J. A. Leith was professor and chairman of the Queen’s History Department. He was the author of Space and Revolution: Projects for Monuments, Squares and Public Buildings in France, 1789-1799 and editor of Symbols in Life and Art.
In his lecture, Leith described the student rebellion in Paris during May 1968 and the general strike of 10 million workers that it inspired, which together left de Gaulle’s government on the brink of collapse. The uprising was not caused, he said, by external factors like global political struggles or real economic hardship, since most students were middle class, or even the work of radical groups consciously planning the revolution. Instead, students united to destroy what they say as an archaic university structure at the Sorbonne, and the excessive police action in response dramatized the deficiencies of the Gaullist government. The uprising condemned a whole way of life: consumer society. But, Leith warned, this did not mean an opposition to the quality of goods but rather to the system by which goods are produced and sold. The student commune’s real impact was in its inspiration of a general strike. What prevented the strike from becoming a full revolution, Leith argued, was in part the lack of a plan to seize centres of power, the lack of military support, and the lack of popular support from those inconvenienced by the strike. May 1968 was a welcome phenomenon to Leith, though its totalitarian instincts, taste for violence, and arrogance worried him.
Leith’s lecture was held on October 2, 1968. Read a transcript below.