Twenty-five years ago, a massive movement of students and workers in France changed the face of politics in the West irrevocably. In their millions, ordinary people demonstrated the falsity of theories that consumer society could achieve permanent stability by providing a sort of bland contentment to working people. For a few brief weeks, it was possible to glimpse the possibility of a society in which ordinary people were in control.

In the 1960s -- before the “French May” -- the conservative theorists spoke of “the end of ideology”. In the 1990s, they call it “the end of history”. It is hard to imagine the one illusion lasting significantly longer than the other.

Can a revolt like that of May-June 1968 happen again? The answer to that depends on the answer to another question: Have Western governments in 1993 solved the social problems that existed in 1968?

One thing is clear: the powers that be of 1993 would prefer us to forget completely what happened in May-June 1968. The special feature in the following pages is a contribution to ensuring that we don't.

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