29 Monday Aug 2016
Posted in Atelier Populaire, May 20-26 1968, Poster, Uncategorized
“I Participate, You Participate, He Participates, We Participate, You all Participate, They Profit”
(24 May 1968 – Atelier Populaire)
Green screen-print on newspaper
31 x 65.5 cm
Doumented in:
Mesa p94; Dobson #34; UUU p34; Peters #247; Beaubourg #161; Camard #56; Les Affiches #155; Wlassikoff p67; Beauty #147; Gasquet p.55; Murs #141 & 156; Paves; Artcurial #448; Chartres #11 &12
Online Resources:
ENSBA #10744 10515
Zurich – 64-0695
BNF 1 2
23 Tuesday Aug 2016
Posted in CNT, May 20-26 1968, Tract, Uncategorized, Union
A.I.T. NATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF WORKERS 39 Rue de la TOUR D’AUVERGNE – PARIS 19th
S T U D E N T S . . . W O R K E R S
ALL UNITED IN THE STRUGGLE! . . .
The censure motion has been rejected… One more time politicians have given the proof of their powerlessness. It’s therefore the working class, closely united with the students, that has to take responsibility for settling social problems.
It could well be said to us that workers’ management or self-management are hollow catchphrases, the press happily declares that “Cohn-Bendit doesn’t know”; but we are convinced that the current situation demands a radical transformation of society.
ALONG WITH THE STUDENTS the entire working class must create a united front and continue the protest… against the Police State and sclerosis of capitalist society.
WITH THE STUDENTS…
… for a new society which encourages the flourishing of the intellectual abilities of all young people without distinction…
… A society that offers everyone a rational share in the production the distribution of consumer goods; having as a principle: TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS NEEDS, FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS MEANS
… A society that takes into account the requirements of the old, it’s past workers who today no longer have the minimum which is vital to reach the end their lives with dignity
… Finally, a society that respects the dignity and the character of the individual, that could enable the raising of consciousness
All of this doesn’t rule out, for the time being the struggle for the repeal of all unlawful laws: The rule of the SS – restrictions on union freedoms, violations of the right to strike…
We must never cease to condemn all violations of the rights of workers, the omnipotence of corporations, the contradictions of capitalism and its powerlessness to meet the needs of the population.
More than ever, we have to fight against easy solutions that involve pursuing dialogue with a State that doesn’t listen, and doesn’t hesitate to use violence and repression.
The news reports give us motive, neither mini-strikes nor petitions to elected representatives have brought remedies to the people’s malaise. The C.N.T. Has been in solidarity with the students from the start.
In direct action, in the unlimited general strike, in this popular desire, this passion to create a better society, more just and humane, WE REMAIN UNITED RIGHT TO THE END!
Paris, 24 May 1968
Confederated Committee of the C.N.T.
22 Monday Aug 2016
Posted in May 20-26 1968, PSU, Tract, Uncategorized
(Translation – Fisera 70)
A CALL from the United Socialist Party
Popular anger is mounting continuously among the workers and students. It is starting to appear among the peasants. Everywhere it has the same grounds: the rejection of a capitalist and centralised society, the challenge to the autocratic powers of the government, of the employers and of the big farm owners.
The movement which emerged from the Latin Quarter has come as far as challenging power in today’s society. Action should now spring from the generalisation of occupations in workplaces, and through the adoption of precise slogans on the establishment of real popular powers:
– The students must organise their power in the schools, the faculties and in the grandes écoles.
– The workers must impose their power and that of the trade-union organisations, creating the necessary conditions for exercising this power.
– The peasants must construct collective organisations on a regional basis, and establish the conditions for the production and commercialisation of their products.
All those who no longer accept submission to the laws of a reactionary state ought to take it upon themselves to manage their own affairs. They should set up Popular Action Committees: committees for students and teachers in the universities and schools, workers committees in companies, peasant committees in the countryside, local committees, neighbourhood committees, committees on the large estates, etc.
The PSU calls on its militants, and on all those who have confidence in it, to join existing committees or to speed up their creation where they do not exist. It is in such committees as these that the form of a new society should express itself, through discussion and confrontation, but also through action and the setting up of effective powers
To all those who wish to confine the peoples movement or to limit its aims in order to control it better, to those who think they can answer the overall challenge to capitalist society by simply changing the parliamentary balance or a governmental formula, to those who are still hesitating because they did not believe in the student revolt and had doubts about the student-worker liaison during the struggle, we must in future respond by opening up new prospects for them.
THE PSU PROPOSES
1. WORKERS’ POWER
in addition to the necessary political and trade-union freedoms:
The right to veto decisions made by the bosses concerning employment and working conditions. Discussions of real wages and the length of working hours. Control of the utilisation of profits and investments.
