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Documents from May 1968

Documents from May 1968

Monthly Archives: May 2016

Tract – “We belong to the 75% of the Workers who want to Return to Work” (31 May 1968 – Union des Stephanois pour la Défense des Droits Civiques)

31 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in Gaullist, May 27-June 2 1968, Tract, Uncategorized

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This actually the only example of an “response” tract that I’ve come across – it is a right-wing answer (closely following the same formatting even!) to the union tract posted previously.

WE BELONG TO
THE 75% OF
WORKERS

who wish
TO RETURN TO WORK

  AND WE will ALL BE BE PRESENT
  ON TUESDAY, JUNE 4 to assert
  OUR RIGHTS.

 FREEDOM TO WORK
   EQUALITY
     FRATERNITY

UNION OF ST. ETIENNE
FOR THE DEFENSE OF CIVIL RIGHTS

 



Poster – “Address to All Workers” (30 May 1968 – Comité Enragés/Internationale Situationniste/CMDO)

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in CMDO, Enragés, Internationale Situationniste, May 27-June 2 1968, Poster, Tract, Uncategorized, Workers

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“Address to All Workers”

(30 May 1968 – CMDO)

Black offset on offset paper

28.5 x 44.5 cm

This is a larger poster-format version of a tract published by the CMDO.   

(Translated by Ken Knabb)

Address to All Workers

Comrades,

What we have already done in France is haunting Europe and will soon threaten all the ruling classes of the world, from the bureaucrats of Moscow and Beijing to the millionaires of Washington and Tokyo. Just as we have made Paris dance, the international proletariat will once again take up its assault on the capitals of all the states and all the citadels of alienation. The occupation of factories and public buildings throughout the country has not only brought a halt to the functioning of the economy, it has brought about a general questioning of the society. A deep-seated movement is leading almost every sector of the population to seek a real transformation of life. This is the beginning of a revolutionary movement, a movement which lacks nothing but the consciousness of what it has already done in order to triumph.

What forces will try to save capitalism? The regime will fall unless it threatens to resort to arms (accompanied by the promise of new elections, which could only take place after the capitulation of the movement) or even resorts to immediate armed repression. If the Left comes to power, it too will try to defend the old world through concessions and through force. The best defender of such a “popular government” would be the so-called “Communist” Party, the party of Stalinist bureaucrats, which has fought the movement from the very beginning and which began to envisage the fall of the de Gaulle regime only when it realized it was no longer capable of being that regime’s main guardian. Such a transitional government would really be “Kerenskyist” only if the Stalinists were beaten. All this will ultimately depend on the workers’ consciousness and capacities for autonomous organization. The workers who have already rejected the ridiculous agreement that the union leaders were so pleased with need only discover that they cannot “win” much more within the framework of the existing economy, but that they can take everything by transforming all the bases of the economy on their own behalf. The bosses can hardly pay more; but they can disappear.

The present movement did not become “politicized” by going beyond the miserable union demands regarding wages and pensions, demands which were falsely presented as “social questions.” It is beyond politics: it is posing the social question in its simple truth. The revolution that has been in the making for over a century is returning. It can express itself only in its own forms. It’s too late for a bureaucratic-revolutionary patching up. When a recently de-Stalinized bureaucrat like André Barjonet calls for the formation of a common organization that would bring together “all the authentic forces of revolution . . . whether they march under the banner of Trotsky or Mao, of anarchy or situationism,” we need only recall that those who today follow Trotsky or Mao, to say nothing of the pitiful “Anarchist Federation,” have nothing to do with the present revolution. The bureaucrats may now change their minds about what they call “authentically revolutionary”; authentic revolution will not change its condemnation of bureaucracy.

At the present moment, with the power they hold and with the parties and unions being what they are, the workers have no other choice but to organize themselves in unitary rank-and-file committees directly taking over the economy and all aspects of the reconstruction of social life, asserting their autonomy vis-à-vis any sort of political or unionist leadership, ensuring their self-defense, and federating with each other regionally and nationally. In so doing they will become the sole real power in the country, the power of workers councils. The only alternative is to return to their passivity and go back to watching television. The proletariat is “either revolutionary or nothing.”

What are the essential features of council power? Dissolution of all external power; direct and total democracy; practical unification of decision and execution; delegates who can be revoked at any moment by those who have mandated them; abolition of hierarchy and independent specializations; conscious management and transformation of all the conditions of liberated life; permanent creative mass participation; internationalist extension and coordination. The present requirements are nothing less than this. Self-management is nothing less. Beware of all the modernist coopters — including even priests — who are beginning to talk of self-management or even of workers councils without acknowledging this minimum, because they want to save their bureaucratic functions, the privileges of their intellectual specializations or their future careers as petty bosses!

