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Worker-Student Action Committees: France, May '68
Excellent history, evaluation and critique, from two militants who were there. Includes a wealth of graphics and reprinted material from the events themselves.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Fredy Perlman
40 books57 followersFredy Perlman (August 20, 1934 – July 26, 1985) was an author and publisher. His most popular work, the book Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!, is a major source of inspiration for anti-civilisation perspectives in contemporary anarchism.
Perlman was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He emigrated with parents to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1938 just ahead of the Nazi takeover. The Perlman family came to the United States in 1945 and finally settled in Lakeside Park, Kentucky.
In 1952 he attended Morehead State College in Kentucky and then UCLA from 1953-55. Perlman was on the staff of The Daily Bruin, the school newspaper, when the university administration changed the constitution of the newspaper to forbid it from nominating its own editors, as the custom had been. Perlman left the newspaper staff at that time and, with four others, proceeded to publish an independent paper, The Observer, which they handed out on a public sidewalk at the campus bus stop, since they were forbidden by the administration to distribute in on the campus.
In 1956-59 he attended Columbia University, where he met his life-long companion, Lorraine Nybakken. He enrolled as a student of English literature but soon concentrated his efforts in philosophy, political science and European literature. One particularly influential teacher for him at this time was C. Wright Mills.
In late 1959, Perlman and his wife took a cross-country motor scooter trip, mostly on two-lane highways traveling at 25 miles per hour. From 1959 to 1963, they lived on the lower east side of Manhattan while Perlman worked on a statistical analysis of the world's resources with John Ricklefs. They participated in anti-bomb and pacifist activities with the Living Theatre and others. Perlman was arrested after a sit-down in Times Square in the fall of 1961. He became the printer for the Living Theatre and during that time wrote The New Freedom, Corporate Capitalism and a play, Plunder, which he published himself.
In 1963, the husband and wife left the U.S. and moved to Belgrade, Yugoslavia after living some months in Copenhagen and Paris. Perlman received a master's degree in economics and a PhD at the University of Belgrade's Law School; his dissertation was titled "Conditions for the Development of a Backward Region," which created an outrage among some members of the faculty. During his last year in Yugoslavia, he was a member of the Planning Institute for Kosovo and Metohija.
During 1966-69 the couple lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Perlman taught social science courses at Western Michigan University and created outrage among some members of the faculty when he had students run their own classes and grade themselves. During his first year in Kalamazoo, he and Milos Samardzija, one of his professors from Belgrade, translated Isaac Illych Rubin's Essay on Marx's Theory of Value. Perlman wrote an introduction to the book: "An Essay on Commodity Fetishism."
In May 1968, after lecturing for two weeks in Turin, Italy, Perlman went to Paris on the last train before rail traffic was shut down by some of the strikes that were sweeping Western Europe that season. He participated in the May unrest in Paris and worked at the Censier center with the Citroen factory committee. After returning to Kalamazoo in August, he collaborated with Roger Gregoire in writing Worker-Student Action Committees, May 68.
During his last year in Kalamazoo, Perlman had left the university and together with several other people, mostly students, inaugurated the Black and Red magazine, of which six issues appeared. Typing and layout was done at the Perlman house and the printing at the Radical Education Project in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In January 1969 Perlman completed The Reproduction of Daily Life. While traveling in Europe in the spring of 1969
Perlman was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He emigrated with parents to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1938 just ahead of the Nazi takeover. The Perlman family came to the United States in 1945 and finally settled in Lakeside Park, Kentucky.
In 1952 he attended Morehead State College in Kentucky and then UCLA from 1953-55. Perlman was on the staff of The Daily Bruin, the school newspaper, when the university administration changed the constitution of the newspaper to forbid it from nominating its own editors, as the custom had been. Perlman left the newspaper staff at that time and, with four others, proceeded to publish an independent paper, The Observer, which they handed out on a public sidewalk at the campus bus stop, since they were forbidden by the administration to distribute in on the campus.
In 1956-59 he attended Columbia University, where he met his life-long companion, Lorraine Nybakken. He enrolled as a student of English literature but soon concentrated his efforts in philosophy, political science and European literature. One particularly influential teacher for him at this time was C. Wright Mills.
In late 1959, Perlman and his wife took a cross-country motor scooter trip, mostly on two-lane highways traveling at 25 miles per hour. From 1959 to 1963, they lived on the lower east side of Manhattan while Perlman worked on a statistical analysis of the world's resources with John Ricklefs. They participated in anti-bomb and pacifist activities with the Living Theatre and others. Perlman was arrested after a sit-down in Times Square in the fall of 1961. He became the printer for the Living Theatre and during that time wrote The New Freedom, Corporate Capitalism and a play, Plunder, which he published himself.
