Category Archives: May 6-12 1968

Tract – “Young Workers at the Heart of the Struggle” (22 May 1968 – Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne)

23 Tuesday Aug 2016

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J.O.C.F St-Etienne, 22 May 1968
ST. ETIENNE SOUTH
4, rue Mi-Carême

YOUNG WORKERS

—————————————————–
AT THE HEART OF THE STRUGGLE
—————————————————–

The Friends were out and about ….
What we saw, is Important ……

COME
Saturday, May 25 at 2pm sharp
Salle Saint-Etienne – 4, rue Mi-Carême
In the hall of the Bishopric Bookstore

In order, together, to see how, as Jocistes, we can live through these Events and to reflect as a group on how we can continue our Action. –

“The J.O.C. has always maintained that ONE YOUNG WORKER IS WORTH MORE THAN ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD – More than ever it is important to tell Society what we want.”

— A unique and tremendous way to help us:
A Young Worker/Alive – At the Heart of the Struggle –
   (You shall find the Federation)

In Friendship
The Federal Team

Tract – “National Office of the UNEF to the Trade Unions (early May 1968 – UNEF)

23 Tuesday Aug 2016

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NATIONAL OFFICE OF THE UNEF
TO THE TRADE UNIONS

  Dear Comrades,

  Since Friday, May 3 the police have occupied the Sorbonne (after locking-out Nanterre), something that hadn’t been seen since the odious regime of Petain.

  Since Friday, May 3, when the police savagely beat them, students have called on their union, UNEF, to defend their right to political and collective expression.

  Currently the government and the press are trying to isolate the student movement, which is why in the face of this offensive, which affects the entire labor movement, we appeal to you to publicly affirm solidarity with our actions, and ask you to consider an inter-union demonstration with us in defence of the right of political and collective expression and against police repression.

NATIONAL OFFICE 
OF THE UNEF

Tract – “Paris, 12 May (AFP)” (12 May 1968 – Comités d’Action du 3 Mai)

21 Sunday Aug 2016

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PARIS, May 12 (AFP)

 During a press conference held yesterday evening (Sunday) in an amphitheater of the Faculty of Sciences, Dr. KAHN, professor of medicine, protested against the use of a particularly toxic gas during the demonstrations in the Latin Quarter.

 The professor revealed that his observations of many students, together with a personal investigation, had enabled him to identify it absolutely as chlorobenzalmalomonitride, more commonly called C.S. or C.B.

 This gas, according to Dr. KAHN, which is used by the police in the United States as well as by American troops in Vietnam, is said to attack the human hepatic and renal centres and, in the laboratory, to have been proved fatal to animals that have been given concentrated doses.

 But what is serious, added Professor KAHN, is that they have been able to use such a gas during forty-eight hours in Paris without warning the medical authorities, whereas no known antidotes exist in France at this time against this compound. 

       AFP, 10:41 P.M.

IT ISN’T POSSIBLE TO TALK
WITH AN ASSASSIN AND A LIAR!

WE ARE CONTINUING STREET ACTION
AND OCCUPATION OF THE FACULTIES,
UNTIL 
GRIMAUD 
    AND 
FOUCHET
RESIGN

Monday, 2:00 AM

The May 3 Action Committees

Tract – “Call of the Communist Youth Movement” (12 May 1968 – JCF)

21 Sunday Aug 2016

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CALL OF THE COMMUNIST YOUTH MOVEMENT

  In the Latin Quarter, on the night of May 10 and 11 1968, the Gaullist police attacked students with unprecedented brutality. The students were pummelled, charged, choked and blinded by gas. Hundreds were wounded.

  The young workers, high-school pupils, and university students of France are rising up in indignation and anger.

  The Communist Youth Movement of France and its student organisation, the U.E.C.F., ACCUSES THE GAULLIST GOVERNMENT OF TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THESE DRAMATIC EVENTS.

  They reveal the extent to which this government is the defender of the bourgeois order, the capitalist system, bankers and big bosses.

  THIS REGIME IS THE ENEMY OF THE YOUTH AND OF STUDENTS.

  In protest against the brutality of the Gaullist police, we will defend our rights, and develop anti-capitalist action.

  To meet the demands of the youth and students, our country has to be rid of this evil regime.

  Students, pupils, young workers, let us unite and act together with the working class for the establishment of a popular government that will be realised with and for youth.

  The Communist Youth Committee of the XIIth Arrondissement calls on students, pupils, and young workers to
a massive participation in strikes, demonstrations, rallies over the coming hours: in the protests of all our people against police repression.

  ALL OF THE YOUTH ARE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE MASS OF STUDENTS AND HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS.

  The Latin Quarter for students and teachers !
  Reopening of all the faculties !
  Immediate amnesty for all the imprisoned !

