When Poetry Ruled the Streets

Andrew Feenberg is Professor of Philosophy at San Diego State University. He is the author of Lukács, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory; Critical Theory of Technology; and Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory. He is the coeditor of Marcuse: Critical Theory and the Promise of Utopia (with Robert Pippin and Charles P. Webel) and Technology and the Politics of Knowledge (with Alastair Hannay). Jim Freedman is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Western Ontario. He has authored or edited many books, the most recent of which is Transforming Development: Foreign Aid for a Changing World.

"This book is fascinating to read. The May events in France are very important. They are open to numerous interpretations but certainly they provide the only example of a government of an advanced industrial society brought to its feet, if only for a couple of weeks. They resonate backwards with the history of revolutions and forward to 'the new social movements' and the upheavals and reorganizations in Europe that continue to this day." — Mark Poster, author of Existential Marxism in Postwar France: From Sartre to Althusser"I know of no other book quite like it. It authoritatively captures an important moment in twentieth-century history, and does so with real verve and flair. I could not imagine teaching the sixties without recourse to it." — Paul Thomas, University of California, Berkeley

• List of Illustrations Foreword by Douglas Kellner Preface Abbreviations ONE. WHAT HAPPENED IN MAY: A CHRONICLEAndrew Feenberg and Jim Freedman Part I: Students versus Society La Phase NanterroiseFriday Red I The Concept of CobblestonesThe Long Trek and a Short TruceThe Grand DeceptionFriday Red II Monday, May 13 Part II: Society versus the State From the Sorbonne to Renault—Students and WorkersA La SorbonneAu Th´eˆatre de l'Od´eon A la T´el´evisionThe GovernmentTriangle of ContentionFriday Red IIIDe Gaulle or Not de Gaulle Part III: The Last Act Workers versus NegotiationsThe Gaullist GapCGT and Communists Re-RevolutionizeThe Return of Cohn-BenditThe End of MayThe Aftermath TWO. DOCUMENTS OF THE MAY MOVEMENTCommentary and translation by Andrew Feenberg Introduction Essay I. Technocracy and Student Revolt The TextsTHE AMNESTY OF BLINDED EYESADDRESS TO ALL WORKERSJOIN THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNE OF THE IMAGINATION Essay II. In the Service of the People The TextsTHE "IN-HOUSE" STRIKE AT THE MINISTRY OF URBAN AFFAIRSRESEARCH BUREAUS: WALL-TO-WALL CARPETING AND REVOLUTIONJOURNAL OF A NEIGHBORHOOD ACTION COMMITTEE Essay III. The Worker-Student Alliance The TextsTHE STUDENTS AT FLINSTHE PEOPLE'S STUDIO Essay IV. Self-Management: Strategy and Goal The TextsTHE REVOLUTIONARY ACTION COMMITTEE OF THE SORBONNETHE UNIVERSITY AS A RED BASENANTES: A WHOLE TOWN DISCOVERS THE POWER OF THE PEOPLEFROM ROADBLOCKS TO SELF-DEFENSE Bibliography Index