THE FOURTH WORLD
PART III
PARIS
The crisis begun in May, 1968, is not a "crisis": through it,
we enter into a new period of history. What has been aimed
at and shaken, through criticism and through struggle, is
not only the political regime, but the social system; and not
only capitalist private property, but the entire organization of
life, all the "values" that modern societies, whether of the
West or the East, use or fabricate, impose or insinuate, to
disarm desire. You have understood nothing about our move–
ment if you do not see this: what swept across France - to
the point of creating a power vacuum - was not the spirit
of professional demands, nor the wish for a poltical change,
but the desire for other relations among men. The force of
this desire has shaken the edifice of exploitation, oppression
and alienation; it has frightened all the men, the organiza–
tions, the parties directly or indirectly interested in the exer–
cise of power, and they are attempting by all means to sup–
press it. They will never have done with doing so.
-Rapport Interdisciplinaire, Nanterre
May 14, 1968, in the Sorbonne courtyard: what you noticed
first
was the posters - not just the faces of Marx, Lenin and Mao
staring triumphant from the columns supporting the architrave inscribed
to
the honor of Cardinal Richelieu, or those of Trotsky, Castro, Che
Guevara plastered along the walls, but the hand-lettered posters every–
where, the first spontaneous expression of the Cultural Revolution, the
programs
for a future world.
IMAGINATION TAKES POWER,
proclaimed one.
And others:
TAKE YOUR DESIRES FOR REALITIES. CONSUMER SOCIETY
MUST OlE A VIOLENT DEi\TH. LIBERTY IS THE CRIME WHICH CONTAINS
ALL OTHER CRIMES. WE DON'T WANT A WORLD WHERE THE GUARANTEE
OF NOT DYING OF HUNGER IS TRADED AGAINST THE GUARANTEE OF DYING
OF BOREDOM. THE MORE I MAKE LOVE, THE MORE I WANT TO MAKE THE