In 1963, the husband and wife left the U.S. and moved to Belgrade, Yugoslavia after living some months in Copenhagen and Paris. Perlman received a master's degree in economics and a PhD at the University of Belgrade's Law School; his dissertation was titled "Conditions for the Development of a Backward Region," which created an outrage among some members of the faculty. During his last year in Yugoslavia, he was a member of the Planning Institute for Kosovo and Metohija.
During 1966-69 the couple lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Perlman taught social science courses at Western Michigan University and created outrage among some members of the faculty when he had students run their own classes and grade themselves. During his first year in Kalamazoo, he and Milos Samardzija, one of his professors from Belgrade, translated Isaac Illych Rubin's Essay on Marx's Theory of Value. Perlman wrote an introduction to the book: "An Essay on Commodity Fetishism."
In May 1968, after lecturing for two weeks in Turin, Italy, Perlman went to Paris on the last train before rail traffic was shut down by some of the strikes that were sweeping Western Europe that season. He participated in the May unrest in Paris and worked at the Censier center with the Citroen factory committee. After returning to Kalamazoo in August, he collaborated with Roger Gregoire in writing Worker-Student Action Committees, May 68.
During his last year in Kalamazoo, Perlman had left the university and together with several other people, mostly students, inaugurated the Black and Red magazine, of which six issues appeared. Typing and layout was done at the Perlman house and the printing at the Radical Education Project in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In January 1969 Perlman completed The Reproduction of Daily Life. While traveling in Europe in the spring of 1969
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 14, 2021
Some of the pieces are a little repetitive but overall a beautiful little book...especially the reflections towards the end about false divisions created by radicals between themselves and the workers
September 13, 2025
A great little history and critique of May '68. The critique specifically was very interesting as it personally gave me a little view into the post-68 theoretical shift.
Big ideas:
Always move; in the heat of a movement there are no need for groups to spring up that only offer different slogans, we actually need to do something (e.g. take the national radio, etc). Every group must have a specific concrete action attached to it, once the action is over the group can be dissolved.
Social division of labor is very important to attack.
View factories/production as a social link,
Dissonance between the reformist representation of the union and the worker's class interests (namely, the supercession of capitalism).
The mythology of the mass (and the special privilege the communists and anarchists gave to the mass): the mass must take autonomous action, we are external to the actual movement. This position is antithetical to the actual overturning of capitalism: they "accepted, stood, watched, and waited." Your actions are dynamic and have social impact. There is no revolution outside us! (and if there is, it has collapsed into a Spectacle).
"The point is to wake the dead, to force the passive to choose between a conscious acceptance of constraint or a conscious affirmation of life."
Big ideas:
Always move; in the heat of a movement there are no need for groups to spring up that only offer different slogans, we actually need to do something (e.g. take the national radio, etc). Every group must have a specific concrete action attached to it, once the action is over the group can be dissolved.
Social division of labor is very important to attack.
View factories/production as a social link,
Dissonance between the reformist representation of the union and the worker's class interests (namely, the supercession of capitalism).
The mythology of the mass (and the special privilege the communists and anarchists gave to the mass): the mass must take autonomous action, we are external to the actual movement. This position is antithetical to the actual overturning of capitalism: they "accepted, stood, watched, and waited." Your actions are dynamic and have social impact. There is no revolution outside us! (and if there is, it has collapsed into a Spectacle).
"The point is to wake the dead, to force the passive to choose between a conscious acceptance of constraint or a conscious affirmation of life."
February 25, 2023
Incredible as a primary text and first hand account, comprehensive in its critique of the events. Perlman is a talented social theorist and his lived experience of the events of May 68 lends itself to a convincing and palatable anarchist perspective. A paragraph that struck me as poignant:
"American sociologists have tried to reduce the alienation of labor to a feeling of alienation: thus reduced, the problem can be "solved" in a capitalist society, without a revolution; all that's needed is some solid propaganda and a competent corps of sociologists and psychologists who know how to change the workers feelings. However, so long as capitalist relations exist, the worker will continue to be alienated even if he feels de-alienated. Whether or not the worker is "happy" about it, by alienating his activity he become passive, by alienating his creativity he becomes a spectator, by alienating his life he lives through others. Whether or not he is "happy" about it, by alienating his productive power, he gives that power to a class which uses it to hire him, decide for him, control him, manipulate him, brainwash him, repress him, kill him, entertain him and make him "happy."
"American sociologists have tried to reduce the alienation of labor to a feeling of alienation: thus reduced, the problem can be "solved" in a capitalist society, without a revolution; all that's needed is some solid propaganda and a competent corps of sociologists and psychologists who know how to change the workers feelings. However, so long as capitalist relations exist, the worker will continue to be alienated even if he feels de-alienated. Whether or not the worker is "happy" about it, by alienating his activity he become passive, by alienating his creativity he becomes a spectator, by alienating his life he lives through others. Whether or not he is "happy" about it, by alienating his productive power, he gives that power to a class which uses it to hire him, decide for him, control him, manipulate him, brainwash him, repress him, kill him, entertain him and make him "happy."
