The blame for the failure of this event as a revolutionary one has been laid at the feet of the communist unions and their allegiance to a traditional Marxism. Michel Foucault's ideas played a part in the student uprising of May '68. No doubt he was also influenced by these events. Note, for instance, Foucault's claim that power does not merely come from above but from 'everywhere'. This is an anarchistic notion of power as polyvalent which challenges the Marxist notion of power as monolithic.
Anarchists see power as a process rather than a possession.
They also argue that ideas are a process of power. Anarchists disagree with censorship on the grounds that ideas need to be confronted because they cannot be silenced. All these ways of thinking about power were articulated in May '68. Links Posters of the Revolution. In 1992 Gerard Goggin argued that there was a loss of faith in the student movement.