On this day in Labor History the year was 1968.
That was the day the administration shut down the Paris University at Naterre.
Student protests at the school had begun weeks before around the ideas of a sexual revolution, or the right of young people to sleep together if they chose to without adult interference or moralizing.
The student demonstrations grew into a protest against the French government and a cry for sweeping education and social reforms.
A group of 150 students had briefly occupied the Naterre administration offices in late March issuing their demands.
When the administration decided to close the campus rather than address the student grievances anger grew beyond the campus.
Four days later 20,000 students at the Sorbonne campus, the flagship of the University of Paris, rallied in support of their fellow students.
The police demanded they disperse, but the students refused.
The next day 50,000 protesters battled police in the streets of Paris’s Latin Quarter.
Public outcry grew as police brutality mounted against the student protesters.
On May 13, an estimated 1 million people marched through the streets of Paris.
Workers in factories walked out on strike and occupied factories.
The general strike spread, until more than 20 percent of the entire population of France had walked off the job.
Most of these strikes were spontaneous, wild cat actions, and not centrally coordinated.
Millions protested in the streets.
French President Charles De Gaulle realized his country stood on the brink of a full-blown revolution. So he declared that France would hold elections giving the citizens the final say. This quelled the protest movement.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show