Paris May ’68
Source: The May Events Archive of Simon Fraser University;
Source: Simon Fraser University, The May Events Archive;
Translated: by Mitchell Abidor.
Down with the anti-popular Gaullist regime!
For ten years the working class fought inch by inch in order to conquer its unity in every factory, to defend its living conditions in every enterprise, systematically attacked by big capital. The workers’ struggles have contained the bosses’ offensive, but the division of working class forces, the policy of class collaboration that became the rule EVEN AT THE LEVEL OF THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF THE CGT prevented the mass struggles from leading to the fall of the anti-people regime of unemployment and poverty.
For the past month progressive students, who reject the bourgeois university, who want to put themselves in the camp of the people in their struggle against the bosses’ regime, have thrown all their forces into the battle.
BY THEIR TENACITY, THEIR RESOLUTION, THEIR DETERMINATION TO CONNECT THEIR FIGHT TO THAT OF THE WORKING CLASS, THE PRINCIPAL FORCE IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST BIG CAPITAL AND ITS POWER, the mass of progressive students was able to deal Gaullism a strong blow. The workers understood this: the progressive current in the student movement reflects the fighting determination of the people, their determination to have done with Gaullism. The determination of the progressive students has reminded the workers that only firm action is profitable. The class collaborationist unions that exhorted the workers to demonstrate in calm and dignity so as to receive nothing but alms, the unions that sabotaged the mass struggles in Caen, at Rhodia in Lyon, at Schwarz-Haumont, at Alluvac, at Ales in ceramics, at Dassault, at Renault, CAN TODAY NO LONGER RESIST THE MOMENTUM OF THE WORKING MASSES.
THE BANNER OF THE STRUGGLE HAS PASSED
INTO THE HANDS OF THE PROLETARIAT
The leadership of the PCF and the CGT at first ignobly attacked the progressive movement of the students in the same terms as the government. Then, when the workers manifested their determination to intervene in force to take the leadership of the battle against capital and its power, the leadership of the CGT and the PCF called for a strike using petty-bourgeois university watchwords. But the workers understood that they were throwing all their forces into the struggle.
The power structure wants to repress: Pompidou has just said this. The power structure is in disarray. The repression against the workers and the progressive students, the repression against true communists who are fighting for the victory of the people will change nothing. The hatred of the people for the enemy will be increased tenfold
An immense force is rising today. THE PEOPLE WILL WIN!
AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT, POVERTY WAGES, INFERNAL SPEED UPS.
AGAINST POLICE AND BOSS REPRESSION.
LIBERTY FOR THE PEOPLE!
“SERVE THE PEOPLE”
At the appeal of the Communist Work Groups, the Union of Young Communists (Marxist-Leninist), the “Serve the people” Circles, the Support Movement for the Peoples’ Struggles, and The Defense Committee Against Repression