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The Fourth SI Conference
in London
(excerpts)
The 4th Conference of the Situationist International was held in London, at a secret
address in the East End, 24-28 September 1960, seventeen months after the Munich
Conference (April 1959). The situationists assembled in London were: Debord, Jacqueline de
Jong, Jorn, Kotányi, Katja Lindell, Jörgen Nash, Prem, Sturm, Maurice Wyckaert and H.P.
Zimmer. [...]
The discussion of these perspectives leads to posing the question: “To what extent
is the SI a political movement?” Various responses state that the SI is political,
but not in the ordinary sense. The discussion becomes somewhat confused. Debord proposes,
in order to clearly bring out the opinion of the Conference, that each person respond in
writing to a questionnaire asking if he considers that there are “forces in the
society that the SI can count on? What forces? In what conditions?” This
questionnaire is agreed upon and filled out. The first responses express the view that the
purpose of the SI is to establish a program of overall liberation and to act in accord
with other forces on a social scale. (Kotányi: “To rely on what we call free.”
Jorn: “We are against specialization and rationalization, but not against them as
means. . . . Movements of social groups are determined by the character of their
desires. We can accept other social movements only to the extent that they are moving in
our direction. We are the new revolution . . . we should act with other
organizations that seek the same path.”) The session is then adjourned.
At the beginning of the second session, on September 26, Heimrad Prem reads a
declaration of the German section in response to the questionnaire. This very long
declaration attacks the tendency in the responses read the day before to count on the
existence of a revolutionary proletariat, for the signers strongly doubt the revolutionary
capacities of the workers against the bureaucratic institutions that have dominated their
movement. The German section considers that the SI should prepare to realize its program
on its own by mobilizing the avant-garde artists, who are placed by the present society in
intolerable conditions and can count only on themselves to take over the weapons of
conditioning. Debord responds with a sharp critique of these positions. [...]
Kotányi reminds the German delegates that even if since 1945 they have seen apparently
passive and satisfied workers in Germany and legal strikes organized with music to divert
union members, in other advanced capitalist countries “wildcat” strikes have
multiplied. He adds that in his opinion they vastly underestimate the German workers
themselves. [...] Debord proposes that the majority openly declare that it rejects the
German theses. It is agreed that the two tendencies separately decide on their positions.
The German minority withdraws to an adjoining room to deliberate. When they return Zimmer
announces, in the name of his group, that they retract the preceding declaration, not
because they think it unimportant, but in order not to impede present situationist
activity. He concludes: “We declare that we are in complete agreement with all the
acts already done by the SI, with or without us, and with those that will be done in the
foreseeable future. We are also in agreement with all the ideas published by the SI. We
consider the question debated today as secondary in relation to the SI’s overall
development, and propose to reserve further discussion of it for the future.”
Everyone agrees to this. Kotányi and Debord, however, ask that it be noted in the minutes
that they do not consider that the question discussed today is secondary. The German
situationists agree to delete their reference to it as such. The session is adjourned,
very late at night. [...]
SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL
1960
Translated by Ken Knabb (slightly modified from the version in the Situationist
International Anthology).
No copyright.
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