In reality, what is necessary now has been necessary since the beginning of the proletarian revolutionary project. It’s always been a question of working-class autonomy. The struggle has always been for the abolition of wage labor, of commodity production, and of the state. The goal has always been to accede to conscious history, to suppress all separations and “everything that exists independently of individuals.” Proletarian revolution has spontaneously sketched out its appropriate forms in the councils — in St. Petersburg in 1905, in Turin in 1920, in Catalonia in 1936, in Budapest in 1956. The preservation of the old society, or the formation of new exploiting classes, has each time been over the dead body of the councils. The working class now knows its enemies and its own appropriate methods of action. “Revolutionary organization has had to learn that it can no longer combat alienation by means of alienated forms of struggle” (The Society of the Spectacle). Workers councils are clearly the only solution, since all the other forms of revolutionary struggle have led to the opposite of what was aimed at.

ENRAGÉS-SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE
COUNCIL FOR MAINTAINING THE OCCUPATIONS
30 May 1968

Tract – “We belong to the 95% of the Workers” (late May 1968 – CGT, CFDT, CGT-FO, FEN)

29 Sunday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in CGT, May 27-June 2 1968, Tract, Uncategorized, Union

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WE BELONG TO
THE 95% OF 
WORKERS

who have for 10 YEARS been the VICTIMS of the refusal of dialogue and the exploitation of employers and the government.

THE STRIKE HAS DRIVEN THEM BACK!

We reject the call to civil war by the Head of State,

only the satisfaction of our claims will stop the strike.

The U.D. : CGT – CFDT – CGT-FO – FEN

Tract – “Take Action” (28 May 1968 – CDR)

28 Saturday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in CDR, Comites pour la Defense de la Republique, Gaullist, May 27-June 2 1968, Tract, Uncategorized

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(Translated in Fisera – Document 85)

TAKE ACTION

FRENCHWOMEN,
FRENCHMEN,

– The present paralysis of economic activity can only lead to unemployment and poverty. 
– In your factories, workshops, offices and universities, stand up firmly against troublemakers. 
– Protect the freedom of expression and the right to work, against a violent minority. 
– The government of the Republic will defend law and order, and your rights, against anarchy.
– Rally sympathisers and all those that are hesitant together. 

THE MAJORITY OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE IS WITH YOU!

        Committees for the 
        Defence of the 
        Republic.

Poster – “What can the Revolutionary Movement do now?” (May 1968 – CMDO)

27 Friday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in CMDO, Internationale Situationniste, Poster, Uncategorized

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WHAT CAN THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT DO NOW?
EVERYTHING.

WHAT WILL IT BECOME IN THE HANDS OF THE PARTIES AND UNIONS?
NOTHING

WHAT DOES IT WANT? THE REALISATION OF A CLASSLESS SOCIETY THROUGH THE POWER OF WORKERS’ COUNCILS.

Council for the Maintenance of Occupations

(May 1968 – Council for the Maintenance of Occupations)

Black offset

18 x 24.5 cm

Poster – “Employed & Unemployed Workers – all unite. Join your district’s Action Committee” (25 May 1968 – Atelier Populaire)

26 Thursday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in Atelier Populaire, Comites d'Action, May 20-26 1968, Poster, Uncategorized, Workers

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“Employed & Unemployed Workers – all unite. Join your district’s Action Committee”

(May 25 1968 – Atelier Populaire)


Red screen-print on newsprint (ENSBA stamp)

45 x 56 cm

Documented in:
Gasquet p. 157 ; Beaubourg #166 ; Camard #104a ; Wlassikoff p.70 ; Mesa p106 ; Beauty #110 ; UUU p23 ; Dobson #149; Les Affiches #45

Online References:
ENSBA # 10624
BNF

Tract – “The UNEF Declaration” (25 May 1968 – UNEF)

25 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in May 20-26 1968, Students, Tract, Uncategorized, UNEF

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(Translated in Schnapp – Document 85)

The UNEF Declaration

Following the events of the last three weeks, and particularly these last few days, in all the University cities in France – notably in Paris; taking into account the situation, the distortions made by official news releases or by those controlled by the government, we want to clarify the following points:

I – THE POLICE AND THE GOVERNMENT
ARE ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INCIDENTS
THAT HAVE JUST OCCURRED
AND THE U.N.E.F. DECLARES ITS SOLIDARITY
WITH ALL THE VICTIMS OF THE FORCES OF REPRESSION

 These incidents arise from the government’s intentional tendency to create an objectively explosive and provocatory situation for the students and for the workers fighting with them: the UNEF declares its entire solidarity with victims of police repression, on whatever occasion it is used.

