Paris, May 1968, on those who were there and those who weren't
This is from a text by French anarchist Alexandre Skirda , published in French on the 40th anniversary of 10 May 1968, and translated by Paul Sharkey for the Kate Sharpley Library for an English edition on the 50th anniversary . I post it here for the 48th anniversary. Skirda. whose parents were Ukrainian and Russian, was a historian of the Russian and Ukrainian anarchists, and of their repression by the Bolsheviks and Stalinists. The introduction and last five paragraphs are my translation from Jean-Louis Roche's blog , while the middle bit of text is extracted from the Anarchist Library . The addition of italics and bold is my own. The Anarchists in Paris, May-June 1968 The commemoration of the 40th anniversary of May '68 gives rise to all sorts of interpretations, often contradictory. Between the right's desire to "liquidate" it and the boasting of some and others presenting themselves as ex-sixty-eighters, self-glorifying with cymbals, bass drums and media dr...
