SITUATIONISTS AND THE 1£CH MAY 1968

Foreword
This anthology brings together the
three most widely translated, distributed
and influential pamphlets of the
Situationist International available in
the sixties. We have also included an
eyewitness account of the May Events
by a member of Solidarity published in
June 1968. (Dark Star would like to
point out that although Solidarity does
not possess the current 'kudos' or
media/cultural interest possessed by
the Situationists, politically they are
deserving of more recognition and
research).
To briefly sketch in some historical
context, both The Poverty of Student
Life (also known as Ten Days That
Shook The University), and Paris: May
1968 were conceived as pamphlets.
The Totality for Kids and The Decline
And Fall of The Spectacular
Commodity Economy were translated
from articles in the Situationist
International journal. The Totality for
Kids, written by Raoul Vaneigem, originally
appeared in two parts in Issue
No 7 (April 1962) and Issue No 8
Oanuary 1963). The Decline and Fall of
The Spectacular Commodity Economy,
written by Guy Debord, originally
appeared in Issue No 10 (March 1966).
The Poverty of Student Life, probably
the most famous or infamous of these
pamphlets, was originally distributed
by AFGES students on 22 November
1966. lt was reissued in March 1967
and in May 1967 it was widely distributed
around the Nanterre campus by
Anarchists. November of that year saw
the publication of Debord's Society of
the Spectacle and December the publication
of Vaneigem's Revolution of
Everyday Life.
What we hope this Anthology will
offer the reader is not only a concise
introduction to the ideas of the
Situationists but also an insight into
what Situationist material was readily
available in the late sixties. For the
non-French speaking person with an
interest in radical politics the chances
are that their encounter with and
knowledge of the Situationists would
be derived from these three pamphlets.
lt is worth emphasising that
although we recall seeing a duplicated
translation of Society of the Spectacle
it was not until Black & Red published
their translation in 1970 that the book
became generally available. Likewise,
although an edition of Revolution Of
Everyday Life was translated by John
Fullerton and Paul Sieveking and published
by Practical Paradise in 1972 (in
an edition whose unique selling point ­
to utilise a commercial phrase -
seemed to be the book's ability to fall
to pieces in pamphlet-size chunks!), it
was not until Donald Nicholson­
Smith's translation published by Rebel
Press in 1983 that the title became
widely available. If we recall that Chris