May 68 Also by Julian Jackson
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: The Popular Front in France DE GAULLE THE FALL OF FRANCE FRANCE: The Dark Years LA GRANDE ILLUSION LIVING IN ARCADIA: Homosexuality, Morality and Politics in France from the Liberation to AIDS THE POLITICS OF DEPRESSION IN FRANCE 1932–1936
Also by Anna-Louisé Milné
CORRESPONDANCE PAULHAN-BELAVAL THE EXTREME IN-BETWEEN: Jean Paulhan’s Place in the Twentieth Century
Also by James S. Williams
ALBERT CAMUS, LA PESTE: A Critical Guide THE EROTICS OF PASSAGE: Pleasure, Politics, and Form in the Later Work of Marguerite Duras JEAN COCTEAU (A Critical Life) JEAN COCTEAU (Cinema) May 68 Rethinking France’s Last Revolution
Edited by
Julian Jackson Professor of Modern French History, Queen Mary, University of London Anna-Louise Milne Director of Studies, University of London Institute in Paris James S. Williams Professor of Modern French Literature and Film, Royal Holloway, University of London Editorial matter and selection © Julian Jackson, Anna-Louise Milne and James S. Williams 2011 All remaining chapters © their respective authors 2011 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-25258-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN 978-1-349-32220-6 ISBN 978-0-230-31956-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230319561 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data May 68 : rethinking France's last revolution / edited by Julian Jackson, Anna-Louise Milne [and] James S. Williams. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. France – Politics and government – 1958–1969. 2. France – Social conditions – 1945–1995. 3. Social movements – France – History – 20th century. 4. Protest movements – France – History – 20th century. 5. Student movements – France – History – 20th century. 6. Riots – France – History – 20th century. 7. Communism – France – History – 20th century. 8. Nationalism – France – History – 20th century. 9. Political culture – France – History – 20th century. I. Jackson, Julian, 1954– II. Milne, Anna-Louise. III. Williams, James S., 1963- DC420.M393 2011 944.083Ј6 – dc23 2011016927 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 Contents
List of Tables viii List of Illustrations ix List of Acronyms xii Preface xiv Notes on Contributors xvi
Part I Rethinking the Events 1 Rethinking May 68 3 Julian Jackson
2 The Moral History of 1968 17 Julian Bourg
3 Exploitation, Alienation and the Social Division of Labour in the May–June Movement in France 34 Boris Gobille
4 Beyond Tradition: The Strikes of May–June 1968 47 Xavier Vigna
5 Inventing a Memory on the Extreme Left: The Example of the Maoists after 1968 58 Philippe Buton
6 Algerian Reveries on the Far Right: Thinking about Algeria to Change France in 1968 76 Todd Shepard
7 Reaching Out to Immigrants in May 68: Specific or Universal Appeals? 93 Daniel Gordon
8 The Arab Workers’ Movement (1970–1976): Sociology of a New Political Generation 109 Abdellali Hajjat
v vi Contents
9 ‘And What Then about “Our” Problem?’ – Gay Liberation in the Occupied Sorbonne in May 1968 122 Michael Sibalis
10 The 1970s Moment in Sexual Politics 137 Massimo Prearo
11 May 68 and the Changes in Private Life: A ‘Sexual Liberation’? 148 Anne-Claire Rebreyend
Part II Decentring the Events 12 Decentring the Events 163 Anna-Louise Milne
13 The Local, Regional and National in May–June 1968 178 Michelle Zancarini-Fournel
14 Factory Disputes in the French Provinces in the ‘1968 Years’: Brittany As a Case Study 188 Vincent Porhel
15 Peasant Insurgency in the ‘1968 Years’ (1961–1981) 202 Jean-Philippe Martin
16 ‘In Marseilles We Remained Calm’: The Myths and Realities of Marseilles’s May 68 217 Anne-Laure Ollivier
17 The Grand Tour of Daniel Cohn-Bendit and the Europeanism of 1968 231 Richard Ivan Jobs
18 From Dream to Reality: The Birth of ‘Vincennes’ 245 Christelle Dormoy-Rajramanan
19 Artists and Architects in May 1968: An Aesthetics of Disappearance 263 Jean-Louis Violeau Contents vii
Part III Performing the Events 20 Performing the Revolution 281 James S. Williams
21 L’Entrée Libre à L’Ex-théâtre de France: The Occupation of the Odéon and the Revolutionary Culture of the French Stage 299 Kate Bredeson
