What if the May 1968 Protests In France caused a Civil War?

NATO immediately intervenes to crush the revolt. It would probably make America look bad because they would inevitably kill a lot of unarmed protesters. It would be the American equivalent of the Prague spring
 
"Je Suis Marxiste(Tendance Groucho)" takes its place alongside "A house divided against itself cannot stand" in the annals of civil-war oratory.
 
Seriously, though, as I think I mentioned on another thread about May '68, the kids had ZERO backing from the French Communist Party and its Moscow patrons, due to the Soviets' partiality to De Gaulle and his anti-NATO position. So I'm not sure where the protestors would get the material wherewithal(weapons, financing etc) to engage in the kind of armed brawling that would either instigate or accompany a civil war.
 
The Gaullist party won about 70 percent of the seats during the elections of 1968. It's clear that majority or so-called silent majority supported the moderates. That makes something like civil war pretty unlikely.
 

MrP

Banned
What if the May 1968 Protests In France caused a Civil War?
There are two French AH graphic novels that I know of based on that premise--in both cases the earlier death of De Gaulle at the height of the troubles causes things to escalate into full-fledged civil war. In one case France ends up ruled by a "Neo-Commune" and becomes something of a laboratory for countercultural utopian ideas; in the other it becomes a European Lebanon permanently wracked by ideological and sectarian violence.

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I remember reading an interview with one of the student leaders many years ago, he said when they heard that a local factory was on strike they went there to help the strikers “smash the machine.” They were promptly beaten up by the strikers who told them they’d need the machines after they got the pay rise that they were striking for. It’s difficult to see how it could have escalated to that level given that there seemed to be so many dispirite groups involved, some just opportunist.
 
There has to be either a very serious economic crisis or France getting involved in a serious war for it to happen. Unless there are socialist uprisings in French territories outside Europe that forces France to send young students to fight in or the global economy is in shambles France won’t head in that direction. If an armed rebellion does happen NATO would definitely crush it, though the repercussions would be very serious.

I could see this spread to Spain, Portugal, and Italy if serious enough.
 
There are two French AH graphic novels that I know of based on that premise--in both cases the earlier death of De Gaulle at the height of the troubles causes things to escalate into full-fledged civil war. In one case France ends up ruled by a "Neo-Commune" and becomes something of a laboratory for countercultural utopian ideas; in the other it becomes a European Lebanon permanently wracked by ideological and sectarian violence.

9efa8975b53c499182dfccf3f58d13fe.jpg


34570e00cff6326ec96ae4ac0cb2a4d9.jpg
How do I get this?
 
There are two French AH graphic novels that I know of based on that premise--in both cases the earlier death of De Gaulle at the height of the troubles causes things to escalate into full-fledged civil war. In one case France ends up ruled by a "Neo-Commune" and becomes something of a laboratory for countercultural utopian ideas; in the other it becomes a European Lebanon permanently wracked by ideological and sectarian violence.

9efa8975b53c499182dfccf3f58d13fe.jpg


34570e00cff6326ec96ae4ac0cb2a4d9.jpg

I’ll be honest neither would be really plausible. Either way NATO comes crashing in and all hell breaks loose in France.
 
1956. Socialism or Barbarism meeting. A fitter and turner, seaman, dockworker, rail driver, steelworker, coal miner, teacher and nurse turn up. All are 18. Union leaders and PCF periphery. All are red diapers. All had parents who hated 56 but stayed in the party. Paul Cardan incorporates them.

1957 the workers shank Cardan for leadership, keeping him writing.

1960 SouB are bigger than Autonomia in 1970. With way more workers

1962 SouB enter the PCF individually

1963 wages for housework crisis in SouB. The working class women win. The chief middle class rapists in SouB end up face down in canals with no thumbs

1964 SouB led checkerboard strikes

???

1968 a lot of dead Libcom/ultras/student auxiliaries in factories stormed by the army. The expanded reproduction of the value form is guaranteed.

1969 continuously until [the fall of the Soviet bloc] the French elite buy off French workers even harder than OTL. Probably some foquismo bullshit celebrating SouB in Germany, Italy and the US by students.

Yours,
Sam R.
 
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