Table Of Content

Situationist International Anthology Revised and Expanded Edition The Situationist International Antholog;y was originally published in 1981 and reprinted in 1989 and 1995. This revised and expanded version is published December 2006. Edited and translated from the French by Ken Knabb. ISBN 978-0-939682-04-1 Library of Congress No. 2006907656 No copyright. Any of the texts in this book may be freely reproduced, translated or adapted, even without mentioning the source. Bureau of Public Secrets P.O. Box 1044, Berkeley CA 94701 www.bopsecrets.org Cover image.from a 1957 psychogeographical map ofP aris by Guy Debord Cover and book design: Jeanne Smith Printed in Canada CONTENTS ix PREFACE PRE-S.I. TEXTS 1 Formulary for a New Urbanism (Chtcheglov, 1953) 8 Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography (Debord, 1955) 12 Proposals for Rationally Improving the City of Paris (Lettrist International, 1955) 14 A User's Guide to Derournement (Debord & Wolman, 1956) 21 The Alba Platform (Lettrist International, 1956) 23 Notes on the Formation of an Imaginist Bauhaus Oorn, 1957) 25 Report on the Construction of Situations (Debord, 1957) FRENCH JOURNALS #1 (1958) 47 The Sound and the Fury 49 Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation 51 Definitions 53 Theses on Cultural Revolution (Debord) 55 The Situationists and Automation Oorn) 58 No Useless Leniency (Bernstein)* 59 Action in Belgium Against the International Assembly of Art Critics #2 (1958) 62 Theory of the Derive (Debord) #3 (1959) 67 Derournement as Negation and Prelude 69 Situationist Theses on Traffic (Debord) 71 Another City for Another Life (Constant) #4 (1960) 74 The Use of Free Time 76 Gangland and Philosophy (Kotanyi) #5 (1960) 79 The Adventure 81 The Fourth SI Conference in London* #6 (1961) 84 Instructions for an Insurrection 86 Basic Program of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism (Kotanyi & Vaneigem) 90 Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life (Debord) v Vl CONTENTS #7 (1962) 100 Geopolitics of Hibernation 107 The Bad Days Will End 114 The Fifth SI Conference in Goteborg* 117 Basic Banalities (Part 1) (Vaneigem) #8 (1963) 131 Ideologies, Classes, and the Domination of Nature 142 The Avant-Garde of Presence* 145 The Counter-Situationist Campaign in Various Countries* 149 All the King's Men 154 Basic Banalities (Part 2) (Vaneigem) 173 Anti-Public Relations Notice #9 (1964) 174 Now, the SI 178 Questionnaire 183 Response to a Questionnaire from the Center for Socio-Experimental Art #10 (1966) 189 Address to Revolutionaries of Algeria and of All Countries 194 The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy 203 The Class Struggles in Algeria 213 Contribution to a Councilist Program in Spain 220 Some Theoretical Topics That Need To Be Dealt With (Vaneigem) 222 Captive Words: Preface to a Situationist Dictionary (Khayati) 228 The Role of Godard 230 The Ideology of Dialogue 233 Interview with an Imbecile 235 The Algeria of Daniel Guerin, Libertarian 237 Domenach versus Alienation* #11 (1967) 240 The Explosion Point ofldeology in China 251 Two Local Wars 263 Our Goals and Methods in the Strasbourg Scandal 273 The Situationists and the New Forms of Action Against Politics and Art (Vienet) 277 Aiming for Practical Truth (Vaneigem) 281 Setting Straight Some Popular Misconceptions About Revolutions in the Underdeveloped Countries (Khayati) 285 Minimum Definition of Revolutionary Organizations 286 Three Postscripts to the Previous Issue #12 (1969) 288 The Beginning of an Era 326 Reform and Counterreform in the Bureaucratic Bloc 336 How Not To Understand Situationist Books 348 Preliminaries on Councils and Councilist Organization (Riesel) CONTENTS vu 363 Notice to the Civilized Concerning Generalized Self-Management (Vaneigem) 371 The Conquest of Space in the Time of Power (Rothe) 374 The Latest Exclusions 3 77 The Elite and the Backward* 378 Cinema and Revolution 380 The Organization Question for the SI (Debord) MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS 387 Preliminaries Toward Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Program (Canjuers & Debord, 1960) 393 For a Revolutionary Judgment of Art (Debord, 1961) 398 Theses on the Paris Commune (Debord, Kotanyi, Vaneigem, 1962) 402 The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics and Art (Debord, 1963) 408 On the Poverty of Student Life (1966) 430 In Short (1965 & 1969) MAY 1968 DOCUMENTS 435 Communique 435 Watch Out for Manipulators! Watch Out for Bureaucrats! 436 Slogans To Be Spread Now by Every Means 437 Telegrams 438 Report on the Occupation of the Sorbonne 442 For the Power of the Workers Councils 443 Address to All Workers 445 Graffiti INTERNAL TEXTS 461 Provisional Statutes of the SI (1969) 464 Provisional Theses for the Discussion of New Theoretico- Practical Orientations in the SI (Salvadori, 1970)* 468 Remarks on the SI Today (Debord, 1970)* 474 Declaration (Debord, Riesel, Viener, 1970) 476 Untitled Text (Debord, 1971)* 479 TRANSLATOR'S NOTES 493 BIBLIOGRAPHY 500 THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT 511 INDEX TO DEBO RD'S THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE 512 INDEX TO VANEIGEM'S THE REVOLUTION OF EVERYDAY UFE 515 INDEX *Excerpts PREFACE In 1957 a few European avant-garde groups came together to form the Situa tionist International. Over the next decade the SI developed an increasingly incisive and coherent critique of modern society and of its bureaucratic pseudo-opposition, and its new methods of agitation were influential in leading up to the May 1968 revolt in France. Since then-although the SI itself was dissolved in 1972-situationist theses and tactics have been taken up by radical currents in dozens of countries all over the world. In this anthology I have tried to present a useful selection of situationist writings while at the same time illustrating the Si's origins and development. Thus some early texts are included even though they express positions that were later repudiated by the situationists. But even the later texts reveal mis takes, contradictions, projects that never materialized, problems that remain to be solved. In other publications I have presented my own views on a few of these issues; but here I have as far as possible let the SI speak for itself. The major portion of the anthology is drawn from the French journal Inter nationale Situationniste (it includes about a third of the LS. articles). The rest consists of various shorter publications and documents. I have not included any excerpts from the situationist books, Debord's The Society of the Spectacle, Vaneigem's Treatise on Livingfor the Young Generations, Vienet's Enrages and Situ ationists in the Occupations Movement and Debord and Sanguinetti's The Real Split in the International. Anyone who is serious will want to read these books in their entirety. The English translations of them that have appeared are all unsatis factory, but sooner or later someone will publish accurate versions. The only previous English-language SI anthology, Christopher Gray's Leaving the Twentieth Century, is particularly bad. In Bureau of Public Secrets #l I have already criticized the superficiality of Gray's commentaries on the SL His translations are on the same level. Not only do his chummy paraphrases obscure the precise sense of the original, but there is scarcely a page in which he has not left out sentences or paragraphs without any indication of the omission, or even made completely gratuitous additions of his own. About half the texts in the present anthology have been translated into English for the first time. All the others have been freshly translated, but I have gone through all the previous translations and incorporated many of their best renderings. I received an immense help from Nadine Bloch and Joel Cornuault, who answered hundreds of questions regarding the French texts, then checked the entire manuscript, correcting many errors and suggesting many further improvements. Dan Hammer also made a number of good sug gestions. ix