Author Archives: biffbang

Tract – “Betrayal!” (Early May 1968)

10 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in May 6-12 1968, Students, Tract, Workers

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TO EVERYONE – TO EVERYONE – TO EVERYONE – TO EVERYONE – TO EVERYONE

BETRAYAL!

Monday 6 May: In the face of savage police repression students and young workers spontaneously respond to the violence of the State which only very narrowly avoids the retaking of the Sorbonne.

Tuesday 7 May: There is a new demonstration with the appearance of security personnel from various bureaucracies. After having forcefully shown the size of our movement on the Champs-Elysées, we end up facing the Latin Quarter as a result of the tactical carelessness of the security detail, who split us up under the pretext of efficiency.

Wednesday 8 May: A security detail is imposed to control this third demonstration. We vow to march on the Sorbonne. Confident, the demonstrators trust the directives of the security detail who planned and organised our defeat by calling for a shameful dispersion when faced by the cops.

The bureaucrats once again showed their true face as the sanitisers of the struggle. We clarify that this was essentially done by the members of FER (Révoltes). These facts demonstrate that every bureaucracy, no matter how revolutionary, quickly becomes reactionary compared with the struggle of the rank and file.

COMRADES!

Under the threat of being endlessly swindled, and having our struggle corrupted and diverted by the bourgeoise and its reformist allies, we must no longer blindly follow the directives of a leadership, whatever it be.

Let’s organise ourselves, for direct action, ridding ourselves of the whiners and defeatists.

EVERYONE UNITE IN DIRECT ACTION!

A group of workers and students of May 6

Photo – Jacques Sauvageot & Jacques Monod (8 May 1968 – Jean Lattès – GAMMA Agency)

08 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by in Jacques Sauvageot, Jean Lattès, May 6-12 1968, Photograph, UNEF

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Photographic print

(8 May 1968 – Jean Lattès)

22.2 x 29.8cm

Paris – 8 May – 1968

Late this afternoon two Nobel prize winners, Alfred Kastler (physics) and Jacques MONOD, took part in a demonstration organised by the UNEF and its president Jacques Sauvageot to demand amnesty for the convicted students.

On rear of photograph:

Tract – “Declaration of the French Communist Party” (7 May 1968 – PCF)

07 Monday May 2018

Posted by in May 6-12 1968, PCF, Tract

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The University:
the Gaullist Régime is Responsible!

DECLARATION
OF THE FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY

Right in the middle of the preparation period for the exams, the Sorbonne and the faculty at Nanterre are closed and police repression is on the rampage.

Responsibility for this situation lies at the door of the Gaullist régime which, for ten years, has been maintaining and aggravating an educational system which is ill-adjusted to our times, in its operation and its methods. Yesterday, the Minister of Education himself declared that there were only 10 per cent of workers’ children amongst the students. Three out of four students cannot finish their studies. And it is still against the students that the government strikes. The students’ discontent is legitimate. Besides, this situation favours the actions of adventurers whose ideas open no horizons for the students and have nothing in common with a truly progressive movement looking towards the future, with a truly revolutionary movement.

The French Communist Party calls on the workers and on all democrats to act with it and with the Union of Communist Students for:

• an immediate and total stop to all police repression. the withdrawal of police from university areas;
• the reopening of the faculties and the normal sitting of examinations;
• the liberation of the prisoners.

United democratic forces can impose these measures. To this end manual and intellectual workers, in solidarity with the students, will extend their action in different ways and will increase their resolutions and delegations to the Ministry of Education.

The French Communist Party calls on the students and the academics, and the mass of workers, to fight for:

• the construction of new faculties (notably at Villetaneuse, Créteil and at Verrières in the Paris region);
• the widespread extension of university institutes of technology, adapted to contemporary realities;
• the appointment of a sufficient number of teachers.

In this struggle the students will continue their action for the awarding of scholarships and for the installation of democratic life in the faculties and in the grandes écoles. These are the first aims of a movement which will lead to a true democratic reform in teaching.