22 The Politics of Theatre and the Theatre of Politics: From Paris to Avignon via Villeurbanne, May–July 1968 316 Emmanuelle Loyer
23 Malle e/on mai: Louis Malle’s Takes on May 68 325 Roxanne Panchasi
24 Falling on Deaf Ears, Again: Hervé Le Roux’s Reprise (1997) 340 Nathalie Rachlin
25 Sex Power: Bernadette Lafont and the Sexual Revolution in French Cinema circa 1968 356 Roland-François Lack
26 Orgasm without Limits: May 68 and the History of Sex Education in Modern France 376 Tamara Chaplin
Epilogue: The Day My Father Fell Silent (Extracts) 398 Virginie Linhart General Bibliography 418 Select Filmography 424 Index 425 Tables
5.1 The presence of historical articles in various European Maoist publications (1966–1975) 62 5.2 Mentions of history in the Maoist French press before 1968 65 5.3 History in the Maoist press after 1968 68
viii Illustrations
1 Poster image of Dany Cohn-Bendit produced in the Beaux-Arts workshop. The text reads ‘We are all undesirables’. (BNF) 2 2 Taken from outside the SKF (Svenska Kullager Fabriken) plant in Ivry-sur-Seine, which was occupied by the workers, the photograph shows a Parti communiste poster alongside a notice announcing the ultimatum ‘Discussion with no Prior Conditions’. In the background it is possible to make out the Beaux-Arts print of Charles de Gaulle with the slogan ‘le chienlit c’est lui’ or ‘he’s the real mess’. (Jacques Marie/Mémoires d’Humanité) 36 3 The front cover of the magazine Action, dated 24 September 1968, which transforms the famous hymn of national solidarity under Pétain – ‘Maréchal nous voilà’ – into an ironic challenge addressed to de Gaulle whose stature in French politics was inseparable from his opposition to Pétain in 1940. (BNF) 60 4 The demonstrators in this photograph taken in Paris on 13 May 1968 include a group of Guyanese immigrant workers. (Mémoires d’Humanité) 95 5 This photograph is of a demonstration in Paris on 13 May 1968. The banner calls for better ‘rights’ for students and immigrant workers. Note the range in ages of the demonstrators, particularly the two women marching with a young girl, probably a daughter of one of the two. (Mémoires d’Humanité) 111 6 This image was taken in either the Citroën or the Sud Aviation factory during the worker occupation. It shows one man cutting another’s hair
ix x List of Illustrations
while the machines stand motionless around them. (Georges Azenstarck/Mémoires d’Humanité) 136 7 Caught in the flood of people, this epitome of the respectable woman has strung a notice around her neck, alongside what is almost certainly a locket containing an effigy of a saint, expressing her demand for a change in political regime or a ‘people’s government’. (Mémoires d’Humanité) 162 8 Taken on 24 May 1968, the photograph shows the performative dimension of the marches, with demonstrators strapped inside sandwich boards to express solidarity between Citroën workers and Nanterre students. (Mémoires d’Humanité) 179 9 The potatoes and artichokes that are being unloaded from the lorry have been donated by the ‘Young Peasants of the North and Finistère’. They are being given to the steelworkers at the Citroën plant. One man is holding up a dead rabbit and a box of chickens can be seen on the ground. (Mémoires d’Humanité) 189 10 This poster, probably produced in a factory workshop, shows the candidates for ‘a people’s university’ brandishing the tools of industry and agriculture. (BNF) 203 11 Taken in front of the Sorbonne University, this photograph shows a young woman surrounded by members of the CRS. (Jacques Marie/ Mémoires d’Humanité) 246 12 Woodcut print made in Montpellier. The text reads ‘Beauty is in the street’. (BNF) 278 13 A photograph of the demonstration outside the headquarters of the Cinémathèque française in the rue de Courcelles, Paris, on 18 March 1968. In this replay of the violent protests that had taken place on 20 February, the main slogan on the right reads ‘Non à la Barbinthèque’, a reference to Pierre Barbin whom the Culture Minister, André Malraux, had appointed as List of Illustrations xi
