May 1968 Paris

[RGacky3]

Discuss, csuses, results, revolutionary impact, lessons for today.

One thing I find very interesting was that the Union leadership and the Communist party (very powerful at the time, and still) sided against the wildcat strikes and the occupations and with the government, and it tells you something about power, I think their attitude was "Yes revolution, yes socialism, but its gotta be under our oversight, and not here and not now" whereas the workers attitude was more "No, here now, and by and for us."

The revolution failed, but it did gain a number of economic victories, and you could say that it set the stage for the French working class having the power that it has, to get what it wants, which it does (more so than other working classes).

Just goes to show, a failed uprising will ultimately get you much more than a legislative victory.

[RGacky3]

Some Clever slogans from wikipedia from the uprising.

When the National Assembly becomes a bourgeois theater, all the bourgeois theaters should be turned into national assemblies.
Under 21? [Picture of a brick] Here is your ballot!
On ne revendiquera rien, on ne demandera rien. On prendra, on occupera. (We will beg for nothing. We will ask for nothing. We will take, we will occupy.)
Le patron a besoin de toi, tu n'as pas besoin de lui. (The boss needs you, you don't need him.)
Since 1936 I have fought for wage increases. My father before me fought for wage increases. Now I have a TV, a fridge, a Volkswagen. Yet my whole life has been a drag. Don’t negotiate with the bosses. Abolish them.
A single non-revolutionary weekend is infinitely more bloody than a month of total revolution.
The revolution doesn’t belong to the committees, it’s yours.
We want structures that serve people, not people serving structures.

[human strike]

http://bopsecrets.org/CF/graffiti.htm

I like: "Labor unions are whorehouses."