The new administration, however, required a strong bureaucracy and this was to form the lynchpin of the Gaullist apparatus. Though the mandarinate was indispensable Republic, at the same time it insulated Gaullism from the masses.
In 1963 a draconian wage-freeze was imposed on the workers. In 1968 unemployment had reached the half million mark.
The development of French capitalism had necessitated a large expansion of the student population in order to meet the needs of the third industrial revolution. students in France had rocketed from 100,000 ın 1961 to 500,000 in 1968, making them an important intermediary between the contending social classes in the urban centres, especially The authoritarian and the system of instruction hopelessly out of date.
Towards the end of 1967 there were signs of increasing militancv in the factories. same time there was a student strike involving ten urousara sludents. Barricades In February 1968, the impact of the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese partisans was felt in Paris. Tens of thousands of students occupied the Latin Quarter and renamed it the 'Heroic Vietnam Quarter'. the students' leaders which revolt.
Barricades went up in Paris and on the night of 10 May the students fought an all-night battle with the hated CRS riot police and won. The government capitulated rested student leaders. general strike was called.
The day after spontaneous factory occupations began. An aircraft plant in Nantes and a Renault factory near Rouen were taken over by the workers and the red Within the following week there was a tidal wave of factory occupations.