——

EVERYONE TO THE 
PROTEST:
Monday 13th May 1968

With the participation of:
– CGT
– CFDT
– FEN
– FO
– SNESup
– SNES
– UNEF

Supported by the French Communist Party 
and the Federation of the Left.

Union of French Communist Youth.

Tract – “In the Face of Repression” (9 May 1968 – JCR)

20 Saturday Aug 2016

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(Translation – Fisera 30)

In the Face of Repression

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS , HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS , WORKERS
WE MUST ; BREAK THE SILENCE
     BREAK THE ISOLATION
 CREATE A UNITED RESISTANCE FRONT

– By extending the battle front to all the workers
   – By extending our battle to the whole nation,
 – By the international co-ordination of youth movements

YOUNG PEOPLE , FROM REVOLT TO REVOLUTION
 WE MUST ORGANISE OURSELVES
 EVERYONE TO THE INTERNATIONAL RALLY 

With the participation of:
 The leaders of the S.D.S. of BERLIN
 The leaders of the S.D.E.E. MADRID
 The representatives of S.N.C.C. BLACK POWER
 PAOLO FLORES from ARCAIS ROME
 MASSIMO GORLA ITALY
 ERNEST MANDEL BELGIUM

THE LEADERS OF THE J.C.R. 

At the Mutualité – Thursday 9 May, 8.30p.m.

REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST YOUTH PO Box AGJ 39-16. Paris

Tract – “The Combat Continues” (10 May 1968 – FER)

20 Saturday Aug 2016

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FER —— REVOLTES —— FER

The nation bureau of the revolutionary federation of students declares:

 the fight continues!

 The government dreads the students combining with the working class.

 Last Monday it savagely beat the students, BUT THEY FOUGHT BACK.

 On Tuesday it couldn’t prevent 50,000 workers and students from holding the street for 6 hours, until the government made the Latin Quarter prohibited. The fight is paying off, but nothing has been won.

 THE U.N.E.F. HAS ASKED THE CONFEDERATIONS TO ORGANISE A GENERAL PROTEST.

       we’ll fight

 workers, students 

       together!

STUDENTS, WORKERS, 

 To triumph, it’s necessary to set up a way to organise democratic decisions on action against the machinery of the centralised state.

 The workers and students must hold assemblies and form their strike committees in every faculty and enterprise, with representatives that are elected and subject to recall at any time, forming a NATIONAL STRIKE COMMITTEE AND PREPARING PROTESTS TOGETHER WITH THE WORKERS.

THE U.N.E.F. MUST CALL FOR ALL WORKERS AND THEIR ORGANISATIONS to

PROTEST Saturday 11 May  
AT 3PM, DENFERT ROCHEREAU.

FOR — the freeing of our imprisoned comrades
  — the removal of the police
  — the reopening of the faculties
  — the abolition of the Selection Commissions

take part in the THE RALLY of the FER 
Friday 10 May, 8:30pm
   At the Mutualité 

Tract – “The organisations of the U.N.E.F, U.G.E, the S.N.E.Sup, the C.G.T, the C.F.D.T and the F.E.N. make the following call :” (12 May 1968 – UNEF, SNESup, CGT, CFDT, FEN)

20 Saturday Aug 2016

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(Translation – Fisera 46 – May 12, UNEF, UGE, SNESup, CGT, CFDT, FEN)

The organisations of the U.N.E.F
U.G.E, the S.N.E.Sup, the C.G.T
the C.F.D.T and the F.E.N.
make the following call :

 Public opinion has been shattered by the ferocious police repression which has been unleashed against the students and academics in the Latin Quarter.

 The repression has provoked spirited indignation against the regime.

 The union organisations C.F.D.T., C.G.T., F.E.N., C.G.T.-F.O. and C.G.C. have declared a general 24 hour strike for Monday, 13 May. the U.N.E.F.-U.G.E. and S.N.E. Sup. are carrying on with their strike.

 It is the determined action of the students and teachers in higher education, followed by the call for a general stake and the emotion expressed by a large part of public opinion as well as the attitudes of numerous political parties and movements that have forced the government to stand down.

 In the name of the solidarity which joins together the students. teachers and all the workers against police repression, let us unite.

– For an amnesty for convicted demonstrators and for the revocation of all legal, administrative and academic trials,
– For trade-union and political freedoms,
– And for the success of their common aspirations:
– A democratic reform of education serving the workers,
– Full employment,
– A change in the economic system by and for the people.

—–

 The trade-union organisations of the Paris region, U.N.E.F., U.G.E., S.N.E. Sup., F.E.N., C.F.D.T. and C.G.T., call on the students, teachers, workers and all the population to demonstrate en masse.

