SITUATIONISTS AND THE 1£CH MAY 1968

goal. The next day's general assembly reelected
its entire Occupation Committee, which had not
been able to accomplish anything by then. In
fact, all the specialised groupings that had set
themselves up in the Sorbonne followed the
directives of a hidden "Coordination Committee"
composed of volunteer and very moderating
organizers responsible to no one. An hour after
the reelection of the Occupation Committee one
of the "coordinators" privately tried to declare it
dissolved. A direct appeal to the base in the
courtyard of the Sorbonne aroused a movement
of protests which obliged the manipulator to
retract himself. By the next day, Thursday the
16th, thirteen members of the Occupation
Committee had disappeared, leaving two comrades,
including the Enrages member, vested
with the only delegation of power authorized by
the general assembly • and this at a time when
the gravity of the moment necessitated immediate
decisions: democracy was constantly being
flouted in the Sorbonne and factory occupations
were spreading. The Occupation Committee, rallying
around it as many Sorbonne occupiers as it
could who were determined to maintain democ·
racy there, at 3pm launched an appeal for "the
occupation of all the factories in France and the
formation of workers' councils." To disseminate
this appeal, the Occupation Committee had at
the same time to restore the democratic functioning
of the Sorbonne. lt had to take over or
recreate from scratch all the services that were
supposed to be under its authority: the loudspeaker
system, printing facilities, interfaculty
liaison, security. lt ignored the squawking complaints
of the spokesmen of various political
groups OCR, Maoists, etc.), reminding them that
it was responsible only to the general assembly.
lt intended to report to it that very evening, but
the Sorbonne occupiers' unanimous decision to
march on Renault·Billancourt (whose occupa·
tion we had learned of in the meantime} postponed
the session of the assembly unti1 2pm the
next day.
During the night, while thousands of corn·
rades were at Billancourt, some · unidentified
persons improvised a general assembly, which
broke up when the Occupation Committee, hav
ing learned of its existence, sent back two dele·
gates to call attention to its illegitimacy.
Friday the 17th at 2pm the regular assembly
saw its rostrum occupied for a long time by self·
appointed marshals belonging to the FER; and in
addition had to interrupt the session for the second
march on Billancourt at 5 pm.
That evening at 9 pm, the Occupation
Committee was finally able to present a report of
its activities. lt was cpmpletely unsuccessful,
however, in getting Its actions discussed and
voted on, in particular its appeal for the occupation
of the factories, which .the assembly did not
tal