director after dismissing Henri Langlois. Visible in the front left is the film actor Jean-Pierre Léaud. (Roger-Viollet/Rex Features) 280 14 After the violent events earlier in the year at the Cinémathèque française, an image of professional calm and reasoned debate at a meeting of the Estates General of Cinema on 26 May at the Centre Culturel de l’Ouest Parisien, Suresnes. (Roger-Viollet/Rex Features) 298 15 A photograph taken from inside the Odéon theatre during the occupation that began on 15 May 1968. The main banner reads: ‘The ex-Odéon is a free tribune! The revolution is not just that of the committees, it’s above all yours!’ (Martine Franck, Magnum Photos) 300 16 Jocelyne surrounded by local representatives of the CGT in La Reprise du travail aux usines Wonder (1968) by Jacques Willemont and Pierre Bonneau. (J. Willemont) 341 17 Candy Capitol in Sex Power (1970), directed by Henry Chapier. The French subtitle reads: ‘something more is needed’. (Courtesy H. Chapier) 357 18 Bernadette Lafont as Marie with her portable tape recorder in La Fiancée du Pirate (1969), directed by Nelly Kaplan. (Nelly Kaplan and Cythère Films) 365 19 and 20 Two images from the special report on eroticism in modern life broadcast on the evening news of TF1, 26 January 1970. The image on the left includes a poster that reads ‘Steep rise of eroticism on screen’. Note how these images are designed to titillate audiences while purportedly condemning the ‘invasion of sexuality’ in the French public sphere. (INA) 397 Acronyms
AGEL General Association of Students (Lyons) CAL Comités d’action lycéens CATE Comités d’action travailleurs-étudiants CDR Comité de défense de la République CFDT Confédération française démocratique du travail CFTC Confédération générale des travailleurs chrétiens CGT Confédération générale de travail CLOTIF Comité de liaison des organisations des travailleurs immigrés en France CNJA Confédération Nationale des Jeunes Agriculteurs CNSTP Confédération nationale des syndicats de travailleurs paysans DOM-TOM Départements d’outre-mer – Territoires d’outre-mer FDSEA Fédération départementale des syndicats d’exploitants agricoles FEN Fédération de l’Éducation nationale FGDS Fédération de la gauche démocratique et socialiste FHAR Front homosexuel d’action révolutionnaire FLN Front de libération nationale FNSEA Fédération nationale des syndicats d’exploitants agricoles FNSP Fédération nationale des syndicats paysans FTP-MOI Francs-tireurs et partisans – main d’œuvre immigrée GP Gauche prolétarienne GRECE Groupe de recherche et d’études pour la civilisation européenne GTU Groupes de travail universitaires JAC Jeunesse Agricole Catholique JCR Jeunesse révolutionnaire communiste JOC Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne LCR Ligue communiste révolutionnaire MFPF Mouvement français pour le planning familial MLF Mouvement de libération des Femmes MODEF Mouvement de Défense des Exploitants Familiaux
xii List of Acronyms xiii
MRAP Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples MRJC Mouvement Rural de la Jeunesse Chrétienne MSLP Mouvement de soutien aux luttes du peuple MTA Mouvement des Travailleurs Arabes NRP New Peoples’ Resistance OAS Organisation armée secrète OCFml Organisation communiste de France marxiste-léniniste ORTF Office de radiodiffusion et télévision française PCF Parti communiste français PCMLF Parti communiste marxiste-léniniste de France PCRml Part communiste révolutionnaire marxiste-léniniste PSU Parti socialiste unifié SAC Service d’action civique SAT Services d’assistance technique SFIO Section française de l’internationale ouvrière SNESup Syndicat national de l’enseignement supérieur TNP Théâtre national populaire UCFml Union des communistes de France marxistes-léninistes UEC Union des étudiants communistes UJC(ml) Union de la jeunesse communiste (marxiste-léniniste) UNEF Union nationale des étudiants français Preface