II – THE U.N.E.F. PROPOSES TO DESIGNATE
MONDAY MAY 27 AS A DAY FOR LARGE DEMONSTRATIONS
THROUGHOUT THE NATION

 The attitude of the police makes them entirely responsible for all confrontations, Particularly today and tomorrow, the presence of large forces in the Latin Quarter, their constant comings and goings, the way they disperse all groups, are so many provocations: if incidents occur, the government must know that it causes them.

 The UNEF makes no call for demonstrations today or tomorrow. As a counter-measure it proposes that all Paris and provincial militants make Monday, May 27 a national day for demonstrations, to be held after 5 P.M.

III – THE UNIVERSITY STRUGGLE HAS MEANING ONLY
IF IT IS INTEGRATED WITH THE LARGER STRUGGLE:
THERE WILL BE NO DIALOGUE WITH A GOVERNMENT
THAT REFUSES TO RECOGNISE THE MEANING OF
THIS COMMON STRUGGLE

 For a long time now the UNEF has emphasised that the University struggle is meaningless unless it becomes a part of the framework of confrontation and combat against the capitalist regime: true democratisation of education can only exist in liaison with an overthrow of production relationships and the transformation of economic structures by and for the workers.

 It is very evident that on all these points the government and General de Gaulle are unwilling to consider the nature of our combat and that they see it only from the standpoint of perpetuation of the present system.

 Therefore, we consider that there can be no dialogue with the regime.

IV – THE UNIVERSITY, IN ANY CASE, IS TAKING IN HAND
ITS OWN AFFAIRS

 On May 17, 1968, the UNEF proposed to all students and professors four precise points on which pressure may be brought to bear.

 The decisions freely taken by the student body are in broad agreement with proposals made by the UNEF. Wherever possible, particularly in the faculties henceforth under co-equal administration (teacher-student), we must now conclude and actually inaugurate the right of veto on all decisions taken. In reality, only control over decisions will make it possible to ensure permanent University confrontation. Wherever universities are autonomous, all deviation towards any sort of private administration of the faculties must be fought against. Autonomy also means that the University should be widely opened to workers.

 The UNEF therefore calls on all its militants and the whole student body to apply their own decisions from now on.

 It also calls for postponement of all examinations until September.

V – FOR AN EVEN STRONGER LIAISON
BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY STRUGGLE
AND THE STRUGGLE OF WORKERS AND PEASANTS

 The UNEF welcomes the actual junction of striking workers with students which took place in Paris on May 24, as well as in many provincial University cities, in the factories, and in the facultés. In all these cases tens of thousands of striking workers have joined the students.                            

 The UNEF sends its warmest greetings to all workers engaged in the battle with their unions. Because it believes in the importance of keeping a united student-worker front, it asks workers’ unions:
– To maintain the same solid front in face of government repression. As it happens, the refusal to give Daniel Cohn-Bendit a residence permit is precisely a decisive element of this repression.
-To remember that our position is a simple one: never, and in no way, do we intend to give lessons to working class organizations, but on the other hand, none will be accepted with regard to the student struggle.

 Permanent discussions exist at the grass roots between students and workers. To the extent that the aforementioned points are clearly understood, the UNEF proposes that the same discussions be begun on all levels with the workers’ union organizations.

 The degree to which action carried out in Paris has been reproduced in the provinces has made extension to the workers sector possible.

 At present, and with the same concern for developing the movement, the UNEF calls on all students in all University cities to increase their activities:
– for continuation of our university combat
– for union of students and workers
– for their common victory.

National Committee of the UNEF, 
May 25, 1968.

Tract – “De Gaulle at the Door!” (24 May 1968 – Comités d’Action)

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in Comites d'Action, May 20-26 1968, Tract, Uncategorized

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(Translated in Beauty – pp 211-2) 

DE GAULLE AT THE DOOR!

 The Motion to Censure did not pass, and already the ministers lift up their heads, forgetting their fear of the day before, and already some hesitate to continue the struggle. Both sides are fooling themselves just as much as the other. 
 We do not need an impotent and hostile parliament to recognise our force. No censure will be as strong and definitive as this one, given by 10 million strikers. 
 No permission is any longer necessary for the masses to make their will to power known.

The State? 
 It has lost its universities, its manufacturer of fake ideas and of the framework of oppression
 It has lost its factories, its control of economic activity, its riches. 
 The State has lost everything; it has nothing left but power:

IT IS FOR THE TAKING. 

