra­tion march are stopped by a dam of police: the stu­dents re­tire into the {{w|Latin Quarter|Latin_Quarter,_Paris}}, filling the {{w|Bou­levard St. Michel|Boulevard_Saint-Michel}} up to the {{w|Luxem­bourg|Jardin_du_Luxembourg}}. They spread out and start erect­ing bar­ri­cades to fight the police if they charge. At 2 in the morn­ing, the police at­tack, using gas {{p|201}}gren­ades, tear gas, trun­cheons … fight­ing goes on until 5:30, around about 60 bar­ri­cades: many stu­dents are in­jured and seven are still miss­ing, no one knows where. On Satur­day, tension: the {{w|trade unions|Trade_union}} call for a {{w|gen­eral strike|General_strike}}. The stu­dent milit­ants oc­cupy an annex of the Uni­vers­ity, and use the premises for dis­cus­sions and de­bates. On Sunday, the unions dis­cuss and pre­pare their demon­stra­tion. On Monday the strike takes place, and work­ers and stu­dents march to­gether to demon­strate against the police and the gov­ern­ment. On Tues­day the gov­ern­ment gives in, and says that the stu­dent de­mands for as­soci­a­tion in the organ­isa­tion of the Uni­vers­ity will be met: and the news­papers give the im­pres­sion that this is what it is all about.
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{{tab}}So it was, per&shy;haps, in the first in&shy;stance, but things have changed. The stu&shy;dents have taken over the Uni&shy;vers&shy;ity com&shy;pletely. The lec&shy;ture rooms are crowded with com&shy;mit&shy;tees dis&shy;cuss&shy;ing the whole move&shy;ment{{dash}}for it is a movement: the whole struc&shy;ture of western so&shy;ciety is being called into ques&shy;tion. The groups of the left are of course very pro&shy;min&shy;ent in this ques&shy;tion&shy;ing: {{w|Mao&shy;ists|Maoism}}, {{w|Trotsky&shy;ists|Trotskyism}}, {{w|Com&shy;mun&shy;ists|Marxism–Leninism}} and Anarch&shy;ists have plas&shy;tered the Sor&shy;bonne with posters, de&shy;clar&shy;a&shy;tions, ex&shy;hort&shy;a&shy;tions; a flood of bro&shy;chures, leaf&shy;lets, pamph&shy;lets and broad&shy;sheets, as well as im&shy;pro&shy;vised news&shy;papers, pours out. The great court&shy;yard of the Sor&shy;bonne is crowded with people: stu&shy;dents and work&shy;ers, and some bour&shy;geois, argu&shy;ing, form&shy;ing groups where people stand and dis&shy;cuss, dis&shy;pute, bellow, dis&shy;agree, create an atmo&shy;sphere where one feels that they are awake! This goes on twenty-<wbr>four hours a day, while people pass in and out of the build&shy;ing, the lec&shy;ture halls wit&shy;ness con&shy;tinu&shy;ous meet&shy;ings and com&shy;mit&shy;tees and in the court&shy;yard people go on argu&shy;ing. Around the court&shy;yard are the pla&shy;cards and pro&shy;clam&shy;a&shy;tions, people sell the news&shy;papers and hand out the sheets: {{w|trestle tables|Trestle_table}} along the walls are oco&shy;cu&shy;pied by vari&shy;ous groups selling their lit&shy;er&shy;ature{{dash}}Trotsky&shy;ists, Com&shy;mun&shy;ists, Mao&shy;ists: I haven{{t}} run across the Anarch&shy;ists yet but I know they are there: their posters are edged in black. Walking out across the {{l|Place de la Sorbonne|https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Sorbonne}}, you can see the same thing{{dash}}groups, dis&shy;cus&shy;sions, every&shy;where per&shy;fect strangers join&shy;ing argu&shy;ments, ex&shy;chan&shy;ging views, in an atmo&shy;sphere of charged ex&shy;cite&shy;ment which is im&shy;pos&shy;sible for me to com&shy;mun&shy;icate. The level of dis&shy;cus&shy;sion is re&shy;mark&shy;ably high, on the whole, and if you can imagine the sort of energy the French put into an argu&shy;ment be&shy;tween two drivers whose cars have col&shy;lided, trans&shy;ferred to an argu&shy;ment about the organ&shy;isa&shy;tion of the Uni&shy;vers&shy;ity, the class strug&shy;gle, the whole organ&shy;isa&shy;tion of our so&shy;ciety, the pos&shy;sibil&shy;ity of re&shy;volu&shy;tion: all this con&shy;ducted by a free-<wbr>float&shy;ing crowd of liter&shy;ally thou&shy;sands of people, in the Sor&shy;bonne, in the street, in the cafes{{dash|this all going on day and night}}then you may get some idea of the Quartier Latin at the moment.
 
