Another book on the May revolution in France has just been published by Maspero (in French). The authors, Daniel Bensaid and Henri Weber, were both members of the JCR. Although the book is aimed at the student and worker militants of the May [illegible], its theoretical study and internationalist approach should not be lost on British marxists. It examines the development of the French student movement and shows how the JCR was created in a struggle within the communist student union, and how with its method of organisation and the attention it gave to the Vietnam movement, it was able to influence the May events. The role of all the other "groupuscules" is also critically evaluated.
A rationale for the mobilisation of the working class in their support for the students and their general strike is shown in terms of rising militancy in the factories during the months preceeding May. The role of the French Communist Party is dealt with briefly but adequately and firmly.
The book is deeply polemical, in the best marxist tradition, and is positive as well as optimistic in its attitude to the immediate problems facing the revolutionary left in France today.
It compares the conditions that generated the uprising in France with those of other advanced capitalist countries: the crisis of capitalism reflecting itself in the alienation of youth and the imperialist war in Vietnam. It explains that the new forces of youth have been transformed into a revolutionary vanguard, and an important factor common to all countries is that these forces are independent of the degenerated social democratic and [illegible] workers parties.
* Mai 1968, Une Répétition Générale [illegible].