The Revolution That Continues

"We didn't change the world," reflected Daniel Cohn-Bendit decades later, "but we changed the people who would change the world." This paradox captures May 1968's enduring legacy. Though it failed as political revolution, it succeeded as cultural transformation. The movement that couldn't overthrow capitalism or the state nonetheless revolutionized how the French — and many others — think about authority, identity, pleasure, and possibility.

The Transformation of Everyday Life

May 1968's most profound impact was on what Henri Lefebvre called "everyday life" — the mundane routines and relationships that shape human existence. Before May, French society operated on rigid hierarchies. Professors lectured; students listened. Bosses commanded; workers obeyed. Men led; women followed. Parents dictated; children submitted. After May, these certainties crumbled.

In families, patriarchal authority faced unprecedented challenges. Children who had occupied universities returned home demanding dialogue, not dictation. The formal "vous" between parents and children gave way to informal "tu." Dinner tables became debate forums. Authoritarian fathers found their word was no longer law. Some families split permanently; others discovered new forms of mutual respect.

The workplace transformation was equally dramatic. While capitalism persisted, its most brutal forms became harder to maintain. Workers who had tasted self-management during factory occupations refused to return to silent obedience. Foremen could no longer rule through fear. Even conservative employers recognized that some consultation was necessary. The French workplace remained hierarchical but less tyrannical.

Schools changed profoundly. The authoritarian pedagogy that treated students as empty vessels for knowledge became untenable. Teachers who had joined strikes couldn't return to traditional methods. Students who had organized their own education demanded participation. While the French education system remained selective and competitive, it incorporated dialogue and creativity previously forbidden.

Women's Liberation Unleashed

May 1968 catalyzed French feminism's second wave. Women who had fought alongside men but been relegated to secondary roles drew obvious conclusions. The personal was indeed political. Liberation required challenging patriarchy everywhere — in bedrooms and boardrooms, families and factories, language and law.

The Mouvement de Libération des Femmes (MLF), born from May's ashes, transformed French society. The right to contraception, legalized in 1967 but restricted, became widely available. Abortion, criminalized since 1810, was legalized in 1975 after fierce campaigns. Rape laws changed from protecting family honor to recognizing women's autonomy. Workplace discrimination, while persistent, became legally actionable.

Beyond legal changes, feminism transformed consciousness. Women entered professions previously masculine preserves. They demanded sharing of domestic labor. They challenged sexual double standards. The image of the French woman evolved from decorative object to autonomous subject. While full equality remained elusive, the direction of change was irreversible.

The Immigrant Rights Movement

May 1968 gave immigrant workers unprecedented visibility. Their militancy during strikes shattered stereotypes of passive victims. The movement's internationalist rhetoric — "We are all German Jews" — created space for challenging xenophobia. From this emerged a powerful immigrant rights movement that would reshape French identity.

The 1970s saw immigrant workers organize autonomously. The Mouvement des Travailleurs Arabes (Arab Workers Movement) led strikes against racist murders and housing discrimination. Second-generation immigrants, inspired by both May '68 and American civil rights, demanded recognition as full French citizens. The 1983 March for Equality and Against Racism, drawing 100,000 to Paris, showed this movement's strength.

These struggles forced France to confront its colonial past and multicultural present. The myth of seamless assimilation gave way to recognition of diversity. While racism persisted and even intensified, it faced organized resistance. The beur movement of French-born North Africans created new forms of cultural expression. France slowly, painfully, began acknowledging its multiethnic reality.

Environmental Consciousness

May 1968's critique of productivism — both capitalist and communist — created space for ecological politics. The movement's questioning of industrial society's ultimate purposes resonated with emerging environmental awareness. Many soixante-huitards became pioneer ecologists, translating anti-authoritarian politics into defense of nature.

The 1970s anti-nuclear movement drew heavily on May's legacy. Mass occupations at proposed reactor sites like Creys-Malville used tactics learned in 1968. The emphasis on direct democracy, grassroots organization, and lifestyle politics came straight from May. When peasants and ecologists united at Larzac against military expansion, they explicitly invoked May's spirit.

