Paris, a witches' cauldron of political instigations and demonstrations, armoured cars in the streets, the bloody shadow of the Algerian War, the O.A.S. [Organization de Armee Secrete], the F.L.N. [Front de Liberation Nationale], mysterious assassinations and torture. Strikes, police raids, censorship, no Gallic clarity but a dark witches' trial, shootings and reprisals, many dead and wounded.
Paris, where our Conseil Central [Central Council] held a meeting of the Internationale Situationniste [on] the 10th and 11th February 1962, [at] 129 Boulevard Saint-Germain -- even here, [it is] brother against brother!
The Conseil Central of the IS has 8 members: Dieter Kunzelmann, Germany; Jacqueline de Jong, Holland; Ansgar Elde, Sweden, Jorgen Nash, Denmark; Guy Debord, France; Uwe Lausen, Germany; Attila Kotanyi and Raoul Vaneigem, Belgium.
On the very first day of the meeting, a previously printed ultimatum was presented by the four last-named members [Debord, Lausen, Kotanyi and Vaneigem] declaring the German group of artists, SPUR, (Sturm, Zimmer, Prem, Fischer and Kunzelmann) excluded in the name of the Conseil Central. Those four go as far as to accuse SPUR of "fractionist activity based on a systematic misunderstanding of the situationist theses. . . ."
That is precisely what they themseives might be denounced for, if we chose to adopt their Jesuit methods.
We came to the meeting also prepared to critizise the SPUR members, but in quite another way. We protest against all kinds of fractionist activity within the IS. In this council meeting in Paris we were confronted with a fait acompli, which made an empty farce of the entire meeting. An organization whose essential decisions are not based on the principle of debate is totalitarian and does not agree with our rules of collaboration. This was a fractionist attack against us, which is unacceptable to the situationnists. To call in comrades from other countries only to hand out a printed leaflet is a not very positive method. It can be explained only as an outcome of the non-activity policy of those four members. This is not a good omen for the future of our movement Internationale Situationniste.
It is not only pointless but ridiculous indeed to pull the emergency brake when the train has already stopped.
Paris, 13 February 1962.(Written in English, published as a tract, and then reprinted in The Situationist Times #1 (1962), this text responds to the exclusion of the Spurists. Alluded to in Internationale Situationniste #7 [April 1962], pp. 53-54.)