Be Young and Shut Up

This game was made for the Out Of The Frame game jam.

Arrow keys to move.

On March 22nd 1968 eight Nanterre students broke into the Dean's office as a way to protest at the recent arrest of six members of the National Vietnam Committee. Among these was a sociology student called Danny Cohn-Bendit. He had been part of a group who organised a strike of 10,000 to 12,000 students in November of 1967 as a protest against overcrowding.


In the preceding 10 years the student population had risen from 170,000 to 514,000. Although the state had provided some funding, this was not equal to the huge influx of students it had asked the universities and colleges to take. The total area covered by university premises had doubled since 1962 but the student numbers had almost tripled. Facilities were desperately inadequate and overcrowding was a serious issue.

On Friday May 3rd a few students gathered in the front square of the Sorbonne. The students were from Nanterre and they were joined by activists from the Sorbonne college itself. The 'Nanterre Eight' were about to face charges on the following Monday. The eight and some colleagues from Nanterre were meeting student activists from the Sorbonne to discuss the impending Monday.

On Monday May 6th the 'Nanterre Eight' passed through a police cordon singing the 'Internationale'. They were on their way to appear before the University Discipline Committee. The students decided to march through Paris. On their return to the Latin Quarter they were savagely attacked by the police on the Rue St. Jacques.

The students tore up paving stones and overturned cars to form barricades. Police pumped Tear Gas into the air and called for reinforcements. The Boulevard St Germain became a bloody battleground with the official figures at the end of the day reading: 422 arrests and 345 policemen injured. This day was to go into the annals of '68 as "Bloody Monday".

The students protesting inspired the workers to go on strike as well. On Monday May 13th the students were released but the spark had already started the forest fire. The trade unions called a one-day strike and a march was organised in Paris for the same day. Over 200,000 people turned up for the march shouting "De Gaulle Assassin". The leader of the government was now singled out as an enemy by the people.

Workers had occupied roughly fifty factories by 16 May, and 200,000 were on strike by 17 May. That figure snowballed to two million workers on strike the following day and then ten million, or roughly two-thirds of the French workforce, on strike the following week.

They were calling attention for something wrong happening in the world: personal frustration, wars, unemployment, poverty, inequality and others.

Youth are not shutting up. Youth are speaking up.

References:

• http://struggle.ws/ws93/paris39.html
• http://struggle.ws/pdfs/paris68.pdf
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_events_in_France
• https://developmentissues.wordpress.com/2005/11/09/be-young/
• https://twitter.com/jessphillips/status/850786329814327297
• https://www.smh.com.au/world/remarkable-photo-of-woman-facing-riot-police-that-may-define-black-lives-matter-20160711-gq2ulr.html
• http://people.com/crime/emma-gonzalez-florida-school-shooting-life-changed/
• http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anti-austerity-protests-hit-downing-street-after-uk-general-election-photo-gallery-1500597