The French Left since 1968

Abstract

The storm over and the rubble cleared, the landscape often shows little trace of the upheaval. But for the police forces permanently parading in the Latin Quarter, a visitor to Paris might be unaware of the upheaval that shook France in 1968. Superficially, the social and political landscape looks unchanged. And this is not surprising. The crisis of 1968 brought nothing tangible. Its lasting impact was on the minds. It reminded Frenchmen, and outsiders, of the political power of the working class. It revealed the depth of popular discontent and the fragility of the modern capitalist state. It revived the issue of revolution. But that was all. On the practical plane, unlike its French predecessor-the general strike of 1936-it brought nothing that could even be described as qualitative change, no equivalent of collective bargaining, two weeks' holiday with pay or the 40-hour week, with which the strikers of 1936 were bribed back to work. To bring the strike to an end in June 1968, the CGT leaders and militants had to dress up in triumphant colours what was no more than a rise in pay packets.