Only very recently have we learned that those excluded in New York[1] will not be going to Luxembourg.[2] We have kept the location of the meeting as was planned. Reading your letter sent from The Hague on the 7th [January 1970], we think that it comes too late to change things. Given the conditions in Italy after the bomb,[3] communications [with the Italian situationists] can be difficult or delayed; the Italian delegate (Claudio[4]) was with us in Paris a week ago; he knows that the meeting was set for Luxembourg. He must not risk finding himself alone there. Moreover, we think that the choice of an out-of-the-way place allows for a realer application of the principle of the delegates’ meeting. You can work faster if you are four [people]. René[5] will be the French delegate, and so everyone will [be able to] speak English.
We have indicated to Jon[6] that you favor a dissolution of the American section, and thus that he could send a mandate to Martin or Claudio that supports his perspective, because he wants to continue the section and he cannot delegate you to defend a position that you seem to disapprove.
With respect to the Institute,[7] the quarrel has come back to life: it was precisely Tristan Haan[8] who recently responded to Claudio (instead of Lehning,[9] to whom Claudio had written), and he has responded with an unacceptable insolence. If he has nothing to do with the Institute, one wonders how it’s possible that he himself has responded to a letter that a situationist wrote to Lehning?
Jon returned to New York two weeks ago. We haven’t looked for you in Holland because, since then, we learned that you were in Italy!
As for translations in general, we must first examine in Luxembourg all the problems concerning [our] English contacts. Guy will be happy if [The Society of the] Spectacle is published in English in Amsterdam, but we wonder, who is John Barker?[10] And what value could his translation be?
We think we will see you in Paris after Luxembourg.
Best wishes,[1] Translator: Robert Chasse and Bruce Elwell, former members of the American section of the Situationist International.
[2] Translator: location of the meeting of delegates from the SI.
[3] Translator: the bomb that was exploded at the Piazza Fontana on 12 December 1969.
[4] Translator: Claudio Pavan.
[5] Translator: René Riesel.
[6] Translator: Jonathan Horelick, of the American section of the SI.
[7] Translator: the Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.
[8] Tristan Haan, head of the Franco-Italian department at the Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.
[9] Arthur Lehning.
[10] Translator: a future member of the Angry Brigade who would be imprisoned in England in 1971.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol "4": Janvier 1969 - december 1972 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2004. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! March 2012. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)