This month is the 40th anniversary of the general strike (10 millions workers and students) and the Paris riots( 20’000 students) that shut down France for more than a month in May 1968 and almost collapsed the General De Gaulle’s government. Growing up and going to protest with my parents and my fellow high school friends my mom would always speak about May 68 as a defining moment for them and their friends has young adults. They are part of this generation of “hippies, leftist, anarchist, socialist” named “68ers”. I used to always make fun of them and tell them they were living in the past and in Utopia…. Looking back at the events while writing this little post, I realized how a whole generation of lower and middle class workers and students made an impact for ever for modern democracy. Thanks Mom…. Yes, I know a day after mother day…
More here from wikipedia: May 68 . What I keep from the wickipedia article is this key thing to remember: May ‘68 was a political failure for the protesters, but it had an enormous social impact. In France, it is considered to be the watershed moment that saw the replacement of conservative morality (religion, patriotism, respect for authority) with the liberal morality (equality, sexual liberation, human rights) that dominates French society today. Although this replacement did not take place solely in this one month, the term mai 68 is used to refer to the shift in values, especially when referring to its most idealistic aspects.
Posted by Grotesk on May 12, 2008 at 08:22 AM
