The student demonstrations that have spread across France in recent weeks are not unprecedented. Indeed, commentators have been quick to point to comparisons with the events of May and June 1968, where, at their peak, more than 10 million students and workers took to the streets.
In 1968, as now, there were legitimate reasons for protest. The unrest began at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris, which was miles from the city centre and poorly equipped for the changing social norms of the 1960s. In particular, the ban on women and men being able to enter each other’s accommodation was the catalyst for initial demonstrations that then spread into central Paris and beyond.
