Alain Geismar

Alain Geismar (born 17 July 1939 in Paris) is a French politician, physicist, and Honorary Inspector General of Education.

He was one of the student leaders during the unrest of May 1968 in France.

Geismar was born in the 16th arrondissement of Paris to an Alsatian Jewish family. He attended the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly high school and later became the fourth leader of the Union of Communist Students alongside André Senik.

Geismar is married to Sylvie Wieviorka, deputy mayor of the Parti Socialiste (PS) of the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. He was previously married to Rédith Estenne, with whom he had two sons, François (b. 1965) and Pierre (1973–2006).

While attending the National School of Mines in Nancy, Geismar began his political career campaigning for the Étudiants socialistes unifiés (ESU), the Unified Socialist Students. He became the organization's national leader under the direction of Jean Poperen, his former history teacher at Janson de Sailly. In 1965, he became deputy secretary-general of the National Union of Higher Education (SNESup), opposing the orthodoxy of the French Communist Party (PCF) and the so-called "leftist" tendency. By the end of 1966, he left the Unified Socialist Party (Parti socialiste unifié, PSU) to become the elected secretary-general of SNESup on the basis of a motion "for a small cultural revolution at the University" in late 1967.