French environmentalism retained May's anti-authoritarian character. Unlike conservation movements elsewhere, it linked ecological destruction to social domination. It advocated not just protecting nature but transforming the society destroying it. This radical ecology influenced Green parties worldwide, showing how May's legacy spread beyond France.

Sexual Revolution

May 1968 accelerated France's sexual revolution. The movement's linking of political and personal liberation made sexual freedom a revolutionary demand. "The more I make revolution, the more I want to make love" wasn't just clever graffiti but a program for transforming intimate life.

Homosexuality, previously criminal and closeted, began emerging into public view. The Front Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Homosexual Action Front), founded in 1971, used May's tactics of provocation and visibility. Gay pride marches, unthinkable before 1968, became annual events. While legal equality took decades, cultural acceptance began.

Heterosexual relationships also transformed. The double standard weakened as women claimed sexual autonomy. Living together unmarried, previously scandalous, became common. Divorce, difficult and shameful, became accessible and acceptable. The nuclear family remained but lost its monopoly on legitimate relationships.

Educational Revolution

French education changed dramatically after May 1968. The Orientation Law created participatory governance in universities. Students gained representation on decision-making bodies. New universities emphasized interdisciplinary study over traditional hierarchies. The sacred distinction between grandes écoles and universities began blurring.

Beyond structures, pedagogy transformed. The cours magistral (master lecture) faced competition from seminars and group work. Students evaluated professors. Research topics expanded beyond traditional canons. Women's studies, previously nonexistent, became legitimate. Third World perspectives entered curricula.

Secondary education changed more slowly but significantly. The rigid tracking system that sorted children into academic or vocational paths faced criticism. Comprehensive middle schools were created. Corporal punishment, already rare, disappeared entirely. Student councils gained real power. While selection and competition remained, their brutality diminished.

Media and Cultural Transformation

May 1968 broke the state's information monopoly. The government's heavy-handed propaganda during the crisis discredited official media. Demands for press freedom and diverse viewpoints became irresistible. The result transformed France's mediascape.

Radio libre (free radio) emerged in the 1970s, pirates broadcasting alternative news and music. When Socialist François Mitterrand legalized them in 1981, hundreds flowered. Television, while remaining state-influenced, diversified. New channels appeared. Censorship effectively ended. The single official truth gave way to competing narratives.

Cultural production exploded. The nouveau roman gave way to more accessible, politically engaged literature. Cinema vérité documented social movements. Bande dessinée (comics) tackled serious themes. Rock music, previously marginalized as Anglo-Saxon import, became authentically French. May's cultural revolution continued long after its political defeat.

Urban Space and Architecture

May 1968 challenged modernist urban planning that had created alienating suburbs and destroyed traditional neighborhoods. The critique of "metro-boulot-dodo" existence targeted not just routines but the spaces enforcing them. From this emerged new thinking about cities as lived environments rather than machines for production.

Architects influenced by May designed participatory housing where residents shaped their environments. The grand ensembles' failures led to human-scaled development. Historic preservation, previously elite concern, became popular cause as communities defended their quartiers against demolition. The right to the city, proclaimed by Lefebvre, inspired urban movements worldwide.

Public space itself changed meaning. Streets, revealed as political forums during May, retained that potential. Authorities became warier of redesigns that prevented assembly. The tradition of manifestations (demonstrations) strengthened. Every political movement learned to take to the streets, knowing that public space remained contested terrain.

Political Culture Transformed

While May 1968 failed to overthrow the state, it transformed French political culture. The authoritarian Gaullism that provoked the revolt became impossible. De Gaulle himself resigned in 1969. His successors, while conservative, adopted more consultative styles. The imperial presidency evolved toward something more responsive.

