When ten million workers and students brought France to the brink of revolution

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In May 1968, a localized student protest over dormitory rules exploded into the largest wildcat general strike in French history. As barricades rose in Paris and factories were seized nationwide, President Charles de Gaulle secretly fled to West Germany, fearing his government was about to collapse under the weight of revolt.

The uprising began at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris, where students clashed with authorities over rigid social norms and university restrictions. By early May 1968, the closure of the Nanterre campus pushed protesters to the Sorbonne in the Latin Quarter. The subsequent police crackdown, marked by mass arrests and the violent Night of the Barricades on May 10–11, transformed a student-led educational reform movement into a national crisis. Nearly 40,000 students were involved in the protests, and the ensuing violence left hundreds hospitalized, including over 250 police officers.

The movement’s rapid expansion was fueled by deep-seated frustrations with the autocratic, hierarchical nature of French society under President Charles de Gaulle. While the student population had surged from 175,000 to over 500,000 in the preceding decade, the political landscape felt stagnant. With traditional opposition parties largely ineffective, students turned toward radical ideologies, drawing inspiration from figures like Che Guevara and Mao Zedong rather than orthodox Marxism. This atmosphere turned universities into a powder keg, eventually drawing in the working class.

At its peak, the general strike involved approximately 10 million workers, effectively bringing France to a standstill. The state’s survival was precarious; in late May, de Gaulle secretly met with General Jacques Massu in Baden-Baden to secure military support should he need to retake Paris by force. Although the government eventually regained control through the Grenelle agreements and a subsequent electoral victory, the events of May 1968 fundamentally altered the French political and social landscape, forcing concessions on labor rights and inspiring decades of radical activism.

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