The Workers Join the Dance

On Monday, May 13, 1968, something unprecedented happened. As hundreds of thousands marched through Paris in solidarity with students, young workers at the Sud-Aviation aircraft factory in Nantes decided they had seen enough. Without waiting for union approval, without following proper procedures, they simply stopped working, occupied their factory, and locked the managers in their offices. This spontaneous action by 2,000 workers would trigger the largest general strike in French history.

Within days, the strike spread like wildfire across France. By May 20, over 10 million workers — two-thirds of the French workforce — had joined the movement. Factories, offices, shops, and services ground to a halt. For the first time since the 1930s, workers were not just withdrawing their labor but occupying their workplaces, raising red flags, and discussing how to run society themselves. France, the modern industrial nation, had effectively ceased to function.

The Contagion of Rebellion

The speed of the strike's spread stunned everyone, including its participants. On Tuesday, May 14, workers at Renault-Cléon in Normandy followed Nantes' example. By Wednesday, the massive Renault-Billancourt plant in Paris — the historic fortress of French labor — joined in. Thursday saw the movement leap to other car factories, engineering plants, and chemical works. By Friday, it had reached the post office, railways, and public services.

Each occupation had its own character, but patterns emerged. Young workers, often those who had experienced student life before entering factories, typically initiated the actions. They were joined by immigrants, women, and others traditionally marginalized by union hierarchies. Older workers, initially skeptical, were swept along by the enthusiasm and the realization that this was a historic opportunity.

The occupations were festive affairs. Red flags flew from factory roofs. Workers who had never spoken to each other discovered common interests. Improvised concerts and theatrical performances broke the monotony. Canteens that normally served institutional slop produced elaborate meals as cooks, freed from cost constraints, showed their skills. For many workers, these were the happiest days of their lives.

Beyond Bread and Butter

What made this strike extraordinary was its demands — or rather, the absence of traditional demands. Previous strikes had focused on wages, hours, and working conditions. While these issues mattered, the May strike went much deeper. Workers questioned the very nature of work, hierarchy, and industrial society.

In occupied factories, debates raged about fundamental questions. Why should a few give orders and many obey? Why was work organized to maximize profit rather than human satisfaction? Could workers run factories themselves? What would production for need rather than profit look like? These discussions, unimaginable weeks earlier, now seemed urgently practical.

The strike revealed the depth of alienation in French workplaces. Workers spoke of being treated like machines, of mind-numbing repetition, of foremen who acted like prison guards. They described the daily humiliations — being timed in toilets, forbidden to speak, subjected to arbitrary discipline. The prosperity of the Trente Glorieuses had come at a profound human cost.

The Union Dilemma

The established unions, particularly the Communist-led CGT, faced an impossible dilemma. Their entire strategy was based on negotiating improvements within the capitalist system. Now their members were questioning that system itself. The union leaders, mostly aging men who had built their careers on discipline and gradual reform, watched in horror as their organizations were swept up in a revolutionary tide.

Georges Séguy, the CGT's secretary-general, rushed from one occupied factory to another, trying to restore order. He urged workers to formulate concrete demands, to avoid provocations, to trust their leaders. But in many places, he was booed by his own members. The gap between union bureaucrats and rank-and-file workers had never been clearer.

The CFDT, the second-largest union confederation, took a different approach. Influenced by new left ideas and led by younger officials, it endorsed worker self-management (autogestion) and supported links with students. This position reflected its membership — white-collar workers, technicians, and employees in modern industries who were receptive to ideas beyond traditional trade unionism.

Scenes from the Occupations

At Renault-Billancourt, 30,000 workers transformed their factory into a small city. They organized their own security, preventing both police infiltration and provocations. They established committees for food, entertainment, and communication. They held daily assemblies where anyone could speak. They even created a nursery for workers' children, something management had always deemed impossible.

The younger workers were especially creative. They repainted walls with murals depicting their struggles. They renamed parts of the factory — the management offices became "Thieveille," the particularly harsh workshop became "Hell." They organized soccer matches in the courtyards and film screenings in the canteens. Some began producing items for their own use rather than sale — a practical critique of capitalist production.

At the Wonder battery factory in Saint-Ouen, a different drama unfolded. The workforce, largely women and immigrants, had long been super-exploited. Now they not only occupied the factory but sequestered the tyrannical boss who had terrorized them for years. They forced him to listen as worker after worker described his abuses. It was simultaneously a trial, a therapy session, and a revolutionary tribunal.

The Service Sector Joins In

The strike wasn't limited to industrial workers. Bank employees occupied their branches, opening books to show how finance really worked. Department store workers welcomed customers without charging, demonstrating how commerce could function without profit. Television and radio technicians took over stations, broadcasting uncensored news and revolutionary music.

The occupation of the ORTF (French Radio and Television Office) was particularly significant. For the first time, French viewers saw unfiltered images of police brutality, heard workers speaking for themselves, watched debates about fundamental social questions. The government's monopoly on information was broken, if only temporarily.

Teachers joined enthusiastically, seeing parallels between their struggles and those of students and workers. They occupied schools, held teach-ins for parents, and experimented with non-hierarchical education. Even some civil servants, traditionally conservative, began questioning their role as agents of state power.

The Immigrant Workers' Revolt

Among the most militant strikers were immigrant workers, primarily from North Africa and Portugal. Confined to the worst jobs, housed in miserable hostels, subjected to racist abuse, they had the most to gain from radical change. Their participation terrified both government and traditional unions, who had long ignored their specific grievances.