From 16 to 18 May 2008 an international conference was held at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP) to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the events of May 1968. Organized by ourselves as members of the University of London consortium com- prising ULIP, Royal Holloway and Queen Mary, the conference, enti- tled ‘May 68: Forty Years On’, aimed to present the results of the latest research on May 68 being undertaken both within and outside France. The stately premises of ULIP in Paris’s grand 7th arrondis- sement might have seemed a rather curious venue to discuss the semi-revolutionary events of 1968, but in partnership with Canal 93, a performance space and training centre in the socially deprived city of Bobigny in the inner Parisian suburbs, we sought to bring together innovative scholarly work and exciting projects being pur- sued in local secondary schools, culminating in a free-jazz explora- tion of the ‘1968 years’. Pupils drawn from sixth-form history classes were invited to participate in a series of radio programmes combin- ing archive material and their own commentary on the images and sounds of the period. These programmes were coordinated by a pro- duction team from the national radio station, France Culture, and broadcast on France Culture. A selection of papers delivered at the 2008 conference forms the basis of May 68, which also comprises a number of new and specially commissioned chapters. In the last 20 years a vast amount of impor- tant new work has been carried out in France on the subject of May 68, but very little of it has been available in English. A central aim of this unique and wide-ranging volume is to introduce some of the best of this scholarship to a non-French-speaking readership, and, as with the conference, juxtapose it with the work of both young and established researchers from Britain, Canada and the United States working in the fields of history, political and social science, art, film and drama. Also featured are extracts from the remarkable memoir on 1968 and its legacy by Virginie Linhart entitled Le jour où mon père s’est tu, published in France in 2008 to great acclaim.
xiv Preface xv
May 68 is arranged in three parts: ‘Rethinking the Events’, ‘Decentring the Events’ and ‘Performing the Events’. Each is intro- duced by a chapter that foregrounds and contextualizes historically and theoretically important common themes. Running throughout the volume are a range of illustrations, including many rarely seen images supplied by the photographic archives of the Communist newspaper, L’ Hu m a nit é. Some of these images are drawn from the collection of photographs contributed to the newspaper by amateur ‘correspondants’ a form of reader involvement in a major national newspaper that is quite unique to L’ Hu m a nit é and reflects the very tight relationship fostered between the Communist Party, its daily newspaper and its members and sympathizers. The Communist Party was itself highly contested during the events of May and after, and these photos often reveal situations and associations that remained marginal to the mainstream reporting of the events. Finally, the translations of the French contributions are our own. We would like to thank the following people and institutions in particular for their help and support during the various stages of this project: Mark Gore and Emmanuelle Segura, Canal 93; Professor Andrew Hussey, ULIP; School of European Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Royal Holloway; School of History, Queen Mary, University of London; Albertine Fox; Catherine Thorin; Sylvie Zaidman and Maxime Courban, Archives départementales Seine- Saint-Denis; Alexandre Courban, Association Mémories d'Humanité; Roland Michel Tartakowsky; Ruth Ireland and Michael Strang at Palgrave Macmillan. Contributors
Julian Bourg. Associate Professor, History Department, Boston College, USA. Has recently published From Revolution to Ethics: May 1968 and Contemporary French Thought (2008). Kate Bredeson. Assistant Professor of Theatre at Reed College, Portland, USA. Has recently published ‘“Toute ressemblance est vou- lue”: Theatre and Performance of May ’68’, Modern and Contemporary France 16, 2 (2008). Philippe Buton. Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Rheims, France. Has recently published La Joie douloureuse. La libéra- tion de la France (2004). Tamara Chaplin. Assistant Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Has recently published Turning on the Mind: French Philosophers on Television (2007). Christelle Dormoy-Rajramanan. Doctoral student at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, France. Her article ‘Mai–juin 1968: acmé d’un contexte de crise universitaire’ will appear in 2011 in C. Soulié (ed.), Une Université à détruire? Les origines et le destin du Centre universitaire expérimental de Vincennes.