{{tab}}So it was, per&shy;haps, in the first in&shy;stance, but things have changed. The stu&shy;dents have taken over the Uni&shy;vers&shy;ity com&shy;pletely. The lec&shy;ture rooms are crowded with com&shy;mit&shy;tees dis&shy;cuss&shy;ing the whole move&shy;ment{{dash}}for it is a movement: the whole struc&shy;ture of western so&shy;ciety is being called into ques&shy;tion. The groups of the left are of course very pro&shy;min&shy;ent in this ques&shy;tion&shy;ing: {{w|Mao&shy;ists|Maoism}}, {{w|Trotsky&shy;ists|Trotskyism}}, {{w|Com&shy;mun&shy;ists|Marxism–Leninism}} and Anarch&shy;ists have plas&shy;tered the Sor&shy;bonne with posters, de&shy;clar&shy;a&shy;tions, ex&shy;hort&shy;a&shy;tions; a flood of bro&shy;chures, leaf&shy;lets, pamph&shy;lets and broad&shy;sheets, as well as im&shy;pro&shy;vised news&shy;papers, pours out. The great court&shy;yard of the Sor&shy;bonne is crowded with people: stu&shy;dents and work&shy;ers, and some bour&shy;geois, argu&shy;ing, form&shy;ing groups where people stand and dis&shy;cuss, dis&shy;pute, bellow, dis&shy;agree, create an atmo&shy;sphere where one feels that they are awake! This goes on twenty-<wbr>four hours a day, while people pass in and out of the build&shy;ing, the lec&shy;ture halls wit&shy;ness con&shy;tinu&shy;ous meet&shy;ings and com&shy;mit&shy;tees and in the court&shy;yard people go on argu&shy;ing. Around the court&shy;yard are the pla&shy;cards and pro&shy;clam&shy;a&shy;tions, people sell the news&shy;papers and hand out the sheets: {{w|trestle tables|Trestle_table}} along the walls are oco&shy;cu&shy;pied by vari&shy;ous groups selling their lit&shy;er&shy;ature{{dash}}Trotsky&shy;ists, Com&shy;mun&shy;ists, Mao&shy;ists: I haven{{t}} run across the Anarch&shy;ists yet but I know they are there: their posters are edged in black. Walking out across the {{l|Place de la Sorbonne|https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Sorbonne}}, you can see the same thing{{dash}}groups, dis&shy;cus&shy;sions, every&shy;where per&shy;fect strangers join&shy;ing argu&shy;ments, ex&shy;chan&shy;ging views, in an atmo&shy;sphere of charged ex&shy;cite&shy;ment which is im&shy;pos&shy;sible for me to com&shy;mun&shy;icate. The level of dis&shy;cus&shy;sion is re&shy;mark&shy;ably high, on the whole, and if you can imagine the sort of energy the French put into an argu&shy;ment be&shy;tween two drivers whose cars have col&shy;lided, trans&shy;ferred to an argu&shy;ment about the organ&shy;isa&shy;tion of the Uni&shy;vers&shy;ity, the class strug&shy;gle, the whole organ&shy;isa&shy;tion of our so&shy;ciety, the pos&shy;sibil&shy;ity of re&shy;volu&shy;tion: all this con&shy;ducted by a free-<wbr>float&shy;ing crowd of liter&shy;ally thou&shy;sands of people, in the Sor&shy;bonne, in the street, in the cafes{{dash|this all going on day and night}}then you may get some idea of the Quartier Latin at the moment.
  
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{{tab}}9.20 a.m.&emsp;This morn&shy;ing I have been with Sor&shy;bonne stu&shy;dents ef&shy;fect&shy;ing li&shy;aison with the med&shy;ical stu&shy;dents, who are not so enthu&shy;si&shy;astic or so {{p|203}}well organ&shy;ised. In fact, the Sor&shy;bonne people were on picket duty, per&shy;suad&shy;ing the med&shy;ical stu&shy;dents to keep up the strike and not enter into dis&shy;cus&shy;sions with the teach&shy;ing staff. It is re&shy;mark&shy;able to see: dis&shy;pute, argu&shy;ment, per&shy;sua&shy;sion, but never the faint&shy;est sug&shy;ges&shy;tion of a fist raised in anger. If in normal times Sor&shy;bonne stu&shy;dents went to the Fac&shy;ulty of Medi&shy;cine and dared to try to tell them what to do, they would be thrown out, but now the stu&shy;dents must above all stay to&shy;gether, other&shy;wise the move&shy;ment is done for.
 
{{tab}}9.20 a.m.&emsp;This morn&shy;ing I have been with Sor&shy;bonne stu&shy;dents ef&shy;fect&shy;ing li&shy;aison with the med&shy;ical stu&shy;dents, who are not so enthu&shy;si&shy;astic or so {{p|203}}well organ&shy;ised. In fact, the Sor&shy;bonne people were on picket duty, per&shy;suad&shy;ing the med&shy;ical stu&shy;dents to keep up the strike and not enter into dis&shy;cus&shy;sions with the teach&shy;ing staff. It is re&shy;mark&shy;able to see: dis&shy;pute, argu&shy;ment, per&shy;sua&shy;sion, but never the faint&shy;est sug&shy;ges&shy;tion of a fist raised in anger. If in normal times Sor&shy;bonne stu&shy;dents went to the Fac&shy;ulty of Medi&shy;cine and dared to try to tell them what to do, they would be thrown out, but now the stu&shy;dents must above all stay to&shy;gether, other&shy;wise the move&shy;ment is done for.
  
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{| style="text-align:justify; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; border-collapse:collapse; float:right; margin-left: 10px; width: 50%;" cellpadding="4"
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|-
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| <font size="2">'''View from the {{w|Island|United_Kingdom}}'''
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{{tab}}''On Satur&shy;day the Stu&shy;dent{{s|r}} Union held its defi&shy;ant demon&shy;sra&shy;tion. Boy&shy;cot&shy;ted once more by the com&shy;mun&shy;ists, dis&shy;missed as point&shy;less folly or crazy ad&shy;ven&shy;tur&shy;ism by many well-<wbr>wishers, it never&shy;the&shy;less mustered a good'' 30,000 ''march&shy;ers. I join in near the head of the column, be&shy;hind the proudly waving red and black flags. I{{ve}} never marched under anarch&shy;ist colours before, but what the hell. Stu&shy;dents are laugh&shy;ing at the'' {{w|Human&shy;it&eacute;|L'Humanité}} ''re&shy;port of a speech by {{w|Waldeck-<wbr>Rochet|Waldeck_Rochet}}'': ''{{qq|Our flags are not those of anarchy but the red flag of so&shy;cial&shy;ism and the'' {{w|tri&shy;colore|Flag_of_France}}, ''the flag of the na&shy;tion.}} But this week the'' tri&shy;colore ''and the {{w|Mar&shy;seil&shy;laise<!-- 'Marsellaise' in original -->|La_Marseillaise}} belong to {{w|de Gaulle|Charles_de_Gaulle}}; they{{ve}} never been so clearly the symbols of con&shy;serv&shy;at&shy;ism.''
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<div style="text-align: right;">{{dash}}{{w|''Mervyn Jones''|Mervyn_Jones_(writer)}}, {{sc|{{w|new statesman|New_Statesman}}}}, {{popup|7.6.68|7 June 1968}}.</div></font>
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|}
 
{{tab}}I am writ&shy;ing this in the court&shy;yard of the Sor&shy;bonne. I look up to the roof, and there flying in the wind is a sight I have never seen before: a flag with no dec&shy;or&shy;a&shy;tion, no ad&shy;di&shy;tion, no na&shy;tional symbol: a plain {{w|red flag|Red_flag_(politics)}}. And I can{{t}} stop myself from shed&shy;ding tears.
 
{{tab}}I am writ&shy;ing this in the court&shy;yard of the Sor&shy;bonne. I look up to the roof, and there flying in the wind is a sight I have never seen before: a flag with no dec&shy;or&shy;a&shy;tion, no ad&shy;di&shy;tion, no na&shy;tional symbol: a plain {{w|red flag|Red_flag_(politics)}}. And I can{{t}} stop myself from shed&shy;ding tears.
 +
 +
{{tab}}'''8.45 p.m. Satur&shy;day, May 25th.'''&emsp;I ought to have kept a de&shy;tailed day-<wbr>by-<wbr>day ac&shy;count of what I have been doing and what has been hap&shy;pen&shy;ing, but I have been very busy. I have just filled in notes for the last week in my tiny diary, and this helps, but there are still {{w|la&shy;cunae|Lacuna_(manuscripts)}}. I slept most of Thurs&shy;day, pro&shy;mis&shy;ing myself I would start work the next day, and spent the even&shy;ing at the Sor&shy;bonne talk&shy;ing to people and join&shy;ing in the argu&shy;ments in the court&shy;yard. Several times I was asked by stu&shy;dents what I, as a for&shy;eigner coming fresh to these events, thought of all that I saw; they seemed heart&shy;ened by the fact that I was im&shy;pressed. One girl said, {{qq|You see, we have been in it all the time, and some&shy;times we wonder if it isn{{t}} all just talk, talk, talk.}} I told her that one of the things that had im&shy;pressed me most was the talk, the fact that people, all sorts of people, were argu&shy;ing, and par&shy;ticu&shy;larly that the argu&shy;ments so often started from prem&shy;ises which, although I ac&shy;cepted them, I was startled to find the jump&shy;ing off point of argu&shy;ments. It was not a ques&shy;tion of {{qq|Is there some&shy;thing wrong that can be put right?}}, {{qq|Should we change our so&shy;ciety and if so in what way?}}. No: so many people seemed to ac&shy;cept that the so&shy;ciety had to go, and the ques&shy;tion was, what sort of a so&shy;ciety was to take its place, and how could the change be brought about. {{p|204}}Cer&shy;tain key ideas re&shy;curred again and again; the two most im&shy;port&shy;ant as far as I could see were {{qq|{{w|auto&shy;ges&shy;tion|Workers'_self-management}}}} and a re&shy;jec&shy;tion of the {{w|con&shy;sumer so&shy;ciety|Consumerism}}. The ori&shy;ginal stu&shy;dent de&shy;mands had in&shy;cluded par&shy;ti&shy;cip&shy;a&shy;tion in the run&shy;ning of uni&shy;vers&shy;ities, but now it was a ques&shy;tion of work&shy;er{{s|r}} con&shy;trol of the factor&shy;ies as well as stu&shy;dent con&shy;trol of the {{w|col&shy;leges|Secondary_education_in_France}}. As for the con&shy;sumer so&shy;ciety, I was amazed at the vehem&shy;ence both of the posters and slo&shy;gans plastered all over the build&shy;ing, and of the people who spoke of it. Every&shy;where, it seemed, the idea of prosper&shy;ity and pro&shy;gress seen in terms of con&shy;sumer goods, money, af&shy;glu&shy;ence, tele&shy;vision and the motor car was de&shy;nounced and at&shy;tacked. Some&shy;times the argu&shy;ments against it were based on the con&shy;cept of af&shy;flu&shy;ence as the weapon of a cap&shy;it&shy;al&shy;ist so&shy;ciety; but quite as often, no such ana&shy;lysis was made, the speaker or writer seem&shy;ing to ex&shy;press himself from the point of view not of left-<wbr>wing polit&shy;ics but of deep per&shy;sonal aware&shy;ness that money and ma&shy;terial things do not bring happi&shy;ness. Oh yes indeed, quite the most banal and anti-<wbr>cli&shy;mactic of plat&shy;it&shy;udes, isn{{t}} it? I too cringed when I first heard it that Thurs&shy;day evening, but one of the re&shy;mark&shy;able aspects of the whole busi&shy;ness was the re&shy;sus&shy;cita&shy;tion of the plat&shy;it&shy;ude. Solid&shy;ar&shy;ity be&shy;tween worker and stu&shy;dent, unity of the left, com&shy;rade&shy;ship be&shy;tween man and man, be&shy;tween man and woman, the spirit of the bar&shy;ri&shy;cades, were con&shy;cepts which had reality and truth. Many might sneer{{dash}}few did, in fact; for me, cer&shy;tainly, the tired old ideas were reborn.
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</div>
 
