From 50 Years Ago: The Flavour of Revolution

The Flavour of Revolution

The spark which set off the trail of fire was a decision by the Education Minister and the Rector of the University of Paris on the afternoon of May 3 to invite the police to enter the precincts of the Sorbonne. Apparently, the government had counted on dealing quickly and firmly with the relatively small number of politically active students who were clamouring for a reform of higher education … What happened, on the contrary, was that a large proportion of the students, infuriated by the arbitrariness of the regime in closing down the Sorbonne and the brutality of the police, threw themselves into the campaign for change at any cost. …