Something in the Air

TO THE MEMORY OF LAURENT PERRIN

APRES MAl. Something in the air.

1971, not far from Paris

Together, we'll read this excerpt

from Blaise Pascal's "Pens้es".

Don't balk at the phrasing. It's from another era.

Then you'll tell me what it reminds you of

in today's terms.

"It requires no great superiority of mind

to understand that nothing produces true and solid satisfaction,

that all our pleasures are mere vanity. "

"our troubles innumerable.

"and finallly that death

"threatens us at every moment,

"and will put us, in several years or maybe several hours,

"in a state of eternal happiness

"or unhappiness

"or annihilation.

Between us and the sky

hell or nothingness,

there is but life,

the most fragile thing in the world".

We Watch the Police!

"All!"

"We Want It All. "

Demonstration, Place de Clichy.

Geismar stopped his hunger strike.

Cops want to ban it. We have to go. Fight's still on.

CRS = SS

Beat it!

Combat, Parapluie, Actuel, and J'accuse, please.

8.50

They Tried to Kill Richard Deshayes

"Apolitical student Gilles Guiot, arrested by cops

who claim he'd attacked them.

"was sentenced to six months prison.

"Support groups met yesterday at Lyc้e Chaptal... "

Who cares about Guion?

- Shut up, Alain! - Fuck you!

- You like repression? - When it targets apolitical students.

"They call for a demonstration demanding his release. "

- Who agrees? - That's not enough.

He's innocent!

Everyone's aware of his case. We can mobilize them.

Increase our numbers.

Guiot isn't the problem.

It's the conditions of prisoners.

Since CAL wasbanned, we're isolated.

We need a unified high-school movement!

So Trotskyites take over? Who are you for?

For a responsible political line!

Deshayes, Youth Liberation Front! He lost an eye.

15 wounded! Read the press!

Cops shot rioters with tear-gas grenades. We saw.

They're out for revenge.

Call for the dissolution of their Special Brigades!

Dissolution!

- Graffiti tomorrow? - I'm in.

We need posters from Paris.

I'll get them.

Is it defamation to call attention to a simple fact?

"Paris has recently become the capital of police.

"Policemen swarm about on foot, in motorcycles, vans

"and those ominous buses stationed at intersections.

"Our city's face is disfigured,

not only for Parisians but for foreign visitors as well".

Here's the material. Take what you need.

If you come back later, the new tract will be ready.

"ฟIs it defamation to condemn what is obvious:

"the increasingly systematic intrusion

"of the police in everyday life?"

Chairman Mao's New Clothes

In the West, some analysts latch onto the official label.

Their essays take for granted

the concept of a cultural revolution

or even a civilizational one.

The scores of corpses washing up on Hong Kong's shores

ilustrate, on a tiny scale

a grisly drama the entire country is undergoing.

Idiots cannot but produce idiocies

as apple trees, apples.

Having seen these corpses float down the Yellow River,

I refuse this idyllic image of the Cultural Revolution.

I thought you'd be at the station.

I took an earlier train.

It was was nice out. I started to walk.

The Free Press.

That's nice.

The ones you mentioned?

Yeah, but I can do better.

That one's so-so.

This one too.

This one is too busy.

I prefer this one.

Take it, it's yours.

I came because I have something important to say.

I'm going away.

Where?

London, in two days.

My step-dad's doing the light-show for Soft Machine.

They're already rehearsing.

Will you be gone long?

I don't know till when.

Mom's leaving Paris to live with him in Notting Hill.

I'll be at the Lyc้e Fran็ais.

Will you be back this summer?

We're going to Ibiza.

I'll come to London.

I bookmarked the ones I like most.

There's no more gas.

I'm sorry.

I'll go on my own.

I'll come along.

I'm sorry.

It's hard to say it, but don't come visit.

I'll write you. It will be easier.

Seems clear enough.

You're wrong. It's complicated. I still love you.

Someone else?

Maybe. I don't know.

I'm not sure. I need time to think.

I don't want to lose you.

Me neither.

Can I walk you to the station?

A platform is too depressing.

Don't watch me leave.

They'll think twice before tearing off our posters.

How are the revolutionaries doing?

I told you not to use our mimeograph to print your filth.

We can't condemn the moral order?

And sexual repression?

We're working on that issue.

You discredit our struggle. Finish up and get lost.

Youth too worried about the future

What the fuck is going on?

Beat it, pricks!

Got you!

Let go of him, assholes!

They're throwing rocks! Back off!

Jean-Pierre!

This way!

It's all over. On every building.

Dissolution... Special Brigades...

What Special Brigades?

In this early work, "The German Ideology"

- years before "The Communist Manifesto"

their criticism of Max Stirner, who called communism "utopian"

helped Marx and Engels define historical materialism

and make a permanent break with Feuerbach's idealism.

So who exactly is Max Stirner?

He wrote...

Come in.

Sorry to interrupt. Jean-Pierre Moulinet, principal's office.

Take your belongings.

Security guards across the street gave a bag to the police

in wich they found

your school ID.

This ties you in with the vandalism

that occurred last night on school premises

For insurance reasons, I must file a complaint.

Punishment will be up to the Disciplinary Committee.

Any questions?

You weren't alone. I won't encourage you to tell on others.

I leave you with your conscience and convictions.

But I regret having to waste my budget

to pay for your stupidity.

- See Jean-Pierre? - He's going before Disciplinary.

- Did he give names? - Not a word.

His parents won't let him take the fall.

I know them. They'd never do that.

The guards turned him in.

They're SAC fascists.

They'll pay for it.

Fuck, it's them!

- Same scum! - Over there!

You won't get away with this!

We saw you.

Fuck!

Laurent!

Youth Liberation Front manifesto.

Saturday 3 pm, Jussieu.

"All!" New issue!

"Special Brigades Against a New World!"

Rackham the Red, 5 pm, the St. James.

The news isn't good.

My contacts say the guard's out of his coma.

But he can't talk.

There's no prognostic. They're waiting.

They know it's us?

They saw nothing.

Shadows in the dark.

Still... they're definitely onto you.

- They'll question Jean-Pierre. - I was home with my parents.

Ideally...

use summer vacation to lie low.

We have hide-outs.

It's fine. We discussed it. We'll go to Italy.

It was planned.

Contact our comrades at Fiat in Torino.

We're not going there.