</div>
  

Revision as of 17:54, 6 April 2018


200
Overtaken by events:
a Paris journal

ROY PRIOR


Wednesday-Thursday, May 15th-May 16th. The Paris dis­turb­ances have been very poorly re­ported in the English press. First, the dis­turb­ance may have arisen out of com­plaints about the Uni­vers­ity sys­tem, but it has gone far beyond that now. It started with a row at Nan­terre, a uni­vers­ity out­side Paris, when the uni­vers­ity was close for an in­defin­ite period, and seven stu­dents were sum­moned to ap­pear before a uni­vers­ity board. The Sor­bonne started to get active, in the big main court­yard; the recteur called in the police to clear out the stu­dents who had gathered to dis­cuss mat­ters. The police carted the stu­dents off and there were demon­stra­tions against this action, and against the police. The Sor­bonne was closed, and the uni­vers­ities pro­posed to strike on Monday, May 6th, demon­stra­tions all day long, fin­ish­ing with 20,000 march­ing. The police charged the march at St. Germain des Prés, and the bar­ri­cades started to go up. The police use gas. It fin­ishes up with police hunt­ing stu­dents through the streets, beat­ing them with trun­cheons. On Tuesday, another long march, about 40,000-50,000 people, stu­dents and work­ers. The red flags lead the march and the Inter­na­tion­ale is sung at the Arc de Triomphe. More demon­stra­tions on Wednes­day, when the left wing parties, hostile hitherto, jump on the band­wagon. Thurs­day, the Sor­bonne is to be re­opened: the police are on the scene, and the stu­dents de­mand with­drawal of police, open­ing of all the col­leges again, and the free­ing of the ar­rested stu­dents. The Trotsky­ists hold a meet­ing where the whole af­fair begins to open out into a re­volu­tion­ary move­ment. On Friday comes the ex­plo­sion: thou­sands of stu­dents on a demon­stra­tion march are stopped by a dam of police: the stu­dents re­tire into the Latin Quarter, filling the Bou­levard St. Michel up to the Luxem­bourg. They spread out and start erect­ing bar­ri­cades to fight the police if they charge. At 2 in the morn­ing, the police at­tack, using gas
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gren­ades, tear gas, trun­cheons … fight­ing goes on until 5:30, around about 60 bar­ri­cades: many stu­dents are in­jured and seven are still miss­ing, no one knows where. On Satur­day, tension: the trade unions call for a gen­eral strike. The stu­dent milit­ants oc­cupy an annex of the Uni­vers­ity, and use the premises for dis­cus­sions and de­bates. On Sunday, the unions dis­cuss and pre­pare their demon­stra­tion. On Monday the strike takes place, and work­ers and stu­dents march to­gether to demon­strate against the police and the gov­ern­ment. On Tues­day the gov­ern­ment gives in, and says that the stu­dent de­mands for as­soci­a­tion in the organ­isa­tion of the Uni­vers­ity will be met: and the news­papers give the im­pres­sion that this is what it is all about.

  So it was, per­haps, in the first in­stance, but things have changed. The stu­dents have taken over the Uni­vers­ity com­pletely. The lec­ture rooms are crowded with com­mit­tees dis­cuss­ing the whole move­ment—for it is a movement: the whole struc­ture of western so­ciety is being called into ques­tion. The groups of the left are of course very pro­min­ent in this ques­tion­ing: Mao­ists, Trotsky­ists, Com­mun­ists and Anarch­ists have plas­tered the Sor­bonne with posters, de­clar­a­tions, ex­hort­a­tions; a flood of bro­chures, leaf­lets, pamph­lets and broad­sheets, as well as im­pro­vised news­papers, pours out. The great court­yard of the Sor­bonne is crowded with people: stu­dents and work­ers, and some bour­geois, argu­ing, form­ing groups where people stand and dis­cuss, dis­pute, bellow, dis­agree, create an atmo­sphere where one feels that they are awake! This goes on twenty-four hours a day, while people pass in and out of the build­ing, the lec­ture halls wit­ness con­tinu­ous meet­ings and com­mit­tees and in the court­yard people go on argu­ing. Around the court­yard are the pla­cards and pro­clam­a­tions, people sell the news­papers and hand out the sheets: trestle tables along the walls are oco­cu­pied by vari­ous groups selling their lit­er­ature—Trotsky­ists, Com­mun­ists, Mao­ists: I haven’t run across the Anarch­ists yet but I know they are there: their posters are edged in black. Walking out across the Place de la Sorbonne, you can see the same thing—groups, dis­cus­sions, every­where per­fect strangers join­ing argu­ments, ex­chan­ging views, in an atmo­sphere of charged ex­cite­ment which is im­pos­sible for me to com­mun­icate. The level of dis­cus­sion is re­mark­ably high, on the whole, and if you can imagine the sort of energy the French put into an argu­ment be­tween two drivers whose cars have col­lided, trans­ferred to an argu­ment about the organ­isa­tion of the Uni­vers­ity, the class strug­gle, the whole organ­isa­tion of our so­ciety, the pos­sibil­ity of re­volu­tion: all this con­ducted by a free-float­ing crowd of liter­ally thou­sands of people, in the Sor­bonne, in the street, in the cafes—this all going on day and night—then you may get some idea of the Quartier Latin at the moment.

  The moment being 2.15 in the morn­ing (Thurs­day), and the place being a crowded (at this hour!) cafe in the Place de la Sorbonne. If I were rather younger and a great many il­lu­sions richer, I might be tempted to be­lieve in the re­volu­tion­ary atmo­sphere all around me. For
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the atmo­sphere, if not the situ­a­tion, is cer­tainly one of re­volu­tion—it reminds me a little of ac­counts I have read of the so­ciety in Spain in the first days of the re­volu­tion, feel­ing of ex­cite­ment, of ten­sion, of all sorts of pos­sibil­ities for the future, the il­lu­sion that these people might, just might, put a really big crack in the struc­ture of the so­ciety which they are ques­tion­ing so fiercely. In the spec­trum of opin­ion you can re­cog­nise the pos­sible chrono­lo­gical pat­tern of hypo­thet­ical re­volu­tion, from re­form­ists whose ideas are lim­ited to the grant­ing of cer­tain con­ces­sions within—well within—the format of the set-up as it is, through others who advo­cate a far greater degree of change in the status of the stu­dent, those who look for the fall of the pres­ent govern­ment without think­ing much further (even those who would be satis­fied with the resig­na­tion of a few min­is­ters), those who want to see the stu­dents de­clare their solid­ar­ity with the work­ers, aban­don­ing their pres­ent privi­leged posi­tion as those who are des­tined to be the bas­tions of cap­it­al­ism, through to those who look to a total de­struc­tion of cap­it­al­ist so­ciety and the estab­lish­ment of a so­cial­ist so­ciety of one sort or another, and those who talk as if the re­volu­tion were sched­uled for to­morrow, or the day after at the very latest. Here it all is, in words at least.

  And what will come out of it? Not much perhaps: in fact, my guess would be, con­ces­sions in words from the gov­ern­ment, soothing noises, a few re­forms, a scape­goat or two—the Préfet of Paris, for in­stance, who did not want to send the police in to the Sor­bonne in the first pace—and then, nothing. For a while, the ques­tion is: is the feel­ing under­ly­ing this re­volt so strong that it will break out again? I be­lieve it is: this is abso­lutely not a ques­tion of mild stu­dent dis­con­tent within the frame­work of the edu­ca­tion sys­tem, although it may ap­pear that way, and may have started that way. It looks to me like a deep-rooted dis­con­tent and dis­like of the whole struc­ture of so­ciety together with a total dis­trust of the dis­cred­ited lead­ers of the left. Those of the right are scarcely men­tioned, even de Gaulle and Pompi­dou are not names one hears often, and when one does it is in tones of dis­missal. There is no need to at­tack them in words: they are there, that’s all. In fact, there is a very re­mark­able lack of names—plenty of ini­tials of left wing parties, but no names. No “Leaders” in the old sense: no­body’s lead­ing.

  4.10 a.m. Les Halles, always a sight worth seeing—Paris’s belly, Zola called it, with its almost blocked streets, its furi­ous activ­ity, its enor­mous arti­cu­lated lorries bring­ing in fish from Brittany and the <span data-html="true" class="plainlinks" title="Wikipedia: south-west">south-west, cheese from Normandy, milk from all over the place. How very far from the atmo­sphere of the Sor­bonne: the stu­dents may ex­press solid­ar­ity with the work­ers, but how much solid­ar­ity do these work­ers feel for the stu­dents? A cer­tain amount, per­haps, since one of the stu­dent griev­ances—not one that is well pub­li­cised however—is that so few chil­dren of the work­ing class get to uni­vers­ity.

