On this day in 1968, the May 68 Rebellion, the largest general strike in French history, began when school officials shut down the University of Paris after months of student protests, escalating to nationwide unrest.

In mid-March, leftist students had occupied an administration building there, although they left peacefully after their demands were published. On May 6th, more than 20,000 students, teachers, and supporters engaged in a protest march. The march was attacked by police and devolved into a riot.

The state repression of protesters caused two major left union federations, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and the Force Ouvrière (CGT-FO), to call a one-day general strike on May 13th. More than one million people demonstrated that day.

By the middle of May, demonstrations had extended to factories, though their demands were different from the students’. Across France, students occupied university structures and up to one-third of the country’s workforce was on strike.

The protests were so widespread and energetic that many political leaders feared civil war or revolution. President Charles de Gaulle secretly fled France to Germany at one point, and the national government at times ceased to function.

Revolution was averted when de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and scheduled an election that the left dissidents agreed to participate in. Revolutionary fervor subsided and the government banned a number of leftist organizations in the following months.

In the election, de Gaulle’s party won the greatest victory in French parliamentary history, taking 353 of 486 seats versus the Communists’ 34 and the Socialists’ 57.

How Beautiful It Was - Jacobin https://jacobin.com/2018/05/how-beautiful-it-was/

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