from Guy Debord

To Guillermo Gonzalez Garcia[1]
14 August 1981
Dear Guillermo

Thank you for the proposition to come to Madrid on 1 September but I regret that I am not free on those days, when I will meet with several people with whom a meeting was arranged a while ago. I hope that we can see each other again later. In any case, I have no new information to provide you. If the general evolution of the political situation in Spain appears disastrous to me for more than six months, I must say that what we have attempted to do from outside [Spain], already suffering from the irreparable fault of being undertaken too late, was almost always maladroitly executed, incompetence being frequent and bad luck permanent.

The Ruedo Iberico edition of the Appeals will not be published.[2] Martinez has written to Champ Libre that, despite what he calls "the bait" of The [Society of the] Spectacle, he dare not publish the appeals, because he would want to print to the book in Spain for stingy, short-term, economic reasons (everywhere he has the reputation as an avaricious and dishonest person who never pays his authors; this is why I wanted to leave him with regrets by indicating that I am indifferent to the question of money). I do not believe that he can publish your book. But, as for mine, I do not really desire to accept Martinez, and especially no his translator. Thus, I would refuse, leaving him a chance. If, by a surprising circumstance, he had made this courageous act as a preliminary, I would then have had to discuss the question of the translation with firmness.

In any case, I note that you no longer want the songs. Your decision has the pleasantness of putting to an end a tiresome and endless debate between the comrades who agree that these means can be efficacious for agitation, but who -- each with a conviction that appears very respectable -- support diverse and contradictory preferences concerning the form and content of the songs. I have obviously been incapable of concluding [the debate], not knowing Castellan. Back in March, when the Spanish singer, Mara [Jerez], who lives in France, wanted to sign twenty of these songs, but demanded a delay of two months before beginning to work on the recording of a disk and cassettes, I took the responsibility of refusing such conditions, because the recordings would come too late, given that conditions in Spain change so rapidly, and thus the project clearly risked falling back into the sphere of simple "Leftist" artistic spectacle.[3]

I hope that you will be happy to meet with Miguel [Amoros]. I myself have never met him. But we have been in contact for several months,[4] and I can say -- considering the troubles in which we have found ourselves implicated together, and how he reacted -- that he is someone who is very serious and rigorous.

Indeed, after the publication of the tract A los libertarios,[5] several people from France, England, etc., have gone to Spain and tried to do something useful in Segovia and in the perspective of a new clandestinity. They have encountered Spanish comrades and have spoken to me about all this. Good will has not been lacking and many other people are disposed to join them there. Nevertheless, before getting further than Barcelona or Valencia, this activity has encountered or created the most lamentable difficulties. Something similar occurs with respect to the Spanish people: after an agreement in principle, there is slowness or irresponsibility. Thus, one has recorded -- for an extremely limited result -- a distressing series of blunders and incompetences, and even, at least in two cases, deliberate sabotage or crazy provocations. Thus I estimate that, at present, the foreigners -- after having occasioned or not known how to avoid such deplorable results -- must have the decency to make themselves forgotten on this terrain. If the consequences must confirm that solidarity is no longer "at home in Spain" -- which I do not believe -- one need not further prove that it obviously cannot be imported into it.

If, as I hope, Miguel and you -- [and] thus, his friends and yours -- find a certain basis for agreement, one will be able to say that something good has nevertheless come from an attempt that has continuously been so unfortunate and vain.

Amicably to you and Marilo,
Guy

[1] Translator's note: Garcia was one of six libertarian prisoners released from the prison on Segovia after the circulation of the appeal "To Libertarians." See letter dated 26 January 1981.

[2] Translator's note: See letter dated 19 June 1981.

[3] Translator's note: See letter dated 11 March 1981.

[4] Translator's note: See letter dated 13 August 1981.

[5] Translator's note: "To libertarians."


(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 5: Janvier 1979-Decembre 1987 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2006. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! May 2007. Footnotes as noted.)




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