May 3: The Day Everything Changed

Friday, May 3, 1968, began like any other spring day in Paris. The morning newspapers carried routine stories about economic statistics and diplomatic meetings. Tourists strolled along the Seine. Office workers hurried to their jobs. By nightfall, the Latin Quarter would be a battlefield, and France would be on the path to its greatest social upheaval since the Liberation.

The transformation began with a simple act of solidarity. Students from Nanterre, facing disciplinary hearings, had called for support from their comrades at the Sorbonne. A few hundred gathered in the ancient courtyard of France's most prestigious university, planning nothing more than a peaceful rally. What happened next would echo around the world.

The Police Enter the Sorbonne

For 700 years, the Sorbonne had enjoyed special status as a sanctuary of learning. Police traditionally did not enter without permission from university authorities. But on this day, Rector Jean Roche, panicked by reports of radical agitation, made a fateful decision. He called in the police to clear the courtyard.

At 4:30 PM, columns of CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité) riot police marched through the gates. Students, many of them simply curious onlookers rather than political activists, watched in disbelief. The Sorbonne, symbol of French intellectual life, was being violated by armed force.

The police operation was swift and brutal. Students were herded into police vans, hands on their heads, like common criminals. Among those arrested was Jacques Sauvageot, leader of the national students' union UNEF, who had come merely to observe. The sight of students being dragged from their university shocked even conservative professors.

Word spread quickly through the Latin Quarter. "They're arresting students at the Sorbonne!" The cry went out from café to café, from one university building to another. Within an hour, thousands of students were converging on the area. They had no plan, no organization, no clear demands. They simply knew that something intolerable was happening and they had to respond.

The First Barricades

As police vans tried to leave the Sorbonne with their cargo of arrested students, spontaneous crowds blocked their path. "Libérez nos camarades!" (Free our comrades!) they chanted. The standoff lasted hours. Police reinforcements arrived. The crowds grew larger. Tension mounted.

Then, around 6 PM, someone threw the first paving stone.

The Latin Quarter's cobblestone streets, picturesque remnants of medieval Paris, provided perfect ammunition. Students discovered that the pavés could be pried loose and hurled at police lines. The CRS responded with tear gas and baton charges. Running battles erupted along the Boulevard Saint-Michel, around the Panthéon, through the narrow streets of the old scholarly quarter.

The first barricades appeared almost spontaneously. Students overturned cars, piled up café tables, used anything at hand to block police advances. These weren't military fortifications but symbolic gestures, theatrical props in an urban drama. Yet they served their purpose, creating liberated zones where students could regroup and forcing police to fight for every meter of ground.

The Night of Violence

As darkness fell, the Latin Quarter became a war zone. The air was thick with tear gas. The sound of shattering glass and shouting voices echoed off ancient buildings. Police charged repeatedly, swinging their heavy matraques (batons) at anyone within reach. Students fought back with stones, bolts, anything they could find.

The violence was shocking in its intensity. Many CRS officers, recruited from rural areas and taught to see students as privileged brats, attacked with genuine hatred. Students, many experiencing police violence for the first time, responded with fury at this assault on their dignity. Blood flowed on both sides.

But something extraordinary was happening. The students were not alone. From apartments above the street, residents — workers, shopkeepers, ordinary Parisians — began dropping objects on police heads and lowering ropes to help students escape. When police fired tear gas, windows opened and people threw down water and wet towels. The Latin Quarter's population was choosing sides.

By midnight, over 600 people had been arrested and hundreds injured. The Sorbonne was closed by government order. But the authorities had won only a Pyrrhic victory. Their heavy-handed response had transformed a small protest into a mass movement. Images of bloodied students and charging police would dominate the next day's newspapers, sparking outrage across France.

The Weekend of Mobilization

Saturday, May 4, dawned with the Latin Quarter under virtual military occupation. Hundreds of CRS guarded the closed Sorbonne. Police vans patrolled the streets. But the students were not intimidated. Meeting in cafés, apartments, and alternative venues, they planned their response.

The National Union of French Students (UNEF) and the Union of University Teachers (SNESup) called for an immediate strike. This was unprecedented — never before had students and teachers united in direct action against the government. More surprisingly, some unions began expressing solidarity. The first cracks in the established order were appearing.

Throughout the weekend, the movement spread beyond Paris. In Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, and other university cities, students organized solidarity demonstrations. High school students joined in, defying teachers and parents. The spark from Nanterre had ignited a nationwide fire.

Monday's March

Monday, May 6, saw the first great march of May '68. Over 20,000 students and supporters gathered at Denfert-Rochereau, in southern Paris. Their destination: the Sorbonne, still occupied by police. Their demand: reopening of the university, liberation of arrested comrades, and withdrawal of police from the Latin Quarter.

The march was a revelation. This was not the usual leftist demonstration with red flags and revolutionary songs. The crowd included students from every faculty, young workers, lycée pupils, even some parents. They sang the Internationale but also popular songs. They chanted political slogans but also playful rhymes. The atmosphere was more festival than funeral march.

As the march wound through Paris, something magical happened. Bystanders applauded. Shop workers came out to watch. Some joined in. The students' youth, enthusiasm, and obvious sincerity contrasted sharply with the grim ranks of riot police. Public sympathy was shifting decisively.

The Sorbonne Liberated

On Tuesday, May 7, came a crucial turning point. The government, hoping to defuse tensions, announced that the Sorbonne would reopen and arrested students would be released. It was meant as a concession but was received as a victory. Students flooded back into their university, this time not just to study but to transform it.