 But already the CRS attempts to attack the picket lines of strikes that are isolated from one another and therefore vulnerable. In the street we oppose them in a united front. 
 Today, the small farmers, in turn, show their opposition to the regime.

WORKERS, FARMERS, STUDENTS,
AGAINST THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM,
TOGETHER IN THE STREET

 In France, foreign workers, the most exploited, those at the greatest risk, are shoulder to shoulder with us. De Gaulle claims to forbid one of our comrades to return. If COHN-BENDIT is a foreigner, we are all foreigners!

NO BORDERS!
COHN-BENDIT WITH US!

 In Belgium, in Germany, in Italy, in England, in Holland, in all capitalist countries, struggles similar to ours or unified with our combat are developing.

LONG LIVE THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY OF WORKERS AND STUDENTS

 Our industry, regional, and faculty Action Committees are already bringing together thousands of workers and students who do not want their struggle to be in vain:

EVERYONE TO THE DEMONSTRATION
 Friday May 24 at 5:00 p.m.

-Place Clichy -Stalingrad -Porte des Lilas -Porte de Montreuil

 We will gather at the Gare de Lyon at 7 p.m.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES!

THE ACTION COMMITTEES

Poster – “Paris Belongs to Us” (3rd week of May 1968 – Coordination group for the Action Committees)

23 Monday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in Comites d'Action, Coordination des Comités d'Action, May 20-26 1968, Poster, Uncategorized

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PARIS BELONGS TO US

For three weeks the workers and students of Paris have occupied the factories and faculties, protested on every street of the capital, and organised themselves in response to police provocation. Their unity is forged in action, behind the barricades, in the streets, in communal debate, from the roots.

United in our struggle we have proved ourselves to be a force that the State can do nothing to oppose.

It has no more weapons to resort to other than police terrorism, with batons, tear-gas grenades and systematic beatings. Let’s not let it divide us.

WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT SEEKING?

Firstly, to divide us. How? By cutting off the workers from students and playing the politics of the carrot and stick. Pompidou and De Gaulle have offered a pseudo-reform of the University, hoping that the students would obediently come to the table. But the students know that the bourgeoisie University wont be reformed. It’s with the Workers and not De Gaulle that future of the University will be decided.

Faced with this rebuttal the state has unleashed savage repression. Its goal is to confine the struggle to the Latin Quarter, and deliberately provoke violence there, in order to show that the students as mere troublemakers, and to discredit them in the eyes of the people of Paris.

LET’S FOIL THE POLICE PLOT

On Friday and Saturday night, by the tens of thousands, we kept the mobilisation of the cops in check at the Bastille, the Gare de Lyon, the Bourse, Opera, Place Vendome, and rue de Rivoli. It was only when we had assembled around the Sorbonne that the police were able to organise the slaughter, safe from an immediate and massive retaliation by the population.

The barricades of the Latin Quarter allowed the fight to begin, but they mustn’t delimit it, or confine it to this one part of the capital.

THE FIGHT WILL BE CARRIED OUT THROUGHOUT PARIS

The cops can isolate a couple of thousand protestors who are gathered in a restricted area. They are powerless if we are tens or hundreds of thousands organised throughout the capital.

Let’s set up Action Committees in every arrondissement, and in every district.

Let’s discuss the aims of our struggle. Let’s reject the dictatorship that has oppressed Paris ever since the government of Versailles crushed the glorious Commune. No Chief of Police or Mayor can determine our destinies any longer, but rather Parisians themselves.

Together, at every level, let’s prepare action towards this goal, and let’s undertake it quickly.

THE REGIME IS TOTTERING, LET’S KNOCK IT DOWN!

Power belongs to the people.

Our struggle has shown that we are able to seize it.

WORKERS, STUDENTS LET’S COMBINE OUR EFFORTS
LET’S ORGANISE OUR FORCES

THE PEOPLE OF PARIS MUST GOVERN PARIS

(3rd week of May 1968 – Coordination group for the Action Committees)

Black Offset print

45 x 56 cm

Documented in:
Gasquet p. 14 (450 x 560) ; Beauty #369b

Online Resources:

ENSBA #12906



Poster – “Coordination group for the Action Committees” (? May 1968 – Cattolica)

22 Sunday May 2016

Posted by biffbang in Artist-produced, Comites d'Action, Coordination des Comités d'Action, Poster, Uncategorized

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“Coordination group for the Action Committees”

(May 1968 – Cattolica)

Black offset on gloss paper

45.5 x 56 cm

Documented in:
Beaubourg #244 ; Camard #103  ; Gasquet p. 203, Peters #163; Artcurial #344 

Online References:
ENSBA # 10750

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