1968: Revolution reaches the heart of Europe
In May 1968, the British business magazine The Economist printed a special supplement on the French economy. In it, writer Norman Macrae argued that France's "pathetically weak" trade unions and high quality of managers could position the country for economic leadership in the post-de Gaulle era.
Capitalist publications were not alone in their assessment of the docility of the French working class. In fact, one of France's best-known leftists, André Gorz, had predicted in a January 1968 in Socialist Register that "in the foreseeable future, there will be no crisis of European capitalism so dramatic as to drive the mass of workers to revolutionary general strikes or armed insurrections in support of their vital interests."
But within days after Macrae's article hit the newsstands, France was astonishing the world--with the largest general strike in the whole of human history to that point.
More than 9 million workers were involved, in all branches of French industry, and in every reach of society, from the Meudon Observatory to the Follies Bergère. In most cases, workers were not simply striking, but challenging the sacred right of private property by occupying their workplaces.
Around the world, May '68 in France was a source of inspiration and euphoria. The mood of the time was captured by the banner headline on a British radical magazine: "We shall fight, we shall win, Paris, London, Rome, Berlin."
Read more: https://socialistworker.org/2018/05/10/1968-revolution-reaches-the-heart-of-europe
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