France revels in nostalgia for magic May '68

It is a little sad, but inevitable, that France's last revolt in the name of liberty should be reduced to a tin of expensive tea. Here it is, "May 68 -- a tea with the flavour of revolution" from Fauchon, the most luxurious food store in Paris

Forty years ago this weekend, the students of the Sorbonne university staged their joyous insurrection on the Paris Left Bank. Their carnival of slogans and barricades helped trigger the country's biggest general strike and briefly rattled the government of President Charles de Gaulle. The confused rebellion soon fizzled but "the events of May '68" marked a middle-class generation. Since they were the baby-boomers, no-one is allowed to forget it.

Now passing on power to their juniors, la génération de soixante-huit are enjoying a last hurrah, an orgy of nostalgia for the glorious upheaval in which, for a moment, it seemed they could remake the world. They may have given up Fidel Castro for Fauchon, but they are proud of their youthful ideals.

A tidal wave of books, films, exhibitions and media cover is recounting the heady exploits of les enfants de mai. The tear-gas, the whimsical slogans, the mini-skirts, the music, the revolution have blurred into an idyll. Like old rock fans telling youngsters that there can never be another Woodstock, the soixante-huitards are the lucky generation.

There is plenty of criticism of the legacy of 1968, much of it from the players themselves. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the student figurehead of the revolt, has just published a book called "Forget 68". The French happening, part of the global youth revolt of the late '60s, helped liberate society but it can be the model for nothing in 2008, says Cohn-Bendit. "Danny the Red", now 63 and leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, was the author of the  famous slogan: Sous les pavés, la plage [The beach is under the cobble-stones]. He may also have invented the celebrated "It is forbidden to forbid", pictured above.

President Sarkozy, who was 13 during les évènements de mai, has done his bit for keeping the spirit of '68 alive -- by blaming it for the ills of modern France. "The heirs of May '68 imposed the idea that everything has the same value, that there is no difference between good and evil, between the true and the false, between beauty and ugliness,"  Sarko said in his most famous attack. Cohn-Bendit has had fun pointing out that the President may be politicially conservative, but with his double divorce and speed romance with Carla Bruni, he is a pure product of  the self-indulgent spirit of '68.

As a junior witness of that spring  -- I was a teenager watching it in Australia on the TV news -- I confess that it is tempting to see 1968 France as a golden moment. In that year, students in America and Australia dreaded being sent to fight in Vietnam and kids in Prague were facing Soviet tanks, but in Paris, they were having fun in the name of utopia.

That's perhaps the most damaging thing about 1968. The self-celebration of its generation, now approaching comfortable retirement, has helped add to the gloom of present French youngsters.

Jean-Pierre Le Goff, a soixante-huitard philosopher, says that the young of France are being given a message: "The '68 generation are the heroes of the modern age and you have nothing else to do but to imitate them knowing that what you do will be bound to be less intense compared with their crazy youth."

French youngsters are already the most pessimistic in Europe, according to EU surveys, because of a failing education system and the great difficulty of finding a first job in France. High school pupils have been marching in their thousands over the past month, in protest against cuts in teaching staff. In general, young demonstrators in France are demanding security -- the exact opposite of the '68 generation.

But, perhaps the baby-boomers are flattering themselves by inflating their own importance. The flood of '68 memorabilia has not been selling very well. Viewers have been zapping TV documentaries and not bothering to buy news magazines with Cohn-Bendit and other worthies on the cover.

It was comforting in a way to hear the answers when I asked my 17-year-old son and his Parisian friend what Mai 68 meant to them. Both have had all their education in French or Belgian schools. A broadcast on May '68 had been droning on for half an hour on the car radio. After the boys took off their i-Pods they shrugged. "May 68...Wasn't that when there were demonstrations? They haven't taught us anything about it, " said my son.

As a footnote, I have just read "The Terrible Year", Alastair Horne's history of the 1871 Paris Commune. It's remarkable to see how that spring revolt, which caused the deaths of thousands, began with a similar haphazard, almost accidental, uprising by idealistic hot-heads. Just as the French Communist party distrusted the May '68 students, Karl Marx initially wanted nothing to do with the 1871 revolt by the disorganised Parisian leftists. But May '68 [picture below] was a brief comedy beside the tragedy of the Commune.   

And PS: There is a link with the last post on the 2CV Citroen: favourite wheels of the soixante-huitards 

Comments

[concedo nulli]

I am not sure the baby-boomers will be that comfortable in their retirement. I believe Daniel Cohn-Bendit is now worried the young people in France might want to take to the streets again. They cannot afford that indulgence. The country is nearly in ruins. In May '68 we could find jobs, trust in the order of things and follow the tradition of the monômes (i.e.student demonstrations celebrating the end of the school year). I find the Fauchon tea caddy for Japanese, and my dentist perhaps, the perfect ironical comment on the very special French art-de-vivre.

[Joan Arles]

I was small in 68, but I feel as though I was there on the Boulevard Saint Germain because there has been so much celebration of the great event this year. I agree that life seems much more miserable for the kids nowadays.