The left changed even more dramatically. The Communist Party's betrayal of May began its long decline. By 1981, Socialists led by François Mitterrand, who had learned May's lessons about cultural politics, achieved power. Their victory owed much to incorporating May's themes — autogestion, quality of life, cultural liberation — into reformist programs.

New social movements proliferated. Beyond feminism and ecology, movements emerged around regional autonomy, consumer rights, prison reform, and psychiatric liberation. Each used May's methods — direct action, participatory democracy, cultural politics. Civil society, moribund before 1968, became vibrant and contentious.

The Globalization of May

May 1968's impact extended far beyond France. Its images — students behind barricades, workers occupying factories, walls covered with revolutionary poetry — inspired movements worldwide. Its ideas about linking personal and political liberation influenced activists everywhere.

In Southern Europe, May accelerated democratization. Spanish students fighting Franco's dictatorship studied French tactics. Portuguese revolutionaries in 1974 explicitly invoked May's example. Greek students resisting military rule drew inspiration from Parisian barricades. May showed that even stable authoritarian regimes could be challenged.

Latin American movements incorporated May's innovations. The fusion of students and workers, emphasis on cultural revolution, and critique of traditional left hierarchies influenced struggles from Mexico to Argentina. Liberation theology's option for the poor reflected May's influence on progressive Catholics.

The Neoliberal Recuperation

Ironically, capitalism proved adaptable to May's cultural revolution. The critique of hierarchy and demand for authenticity were incorporated into new management styles. "Flexible" capitalism replaced rigid Fordism. Creative industries flourished. The rebel became entrepreneur.

This recuperation wasn't simple co-optation. Real changes occurred — workplaces became less authoritarian, products more diverse, lifestyles more varied. But capitalism's fundamental structures survived by adapting. The demand for self-realization became engine of consumption. Revolution was marketed as lifestyle choice.

Some former soixante-huitards became this transformation's architects. Revolutionaries turned advertisers used May's language to sell products. Anarchists became management consultants preaching horizontal organization. The personal computer, embraced as tool of liberation, enabled new forms of surveillance and control.

Memory and Mythology

May 1968 became modern France's founding myth, contested and reinterpreted by each generation. For participants, it remained life's defining moment — when ordinary people nearly changed everything. For critics, it symbolized destructive narcissism that undermined necessary authority. For younger generations, it was both inspiration and burden.

The 40th anniversary in 2008 saw explosive debates. President Nicolas Sarkozy declared his intention to "liquidate May '68," blaming it for moral relativism and social decay. Defenders responded that May's spirit of resistance remained essential against new forms of domination. The intensity showed how May's questions remained alive.

Each French social movement measured itself against May's standard. The 1995 strikes against welfare cuts invoked May's spirit. The 2006 protests against youth job insecurity consciously echoed 1968. The 2018-19 Yellow Vest movement, while different in composition, revived May's critique of distant elites and demand for direct democracy.

What Remains

Fifty years later, May 1968's legacy appears paradoxical. The revolution failed, yet society transformed. Capitalism survived but changed form. The state retained power but lost automatic legitimacy. Traditional hierarchies persisted but faced constant challenge. May didn't achieve its explicit goals but accomplished things its participants hadn't imagined.

Most profoundly, May changed what people considered possible and acceptable. Before 1968, questioning authority required exceptional courage. After, it became normal, even expected. Before, personal life was private matter. After, everything was potentially political. Before, experts and officials monopolized decision-making. After, everyone claimed the right to participate.

These changes, now taken for granted, were May's gift to subsequent generations. The movement showed that ordinary people could challenge any institution, question any authority, imagine any alternative. Even when specific struggles failed, this expansion of possibility remained. Once people taste freedom, they don't forget its flavor.

May 1968 lives on not in revolutionary parties or state power but in countless daily refusals to accept the unacceptable. Every time workers strike for dignity not just wages, students demand education not just credentials, women assert autonomy not just equality, citizens claim participation not just representation, May's spirit returns. The revolution continues because what it revealed — that another world is possible — remains true and necessary.# Contemporary Relevance - Lessons for Today