Within hours, the Sorbonne became a revolutionary commune. Red and black flags flew from the windows. Committees formed spontaneously to organize food, security, and activities. The grand amphitheaters, normally reserved for dry lectures, hosted passionate debates about society, revolution, and the future. Anyone could speak; professors and students, workers and intellectuals debated as equals.

The authorities watched helplessly. Having withdrawn the police, they could not reintroduce them without sparking another explosion. The Sorbonne became a liberated territory in the heart of Paris, a living example of the society students wanted to create. Every day, thousands came to participate or simply observe this extraordinary experiment.

The Movement Spreads

The liberation of the Sorbonne inspired similar occupations across France. The École des Beaux-Arts became a revolutionary art factory, producing the iconic posters of May '68. The Théâtre de l'Odéon was transformed into a 24-hour forum for debate. Medical students occupied their facilities and declared them open to serve "the people" rather than the elite.

Each occupation developed its own character. At the École Normale Supérieure, France's most elite institution, students and professors engaged in high-level theoretical debates about revolution and society. At technical colleges, the focus was more practical — how to reorganize education to serve working-class needs. Art schools exploded in creativity, while science faculties discussed the social responsibility of researchers.

The movement was remarkably decentralized. No single organization controlled it. The March 22 Movement, UNEF, various leftist groups all played roles, but the real dynamic came from below. Action committees sprouted everywhere — in universities, high schools, neighborhoods. Anyone with an idea and energy could organize actions, publish pamphlets, or start initiatives.

The Generation Gap Explodes

The student revolt exposed and widened France's generation gap. Parents who had lived through depression and war watched in bewilderment as their children rejected everything they had worked to achieve. "We gave you comfort and security," they said. "We want meaning and freedom," their children replied.

The conflict played out in countless family dramas. Sons and daughters returned from demonstrations with torn clothes and radical ideas. Fathers who had fought for France threatened to disown children who burned the tricolor. Mothers wept as their students chose revolution over careers. Some families split irreparably; others found unexpected common ground.

But the generational conflict was not absolute. Some parents, remembering their own youthful idealism or frustrated by their own conformist lives, supported their children. "Red parents" sheltered student fugitives, contributed to strike funds, even joined demonstrations. These family alliances across generations would prove crucial as the movement evolved.

New Forms of Action

The May movement pioneered tactics that would influence protests for decades. The occupation of buildings, turning them into revolutionary spaces, became a model copied worldwide. The use of humor and creativity to mock authority undermined government legitimacy more effectively than violent confrontation.

Street theater flourished. Students staged mock trials of professors and politicians. They held "teach-ins" on street corners, explaining their ideas to passersby. They organized "happenings" that blurred the line between art and politics. Every action aimed not just to protest but to prefigure a different society.

The movement also developed new forms of democracy. General assemblies where everyone could speak replaced traditional hierarchical meetings. Decisions were made by consensus when possible, majority vote when necessary. Leaders emerged based on ideas and energy rather than position. Women, though still underrepresented, began asserting their voices more forcefully.

The Role of Violence

The question of violence haunted the movement. The initial police brutality had sparked massive sympathy for students. But as clashes continued, debate raged about appropriate responses. Some argued for purely peaceful resistance. Others insisted on the right to self-defense. A minority called for escalation to armed struggle.

In practice, student violence remained largely symbolic and defensive. Barricades were built more to create liberated space than to launch attacks. Stones were thrown at charging police, not used for assassination. Even the most radical groups recognized that in a military confrontation with the state, they would lose.

The real violence came from the authorities. Police brutality escalated throughout May, with increasingly severe injuries. The CRS used a new type of offensive grenade that caused serious wounds. Plainclothes police provocateurs tried to incite violence to justify repression. Students responded with remarkable discipline, generally avoiding the trap of escalation.

International Solidarity

May '68 was part of a global uprising. Students in Paris drew inspiration from the Prague Spring, American anti-war protests, and struggles in the Third World. In turn, their revolt inspired movements worldwide. Images of Parisian barricades appeared on walls from Berkeley to Berlin.

Foreign students in Paris played important roles. Germans who had experienced police repression in their own country shared tactical knowledge. Americans brought experience from civil rights and anti-war movements. Latin Americans contributed revolutionary theory and songs. The Sorbonne became a truly international space where revolution was debated in a dozen languages.

This internationalism went beyond mere solidarity. Students understood their movement as part of a worldwide challenge to all forms of domination — capitalist and communist, Western and Eastern. They rejected both American imperialism and Soviet bureaucracy, seeking a third way that would fulfill the promise of human liberation.

The Turning Point

By the second week of May, the student movement had reached a critical juncture. It had survived initial repression, occupied symbolic spaces, and won significant public support. But it faced fundamental questions. Could a student movement alone transform society? How could it connect with workers, the majority of the population? What were its concrete goals beyond rejection of the existing order?

The answer came from an unexpected source. Young workers, inspired by student audacity, began wildcatting in factories. The student revolt was about to become a general strike. What had begun in university courtyards would soon shut down the entire country. The explosion was spreading from the Latin Quarter to every corner of France.

As one student leader recalled: "We lit the match, but we had no idea how much gasoline was lying around. When the workers joined us, we realized this wasn't just about university reform or even overthrowing de Gaulle. This was about reimagining everything — work, family, culture, human relationships. We had started something beyond our wildest dreams."

The students had shown it was possible to say no to authority, to create alternative spaces, to imagine different futures. Now the question was whether French society as a whole was ready for transformation. The next phase would provide the answer.# The General Strike - When France Stood Still