Remembering May 1968

For more great posters like this one, see Paris 1968 Posters.

"THE COMMUNE'S NOT DEAD"
French May 1968 Song
by the Council for Maintaining the Occupations (C.M.D.O.)

At the barricades of Gay-Lussac,
The Enrages at our head,
We unleashed the attack:
Oh bloody hell, what a party!
We were in ecstasy amongst the cobblestones
Seeing the old world go up in flames.
CHORUS: All that has shown, Carmela,
That the commune's not dead (repeat)
To brighten things up, the combatants,
Fucking set fire to cars:
One match and, Forward!
Poetry written in petrol.
And you should have seen the C.R.S.
Really get their asses burnt!
(chorus)
Politicized, the blousons noirs,
Seized the Sorbonne,
To help them fight and destroy,
They put no faith in anybody.
Theory was realized,
The shops were looted.
(chorus)
What you produce belongs to you,
It's the bosses who are the thieves.
They are taking the piss out of you,
When they make you pay in the shops.
While waiting for self-management,
We'll apply the critique of the brick.
(chorus)
All the parties, the unions,
And their bureaucrats,
Oppress the proletariat,
As much as the bourgeoisie
Against the state and its allies,
Let's form workers' councils.
(chorus)
The Occupation Committee,
Spits on Trotskyists,
Maoists and other prats,
Who exploit the strikers.
Next time there'll be blood spilt,
By the enemies of freedom.
(chorus)
Now that the insurgents
Have gone back to survival.
Boredom, forced labor,
And ideologies,
We'll take pleasure in sowing
Other May flowers to be picked one day.
FINAL CHORUS

Remembering
May 1968's
"Days of the Barricades"

''I am happy to have participated in the events of May 1968. I am an unrepentant '68 person. Many have regretted their participation, but not me. . .In 1968, there was this feeling that there was a global convergence of events. There was the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the Prague Spring, the students' revolt in Mexico, and later on, the First Quarter Storm in the Philippines."
He thinks that feeling is coming back: ''There is a sense of new community in the fight against globalisation. The feeling we had in 1968 is emerging once again... We have learned through time that no one can tell when another mass movement like in 1968 will happen again. There are a thousand crises that can trigger it off, but which one, no one knows.''
Pierre Rousset

''One truly amazing aspect of May '68 was the way the protest encircled the globe: Saturday May 11, 50,000 students and workers marched on Bonn, and 3,000 protesters i