Beyond a Spectacular Image of the Working Class

ABSTRACT

The Situationist Internationale (SI) were a group of artists, theorists and revolutionaries active in the late ‘50s and ‘60s in continental Europe, particularly in France. While the SI remains relatively well known today, for their involvement with the rebellion of students and workers in Paris in May 1968, much of their work has been misunderstood in recent years. This article aims to correct misunderstandings of the SI by emphasizing materialist elements within their critique of society. Additionally, the article will examine the SI’s theoretical and practical work in May‘ 68 and beyond while applying these ideas to modern times and especially the uprising of the “Yellow Vest” movement throughout France. Through this analysis the article concludes that working class movements are often misunderstood and even sabotaged by the establishment left and argues for the importance of viewing instances of working class rebellion within the context of the working class itself.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2014), p. 36.

² Guy Debord, “The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy,” in Ken Knabb (ed. and trans.), Situationist International Anthology (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006), pp. 195–196.

³ René Viénet, Enragés and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, France, May ‘68 (New York, NY: Autonomedia, 1992), p. 108.

⁴ Robert Zaretsky, “Trump and the ‘Society of the Spectacle,’” The New York Times (February 20, 2017), available online at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/opinion/trump-and-the-society-of-the-spectacle.html.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ “Two Local Wars,” and “Reform and Counterreform in the Bureaucratic Bloc,” in Ken Knabb (ed. and trans.), Situationist International Anthology (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006), pp. 251–63, 326–36.

⁸ Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (New York, NY: Zone Books, 1995), p. 12; Karl Marx, Capital Volume 1 (London, UK: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 125.

⁹ Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2014), p. 6.

¹⁰ Ibid., 13.

¹¹ Fredy Perlman, “The Reproduction of Daily Life,” Anything Can Happen (1969), available online at: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/perlman-fredy/1969/misc/reproduction-daily-life.htm.

¹² Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, p. 5.

¹³ Ibid., 4.

¹⁴ Ibid., 84.

¹⁵ Marx, Capital Volume 1, Chapter 33.

¹⁶ Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, p. 98.

¹⁷ Ibid., 10.

¹⁸ Ibid., 98

¹⁹ Vladimir Lenin, Collected Works 4th English Edition Volume 31, Julius Katzer (Moscow, RU: Progress Publishers, 1965), pp. 316–17.

²⁰ Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, p. 100.

²¹ Ibid., 1.

²² Ibid., 29, 31.

²³ Raoul Vaneigem, “Basic Banalities 1 & 2,” in Situationist International Anthology (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006), pp. 117–31, 154–73.

²⁴ Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, p. 26.

²⁵ Ibid., 25.

²⁶ Red Wedge, In Defense of Transgression, (Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018), p. 6.

²⁷ Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, p. 25.

²⁸ “Minimum Definition of Revolutionary Organizations,” in Situationist International Anthology (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006), p. 285.

²⁹ Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, p. 69.

³⁰ Viénet, Enragés and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, France, May ‘68, pp. 57, 108.

³¹ Ibid., 33–34.

³² Ibid., 44.

³³ Ibid., 57.

³⁴ Associated Foreign Press, “The Beginning of an Era,” in Situationist International Anthology, pp. 292–93.

³⁵ “France’s ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests: Timeline of Unrest,” The Local (January13, 2019), available online at: https://www.thelocal.fr/20190113/frances-yellow-vest-protests-timeline-of-unrest.

³⁶ Zacharias Zoubir, “A Vest That Fits All,” Commune (Spring 2018), p. 40.

³⁷ For an example of a broad critique of social media from a Left perspective see: Benjamin Y. Fong, “Log Off,” Jacobin Magazine (November 2018), available online at: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/11/log-off-facebook-twitter-social-media-addiction offers a broader perspective on the distrust of social media among some of today’s Leftists. For examples of activists discussing the limitations of social media, see: Barbara Ransby, “Ella Baker’s Radical Democratic Vision,” Jacobin Magazine (June 2018), available online at: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/06/black-lives-matter-police-brutality; Ilyasah Shabazz, “What Would Malcolm X Think?” The New York Times (February 2015), available online at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/21/opinion/ilyasah-shabazz-what-would-malcolm-x-think.html?_r=0.

³⁸ “The Beginning of an Era,” in Situationist International Anthology, p. 288.

³⁹ Rachel Donadil, “France’s Fuel-Tax Protests Expose the Limits of Macron’s Mandate,” The Atlantic (December 4, 2018), available online at: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/12/france-puts-fuel-tax-hold-appease-yellow-vest-protestors/577288/; Viénet, Enragés and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, France, May ‘68, p. 24.

⁴⁰ u/pptyx, “Call From the Yellow Vests of Commercy to Set Up Popular Assemblies,” Reddit Post (December 10, 2018), available online at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Communalists/comments/a4upbv/call_from_the_yellow_vests_of_commercy_to_set_up/.

⁴¹ Spencer Kellogg, “The Yellow Vests Are the New Face of Bitcoin,” 71 Republic (January 11, 2019), available online at: https://71republic.com/2019/01/11/yellow-vests-face-of-bitcoin/.

⁴² Zoubir, “A Vest That Fits All,” p. 40.

⁴³ Viénet, Enragés and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, France, May ‘68, p. 138.

⁴⁴ Keir Milburn, Generation Left (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2019), pp. 60–61.

⁴⁵ Viénet, Enragés and Situationists in the Occupation Movement, France, May ‘68, p. 50.

⁴⁶ Vaneigem, “Basic Banalities 1,” pp. 117–31.

⁴⁷ “The Beginning of an Era,” pp. 292–93.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James Calder

James Calder and Charlie Umland are independent scholars. They live and work in Columbus, Ohio.