 Monday afternoon, 13 May
from Place de la République 
to Place Denfert-Rochereau. 

 The demonstration is set to leave at 3.30p.m.

 The C.G.T.-F.O. of the Paris region has also put out an appeal for this demonstration.

 On the route of the demonstration collections will be made by the organisations, on behalf of the victims of the repression.

 Welcoming the calls from parties and groups to participate in the demonstration, the organisers have decided to maintain the trade-unionist character of the demonstration. 

 In the same spirit, the only papers which will be distributed will be those of the organisations who have signed the appeal.

Paris, May 12 1968 – 7:30 p.m.

The URP CGT and CFDT call on the workers of the
Paris Region to assemble from 2:30 p.m.
In the Avenue de la République
at the top of Rue 
Jean-Pierre Timbaud

Tract – “For the Creation of the Revolutionary Youth Organisation” (6 May 1968 – FER)

20 Saturday Aug 2016

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(Translation – Fisera 23)

FOR THE CREATION OF THE
REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH ORGANISATION

MEN AND WOMEN WORKERS

YOUNG PEOPLE – SCHOOL STUDENTS – APPRENTICES

– STUDENTS –

    For the first time since 1940 a vice-chancellor has dared to call the police into the university!

    Only the Gestapo and Pétain, in their time, closed down the Sorbonne.
 MEN AND WOMEN WORKERS, YOUNG PEOPLE, SCHOOL STUDENTS, UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, APPRENTICES,
    the freedom of the university is an integral part of democratic freedom and workers’ freedom. 

 THEY ARE LYING TO YOU , when they tell you students want to defend their privileges. 

OUR FREEDOM ARE ALSO YOURS

    If the bourgeoisie wipe out our freedoms, they are also wiping out yours.

 WHY ARE STUDENTS FIGHTING? 

    The Ministry and the Government want to expel from the university 2/3 of the students whom the Gaullist vice-chancellor has described as “scum”. 

 MEN AND WOMEN WORKERS, YOUNG PEOPLE, SCHOOL STUDENTS, STUDENTS APPRENTICES,
 THE FER SAYS: 

    In order to ensure the survival of the profit régime, the bourgeoisie and the state have established a whoIe series of structures aiming to impose unemployment and dismissals, the end of Social Security and pension schemes, to destroy workers’ organisations and freedoms.                       

 FOR CAPITAL AND ITS STATE
    – There are too many workers in the factories,
    – There are too many office employees, 
    – There are too many peasants,
    – There are too many schoolchildren in the schools, too many apprentices in the technical colleges, too many students in the universities!

—–

The students say NO! 

    to selection, to repression, as the CAEN workers said no on 26 January, whilst fighting against unemployment and sackings.

  This is why at Nanterre, at Halle-aux-Vins, at Censier and at the Sorbonne, gardes mobiles, guards helmeted, with shields, clubs, rifles, and tear-gas grenades, savagely attacked male and female workers who were demonstrating FOR FREEDOM, FOR THE RIGHT TO STUDY, FOR THE RIGHT TO LIVE.  

 MEN AND WOMEN WORKERS, YOUNG PEOPLE, SCHOOL STUDENTS, STUDENTS APPRENTICES,
THE STUDENTS FIGHT IS YOURS TOO

 In solidarity, students, lecturers, pupils’ parents, young people, ALL ORGANISATIONS UNITED

  CAN MAKE THE GOVERNMENT STAND DOWN 

 We, the revolutionary students of the Federation of Revolutionary Students, have proposed the following objective to our trade-union organisation, UNEF: 

  A GENERAL STRIKE OF STUDENTS AND TEACHERS, for the respect of freedoms, against sanctions, against police despotism in the university.

We, the revolutionary students of the FER, stand
– against the expulsion of students from the university                    
– for the right to study
– against unemployment
– for the defence of university, democratic and workers’ freedoms.

WE ASK ALL MEN AND WOMEN WORKERS to impose on their managers:

A CENTRAL DEMONSTRATION OF WORKERS, YOUNG PEOPLE AND STUDENTS

MEN AND WOMEN WORKERS, it depends on us, and we shall accept our responsibilities, it depends on you, and you will accept your responsibilities so that resolutely, in a united battle, our legitimate demands will be satisfied.

THE DESTINY OF YOUNG PEOPLE IS TO BE DECIDED.
THE DESTINY OF YOUR CHILDREN IS TO BE DECIDED.
YOUR FUTURE IS TO BE DECIDED.

EVERYBODY TO THE RALLY OF THE F.E.R., FRIDAY MAY 10, at 8:30 p.m. ,


        At the Mutualité.

