Mitchell Abidor - May Made Me: An Oral History of the 1968 Uprising in France

May Made Me

An Oral History of the 1968 Uprising in France

Mitchell Abidor

First published 2018 by Pluto Press

345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright Mitchell Abidor 2018

The right of Mitchell Abidor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7453 3698 5 Hardback

ISBN 978 0 7453 3694 7 Paperback

ISBN 978 1 7868 0192 0 PDF eBook

ISBN 978 1 7868 0215 6 Kindle eBook

ISBN 978 1 7868 0214 9 EPUB eBook

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.

Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England

Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America

People say about me: Youre someone who made May, and I answer that its May made me.

Thierry Porr

Ce quil avait vu, tait-ce une bataille? Et en second lieu, cette bataille, tait-ce Waterloo?

Stendhal, La Chartreuse de Parme

I would like to thank all those who participated in this project, as well as those who made it possible. Jean-Pierre Duteuil (who I never had the opportunity to meet), Helen Arnold, Sebastian Budgen, Yves Coleman, Lou Marin, Marie-Pierre Fournier, Philippe Dubacq, and Christophe Patsy Patillon all assisted me in locating participants willing to be interviewed. Marie-Pierre is owed extra thanks for having located most of the participants in Saint-Nazaire and Nantes, as well as for having hosted me during my stay in the region and providing a home for the interviews.

Space constraints forced me to omit several interviews, and I apologize to those involved. Every person I interviewed brought something new and interesting, and performing this triage was a difficult task. I apologize to Frank Cassenti, Yves Coleman, Helen Arnold, Daniel Blanchard, Eric Hazan, Catherine Lvy, Colette Danappe, Rmi Drouet, Scylla, and Jol Qulard. Transcripts of their interviews can be found at the Marxists Internet Archivewww.marxists.orgin the May 68 archive of the French history section.

I cant speak highly enough of the people I interviewed, of their warmth and generosity; people were generous not only with their time, but with the books and newspapers theyd saved since May 68, feeling these would be more beneficial for this book and its readers than for them.

I would like to thank Jim Brook, for his invaluable editorial assistance. And finally, I thank my wife, Joan Levinson, for her patience during the time spent on this voyage through space and time.

* * *

Note on the interviews: All of the interviews that follow, except that with Jean-Jacques Lebel, were conducted in French. I wanted all of the interviewees to be able to express themselves fully and freely, so even those who speak English told me of their experiences in French. Jean-Jacques, having spent much time in the US, preferred to carry out the interview in English, which he speaks as well as he does French.

Mitchell Abidor