Les évènements de mai-juin 1968, ou plus brièvement Mai 68, désignent une période durant laquelle se déroulent, en France, des manifestations d’étudiants, ainsi que des grèves générales et sauvages.
L’historiographie de Mai 68 a rappelé à partir des années 1990 que près de dix millions de personnes ont fait grève juste avant la négociation des accords de Grenelle qui actent un relèvement de 35 % du SMIC, la révolte étudiante parisienne, ayant gagné le monde ouvrier et pratiquement toutes les catégories de population sur l’ensemble du territoire, pour constituer le plus important mouvement social du xxe siècle en France.
Ce mouvement est caractérisé par une vaste révolte spontanée antiautoritaire (« ici et maintenant »), de nature à la fois sociale, politique et culturelle, dirigée contre le capitalisme, le consumérisme, l’impérialisme américain et, plus immédiatement, contre le pouvoir gaulliste en place.
Les évènements de mai-juin provoquent la mort d’au moins sept personnes et des centaines de blessés graves dans les affrontements, aussi bien du côté des manifestants que des forces de l’ordre.
Avec le recul des années, les évènements de mai-juin 1968 apparaissent comme une rupture fondamentale dans l’histoire de la société française, matérialisant une remise en cause des institutions traditionnelles.
Le 12 mai, la CGT lance un appel à la grève générale pour le lendemain. L’avant-veille, soir du 10 mai, le magazine télévisé Panorama, présentant ce qui se passait depuis le début du mois de mai, avait été censuré. Le samedi, les personnels de l’ORTF s’insurgent contre cette censure par un communiqué à l’AFP, le jour où les images sur les violences policières de la nuit de vendredi à samedi ont “bouleversé la France entière” ou presque, rappelle l’historienne Michelle Zancarini-Fournel. L’appel de la CGT est repris par les étudiants, la SNESup, un syndicat enseignant, la CFDT et la FEN (Fédération de l’Education Nationale) et Force Ouvrière. “Les appels syndicaux à la grève générale de vingt-quatre-heures insistent tous sur la solidarité entre étudiants et ouvriers : là où deux mondes demeuraient le plus souvent séparés, la violence policière vient les rapprocher”, selon l’historienne Ludivine Bantigny dans son livre 1968.
Cet appel à la grève des 5 principaux syndicats suit très longues tractations entre eux, de 10h à 18h, à la Bourse du Travail de Paris. Alain Geismar, secrétaire général du SNESup, insiste pour que les figures du mouvement étudiant soient en tête du cortège juste à côté des leaders syndicaux qui n’en voulaient pas en raison du climat de violence verbale des deux précédentes semaines.
La “popularité du mouvement” fait que “tout le monde défile ensemble”, derrière un “mot d’ordre commun” (“Dix ans ça suffit!“), qui “rassemble”, car pour la première fois depuis le retour au pouvoir de Charles de Gaulle en 1958, le régime est remis en cause, expliquera Alain Geismar, secrétaire général du SNESup.
Le débrayage général commence le jour de la manifestation puis, compte tenu de son énorme succès, se poursuit le lendemain, le mardi 14 mai.
Au petit jour, 500 métallos de l’usine Claas de Woippy (Moselle), débraient, relayés quelques heures plus tard par les ouvriers de l’usine Sud-Aviation à Bouguenais, qui est la première usine occupée, en référence aux occupations de 1936. Puis, la grève s’étend petit à petit à tout le pays. L’appel également lancé de la Sorbonne le 16 mai par le comité d’occupation pour l’occupation immédiate de toutes les usines en France et la formation des conseils ouvriers suscite les craintes des autorités (communiqué de 19 heures de Pompidou).
Le chef de l’État, le général de Gaulle, en voyage officiel en Roumanie du 14 au 19 mai, n’accorde initialement pas beaucoup d’attention à ces manifestations. Il laisse son Premier ministre s’en occuper : on dira de celui-ci plus tard que « rares sont les hommes politiques, tel M. Pompidou, pour encaisser à ce point pendant les insultes ».
Les situationnistes se retirent de la Sorbonne le 17 mai après avoir constaté l’impossibilité de faire respecter la démocratie directe, qu’ils avaient tenté d’instaurer par le comité d’occupation élu, et s’en vont créer le Conseil pour le maintien des occupations, rue d’Ulm, pour tenter de susciter l’auto-organisation du prolétariat ouvrier dans les usines. Les différents léninistes présents dont les JCR s’emparent alors du pouvoir de la Sorbonne, qu’ils ne lâchent plus jusqu’à son évacuation au mois de juin après la défaite de la grève.
Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which have since become known as May 68, the economy of France came to a halt. The protests reached such a point that political leaders feared civil war or revolution; the national government briefly ceased to function after President Charles de Gaulle secretly fled France to Germany at one point. The protests are sometimes linked to similar movements that occurred around the same time worldwide and inspired a generation of protest art in the form of songs, imaginative graffiti, posters, and slogans.
