Franch News

29 November 2018, interview by the Left Berlin Macron and the Yellow Vest Revolt: Report from Paris Interview of John Mullen, by Left Berlin. 1 Could you summarize the Yellow Vests movement happening in France right now? Two weeks ago, starting from an online petition denouncing an increase in tax on petrol and diesel planned for January 1 st , a broad network of citizens, for whom this was the last straw, set up hundreds of road blocks at the access to motorways, hypermarkets or oil depots. There were well over 150 000 demonstrators around the country on the 17 th November, with over 2 000 demos or roadblocks. Still as I write there are plenty of road blocks around, and motorway toll booths occupied so cars can go through for free, and the petition is close to a million signatures. Yellow Vests have been talking of a new May 68. A national demonstration called in Paris on Saturday 24 th November refused to assemble in the space the police had chosen for it and preferred to march ...

France in 1968: Myths, realities and unanswered questions John Mullen This article aims at giving a general overview of the 1968 crisis in France, but also to show the different ongoing debates historians are dealing with, and some of the lessons for today’s anticapitalists. It seemed, in France, in this year of 2018, that everyone was talking about 1968. A huge number of broadcasts, publications and commemorative events were being produced. The conservative magazine L’Express headlined “1968-2018: How Everything Changed”. The National Archives and the National Library in Paris both held exhibitions on the theme, the latter on 1968 radical posters. Communist Party branches and different far-left organizations organized meetings or day schools on “May 68: What lessons for today?” What’s so special about France in 1968? Why was this fiftieth anniversary such a talking point that it seemed far more visible in public debate than the centenary of the First World War? Certainly, the event...