Paris May 1968
Source: The May Events Archive of Simon Fraser University;
Published: by Pitié-Salpêtrière Section of the French Communist Party;
Translated: by Mitchell Abidor.
An intolerable situation has been created in the university as a result of the persistent refusal of Gaullist power to give France a modern and democratic national education system, one that will permit students and professors to work under normal conditions. The lack of credits, of facilities, of equipment, of teachers, the structures and teaching not adapted to our era prevent three students out of four from completing their studies, not to mention those who never have access to higher education.
This serious unfitness makes capitalism’s crimes even worse, and deprives many graduates of the outlets corresponding to the culture they have acquired.
But it is precisely against the students that that government is pursuing the application of its reforms and is preparing restrictive measures for admission to the faculties.
This situation is causing profound and legitimate discontent among students and teachers.
It has also favored the acts of irresponsible groups whose ideas offer the students no perspectives. Everything is happening as if the escalation of their agitation and of police repression were solely aimed at hiding from the eyes of public opinion the power structure’s responsibility for the situation in the universities and to create the conditions for new reactionary measures.
It is unacceptable that the government use the conduct of a tiny minority as a pretext for interrupting the studies of tens of thousands of students just a few days from exams, for investing the Sorbonne and the Latin Quarter, and to unleash police repression.
This is arousing the protests of workers, teachers and students.
The Communist representatives of the Paris region express the support of the French Communist Party and the Union Of Communist Students of France for this protest. They stand up against police repression and call for a democratic solution for the problems of higher education.
It is the government that bears the responsibility for the situation. It is up to it to take the measures necessary for normal university life.
The Communist representatives demand a halt to police repression and the liberation of the imprisoned.
They will continue to fight along with the teachers and students for:
– The reopening of the faculties, the guarantee of their regular functioning and the normal holding of exams, in which it is only right to take into account the difficulties felt by the students in their preparation due to the events.
– The application of an emergency plan they defended several times at the National Assembly: construction of new faculties ( Villetaneuse, Creteil, Vernieres, etc.), of university hospital centers, of numerous university institutes of technology, the creation of budgetary positions and the naming of teachers and administrative personnel; the attribution of an allocation for the study and development of social and cultural works by the students; the establishment of a democratic life in the universities and the schools that will assist students in preparing their role as citizens.
A first overall solution to the problem of national education implies the disappearance of the power of the monopolies and the accession of a true democracy.
In these struggles the place of intellectuals and students is at the side of the working class, the decisive social force of our era, with its party, the French Communist Party, which fights for the liquidation of capitalism and the realization of socialism.
400 medical students have repealed measures that presented them from taking exams
At the appeal of the Union of Communist Students 400 second and third year medical students held a meeting yesterday afternoon in Paris to protest against the arbitrary administrative measures that prevented a great number of them to take their exams.
A delegation went to see the dean and obtained the abrogation of these measures.
All students can take their exams in June, as normal.
A collective was constituted and decisions were taken for the pursuit of actions in favor of a democratic renewal of medical studies.