The unrest began with a series of far-left student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism and traditional institutions. Heavy police repression of the protesters led France’s trade union confederations to call for sympathy strikes, which spread far more quickly than expected to involve 11 million workers, more than 22% of the total population of France at the time. The movement was characterized by spontaneous and decentralized wildcat disposition; this created a contrast and at times even conflict internally amongst the trade unions and the parties of the left. It was the largest general strike ever attempted in France, and the first nationwide wildcat general strike.
The student occupations and general strikes initiated across France were met with forceful confrontation by university administrators and police. The de Gaulle administration’s attempts to quell those strikes by police action only inflamed the situation further, leading to street battles with the police in the Latin Quarter, Paris.
However, by late May, the flow of events changed. The Grenelle accords, concluded on 27 May between the government, trade unions and employers, won significant wage gains for workers. A counter-demonstration organised by the Gaullist party on 29 May in central Paris gave De Gaulle the confidence to dissolve the National Assembly and call for parliamentary elections for 23 June 1968. Violence evaporated almost as quickly as it arose. Workers went back to their jobs, and when the elections were held in June, the Gaullists emerged stronger than before.
The events of May 1968 continue to influence French society. The period is considered a cultural, social and moral turning point in the history of the country. Alain Geismar—one of the leaders of the time—later stated that the movement had succeeded “as a social revolution, not as a political one.”
By the middle of May, demonstrations extended to factories, though its workers’ demands significantly varied from that of the students. A union-led general strike on 13 May included 200,000 in a march. The strikes spread to all sectors of the French economy, including state-owned jobs, manufacturing and service industries, management, and administration. Across France, students occupied university structures and up to one-third of the country’s workforce was on strike.
These strikes were not led by the union movement; on the contrary, the CGT tried to contain this spontaneous outbreak of militancy by channeling it into a struggle for higher wages and other economic demands. Workers put forward a broader, more political and more radical agenda, demanding the ousting of the government and President de Gaulle and attempting, in some cases, to run their factories. 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. In fact, in the May 68 movement there was a lot of “anti-unionist euphoria,” against the mainstream unions, the CGT, FO and CFDT, that were more willing to compromise with the powers that be than enact the will of the base.
On 24 May two people died at the hands of the out of control rioters. In Lyon, Police Inspector Rene Lacroix died when he was crushed by a driverless truck sent careering into police lines by rioters. In Paris, Phillipe Metherion, 26, was stabbed to death during an argument among demonstrators.
As the upheaval reached its apogee in late May, major trade unions met with employers’ organizations and the French government to produce the Grenelle agreements, which would increase the minimum wage 35% and all salaries 10%, and granted employee protections and a shortened working day. The unions were forced to reject the agreement, based on opposition from their members, underscoring a disconnect in organizations that claimed to reflect working class interests.
The UNEF student union and CFDT trade union held a rally in the Charléty stadium with about 22,000 attendees. Its range of speakers reflected the divide between student and Communist factions. While the rally was held in the stadium partly for security, the insurrectionary messages of the speakers was dissonant with the relative amenities of the sports venue.
The volatile period of civil unrest in France during May 1968 was punctuated by demonstrations and massive general strikes as well as the occupation of universities and factories across France. At the height of its fervor, it brought the entire economy of France to a virtual halt. The protests reached such a point that political leaders feared civil war or revolution; the national government itself momentarily ceased to function after President Charles de Gaulle secretly fled France for a few hours. The protests spurred an artistic movement, with songs, imaginative graffiti, posters, and slogans.
“May 68” affected French society for decades afterward. It is considered to this day as a cultural, social and moral turning point in the history of the country. As Alain Geismar—one of the leaders of the time—later pointed out, the movement succeeded “as a social revolution, not as a political one“.
The unrest began with a series of student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism and traditional institutions, values and order. It then spread to factories with strikes involving 11 million workers, more than 22% of the total population of France at the time, for two continuous weeks. The movement was characterized by its spontaneous and de-centralized wildcat disposition; this created contrast and sometimes even conflict between itself and the establishment, trade unions and workers’ parties. It was the largest general strike ever attempted in France, and the first nationwide wildcat general strike.
The student occupations and wildcat general strikes initiated across France were met with forceful confrontation by university administrators and police. The de Gaulle administration’s attempts to quell those strikes by police action only inflamed the situation further, leading to street battles with the police in Paris’s Latin Quarter, followed by the spread of general strikes and occupations throughout France.
De Gaulle fled to a French military base in Germany, and after returning dissolved the National Assembly, and called for new parliamentary elections for 23 June 1968. Violence evaporated almost as quickly as it arose. Workers went back to their jobs, and when the elections were finally held in June, the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before.
Snippet of History 