The right of civil servants to negotiate their pay and working conditions with their employer (the state). The creation of Company committees in administration and public establishments.
Management of public companies by state and workers representatives.
The increase of financial shares in national companies and the extension of the public sector by the nationalisation of centres of economic decision-making.
Workers management of social security.
2. PEASANTS’ POWER
For the peasants, represented by their trade unions and co-operatives:
The management of the organs of regional planning and production.
Control of the methods of processing and selling agricultural products.
3. STUDENTS’ POWER
For the students, the main objectives are those of UNEF:
The immediate establishment of real student power in the faculties, with the right to veto any decisions taken.
Dependent on this first point is the autonomy of the universities and faculties.
The struggle for the recognition of the CAL (School Students’ Action Committees) and for their freedom of expression and action
WE MUST DEMAND
1. INFORMATION serving the workers:
The transformation of ORTF into an autonomous public body, independent of the State and democratically controlled.
Nationalisation of the press printing companies delivery services, advertising, by the creation of national boards managed by workers representatives, and by putting the technical information services at the disposal of the various trends of opinion.
2. A CULTURAL POLICY with a socialist character:
a) the transformation of the activity of the Youth Centres and Culture Centres into free debating and creative centres under the management of young workers;
b) the takeover of other sectors of cultural life by writers and artists who have taken a stand against bourgeois culture.
3. A REGIONAL ORGANISATION
To fight underdevelopment and authoritarian centralisation. It is vital that the Popular Acton Committees co-ordinate their actions at a regional level.
Instead of Gaullist government agents, regional authorities controlled by the people should be created, as embryos of assemblies capable of solving the problems of cultural and economic development (education, employment, industrialisation).
The PSU presents these proposals for open debate by the Popular Action Committees
22 Monday Aug 2016
Posted in Comites d'Action, May 20-26 1968, Tract, Uncategorized
Students Workers
During the protests that have shaken the sterile “Gaullist order” the people have become aware of the immense force they represent, while at the same time assessing the real weakness of the state.
10 years of the Gaullist regime have proven to the total ineffectiveness of traditional forms of struggle.
The bosses and the government are stunned. Panic-sticken Capitalism entreats the “representative leadership” of the working class to take things in hand.
It knows that in times of profound social crisis the reformist leadership are the best and ultimate bulwark of the regime.
In the trap of their negotiations, these leaders divert workers from total victory in favor of interim financial benefits quickly offset by the increased cost of living.
The workers and students do not want their fight to end up like the movements of 1936 and 1945.
It must go all the way. WE HAVE OCCUPIED THE FACULTIES, THE ADMINISTRATIONS , THE FACTORIES …
we will stay there
Let us make them function by us and for us, showing that workers’ management has the ability make things better for all, rather than the benefit of the few that the capitalists scandalously used them for.
Do not let the bourgeois politicians or the social democrats negotiate a return to order with a sitting cabinet.
We insist on the departure of De Gaulle and the creation of a workers’ government. The state which we want must institute direct democracy within a socialist framework, established through the directions of grass-roots committees.
These committees will have the duty to ensure its effective implementation.
WE WON’T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF FUTILE DISCUSSIONS
power is to be taken
Students Workers Action Committee
22 Monday Aug 2016
(Translation – Fisera 58)
PROGRESSIVE STUDENTS PLAN
FOR A UNIVERSITY TO SERVE THE PEOPLE
The progressive students submit to the working-class masses a programme for the radical transformation of the university, with the aim of placing it under the control and at the service of the people:
2. Universities will be completely open to workers who wish to attend courses there. All university facilities will be available to the people.
3. Higher education will reserve more than 50% of its places to working-class and peasant children.
4. All lecturers and assistants of higher education will devote a certain amount of their time to helping workers study, and especially to improving the literacy of immigrant workers.
5. Education will be reshaped, and useless subjects will be scrapped. Exams will no longer be suddenly sprung on students, who will be allowed to collaborate freely amongst themselves and with their lecturers.
To achieve this plan, the masses must unite, overthrowing Gaullist, conquering and radically transforming society.
This will only be possible if the large mass of progressive students unites closely with the mass of workers and poor peasants. Students must move resolutely towards the people, in order to support their heroic struggle against unemployment and starvation wages, against the monopolising of land and against fascism and repression in the factories.
For a people’s university in a free peoples regime.
LONG LIVE THE UNITY OF WORKERS, OF POUR PEASANTS AND OF STUDENTS.
DOWN WITH GAULLISM, THIS ANTI-POPULAR REGIME OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY.
Movement of Support to the People’s Struggle.
22 Monday Aug 2016
Posted in JCR, May 20-26 1968, Tract, Uncategorized
(Translation – Fisera 73)
WORKERS,
STUDENTS
The red flag of the working class flies over the faculties and factories. Millions of workers are occupying their enterprises. The hard-working masses, whom people called “apathetic”, have started to move.