Tract – “Against the Police State, We Continue the Fight in the Streets” (12 May 1968 – Mouvement du 22 Mars)

12 Thursday May 2016

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(Translated in Schnapp – Document 61)

AGAINST THE POLICE STATE WE MUST CONTINUE THE FIGHT

Following in the footsteps of the workers of Caen, Mulhouse, Le Mans, Redon, and the Rhodiaceta, during the night of Friday, May 10, 1968, University and high-school students, teachers, and workers who demonstrated against police state repression, fought in the streets for several hours against 10,000 cops. The bourgeoisie tried to crush a form of protest and demands that directly threatens the regime. The repression was fierce, the resistance tenacious. The cops used all means: incendiary bombs, DEADLY GASES (C.B. and C.S. gas are forbidden by international agreements and unknown to the medical services), chlorine grenades, bullets made of hard plastic. The demonstrators and the population were asphyxiated by the gases, wounded by gunflash, beaten with bludgeons and blackjacks, pursued into apartment houses, given the “third degree” in the police stations, arrested by the hundreds. Red Cross first aid stations were sacked; wounded on stretchers were beaten hard.

The demonstrators, fully supported by the inhabitants of the Latin Quarter, met this violence with political determination; at the barricades the mercenaries of the bourgeoisie were treated to the delights of Molotov cocktails and a shower of paving stones. Several hundreds of them were put out of commission. Students and workers will not forget this lesson.

Faced with this resistance and increasing support from the working masses, the police state is forced to retreat and would appear to be giving in to the three conditions the demonstrators have posed as prerequisites to any discussion. But the basic problems remain unsolved.

The fight against police repression is the fight against the State and against capitalist exploitation. The cops are nothing but the flunkies of de Gaulle and de Gaulle is nothing but the current flunkey of the bourgeoisie.

In the present stage of the struggle, we demand as a prerequisite to the resumption of University life:

(page 2)

– The definitive release of all demonstrators who are being held, whether students or workers, French or foreigners, and including those whom the bourgeoisie has described as “looters.”
– The immediate and final cessation of legal and administrative action because of political activity, whatever the pretext.

On the other hand, since we have proof of criminal acts committed by the cops during the night of Friday, we demand as a new prerequisite:
– The resignation of the killer, Grimaud, Chief of Police, chief of the Paris coppers.
– The resignation of the killer, Fouchet, Minister of the Interior and number one cop in France.

For such acts not to be repeated it is necessary:
– To start a legal investigation of police crimes, with the participation of representatives of the demonstrators side by side with the magistrates of bourgeois justice
– To disarm the CRS = SS, the gardes-mobiles and other detachments specialised in repression.

It is clear that the bourgeoisie will not want to disarm their executioners.
We will force them to do so through our action.

To make an end to repression, workers and students must win their freedom in the streets. As long as the cops are armed, students and workers must organise their self-defence to victoriously resist organised repression.

DOWN WITH THE POLICE STATE! DOWN WITH CAPITALISM!!
FOR SOCIALISM. WORKERS AND STUDENTS, WE MUST FIGHT IN THE STREETS!

EVERYBODY COME TO THE DEMONSTRATION,
Monday, 13 May 1968
GARE DE L’EST, 1:30 pm

MARCH 22ND MOVEMENT 

Tract – “DE GAULLE Tears off his Mask” (11 May 1968 – PSU)

11 Wednesday May 2016

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(Translated in Fisera – Document 40)

The Regime Celebrates
its Tenth Anniversary

DE GAULLE Tears off his Mask

The police responded savagely to the students demands:
– freedom and an amnesty for those imprisoned.
– reopening of the Sorbonne ;
– retreat of the police force.

The students’ and teachers’ unions have accepted their responsibility: in reply to their proposals, the regime has chosen the most bloody repressive path.

THE WHOLE COUNTRY NOW KNOWS
THAT THE GAULLIST REGIME IS LYING :

The police have not been attacked:
– it is the police who have lit all the fires ;
– it is the police who have used harmful grenades and chlorine-based gases,
– it is the police alone who are responsible for the hundreds of wounded, some of whom will not survive.

The demand for university freedoms meets with the combat for workers’ freedoms.
In 10 days of fighting, the students have opened a breach in the capitalist society.

THE WORKERS’ GENERAL STRIKE
MUST WIDEN THE BREACH

No other form of bourgeois society must succeed Gaullism, but a socialist society under the democratic control of the workers.
The PSU has from the start unreservedly supported the students’ and teachers’ action, and has taken part in it.
The PSU calls on all workers to ensure the success of the GENERAL STRIKE and to take part in the DEMONSTRATION ORGANISED BY the UNEF, the CGT, the CFDT and the FEN.

SOLIDARITY with the STUDENTS

EVERYONE TO THE PSU RALLY
MONDAY 13 AT 8:30PM
MUTUALITÉ