All the capitalist states with their "representative democracy" governments rumble along with the population grudgingly going about their business with a reluctant passivity, giving the impression that the system is acceptable. Now and again their is an explosion and a large slice of the passive population stands up and says, "enough is enough", we want change. It happens in different parts of the world at different times, and the state concerned shudders to a halt, and with its brutal apparatus of repression it savagely tries to regain control and get the population back to the passive resignation of acceptance of the unjust exploitative system, a system that heaps power and privilege on the wealthy.
May 1968 in France was one of those explosions, what started as a student protest spread like wild fire, and brought the underlying, simmering anger of the workers onto the streets. The French state shuddered, wavered, grasped around for ways to regain control, and with the usual savagery, brutality and the carrot and stick, slowly managed to regain the reins of power.
France again is facing mass protests as the state pushes ahead with the capitalist mantra of "privatisation and slashing workers condition" is the blood transfusion necessary to save their precious capitalist system of power and privileges for the wealthy. Will the fiftieth anniversary of May 1968 inspire the workers and the students with the thought that they nearly brought it all tumbling down last time, have they learned enough that perhaps this time they might succeed. Time will tell, but we must offer all support and solidarity to the French workers who are at this moment, involved in a struggle to preserve what conditions they have, and to prevent the capitalist juggernaut from devouring their publicly owned transport system.
