- “Run, comrade, the old world is behind you. »
Revolt, or the liberation of morals
The event known as May 68 marks a turning point in the way of life of the post-war period. Considered as "kids" without opinion, those who are not yet qualified as teenagers suffer the belittlement, indifference, even disrespect on the part of adults. The term adolescent does not exist in practice. Before 1968, we passed from the status of child to that of adult. May-68 marks above all the liberation of morals. Any convention is then contested:the prohibition of the wearing of mini skirts or pants for girls, that of the pill and abortion, censorship in the cinema, non-mixing, the place of the Church, etc. The goal is to shake up mentalities, as the hippies will do:a neglected appearance for a real quality of soul. Feminism will also manifest itself following the events of May-68. But one of the most radical changes this year has been in sexual freedom.
- “It is forbidden to forbid. »
First fruits in America before the Sorbonne in May 1968
In 1965 the uprising was already beginning, but more particularly against racial segregation. The Ku klux klan survives in the United States. In the spirit of Martin Luther King, blacks are fighting for civil rights in a country that has enslaved them, and for which the most disadvantaged neighborhoods were reserved. They fight against this feeling that gnaws at them, the one that makes them strangers. Women claim black beauty. The fight remains peaceful, but the repression will be more violent. Moreover, the Vietnam War is publicized, and the demonstrators in the American streets see the images of the conflict. It is time, they say, to stop the slaughter. Young people are looking for ways to make their opinions heard. Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, for example, use music to convey ideas.
May-68 strictly speaking is a student movement, it is the children of intellectuals who rebel. For once, it is not those at the bottom who seek to change society. Indeed, it is the whole world that moves through the demonstrations in the United States, in Germany, in Brazil, in Japan, in Italy, in Holland and in France. In truth, May-68 is a protest movement that has lasted for almost ten years. On March 22, the crisis was opened by the students of Nanterre. On May 2, the faculty of Nantes closed, and the next day, several hundred students from Nanterre and Paris protested in the courtyard of the Sorbonne. The police intervene and have to deal with the solidarity that unites the students. The Sorbonne closes soon, the demonstrations continue, more and more violent. These are real clashes between students and law enforcement. The “night of the barricades” arrives on May 10, then the general strike three days later. The workers mobilized in their turn and paralyzed the country. Capitalism is blamed, communism idealized. The demonstrations continued throughout the month of May until De Gaulle, President of the Republic, resurfaced on May 30.
- “Make love, not war”
Baby Boomers
Young people, who are no longer children but not yet adults, benefit from their large numbers to make their voices heard. Indeed, being from the Baby Boom generation that followed the war, with allowances to help their parents, many of them rebel against the conventions that tell them to shut up and do as their elders did. The slogan "Be young and shut up" serves as a provocation, although it accurately represents the fact that young adults are not listened to. But if the expected effect followed, it was indeed through a mass effect and the pressure exerted by all these young people, each more determined and more numerous than the other.
- "How to think freely in the shadow of a chapel? »
Parents:an example not to follow
The twenty-somethings of 1968 are the children of those who lived through the war, but not only. If some parents say they only crossed it, others would rather have caused it, or at least, would have contributed to such a massacre in just six years. This is how parents, adults, those who tell them to shut up, not to express their opinion because, in any case, they have none, are perceived. These adults who, more than twenty years ago, caused millions of deaths take the liberty of lecturing them and appearing irreproachable with their beautiful costumes that conform to what society demands. In 68 again, the wars of decolonization hindered peace in France. This is where young people start to rebel:to dress like their parents is to look like them, to be on the same path as them. It is then that we see hippies appear in the street, men with long hair who wear flowers, and conversely, women who swap their skirts for pants, who upset conformity, which we used to see until then.
May-68 is a movement that expressed the rejection of authority. Directed at the same time towards that of the parents, it is also directed towards that of the University and education in general. Students are asking for interaction, and more flexibility. This is the phase of desacralization of the teacher, the students speak. It is a real generational break, between parents responsible for the wars that populate the century and teenagers who shake up codes and break frames. A change in education is needed. Through a search for identity, a desire for freedom crushed by the previous generation, the students claim their indignation.
- “I don't want to waste my life earning it. »
The thirty glorious
Young people benefit not only from their advantageous numbers but also from their time. Arrived after the war and its millions of deaths, unemployment also seems to have disappeared. The thirty glorious years are those thirty years that saw no restrictions on hiring as supply was greater than demand. It was easily easy for a person of this generation to quit without worrying about finding a new job the next day. The May-68 insurgents acted in the knowledge that their financial situation would not be seriously affected. Indeed, for such a mass movement to occur against education, the rear had to be secured. From another point of view, as the thirty glorious years are synonymous with modernity, it is also time to change mentalities. Gender relations are changing and mixing is no longer prohibited, starting in high schools. May-68 is also a proletarian revolution, which rejects Gaullism. In the first demonstrations, the students made no difference intellectually or socially, later joined by the workers.
- “A man is not stupid or intelligent:he is free or he is not. »
A wind of freedom
While the generation of war ran after the modernity brought by the thirty glorious years, young people dream of freedom, travel, peace and justice. It is for these ideals that they have risen up against mores. The students saw their parents give in to the consumer society by exploiting the working class, and were indignant at the deprivation of freedom in the Eastern countries. If May-68 did not have political consequences, it will have enormously influenced society and considerably accelerated its evolution.