Word: revolt
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Appeal for a Mandate. For nearly three weeks, as revolt spread throughout France, De Gaulle said nothing in public, true to his precept that "nothing enhances authority better than silence." Then he went on television, his image preceded and followed only by a test pattern, since the employees at the state-owned television studios had gone out on strike too. His sparse hair carefully combed over his pate, he looked rested and relaxed, a paragon of composure. "Everyone understands," he said, "the significance of the present events?in our universities and then in the social fields...
Then came the first hopeful development in the revolt. During the debate, Pompidou had gently urged that the labor leaders sit down with him to talk about a settlement. Séguy sent a message that he was ready to bargain; the leaders of the two other big unions expressed similar sentiments. The unions also formulated their demands: a 50% minimum-wage hike, a 40-hour week (v. 45 to 48 hours at present), improved medical benefits, retirement at 60 (v. 65). Such bargaining might yet lead France back into a rational, if highly inflationary, world...
Praise from Sartre. The workers' bread-and-butter attitude contrasted sharply with the flight into fantasy by the student rebels. The New Left students in France could take credit for being the first of their genre to start a revolt of such great proportions, but like New Left students elsewhere, they proved to be far better at criticism than construction...
Despite Sartre's praise, the decisive role in the revolt was played by the workers, who plainly preferred to avoid any direct ties with the young radicals. Soccer players occupied the headquarters of the soccer association, forced the cancellation of all matches. Leggy strippers occupied the Folies Bergère, locking out the customers. Sewage workers staged a sewerside sit-in. Buses, trains, taxis and all French commercial aircraft came to a halt. At first, French automobilistes created huge traffic snarls as they tried to go about in their cars; then, as gas supplies gave out, the streets became uncommonly deserted...
Politically, the competition ahead in France's multiparty political arena may well bring back memories of the crisis-laden Fourth Republic. As a result of the revolt, most French political experts feel that the Gaullist party will never again place enough members in the National Assembly to form a working majority. If the present Assembly were dissolved at any time soon, the feeling at the moment among most French politicians is that the so-called combined left?Communists plus Mitterrand's assortment of Socialists-would command a solid majority in which the Communist ratio would be higher than...