SITUATIONISTS AND THE 1£CH MAY 1968

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Afterword
There is a tradition of denigrating certain political ideas and actions by
describing them as Utopian, unrealistic, naive etc. We have deliberately chosen
the ti'tle of this Anthology as we feel it sums up important aspects of the
events in May. The importance that graffiti1 posters, pamphlets etc played
both in terms of practical communication and inspirational agitation cannot
be denied. Some of the slogans may on one level appear Utopian but a closer
analysis shows that they partake of the great Surrealist tradition of the
imaginative transformation of the world, a transformation firmly rooted in,
not an escape from, reality. As And re Breton observed, "The Imaginary is that
which tends tci become real." On one level a slogqn on a .Parisian wall referring
to the beach appears a contradiction. The beach with its connotation of
seaside holidays, fun and leisure scrawled on an urban wall in the capital of
France. However, although the quality of our illustrations doesn't allow us to
show it too clearly, if you look carefully at photographs of Parisian streets
which have had their paving stones/ cobbles torn up what can you see? Sand,
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of course.
For our records and for use in future editions of this book Dark Star would
welcome copies of the covers of the pamphlets reprinted in this book to
enable us to illustrate the widespread distribution of them both in terms of
time and geographical locations.
DARK STAR c/o AK Distribution