[dot king]

I think "France revels" is overstating things a bit. OK there are TV programmes, which can be zapped, but here in The Sticks, I haven't heard a single mention of the good ol' days of "les événements".
Yesterday I heard Scott Mackenzie on the radio singing, yes, well, what else would it be? "If you're going to San Francisco" and I thought of the Retraités (retired) demonstrating for pensions they could actually live on:

there's a whole generation
with a new expectation
people in motion

That's how it is for the 68-ards who probably didn't demontstrate because they weren't at the Sorbonne, but working on farms and in factories, and didn't make it into political or intelligentsia circles.
This is about Paris, not France. but then that's one of France's problems - focus is too often Parisian.

[Romain]

Welcome back, Charles. I hope you had a nice holiday in the "7's".
We had a whale of a time in May 68, like a giant happening. Miraculously there was no casualty, thanks to the Paris police superintendant. De Gaulle was overwhelmed to the extent he went to seek support from general Massu in Baden Baden. There is a famous quotation from their conversation :"Alors Massu, toujours aussi con? - Toujours Gaulliste mon général !". Massu assured De Gaulle of the army's support in exchange of amnesty for the french rebel military of the OAS (pas si con, Massu).
Of course the communist were against any form of anarchy. During summer 68 Soviet tanks squashed the hopes of Tchecoslovaquia. In a demonstration against the communist party we tried to set fire to the newspaper "l'Humanité", but the entrance and the windows were armored-plated.They were throwing pieces of type lead and acid from the upper floors, pity we did'nt have any explosives at hand.

[Marguerite.]

Le 3 mai 68, je sortais d'un seminaire sur Ermold le Noir, a la Sorbonne ou je preparais une maitrise de latin. Dans la cour, il y avait un joyeux remue-menage:les uns cassaient des tables et des chaises sortis des amphis, d'autres faisaient la quete dans des foulards pour la liberation du Vietnam. Je suis allee rue d'Ulm chercher un copain normalien maoiste pour qu'il vienne participer. Il a sorti une matraque de sous son lit et m'a dit:"ca y est, ca commence, il y a des mois que l'on s'entraine a casser du flic". A notre retour,une longue file de CRS etait postee tout du long de la rue de la Sorbonne,prets a entrer dans la faculte. Ils avaient des tout petits casques et des boucliers miserables (ils se sont mieux armes au fur et a mesure que les manifs se developpaient). A l'interieur, on a continue casser et a faire des feux.Les CRS sont entres. Ils ont lance des gaz lacrymogenes et commence a arreter des etudiants. Je suis partie par la rue des Ecoles.Mon copain a passe la nuit en tole. J'ai pris le bus bd Saint Michel, celui qu'on attrapait au vol en enlevant la chaine et en montant sur la plate-forme arriere. Dehors on commencait a enlever les paves et cela sentait les gaz lacrymogenes. La revolution avait commence.
"Sous les paves, la plage"?

[Nicolas]

"I confess that it is tempting to see 1968 France as a golden moment. In that year, students in America and Australia dreaded being sent to fight in Vietnam and kids in Prague were facing Soviet tanks, but in Paris, they were having fun in the name of utopia."

Of course French people born in the aftermarth of the WWII were so luckier than people from US and Australia. born in a devastated country,few hundreds kilometers from the "iron curtain", experiencing the "golden years" of bloody "decolonization" wars in Indochina and Algeria... sure they were lucky bastards unaware of the cruel reality lived by Australian and american youth...

[Ros]

"the famous slogan: Sous les pavés, la plage [The beach is under the cobble-stones]." - cobble-stones may indeed be the correct and literal translation of "pavés" but there were no cobblestones in the Bd. ST Michel - I think "pavements" is the only logical word to use.
DOT KING: " focus is too often Parisian" - I agree with every word you say so no need to repeat - perhaps because before "re-settling" in Paris where I had lived in the fifties, I spent 27 years in Provence.

[christopher muir]

To be downtrodden, combined with a feeling of helplessness, are two conditions which spark off revolutions. Empty bellies are also a strong incentive to invade a city square. Germaine Greer has it right when she observes that revolution is the festival of the oppressed. Would that definition apply to the Paris 68 participants?

[Romain]

Nicolas

If you had asked us, we would have told you from experience not to go. But who were we to be listened to ?
Better lucky than miserable.

[azloon]

why don't protests like these ever happen in December? i suspect it's because it's too cold to have sex outside during winter weather.

as the singer james taylor's physician father used to tell him on May 1st each year:

Hooray, Hooray,
the First of May,
Outdoor F*cking
Starts Today

now there's some REAL reason for serious nostalgia --and not entirely disconnected from the high spirits of the youthful french demonstrators!

p.s. my 'thirtysomething' son also believes the baby boomers/68ers are the most hypocritical, self-indulgent generation on the planet, and that, for a group which offered themselves as the answer to to the 'ancien regime,' have certaianly f*cked things up on a global scale to a truly breathtaking degree.

it's probably a good sign that french youth don't give much of a shit about their self-indulgent forbears. as the saying goes, sometimes the best one (a generation?) can do in life is to serve as a negative example.

but i would say Sarko is on thin ice in his belief that he represents some significant improvement.

[Daniel Strohl]

Azloon,

Your son is totally right!