THE FRENCH STUDENT REVOLT: The Leaders Speak

Now that the revolutionary graffiti have been erased from the university walls and the factories are running at full force, it's harder to remember that this spring's student strike shut down the country and threatened to topple De Gaulle's government. But it's over now-what is its import? To the leaders of the three groups which led the strike, it was a propitious beginning: ""The revolutionary nucleus has grown and tomorrow it will constitute a firm point of departure."" Here Jacques Sauvageot of the National Union of French Students (UNEF), Alain Geismar of the National Union of Higher Education (SNESup)--the two center groups--and Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the more radical March 22nd Movement explain their political ideologies and their programs. They are agreed in demanding ""student power"" to initiate change particularly in the two crucial relationships--university to government, and students to teachers, and in urging that students and workers unite in an anti-bourgeois ""political movement."" Included here also is a round table discussion with these and other leaders that first appeared on Radio Luxembourg and Jean Paul Sartre's interview of Cohn-Bendit published in Le Nouvel Observateur in May. Sartre, an old radical, chides the younger militant for his moderation, and Cohn-Bendit responds, ""give us time. First we must discuss, reflect, seek new formulae."" A book for the readers of Debray and Che Guevara--and, possibly, Charles De Gaulle.