The Situationists were artists greatly influenced by
Surrealism,
Lettrism and
Dada.
Guy Debord, self-proclaimed Situationist leader, and different artists created the
Situationist International in 1957, already influenced by the
Lettrist International (post
WWII). They were fighting against
consumerism,
mass medias and the
Spectacle.
Around 1962, the Situationists applied their point of view to the
capitalist society. They were influenced by the
Anarchist movement, the
Makhnovists,
Hegel and by some
Marxist theories.
In 1967, Guy Debord published
The Society of the Spectacle and
Raoul Vaneigem published
The Revolution of Everyday Life, 2 essays about the
alienation created by the Capitalist system. Both books influenced the
May '68 student rebellion.
The
SI members co-operated with the
Enragés from
Nanterre University (
France), another
libertarian group inspired by the SI. They sent this
telegram to the
Communist Party of
USSR during the May '68 events :
SHAKE IN YOUR SHOES BUREAUCRATS STOP
THE INTERNATIONAL POWER OF THE WORKERS' COUNCILS WILL SOON WIPE YOU OUT STOP
HUMANITY WILL NOT BE HAPPY UNTIL THE LAST BUREAUCRAT IS HUNG WITH THE GUTS OF THE LAST CAPITALIST STOP
LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLE OF THE KRONSTADT SAILORS AND OF THE MAKHNOVSCHINA AGAINST TROTSKY AND LENIN STOP
LONG LIVE THE 1956 COUNCILIST INSURRECTION OF BUDAPEST STOP
DOWN WITH THE STATE STOP
The main concept of the Situationist theory is that capitalism has reduced life to a simple 'spectacle', a cheap product, an illusion. Commodity consumption brings alienation, the worker produces a power, later sold to him.
"Who wants a world in which the guarantee that we shall not die of starvation entails the risk of dying of boredom?"
-- Raoul Vaneigem
We are simple objects, victims of the illusions we created. The only way to break the Spectacle is to create disrupting situations that will change our perception of the society and kick us out of the boring and ordinary life.
Vandalism.
Sabotage.
Detournement.
Using the physical means of destruction, Situationists will destroy the "manufactured spectacle" and the capitalistic commodity economy. (See also Adbusters)
Situationists believe in a real communist (see also Stalinism != Communism ) society and in workers' councils.
Proletariat is the only revolutionary class
(Where are the students?)
The SI disbanded in 1972 but their ideas have influenced many feminist groups and, in some way, the punk rock movement.
A small Situationist bibliography
(English translations)
Raoul Vaneigem, The Revolution of Everyday Life -- (Practical Paradise, 1972)
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle -- (Zone, 1994)
René Viénet, Enragés and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, May '68 -- (Autonomedia/Rebel, 1992)
Guy Debord and Gianfranco Sanguinetti, The Veritable Split in the International -- (Chronos, 1990)
Guy Debord, Panegyric, Volume I -- (Verso, 1991)
Guy Debord, Comments on the Society of the Spectacle -- (Verso, 1990)
For more information :
http://www.slip.net/~knabb/SI/bibliog.htm
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Obituary/debord.html
http://www.nothingness.org/SI/debord/mannoni/index.html
http://www.nothingness.org/SI/simisc/index.html