The mass protests that shook France in May 1968 were exciting, dangerous, creative and influential, changing European politics to this day. Students demonstrated, workers went on general strike, factories and universities were occupied. At the height of its fervour, it brought the entire national economy to a halt. The protests reached such a point that political leaders feared civil war or revolution.
Fifty years later, here are the eye-opening oral testimonies of those young rebels. By listening to the voices of students and workers, as opposed to those of their leaders, May ’68 appears not just as a mass event, but rather as an event driven by millions of individuals, achieving a mosaic human portrait of France at the time.
This book reveals the legacy of the uprising: how those explosive experiences changed both those who took part, and the course of history. May Made Me will record these moments before history moves on yet again.
Зміст
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Timeline of Events in 1968
1. Introduction: May ’68 Revisited
2. Veterans in the Struggle
Jean-Jacques Lebel
Alain Krivine
Prisca Bachelet
Henri Simon
3. Students in Paris
Suzanne Borde
Isabelle Saint-Saëns
Sonia Fayman
Jean-Pierre Fournier
Pauline Steiner
Pierre Mercier
4. May Outside Paris
Jacques Wajnsztejn (Lyon)
Joseph Potiron (La Chapelle-sur-Erdre)
Guy Texier (Saint-Nazaire), Bernard Vauselle (Saint-Nazaire), Dominique Barbe (Nantes)
Myriam Chédotal (Saint-Nazaire), Eliane Paul-Di Vicenzo (Nantes)
Jean-Michel Rabaté (Bordeaux)
José and Hélène Chatroussat (Rouen)
5. May and Film
Michel Andrieu
Pascal Aubier and Bernard Eisenschitz
6. Some Anarchists
Daniel Pinos
Wally Rosell
Thierry Porré
About the Author
Про автора
Mitchell Abidor is a writer and translator living in Brooklyn, USA. Amongst his many works, he is the author of May Made Me.