On 13 May 1968, they became aware of their enormous strength, at the same time as they were judging the real weakness of the authorities. During the ten years of Gaullist rule they have experienced the total ineffectiveness of their traditional battle tactics, inherited from the Fourth Republic: parliamentary battles, token strikes, “the days of National Action”, were broken by the strength of the police state, without achieving results.
Only the direct, resolute action of the masses can force the Gaullist state to give way. This is the lesson that millions of workers have learned from the victorious student struggle. They have spontaneously and massively applied this lesson in order to solve their own problems.
Today the centre of gravity of the fight has moved from the faculties to the factories. The challenge to the bourgeois university has changed into the challenge to capitalist society. For let us not be fooled: if the workers are occupying the enterprises in their millions, it is not simply to obtain a satisfactory answer to their wage demands. The question of Power is being posed in the enterprises and in society. The future of the regime is at stake.
The employers and the state are dumbfounded. The panic-stricken Bourgeoise is calling upon the “organisations which are representative of the working class” to take things in hand. It realises that during periods of marked social crisis the reformist leaders of the working class are the best and the last rampart of the capitalist regime: steeped in parliamentarianism, scrupulously respectful of bourgeois legality, these leaders will channel the combativeness of the masses and will direct it towards aims which are in harmony with the survival of the system.
To preserve its authority, the cling class is ready to allow temporary concessions. It knows how to wait for the ebbing of the movement, to take back with one hand what it has had to concede with the other.
The young workers and the students, who are in the thick of the battle, do not want their fight to end in the same way as the 1936 and 1945 movements ended. The movement of unprecedented size which has sprung up in France today must not produce a damp squib.
WE MUST CONTINUE TO THE END!
WE ARE OCCUPYING FACULTIES, ADMINISTRATIONS, FACTORIES
LETS STAY THERE!
– Do not allow the bourgeois or social-democratic “politicians”, the Mitterands, the Guy Mollets, to negotiate a return to order in exchange for a cabinet seat!
– Do not permit the trade-union leaders to negotiate a return to work in exchange for certain advantages, these may be appreciable ones, but they will be rapidly pruned by inflation and by intensification of work rates.
LET US TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF THE BALANCE OF FORCES WE HAVE ESTABLISHED:
The power we want is not that of a left-wing government taking over from a right-wing government.
The power we want has nothing to do with parliamentary combinations of bourgeois and reformist politicians!
The power we want should create the direct democracy of socialism, based on the authority of local committees in the enterprises and in the neighbourhoods.
The power we want should emanate from strike committees and from workers’ and students’ acton committees.
STUDENTS, WORKERS, WE ARE BEING OFFERED A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY: LET US NOT THROW IT AWAY!
REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST YOUTH
(May 21 1968)
22 Monday Aug 2016
Posted in May 20-26 1968, PSU, Tract, Uncategorized
P.S.U.
11th Section
CALL TO THE RESIDENTS OF THE 11th ARRONDISSEMENT
— 600,000 unemployed ……..
— 600,000 Students who refuse an uncertain future enslaved to capitalism
— Millions of workers exploding and occupy their workplaces
— Millions of peasants who revolt.
WHY?
— The Anger of People everywhere has the same basis:
— The refusal of a centralized capitalist society
— Protesting a scornful and authoritarian government, of the bosses and the big agricultural capital.
WHAT TO DO?
Since 1936 dispute through elections, the parliament or via petitions has never resulted in anything.
In contrast, since first the Students, and then the workers have begun to directly confront the government it shrinks back.
We must therefore increase the pressure of direct action until the defeat of capitalism, and the establishment of a Socialist Society.
To organize this action requires that the Workers, whether they are Factory Workers, Peasants, Office Workers or Students, unite in ACTION COMMITTEES at their places of work and residence.
THE UNIFIED SOCIALIST PARTY
invites you to debate with it the action to be taken during a MEETING to be held on:
TUESDAY, MAY 21
20 H 30 at CINEMA “ARTISTIC VOLTAIRE”
45 bis rue Richard Lenoir
With the participation of:
– Mr. BRIDIER Member of P.S.U Nat. Off.
– J. M. VINCENT. ” ” ” ” ”
-C. BALL Secretary General E.S.U.
-A representative of the Action Committee of the “VOLTAIRE” high-school
-A representative of the National Bureau of UNEF
26 Thursday May 2016
Posted in Atelier Populaire, Comites d'Action, May 20-26 1968, Poster, Uncategorized, Workers
“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
25 Wednesday May 2016
Posted in May 20-26 1968, Students, Tract, Uncategorized, UNEF
(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.
24 Tuesday May 2016
Posted in Comites d'Action, May 20-26 1968, Tract, Uncategorized
(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
