Third-Worldism and 1968 in the Former French Empire

Historians and sociologists have long taken the societal upheaval created by France's mai 68 as an object of study. Imperial and global turns in historical scholarship have led to increased attention to the role of the Third World in this seminal event. Yet much of this emerging scholarship focuses on abstract notions of Third World identification among the New Left in France. While fruitful, these explorations often fall short of investigations into the concrete connections between French “Third Worldists” and activists actually hailing from those communities abroad, or to actual French participation in the causes of 1968 activists within its former empire. This paper links First and Third World histories that converged in the postcolonial Francophone world of 1968. The colonial histories of places like Tunisia and Senegal left in place fragments of empire like the French university system, and meant that France was still home to large numbers of students from the former colonies. When campuses in Tunis, Dakar, and Paris erupted in homegrown protests in 1968, Third World students and Third World activists responded with transnational support. This paper analyzes not only the critical importance of abstract notions of the Third World in France’s own mai 68, but also the role of Paris as a key node in the transnational activist networks supporting very real Third World actors and causes.