January 28, 2021
An incredible documentary account written by two participants of the closest thing an advanced capitalist country has come to a total revolution.
The bits about the meaning of true socialisation, qualitative vs quantitative struggle, integral vs fragmentary opposition, and the passivity of the pro-revolutionary, should be required reading for anyone who wants to challenge the radical alienation at the heart of the modern world.
The bits about the meaning of true socialisation, qualitative vs quantitative struggle, integral vs fragmentary opposition, and the passivity of the pro-revolutionary, should be required reading for anyone who wants to challenge the radical alienation at the heart of the modern world.
February 2, 2020
excellent final 1/4, rest is just fine
January 23, 2024
super cool, easy to digest, and made me rethink a lot about my relationship with radical politics and activism
October 27, 2009
I just finished the book.
And it is quite a revealing read.
It deals with a particular time period and a particular place, but the critique of why the struggle did not go further than it did, and why we see ourselves in the same situation they found themselves then, is perhaps the best critique I have ever read, and is still very, very relevant.
It is very well-written and easy to understand, and very precise in that they take the time to say what they mean, as opposed to being vague in their critique.
I have heard others say this is some of the best radical material ever written out there, and I have to agree. You don't have to already be familiar with buzzwords, or radical critiques to get what the authors are getting at.
I cannot recommend this text enough.
We still need to take the struggle beyond what it was taken then and there, and it lists quite a many reasons why it failed.
If we don't learn from mistakes of the past, we will commit them again.
A quote from page 22:
"At least one lesson has been learned: what was missing was not a small party which could direct a large mass; what was missing was the consciousness & confidence on the part of the entire working population that they could themselves direct their social activity. If the workers had possessed this consciousness on the day they occupied their factories, they would have proceeded to expropriate their exploiters; in the absence of this of this consciousness, no party could have ordered the workers to take the factories into their own hands. What was missing was class consciousness in the mass of the working population, not the party discipline of a small group. And class consciousness cannot be created by a closed, secret group but only by a vast, open movement which develops forms of activity which aim openly to subvert the existing social order by eliminating the servant-mentality from the entire working population."
And it is quite a revealing read.
It deals with a particular time period and a particular place, but the critique of why the struggle did not go further than it did, and why we see ourselves in the same situation they found themselves then, is perhaps the best critique I have ever read, and is still very, very relevant.
It is very well-written and easy to understand, and very precise in that they take the time to say what they mean, as opposed to being vague in their critique.
I have heard others say this is some of the best radical material ever written out there, and I have to agree. You don't have to already be familiar with buzzwords, or radical critiques to get what the authors are getting at.
I cannot recommend this text enough.
We still need to take the struggle beyond what it was taken then and there, and it lists quite a many reasons why it failed.
If we don't learn from mistakes of the past, we will commit them again.
A quote from page 22:
"At least one lesson has been learned: what was missing was not a small party which could direct a large mass; what was missing was the consciousness & confidence on the part of the entire working population that they could themselves direct their social activity. If the workers had possessed this consciousness on the day they occupied their factories, they would have proceeded to expropriate their exploiters; in the absence of this of this consciousness, no party could have ordered the workers to take the factories into their own hands. What was missing was class consciousness in the mass of the working population, not the party discipline of a small group. And class consciousness cannot be created by a closed, secret group but only by a vast, open movement which develops forms of activity which aim openly to subvert the existing social order by eliminating the servant-mentality from the entire working population."
September 19, 2010
I read this on the heels of Letters of Insurgents, the best novel ever, written by Fredy Perlman. This book was written just after the strikes and occupations in France 1968, specifically about the groups of radical students who participated in factory strikes and occupations. It is the real-life account that Luisa's factory strike in Letters of Insurgents is based on.
In addition to being a first-hand account, it is also a critique from participants: what went right and what went wrong. I think it is valuable for people to write criticisms right after the fact, even if later events change their viewpoints.
In addition to being a first-hand account, it is also a critique from participants: what went right and what went wrong. I think it is valuable for people to write criticisms right after the fact, even if later events change their viewpoints.
June 23, 2013
I wish it would have had more documentation of the actual events of the May-June events - a lot of the book was just a (refreshingly unique) analysis of the consciousness of the people involved in them. Overall I'd say this pamphlet is a very nice introduction to the theory of the spectacle, as well as having some important insights into the chronology of the May-June events.
May 10, 2013
A scathing account of the betrayal of Unions and Parties, groups who should never be trusted in the struggle for liberation.
March 18, 2013
8.5/10
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews