TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/caps/60s/60french

Text File | 1992-09-25 | 6.1 KB | 127 lines

                I                                                              French Student Protest


  [In the spring of 1968, the same bug that had bitten China's
Red Guards and America's antiwar protesters seemed to have
spread to France. There the closing of a suburban university
branch brought on a wave of student protest, and then revolt,
that spread through much of the country. Once again, President
Charles de Gaulle found his government under siege by rebels,
this time within France.]


(May 24, 1968)

  The spirit of revolution, whose modern roots were struck in
France nearly two centuries ago, reappeared with a vengeance
again last week and shook the Fifth Republic of Charles de
Gaulle. It began with rebellious students, but it spread with
ominous speed through the ranks of France's workers, creating
a tempestuous alliance that often before has had explosive
consequences. The situation was serious enough to cause the
Premier of France, Georges Pompidou, to declare on nation-wide
television that the rebels were bent on "destroying the nation
and the very foundations of our society."

  More than half a million Frenchmen--led by student militants
who were joined by workers, teachers and opposition
politicians--staged one of the largest protest marches in Paris
history.

  Police did not interfere when students by the thousands
occupied France's 23 universities, forcing classes to halt.
Youthful orators railed against the established order at
interminable meetings, but failed to agree on what should
replace it. At the Sorbonne, the 700-year-old heart of the
University of Paris and the hub of the previous week's violence,
bearded youths and mini-skirted coeds sat in the courtyard
singing occasional ribald songs against the Gaullist government.
With no police around, students even donned helmets and directed
traffic on the Left Bank.

  Among the student strike leaders last week, few were more in
evidence than a chubby, confident sociology major named Daniel
Cohn-Bendit, 23, a self-styled anarchist who says he aims for
"the suppression of capitalist society." All week long he moved
from rally to rally haranguing the Left Bank students as they
groped for a sense of direction in their revolt against the
government.

  A more serious challenge to Gaullist order than the student
outbursts was the actions of France's workers. By mid-week the
success of Cohn-Bendit's enrages (the enraged ones) at seizing
universities had emboldened militant workers to try a similar
tactic. The trend began at Nantes, where 2,000 striking
Sud-Aviation workers moved into their plant, welded the gates
closed against police interference, took the manager hostage for
their demands for higher pay. By last weekend, strikes engulfed
the whole country. Most trains halted, as did Paris subway
traffic. Air France canceled all flights. Postal workers left
their posts. Police demanded immediate pay increases.

  Ideologically, the students and Communist unions had an
uneasy marriage. Many students consider the Communists part of
France's establishment. The Communists in turn first hooted at
the student militants, later rebuffed them when they sought to
aid striking workers; they were far eager to have youthful
romantics clutter up an increasingly promising upheaval. Late
last week, however, the Communists changed their mind and
decided to "reaffirm the solidarity of the workers with the
students and teachers." Thus, by making common cause, those two
disturbed segments of French society vastly increased their
threat to government.


(June 7, 1968)

  In five tumultuous days, France passed from the brink of civil
war to an almost universal feeling of relief that the worst of
the crisis seemed to be over. Reviled by France's students and
rejected by its workers, de Gaulle saw his government crumbling
beneath him, Paris hostile and ready to explode, the opposition
politicians closing ranks to cut him down. A lesser man might
have quit; so serious was the situation that de Gaulle in fact
considered it. But like his countrymen at the Marne 54 years
before, he decided to stand his ground and fight. France
responded, and by sheer force of will--and with some help from
the French army--de Gaulle triumphed in perhaps the greatest
crisis in his long service to France.

  Emerging from a quickly convened Cabinet meeting at the
palace, his Ministers wore the grim visages of men preparing to
enter combat. Inside, in clipped, angry phrases, de Gaulle was
shouting into a tape recorder his speech to the nation.

  "I shall not withdraw," said de Gaulle. "I have a mandate from
the people. I shall fulfill it." Ticking off his program, he
refused to replace Premier Pompidou, who deserved "the tribute
of all"--and had indeed been running the government virtually
singlehanded for days. Because of the widespread disorders, de
Gaulle was, however, postponing his referendum, scheduled for
June 16, in which he had hoped to win a oui for his proposed
social and university reforms. Instead, he planned to dissolve
the National Assembly and call new parliamentary elections.

  "France is indeed threatened by dictatorship," cried de
Gaulle. The "totalitarian Communists," he warned, were waiting
to ride to power on France's despair. "The republic will not
abdicate!" he shouted hoarsely. "The people will collect
themselves. Progress, independence and peace will prevail along
with liberty. Vive la France!"

  The speech lasted a bare three minutes, but it galvanized
France. In an outpouring of emotion, some 600,000 to 1,000,000
Frenchmen marched from the Place de la Concorde up the
Champs-Elysees in the biggest parade in the capital since
Parisians triumphantly walked behind de Gaulle as he led
liberating Free French troops into the city 24 years ago.


  [De Gaulle had once more pulled off a miracle. But it was to
be his last. His forces handily won the resulting elections, but
the following year, in a referendum that the general needlessly
elevated to a vote of confidence, he was defeated, 53% to 47%.
He retired to his country home at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises,
where he lived until his death in 1976.]