The Walls Have the Floor - Mural Journal, May `68

The graffiti of the French student and worker uprising of May 1968, capturing participatory politics in action. Graffiti itself became a form of freedom. -Julien Besancon, The Walls Have the FloorFifty years ago, in 1968, barricades were erected in the streets of Paris for the first time since the Paris Commune of nearly one hundred years before.The events of May 1968 began with student protests against the Vietnam War and American imperialism, expanded to rebellion over student living conditions and resistance to capitalist consumerism.An uprising at the Sorbonne was followed by wildcat strikes across France, uniting students and workers and bringing the country's economy to a halt.There have been many accounts of these events. This book tells the story in a different way, through the graffiti inscribed by protestors as they protested. The graffiti collected here is by turns poetic, punning, hopeful, sarcastic, and crude.It quotes poets as often as it does political thinkers.Many wrot