Customer Reviews

Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968 (Updated Edition) (Radical 60s)

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If I was judging this book only on the merits of the literary quality than it would be unfair to give it anything other than 5 stars. Though this book is one hell of an eye-witness to the waves of student revolts and strikes in Paris and all throughout France in 1968, Singer's thesis does not ring true to me.

According to Singer, when the France's industry ground to a halt as workers when into the streets in 1968, there was a chance for a workers revolution that would have made the October Revolution irrelevant for revolutionaries as a model of how to come to power. This was the General Strike that both Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, and the wobblies thought would lead to the death knell of capitalism, and the beginning of a truly brave new world for all workers involved. The workers of one nation were united and smashing their chains outside the gates of the factories.

Reading Singer's description of how the extremely Stalinist Parti Communist Francais turned what could have been a renegotiation of workers place in French society into a fight solely over higher wages and slightly better conditions is enough to make any socialist or labor activist tear his or her hair out. As Singer describes the post strike wave flag waving hyper-patriotism of PCF frustration turns into out and out fury. The Communists are worse than fools--by completely betraying their founding principles they proved themselves to be cowards in the face of their own constituency.

Though I agree with Singer that the PCF as an organization acted with ridiculous short-sightedness during the strikes, it is difficult to swallow that a workers' revolution was just barely averted because of the Communists negotiating a deals which essentially bought off or bewildered the workers in the streets. There is precious little evidence that Singer produces to substantiate his claim that revolution had occurred. Singer is not able to show why exactly the workers were in the streets, and he seems a little to quick to attribute the creation of some workers councils to being the beginnings of (counter) government institutions. If this had been the case, even the Communists would have been smart enough to see it.

This is a major fault with the book, but it is still a fine read and one of the best eye witness accounts of a revolt that I have ever come across. The drama, the wackiness, and all the hope of a huge number of men in women in motion is absolutely breath taking and well worth the irritation of not seeing a thesis proved that I desperately would like to be true.

This is still very much worth the time to read though.

Leftist author Daniel Singer wrote this book two years after the 1968 student and worker strikes in Paris. This book mixes solid eye-witness history with the author's profound regret that this uprising fell far short of revolution or radical changes in French society - although a more free and liberal France emerged, and De Gaulle's government eventually fell. Actually, despite class privileges France in 1968 was a society with many things right - including high living standards, good schools, free elections and many personal freedoms. Contrast that with war, poverty, starvation and food riots that existed in Russia in 1917 or China in the 1940's when communism took over. Some of the protesting French students promoted Mao, Che Guevera, and Castro - did these foolish youngsters really want secret police, one-party rule, and inept economies in the land of Voltaire, Sartre, Lafayette and Montesquieu? Singer didn't completely swallow the Communist line of the workers paradise, but he should have realized that revolutions often divert from promoted ideals and result in authoritarianism and repression.

A better France arguably emerged from these strikes, one that maintained ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality. Singer misses this point in his disappointing though interesting book.