Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to make a comparative analysis between the May 1968 uprising in France and the May 2020 uprising in the United States. The social injustice practiced by the dominant capitalist order that existed in France in 1968 and the one that exists in the United States in 2020 was the factor that contributed to the popular revolt in both countries that it will be repeated all over the world because the economic and social conditions of the populations will be worsen over time with the collapse of the globalized capitalist system.
May 1968 in France
May 1968 was a great wave of protests that began with student demonstrations calling for reforms in France’s education sector. The university students joined the workers and promoted the biggest general strike in Europe until then with the participation of about 10 million people. The beginning of everything was a series of conflicts between students and authorities at the University of Paris, in Nanterre, a city near the French capital. On May 2, 1968, the University administration threatened to expel several students accused of leading the movement against the institution. The measures provoked the immediate reaction of students from one of the most renowned universities in the world, the Sorbonne, in Paris.
The students met the next day to protest, marching out under student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit. The police violently repressed the students and for several days the streets of Paris became the scene of pitched battles. The government’s brutal reaction only increased the importance of the demonstrations. At the height of the movement, almost two-thirds of the country’s workforce crossed their arms. People joined the strike, until its official proclamation on May 13. That was when all of France stopped. There were a series of protests, demonstrations and conflicts in which students called for reforms in the education sector, women demanded more equality and workers asked for higher wages. The conquest of the sexual revolution, the increase in labor rights and the end of the Vietnam war were part of the set of demands. The movement grew so much that it destabilized the government of then-President of France, General Charles De Gaulle, who, weakened politically, resigned a year later.
The student movement, which started at the University of Nanterre in 1968, spread rapidly throughout Paris, reaching the Sorbonne, the entire Latin Quarter, and in a few weeks, the main French provinces. This movement was not reduced to the unrest of university students who constituted the force that announced the ongoing rebellion. Student effervescence was rather the most evident manifestation or sensitive barometer of general discontent and a major crisis that was already being announced within French society. Not only the capitalist economic order was at stake, but the social order itself because the French population was dissatisfied with the meaninglessness of a bureaucratic capitalist society, where most citizens led a trivial, mediocre, repetitive, repressive and repressed existence. Every social order was being questioned, the lifestyle, the daily life was under suspicion. An arduous struggle was fought against the bosses and the State. “Ni Dieu, Ni Mâitre!” (“Neither God, Nor Lord!”) exclaimed the anarchists, recalling the motto of Auguste Blanqui, from the end of the 19th century. “À Bas l’État Policier!” (“Down with the police state!”) shouted other rebels, savagely repressed by the police force – organized and concentrated violence in the hands of the state, which has a monopoly on arms.
On May 25, 1968, the day after the most violent night of spring riots with 200 injured, two dead and ten million striking workers, negotiations were held between the government, employers, workers’ union and students. Thirty hours later, Prime Minister Pompidou announced the outcome of the negotiations contemplating increased wages, reduced working hours, advances in union law, reduced tax charges on wages, among other concessions. The CGT workers’ leaders announced the victory. Across the country, the agreements entered into were, however, considered acts of treason. In fact, the agreements reached were not up to the gigantic mobilization of May 1968. It was also said that a pre-revolutionary situation was aborted. May 1968, therefore, represented a defeat for the forces that wished to bring about profound changes in French society.
May 2020 in the United States
The 1968 uprising also happened in the United States, when Martin Luther King expanded the scope of the civil rights movement and joined ranks against the Vietnam War, which at that time killed more than 1,000 American soldiers a month. In April 1968, Luther King himself was murdered with a rifle shot to the face. The murder was the trigger for demonstrations in more than 100 American cities. The popular movement would reach its peak in August of that year, with scenes of pitched battle between protesters and police in Chicago, which resulted in more than 600 civilians and 130 policemen injured. As now, the 1968 protests were motivated by racial inequality, but also by economic injustice and against the Vietnam War. In 1968, people felt it was time to stop, as we now see. The movement was very energized by young people, as now. And, as in 1968, the protests in 2020 are increasing from city to city and there seems to be no end.
On May 25, 2020, black American George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis who knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes until he was killed. This event served as a starting point for a rallying cry in more than 140 American cities, not only against racism, but also against the social ills suffered by the great majority of the American population, especially by the black population, which were aggravated for the spread of the new Coronavirus that contributed to driving the North American economy into recession and to the vertiginous rise of unemployment in the United States.
Regarding racism, it is important to note that the United States has lived with racial discrimination since the colonial period when blacks were considered merchandise of their owners and not individuals with rights. This situation only ended with the end of the Civil War that took place between the years 1861 and 1865. After the civil war, there was a process of reconstruction of the country with the reincorporation of the southern slave states to the rest of the country. In that period, in the late 1860s, it was unacceptable for many southern white citizens that newly freed blacks had the same rights and occupied the same spaces as they did. In the same year that the civil war ended (1865), the Ku Klux KLan sect was formed, which developed violent action against blacks that would return with great strength and thousands of followers in the early 20th century. The social barriers caused by racial segregation laws in the United States and the virulent racism that ensued from them would, in fact, only begin to be at least partially resolved with the black civil rights movements. One of the leaders of these movements became a symbol of that struggle: Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated. Not even the presence of a black man in the presidency of the Republic like Barack Obama helped to cool racism in the United States.
