France History Archive
In May-June 1968, students from the Nanterre University took the Student Protest Movement out of the narrow domain of academic issues and triggered what amounted to an uprising. Students fought pitched battles with police, de Gaulle left the capitol, and tanks were brought to the outskirts of Paris.
Students went to the factories, such as the giant Renault plant, and called on workers to support them. The crisis subsided after the CGT (the CP-controlled trade union federation) struck a deal with the government for a 10 per cent pay rise.
The resulting political fall-out was influenced by outside events: the successful Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the suppression of the Prague Spring, the growing influence of Maoism after the Sino-Soviet Split and the growth of Euro-communism, as well as the earlier crisis over Algeria.
Apart from the growth of Ultra-Left and anarchist currents, post-modern philosophy was also a product of the period after 1968.
The focus of this archive is some of the Maoist groups of the post-1968 period.
Gauche Proletarienne, 1969-1973
Communism and Violence, Tiennot Grumbach, 1972
The Armed Nuclei for Popular Autonomy, 1977