SITUATIONISTS AND THE 1£CH MAY 1968

ARY MARXISM STOP OCCUPATION COMMITTEE
OF THE AUTONOMOUS AND PO PU lAR
SOBONNE
17 MAY 1968 / POliTBURO OF THE CHINESE
COMMUNIST PARTY GATE OF CElESTIAL PEACE
PEKING / SHAKE IN YOUR SHOES BUREAU·
CRATS STOP THE INTERNATIONAl POWER OF
THE WORKERS COUNCILS Will SOON WIPE YOU
OUT STOP H UMANITYWON'T BE HAPPYTlll TH E
lAST BUREAUCRAT IS HUNG WITH THE GUTS OF
THE lAST CAPITAliST STOP lONG LIVE FACTORY
OCCUPATIONS STOP lO NG liVE THE GREAT CHI·
NESE PROLETARIAN . REVOLUTION OF 1927
BETRAYED BY THE STAliNIST BUREAUCRATS
STOP LONG liVE TH E PROLETARIANS OF CAN·
TON AND ELSEWHERE WHO HAVE TAKEN UP
ARMS AGAINSTTHE SO-CALLED PEOPLE'S ARMY
STOP LONG. liVE THE CHINESE WORKERS AND
STU DENTS WHO HAVE ATTACKED THE SO­
CALLED CULTURAL REVOLUTION AND TH E
MAOIST . BUREAUCRATIC ORDER STOP LONG
liVE REVOLUTIONARY MARXISM STOP DOWN
WITH TH E STATE STOP OCCUPATION COMMIT­
TEE OFTHEAUTONOMOUSAND POPULAR SOR­
BONNE
Report on the occupation of the
SQrbonne
The occupation of the Sorbonne that began
Monday, 13 May, has inaugurated a new period
in the crisis of modern society. The events now
taking place in France foreshadow the return of
the proletarian revolutionary movement in all
countries. The movement that had already
advanced from theory to struggle in the streets
has now advanced to a struggle for power over
the means of production. Modernized Ci'!Pitalisrn
thaught it had finished with class struggle • it's
started up again!The proletariat no longer existed
- but here it is again.
·
In surrendering the Sorbonne, the government
counted .on pacifying the student revolt,
which had already succeeded in holding a section
of Paris behind its barricades an entire night
before being recaptured with great difficulty by
the police. The Sorbonne was given overto the
students in the hope that they would peacefully
discuss their university problems. But the occupiers
immediately decided to open it to the public
to freely discuss the general problems of the
society. This was thus a prefiguration of a council,
a council in which even the students broke
out of their miserable studenthood and ceased
to be students.
To be sure, the occupation has never been
total: a chapel and some remnants of adminis·
trative offices have been tolerated. The democracy
has . never been complete: future . teth·
nocrats of the UNEFclaid to be making them·
selves useful and other political bureaucrats
have also tried their manip1:1lations. Workers'
participation has remained very limited and the
presence of nonstudents soon began to be
questioned. Many students; professors, journalists
and imbeciles of other occupations have
come as spectators.
In spite of all these deficiencies, which are
not surprising considering the contradiction
between the scope of the project and the narrowness
of the student milieu, the exemplary
nature of the best aspects nf this situation
immediately took on an explosive sigmficance.
Workers could not fail to be inspired by seeing
free discussion, the striving for a radical critique
and direct democracy in action. Even limited ta a
Sorbonne liberated from the state, this was a
revolutionary program developing its own forms.
The day after the occupation of the Sorbonne
the Sud·Aviation workers of Nantes occupied
their factory. On the third day, Thursday the 16th,
the Renault factories at Cleon and Flins were
occupied and the movement began at the NMPP
and at Boulogne-Billancourt, starting at Shop
70. Now, at the end of the week, 100 factories
have been occupied while the wave of strikes,
accepted but never initiated by the union
bureaucracies, is paralyzing the railroads and
developing toward a general strike.
The only power in the Sorbonne was the
general assembly of its occupiers. At its first session,
on 14 May, amidst a certain confusion, it
had elected an Occupation Committee of 15
members revocable by it each day. Only one of
the delegates, belonging to the Nanterre-Paris
Enrages group, had set forth a program: defence
of direct .democracy in the Sorboime and
absolute power of workers' councils as ultimate