#ThrowbackThursday #FrenchUniversityProtests #1968Revolution
🎓🏢 Did you know that in 1968, students at a French university expressed their frustrations with the bans on dormitory visits which prevented male and female students from sharing beds? These rules didn’t sit well with them! 😡🛌
But wait, things escalated quickly! 😲 After facing brutal police violence during their demonstrations, the students’ cause gained widespread support and ignited a 🔥revolutionary spark within the nation. In fact, their movement was so powerful that it eventually led to a massive strike, with a staggering 10 million workers, which represented more than 20% of the country’s population! 🤯🙌
🔒✋ The strike effectively shut down the entire country! Can you imagine the impact of a strike so enormous? It brought transportation, factories, schools, and even everyday services to a grinding halt. It was a remarkable show of solidarity and a testament to the students’ determination to create change! 💪💥
So, next time you think about the turbulent events of the late ’60s, remember these courageous students who started a wave of revolution with their fight against an unfair dormitory policy. Their voices were heard and their actions continue to inspire generations to stand up for their rights! 🗣️✊💫
Ahh, classic France
Strikes work
They banned dormitory visits… that prevented people from sleeping together? So it was ok to have dormitory visits where people slept together?
Is English your native language?
This sounds like the WesAnderson movie
When your horniness is do strong that it Kickstarts mass protests
Police violence… some things never change…
When are the French ever not protesting? Honestly. It seems like it’s their national pastime.
Well, that’s an incredibly reductive way to explain the events of May ’68
This is epic hahaha fucking French
Yeah well, the joining of strikes wasn’t caused by the dormitory issue. It’s just that at the time, the country was ripe for strikes in multiple areas of society. You’ll remember this period was surfing on waves of Vietnam news, hippie movements, space race, and most importantly civil rights. This was all a big deal for the youth, but the changing times were also perceived by the elders. The university youngsters were just brazen enough to ignite the fuse over dormitory and pool gender mixing. (Which sounds rather smallish in comparison to the energy they were drawing from)
Fuck yeah France
[Found the English translation of their protest chant](https://youtube.com/shorts/nwJwnrmI4QY?si=SGoztZHzvQTeUU1W)
And then in 1986, the Beastie Boys wrote a song about it.
I don’t care about the truth. An entire country striking so a bunch of students can do it is my new head canon.
I don’t care about the truth. An entire country striking so a bunch of students can do it is my new head canon.
It’s extremely terrible history writing from Britannica to start the events of May 68 from a minor protest that had no bearing with events of May 68, but only played a part of Cohn-Bendit’s rise to a revolutionary figure. Even then, Cohn-Bendit and the whole student movement was no more important to the 68 movement than countless and nameless factory workers of Renault, but a student movement emphasis works, as media needs sensationalism and can hide systemic issues behind the hot headed young intellectuals narrative, who eventually became part of the establishment.
I’m really curious how much protest and strikes have taken away from the French economy since ww2
People of France. A good looking, depressed guy smoking a cigarette is not a movie. And your sirens sound like gay guys having a threesome.
I was there…
it sounds so funny to see people discuss something as far and completely outside their world…
it was a massive complex situation where unions were supporting students, students supporting unions, etc etc…
This is not one of the reasons why the strikes started. It was 1968. A lot of shit was poppin’ off all around the world already. There were massive riots, strikes, protests and rallies by students and workers all across Europe at the time, up to and including the Eastern Bloc, not to mention North America and the Third World.
However, it needs to be noted just how intense May 1968 was. Nothing in history had ever happened before or after. It was the first time a wildcat strike (a strike by workers agains the wishes of their union) became a general strike (a strike of multiple industries rather than just one, ranging from a city to an entire country). The economy of an advanced industrialized country completely came to a stop and the French government ceased to function. People debated day and night what the new world would look like while they built barricades and fought police. The Communist Party and their unions were *terrified*. They negotiated with de Gaulle to end the strike. The revolutionaries *made it clear* they rejected both the so-called socialism of the East and the capitalism of the West (something even President de Gaulle himself clarified in a radio address). The young people completely destroyed the Communist Party headquarters while proclaiming they would bring market society to an end for a creation of a world where workers controlled every aspect of society, where those who *make decisions* and those that *execute decisions* are no longer two distinct classes of people.
During this time, people were writing graffiti all over the walls. In the middle of the rioting and dreaming, people saw the slogans and some even broke down and cried: https://www.bopsecrets.org/CF/graffiti.htm
Preventing the French from having sex? That was stupid
France, brilliant population. Won’t put up with any crap. Weaker countries criticise them for standing up for each other.
This is straight up disinformation
Don’t know what France does better. Food or civil disobedience
Voulez vous couchez avec moi, ce soir…
They did not, however, organize the protests around chess matches between the student organizers and police.
“The Children are Grumpy”
The 1968 protests were a massive influence on French society. The macro impacts are well documented. But there’s a lot of micro ones too. My grandmother told me once that buildings in Paris were largely “open” to the street back then, with electronic door codes only becoming common after 1968. IIRC road pavers also became far less common, due to their use as a weapon.
The 50’s and 60’s were a wild time for French politics.
There’s a lot of negative things you can say about the French, but by God they understand solidarity better than any other country I know.
Should have waited a year.
The French are serious about their protests
The streets of Paris were paved with cobble stones, which the students pulled up to throw at police.
When it was all over, De Gaulle had the streets paved over.
To be clear, the riots grew because their were long simmering concerns a bout the government. Ten million workers were not that worked up about students being able to have sex.
RIP Ziffirelli.
The student side of it was depicted (as a backdrop) in the 2003 film *The Dreamers*. Weird movie. It’s got Jimmy Darmody from *Boardwalk Empire* before his career died.
God i love the French
I absolutely love France’s ability to protest.
I love france.
Those guys are NOT afraid to protest the crap out of anything they have problems about.
Every nation should strive to have as many protests to protect their rights and fight against what is wrong
French government: does literally anything
the French: “Cowabanga it is.”