A different country ( Lennon re: Paris 1968/ Guardian)

[struggle4progress]

An English revisionist strand likes to downplay the effects of May 1968 but I saw the power of Paris protest first hand
Peter Lennon
May 3, 2008 2:00 PM

Every anniversary of the May events is loud with the sound of those eternally trying to prove that the 1968 French revolt was frivolous and a failure. In fact, this was the only student movement to bring down a head of state ... An Irishman, I lived through that decade in Paris ...

Civilised France was a fraud in the 1960s. Paris in 1961-62 had two torture centres for Algerians at the Goutte d'or and Porte d'Orleans officially condoned by the prefect of police, Maurice Papon, the former Vichy prefect who had had delivered over 1,000 Jews, including 223 children, to the Nazis ... Housewives had to have the permission of their husbands to open a bank account ...

The French students occupying the faculties worked with a high sense of responsibility; and a high level of organisation constantly preoccupied with fundamental social issues. This was soon reflected in the motivation of more than 9 million workers on strike, who uniquely were not concerned with wage increases , but primarily with issues of social justice ...

So what came out of it? A permanent undermining of authoritarian practice in work, home and school which even subsequent rightwing governments could not totally erase. Government, and the trades union leaders (as frightened by the loss of control as the politicians) reached agreements at Grenelle on the minimum wage which permanently brought hundreds of thousands of dispossessed workers into shelter ...

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_lennon/2008/05/a_different_country.html

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Lennon.

Peter Lennon.


(still found it interesting)

[gateley]

2. Very interesting - thanks for posting. nt

[JDPriestly]

3. We went to Europe that summer and were in France at the

Sorbonne as the last of these events ocurred. We saw the remains of the barricades and fires.

We were in Munich during the Prague Spring. I will never forget that summer.