The French Communist Party is fighting for the disappearance of capitalism and the realisation of socialism in France. Consequently it is struggling for a new democracy which will guarantee profound changes, notably in the university and in teaching.

THE SECRETARIAT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY

Paris, 7 May 1968

Tract – Untitled (7 May 1968 – University Chaplains)

06 Sunday May 2018

Posted by in May 6-12 1968, Tract

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It is not enough to put forward the deliberately violent action of extreme left and right wing “groupuscules” to explain the events of the last few days. These groups have only been able to gain influence through deluded and partially misled students

On Monday at Denfert there were not 15,000 extremists nor even simply 15,000 students in solidarity with the four convicted on Sunday. They were also there to show their dissatisfaction with the present state of the university: inadequate finances, irregular methods of work, the way in which teaching is carried out, and its content, the numerous problems caused by the Reforms, the hardship of living conditions which are intolerable for the great majority, lack of certainty about the future (exams, job openings).

These are the real problems, which were expressed as soon as the opportunity presented itself, one can deplore the violent nature of this demonstration. but tomorrow it will be better to attack the real causes.

Naturally, other factors have played a role: the organisation of riots by a minority, intending to create a climate of fear in public opinion, the hasty closure of the Sorbonne, the often brutal and disproportionate police interventions, the hasty convictions. It is therefore necessary to free those unjustly held, to put a stop to police control of the Latin Quarter, and to arrange for the faculties to be reopened as soon as possible.

However, the most important thing is the spirit in which the long and exacting (that’s to say, the most urgent) task of real university reform will be started. It will be necessary to put as much daring into that as there has been violence.

Officials and chaplains of the Christian communities of the faculties of Nanterre, Sorbonne, Censier, and Halle-aux-Vins

Tract – “Call to the Population” (early May 1968)

04 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Fac des Sciences, May 1-5, Students, Tract, Uncategorized

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CALL TO THE POPULATION

While fighting for their claims the students of NANTERRE clashed with the forces of the police. Comrades were caught and 7 union militants were arrested and brought before the Discipline Council.

On Friday 3 May a peaceful meeting that was taking place in the courtyard of the Sorbonne, was used as a pretext for the police, at the behest of Rector ROCHE, to enter the Sorbonne for the first time since Petain, in violation of university exemption, and arrest the meeting’s participants.

This is why thousands of students spontaneously rose up against the Rector’s provocation and the brutality of the police repression. It was following these demonstrations that hundreds of students were arrested and 4 of them were sentenced to time on a prison farm.

FROM NOW ON POLICE REPRESSION IS THE LAST RESORT

OF THE GOVERNMENT TO APPLY ITS POLICIES.

Consequently, the students and teachers of the PARIS FACULTY OF SCIENCE, aware of the seriousness of the situation

DEMAND :

– the Halt of police repression –
– the unconditional release of our convicted comrades –
– the lifting of all university and judicial sanctions –
– the retreat of the police –
– the reopening of the Faculties –
– the resignation of rector ROCHE –

CONDEMN :

– the government’s policy on unemployment –
– the expulsion and arbitrary selection of students –

DENOUNCE :

– the lies of the Press –

CALL FOR :

– a university where students and teachers have real power, which today is held by the administration alone –

CALL ON THE POPULATION TO DEMONSTRATE ITS SOLIDARITY

STRIKING STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
OF THE SCIENCE FACULTY –

Poster – “Effective Solidarity – Students Workers” (5 June 1968? – Atelier Arts Décoratifs)

23 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by in Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, June 3-9 1968, Poster

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“Effective Solidarity – Students Workers”

(5 June 1968? – Atelier Arts Décoratifs)

Pink/blue screenprint on brown paper

49.5 x 62 cm

Documented In:
Camard #35a; Beauty #119; Gasquet p.146; Murs #76b; Artcurial #419b; Wlassikoff p38; Mesa p.55; Dobson #138

Online Resources:
ENSBA #10692
Bienecke: BrSides Folio 2008 102