  9.20 a.m. This morn­ing I have been with Sor­bonne stu­dents ef­fect­ing li­aison with the med­ical stu­dents, who are not so enthu­si­astic or so
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well organ­ised. In fact, the Sor­bonne people were on picket duty, per­suad­ing the med­ical stu­dents to keep up the strike and not enter into dis­cus­sions with the teach­ing staff. It is re­mark­able to see: dis­pute, argu­ment, per­sua­sion, but never the faint­est sug­ges­tion of a fist raised in anger. If in normal times Sor­bonne stu­dents went to the Fac­ulty of Medi­cine and dared to try to tell them what to do, they would be thrown out, but now the stu­dents must above all stay to­gether, other­wise the move­ment is done for.
View from the Island

  On Satur­day the Stu­dents’ Union held its defi­ant demon­sra­tion. Boy­cot­ted once more by the com­mun­ists, dis­missed as point­less folly or crazy ad­ven­tur­ism by many well-wishers, it never­the­less mustered a good 30,000 march­ers. I join in near the head of the column, be­hind the proudly waving red and black flags. I’ve never marched under anarch­ist colours before, but what the hell. Stu­dents are laugh­ing at the Human­ité re­port of a speech by <span data-html="true" class="plainlinks" title="Wikipedia: Waldeck-Rochet">Waldeck-Rochet: “Our flags are not those of anarchy but the red flag of so­cial­ism and the tri­colore, the flag of the na­tion.” But this week the tri­colore and the Mar­seil­laise belong to de Gaulle; they’ve never been so clearly the symbols of con­serv­at­ism.

  I am writ­ing this in the court­yard of the Sor­bonne. I look up to the roof, and there flying in the wind is a sight I have never seen before: a flag with no dec­or­a­tion, no ad­di­tion, no na­tional symbol: a plain red flag. And I can’t stop myself from shed­ding tears.

  8.45 p.m. Satur­day, May 25th. I ought to have kept a de­tailed day-by-day ac­count of what I have been doing and what has been hap­pen­ing, but I have been very busy. I have just filled in notes for the last week in my tiny diary, and this helps, but there are still la­cunae. I slept most of Thurs­day, pro­mis­ing myself I would start work the next day, and spent the even­ing at the Sor­bonne talk­ing to people and join­ing in the argu­ments in the court­yard. Several times I was asked by stu­dents what I, as a for­eigner coming fresh to these events, thought of all that I saw; they seemed heart­ened by the fact that I was im­pressed. One girl said, “You see, we have been in it all the time, and some­times we wonder if it isn’t all just talk, talk, talk.” I told her that one of the things that had im­pressed me most was the talk, the fact that people, all sorts of people, were argu­ing, and par­ticu­larly that the argu­ments so often started from prem­ises which, although I ac­cepted them, I was startled to find the jump­ing off point of argu­ments. It was not a ques­tion of “Is there some­thing wrong that can be put right?”, “Should we change our so­ciety and if so in what way?”. No: so many people seemed to ac­cept that the so­ciety had to go, and the ques­tion was, what sort of a so­ciety was to take its place, and how could the change be brought about.
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Cer­tain key ideas re­curred again and again; the two most im­port­ant as far as I could see were “auto­ges­tion” and a re­jec­tion of the con­sumer so­ciety. The ori­ginal stu­dent de­mands had in­cluded par­ti­cip­a­tion in the run­ning of uni­vers­ities, but now it was a ques­tion of work­ers’ con­trol of the factor­ies as well as stu­dent con­trol of the col­leges. As for the con­sumer so­ciety, I was amazed at the vehem­ence both of the posters and slo­gans plastered all over the build­ing, and of the people who spoke of it. Every­where, it seemed, the idea of prosper­ity and pro­gress seen in terms of con­sumer goods, money, af­glu­ence, tele­vision and the motor car was de­nounced and at­tacked. Some­times the argu­ments against it were based on the con­cept of af­flu­ence as the weapon of a cap­it­al­ist so­ciety; but quite as often, no such ana­lysis was made, the speaker or writer seem­ing to ex­press himself from the point of view not of left-wing polit­ics but of deep per­sonal aware­ness that money and ma­terial things do not bring happi­ness. Oh yes indeed, quite the most banal and anti-cli­mactic of plat­it­udes, isn’t it? I too cringed when I first heard it that Thurs­day evening, but one of the re­mark­able aspects of the whole busi­ness was the re­sus­cita­tion of the plat­it­ude. Solid­ar­ity be­tween worker and stu­dent, unity of the left, com­rade­ship be­tween man and man, be­tween man and woman, the spirit of the bar­ri­cades, were con­cepts which had reality and truth. Many might sneer—few did, in fact; for me, cer­tainly, the tired old ideas were reborn.