But, in addition to the racism that still exists in the United States, there is a marked worsening in several social indicators in the country that contribute to the popular uprising. The latest UNDP released by the United Nations, proves that the United States is losing the ability to generate well-being for its population. Data related to education, health, inequality and social stratification equate the United States to several peripheral and semi-peripheral countries of capitalism. The United States is considered the richest country in the world and owner of the largest economy on the planet. However, this fact does not translate into well-being for its inhabitants due to the excessive concentration of wealth and income. The United States records social development indicators significantly below other rich countries. The United States has always had a bad social safety net. Social programs do not provide universal benefits, as is the case in many other industrialized countries, in addition to huge disparities in wealth. In reality, there are several indicators of social development in which the United States appears behind in comparison with other rich countries and often, side by side with peripheral and semi-peripheral countries of capitalism.
The fight against racism alone is not enough to explain this uprising that is currently taking place in the United States. The current popular uprising is also explained by the growing social inequalities that are registered in the United States, which were aggravated by the spread of the new Coronavirus that led the country’s economy into recession and unemployment of 40 million workers. Instead of seeking to build cohesion and social peace by presenting solutions to the issue of racism and social inequalities to put an end to the popular uprising, Donald Trump announced on June 1 that he would send US military personnel to the streets of the country if Governors and mayors did not end the violence in protests across the country. In addition, Trump said he would do his utmost to ensure compliance with the curfew. Several cities in the United States have adopted this measure. However, in several places, protests continued despite this restriction.
Governors in several North American states asked for reinforcement of members of the National Guard who already work in each of these locations. The first to call for help was Minnesota, the very state where George Floyd was murdered.
While Trump was speaking on June 1, the White House’s surroundings recorded clashes between security forces and protesters after a protest that began peacefully. According to the American press, the president sent 600 to 800 National Guard soldiers to Washington. Trump took advantage of it to galvanize his conservative voter base, pointing out that antifa, anti-fascist group, and radical left groups, who are targeting confrontation with everything they consider to the extreme right, are the villains for the violent disturbances. One fact is evident, the American bourgeoisie, the richest and most powerful in the world, is putting all the apparatus of state repression to stifle the popular uprising which is a legitimate expression of hatred against misery, poverty and political oppression and in the country. Several exceptional measures are being taken by Trump, such as the implementation of a curfew, repression of reporters and journalists and massive arrests of citizens.
The Donald Trump administration’s action makes it evident that democracy in the United States has shattered by the repressive acts underway. The popular mobilization that put 1 million people on the streets of the United States on June 6, 2020 is putting the political and social regime in the United States in check. It remains to be seen whether there will be profound political, economic and social changes in the United States in 2020 as a result of the ongoing popular uprising or whether the same thing that happened in France in 1968 when there was a defeat of the forces that wished to effect profound changes in French society. Most likely, the popular uprising in the United States will prevent Donald Trump from being re-elected president for his anti-social policy and his repressive attitudes against social movements paving the way for the victory of Democrat Joe Biden who will make some concessions like police reform, the deployment of a public health system and other demands from society. Even so, there will be no profound changes in the American empire, as happened with the May 1968 uprising that did not lead to profound changes in French society.
Conclusions
May 1968 and May 2020 are upheavals that are expected to be repeated around the world because the economic and social conditions of the populations are expected to worsen over time with the collapse of the globalized capitalist system. To prevent its likely demise in the middle of the 21st century in the face of the downward trend in the global profit rate and the growth rate of the World Gross Product to reach zero, the holders of power in the world capitalist system will act to increase the exploitation of workers and repression against social movements around the world. To achieve this goal, the globalized capitalist system colonizes all sectors of life with political, economic and social oppression. The alienation of people with the use of state ideological devices (school, church and media) is the main weapon used by the holders of the means of production and political power to avoid the awareness of the world population regarding the economic and political servitude in which it is subjected and results in the rebellion against the inhumane economic and political systems in force.
In the current parliamentary democracy, there is no opposition to the “status quo”, because the dominant political parties are in agreement on the essential that is the conservation of the current capitalist society. Very few political parties are likely to come to power because they doubt the dogma of the market. The representative and parliamentary system limits citizens’ power by the simple right to vote, that is, to nothing. The seats of Parliament are occupied by the vast majority of the dominant economic class, be it on the right or the intended democratic left. Very difficultly there will be change by parliamentary way in the current conditions. But, as time goes by, those in power around the world will not be able to prevent uprisings from the peoples who will become aware and turn them into a social revolution to change the dominant order. May 1968 and May 2020 are general rehearsals of the great wave that will sweep the world capitalist system of people’s lives around the world with the implementation of a new, truly democratic political, economic and social order.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 80, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).
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