At the Citroën factory in Paris, where management had deliberately recruited immigrants as supposedly docile labor, the occupation took on an anti-colonial character. Workers who had fought for Algerian independence brought their experience to the struggle. They organized separately when necessary, ensuring their voices weren't drowned out by French workers' concerns.

The strike gave immigrants unprecedented visibility. French workers, forced to acknowledge their presence and importance, began to overcome ingrained prejudices. Joint struggles created solidarity across ethnic lines. The slogan "French and Immigrant Workers United" moved from rhetoric to reality in occupied workplaces.

Women in the Strike

Women workers faced double oppression — as workers and as women. Paid less than men for the same work, relegated to the most repetitive tasks, subjected to sexual harassment, they had powerful reasons to revolt. The strike gave them opportunities to assert themselves in unprecedented ways.

At the occupied Moulinex factory in Caen, women workers who had never spoken in public became eloquent speakers at assemblies. They demanded not just equal pay but transformation of work organization that assumed women's primary role was domestic. They challenged male workers' sexism as vigorously as management's exploitation.

The strike also revealed the hidden labor of reproduction. With schools closed and services disrupted, the work of caring for children and maintaining households became visible. Some occupied factories organized collective childcare and communal cooking, prefiguring feminist demands that would emerge more fully in subsequent years.

The Question of Violence

Unlike the student movement, the workers' strike was remarkably peaceful. Workers understood that violent confrontation with the state would provide excuses for repression. Their power lay not in street fighting but in their ability to stop production. The occupied factories were models of self-discipline.

This isn't to say there was no violence. Police repeatedly tried to retake factories, leading to fierce battles. At the Peugeot plant in Sochaux, two workers were killed in clashes with security forces. But generally, workers showed remarkable restraint, understanding that their strength lay in solidarity and organization rather than physical force.

The threat of violence, however, was always present. The government stationed troops around Paris and prepared contingency plans for military intervention. Workers organized defense committees and discussed how to resist if attacked. The tension between the strike's peaceful character and the potential for violent repression created an atmosphere of permanent crisis.

Daily Life in a Paralyzed Country

As the strike expanded, normal life became impossible. Trains stopped running. Mail wasn't delivered. Garbage piled up in streets. Gas stations ran dry. Banks closed. Television reduced programming to government propaganda and old movies. France, the modern nation, experienced a return to pre-industrial rhythms.

Yet life didn't stop — it was transformed. With cars immobilized, people walked and talked to neighbors they had ignored for years. With television limited, they attended meetings and debates. With shops closed, they organized collective distribution of necessities. The strike forced a rediscovery of community and mutual aid.

Food distribution became a critical issue. Strike committees organized supplies for occupied factories. Farmers, many sympathetic to the movement, delivered produce directly to workers. Student-worker committees distributed food in working-class neighborhoods. These improvised networks demonstrated that society could function without capitalists or state bureaucrats.

The Grenelle Negotiations

By May 25, the government was desperate. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou convened negotiations at the Ministry of Social Affairs on rue de Grenelle. Representatives of government, employers, and unions met to find a solution. The resulting Grenelle Agreements offered substantial concessions — a 35% increase in the minimum wage, a 10% general wage increase, and improved union rights.

But when CGT leader Georges Séguy presented these gains to workers at Renault-Billancourt on May 27, he was loudly booed. Workers weren't striking just for money — they wanted dignity, control, a different kind of society. The rejection of Grenelle showed that the movement had gone beyond anything traditional unions could negotiate.

This rejection created a revolutionary situation. The government couldn't function without workers' cooperation. The unions couldn't control their members. The normal mechanisms of social regulation had broken down. For a brief moment, fundamental change seemed possible. As one worker said, "We discovered we didn't need them — not the bosses, not the state, not even the union leaders. We could run everything ourselves."

International Dimensions

The French strike inspired workers worldwide. Italian workers occupied factories in solidarity. Belgian workers launched their own strike wave. Even in Eastern Europe, where strikes were illegal, workers took courage from French example. The international dimension reinforced strikers' sense of participating in historic change.

Foreign workers in France played crucial roles as bridges between movements. Spanish workers, with experience of clandestine organizing under Franco, brought tactical knowledge. Portuguese workers connected French struggles with anti-colonial movements. The strike became a practical exercise in internationalism.

The Limits of Workers' Power

Despite its unprecedented scale, the strike faced inherent limitations. Workers controlled production but not distribution or finance. They could stop the economy but struggled to restart it on different terms. The question of political power — who controlled the state — remained unresolved.

Most critically, the strike remained uneven. Some sectors, particularly rural areas and small businesses, participated minimally. The self-employed, professionals, and middle managers often opposed the movement. Without near-universal participation, the strike couldn't impose a new social order.

The absence of clear alternative structures also weakened the movement. Workers knew what they rejected but struggled to articulate what they wanted. Autogestion remained more slogan than program. The old society was paralyzed but the new one wasn't ready to be born.

The High Tide

By the end of May, the strike reached its zenith. Ten million workers occupied their workplaces. Students controlled universities. The government barely functioned. Revolution seemed imminent. Yet this was also the moment when the movement's contradictions became apparent.

Workers wanted change but feared chaos. They had shown their power but weren't prepared to seize state power. They had created embryonic forms of self-management but lacked the organization to generalize them. The strike was simultaneously too radical for reform and too moderate for revolution.

As May turned to June, the crucial question was whether the movement could find political expression. Could the alliance of workers and students create new institutions? Could the occupied factories become bases for a new society? Or would the old order reassert itself? The answer would come sooner than anyone expected, and from an unexpected source — Charles de Gaulle's dramatic disappearance and return.# Cultural Revolution - Art, Slogans, and New Ideas