LES ÉVÉNEMENTS

CHINA - FRANCE - USA AND THE MONTH OF MAY

Protestors dissatisfied with the
Treaty of Versailles for China

May 1968 is a month that shook up the French as well as a number of other people all over the world; however, political demonstrations in May have quite a history. It would seem that on the morning of the 4th May, 1919, student representatives from thirteen different local universities met in Beijing and drafted five resolutions:

1. to oppose the granting of Shandong to the Japanese under former German concessions.

2. to draw awareness of China's precarious position to the masses in China.

3. to recommend a large-scale gathering in Beijing.

4. to promote the creation of a Beijing student union.

5. to hold a demonstration that afternoon in protest to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

On the afternoon of the 4th May over 3,000 students of Peking University and other schools gathered together in front of Tiananmen and held a demonstration. The general opinion was that the Chinese government was "spineless". They voiced their anger at the Allied betrayal of China and the government's inability to secure Chinese interests in the conference. A boycott of Japanese products during this period was advocated, which boosted the domestic Chinese industry slightly. Throughout the streets of China, students packed the streets to protest China's concession to Japanese demands. During these demonstrations, students also insisted on the resignation of three Chinese officials involved in these proceedings. After burning the residence of one of the three despised officials, student protesters were arrested and severely assaulted. They shouted out such slogans as "Struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home", "Do away with the 'Twenty-One Demands'", "Don't sign the Versailles Treaty".

Car barricades in the streets of Paris. 3 May 1968.

Back to 1968: Following months of conflicts between students and authorities at the University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration shut down that university on 2 May 1968. Students at the Sorbonne University in Paris met on 3 May to protest against the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre. On Monday, 6 May, the national student union, the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (UNEF) — still the largest student union in France today — and the union of university teachers called a march to protest against the police invasion of Sorbonne. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. While the crowd dispersed, some began to create barricades out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones, forcing the police to retreat for a time. The police then responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again. Hundreds more students were arrested.

High school student unions spoke in support of the riots on 6 May. The next day, they joined the students, teachers and increasing numbers of young workers who gathered at the Arc de Triomphe to demand that:

1. all criminal charges against arrested students be dropped,

2. the police leave the university, and

3. the authorities reopen Nanterre and Sorbonne.

Negotiations broke down, and students returned to their campuses after a false report that the government had agreed to reopen them, only to discover the police still occupying the schools. The students now had a near revolutionary fervor.

On Friday, 10 May, another huge crowd congregated on the Rive Gauche. When the riot police again blocked them from crossing the river, the crowd again threw up barricades, which the police then attacked at 2:15 in the morning after negotiations once again foundered. The confrontation, which produced hundreds of arrests and injuries, lasted until dawn of the following day. The events were broadcast on radio as they occurred and the aftermath was shown on television the following day. Allegations were made that the police had participated, through agent provocateur, in the riots, by burning cars and throwing Molotov Cocktails.

The government's heavy-handed reaction brought on a wave of sympathy for the strikers. Many of the nation's more mainstream singers and poets joined after the heavy-handed police brutality came to light. American artists also began voicing support of the strikers. The PCF reluctantly supported the students, whom it regarded as adventurers and anarchists, and the major left union federations, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and the Force Ouvrière (CGT-FO), called a one-day general strike and demonstration for Monday, 13 May.

Well over a million people marched through Paris on that day; the police stayed largely out of sight. Prime Minister George Pompidou personally announced the release of the prisoners and the reopening of the Sorbonne. However, the surge of strikes did not recede. Instead, the protesters got even more active. 

And so it did throughout the Month.

Two years later, in the United States on the 4th May 1970, at Kent State University, the Ohio National Guard opened fire at an Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations killing four unarmed students, protesting the expansion of the war by the United States' invasion of Cambodia. 

These events are now 'history', though some of us remember them as clearly as ever.  Students on todays campuses in high schools and universities make documentaries about the events leading up to the 4th May 1970, as well as other events from the 1960's. Yesterday's witness is today's source of footnotes, and perhaps a not very reliable one at that. I wonder if some young student at Damascus University in Syria or at the University of Garyounis in Benghazi, Libya, will be making documentaries about todays events in 2050. At Garyounis, according to their website, between the years 1981 and 2005, in the Mass Media Studies of the Faculty of Arts Department, 24 students (15 men, 9 women) were awarded Masters or PhD degrees.  That's less than one student per year in those 26 years. One hopes the outcome of the current unrest will result in an increase in the numbers of University students in Benghazi.