Boris Gobille. Lecturer in Politics at the École Normale Supérieure, Lyons, France. Has recently published ‘L’événement Mai 68. Pour une sociohistoire du temps court’ in Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (March–April, 2008). Daniel Gordon. Senior Lecturer in European History, Edge Hill University, UK. Has recently published ‘Memories of 1968 in France: Reflections on the 40th Anniversary’ in Sarah Waters and Ingo Cornils (eds), Memories of 1968: International Perspectives (2010). Abdellali Hajjat. Maître de conférences (Lecturer) in Political Science at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, France. Has recently edited with Ahmed Boubeker Histoire politique des immigrations (post) coloniales. France, 1920–2008.
xvi Notes on Contributors xvii
Julian Jackson. Professor of Modern French History at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Has recently published Living in Arcadia: Homosexuality, Politics and Morality in France from the Liberation to Aids (2010). Richard Ivan Jobs. Associate Professor of History, Pacific University, USA. Has recently published Riding the New Wave: Youth and the Rejuvenation of France after the Second World War (2007). Roland-François Lack. Senior Lecturer in French at University College London, UK. He is the author of several articles on Jean-Luc Godard and is currently completing a book on cinema and locale. Emmanuelle Loyer. Professor of Contemporary History at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris, France. Has recently published Mai 68 dans le texte (2008). Jean-Philippe Martin. Agrégé and Docteur en histoire. Has recently published Histoire de la nouvelle gauche paysanne. Des contestations des années 1960 à l’altermondialisme (2005).
Anna-Louise Milne. Senior Lecturer in French and Comparative Studies at the University of London Institute in Paris, France. Has recently published ‘The Singular Banlieue’ in L’Esprit Créateur 50, 3 (2010). Anne-Laure Ollivier. Attachée Temporaire d’Enseignement et de Recherche at the University of Strasbourg, France. Currently com- pleting a thesis on Gaston Defferre (1910–1986). Roxanne Panchasi. Associate Professor, Department of History, Simon Fraser University, Canada. Has recently published Future Tense: The Culture of Anticipation in France Between the Wars (2009). Vincent Porhel. Maître de conférences (Lecturer) at the University of Lyon-1, France. Has recently published Ouvriers Bretons. Conflits d’usines, conflits identitaires en Bretagne dans les années 1968 (2008). Massimo Prearo. Doctoral student in Politics at the École des Hautes Études, Paris, France. Is finishing a thesis entitled ‘La genèse des mouvements d’affirmation identitaire: homosexualité et identité à l’âge de l’autonomie’ and has recently published a French translation of Mario Mieli’s ‘Éléments de critique homosexuelle’ (2008). xviii Notes on Contributors
Nathalie Rachlin. Professor of French at Scripps College, USA. Her recent publications include ‘“La tradition d’ouvrir sa gueule” de mai 68 à Bourdieu’ in L’Esprit Créateur 41, 1 (2001). Anne-Claire Rebreyend. Teaches at the Lycée Français in Madrid, Spain. Has recently published Intimités amoureuses: France 1920–1975 (2008). Todd Shepard. Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, USA. Has recently published The Invention of Decoloni- zation: The Algerian War and the Remaking of France (2006). Michael Sibalis. Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. Has recently published ‘Une subculture d’efféminés? L’homosexualité masculine sous Napoléon Ier’, in Hommes et masculin- ités de 1789 à nos jours: Contributions à l’histoire du genre et de la sexualité en France, ed. Régis Revenin (2007). Xavier Vigna. Maître de conférences (Lecturer) in Contemporary History at the Université de Bourgogne, France. Has recently published L’insubordination ouvrière dans les années 68 (2007). Jean-Louis Violeau. Teaches at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Has recently published Les architectes et Mai 68 (2005). James S. Williams. Professor of Modern French Literature and Film at Royal Holloway, University of London. Has recently published Jean Cocteau (2008) and co-edited Jean-Luc Godard: Documents (2006) (catalogue of the exhibition Voyages(s) en Utopie held at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2006).