from Guy Debord

SI-Paris to Robert Chasse
Copy to Tony Verlaan
4 November 1968
Dear Robert:


In light of your letter of 23 October, we believe that we must be precise: because Tony and you are in agreement on the membership of Bruce [Elwell], we also consider Bruce (if he wants) to be a member of the SI. In case your [internal] divergence continues, we estimate that it will be necessary that you come to an agreement straight away on another “third member” in the group,[1] who would thus allow a majority to emerge from the tactical discussions of your group, beginning with the problem of each [new] member.

To make our positions on organization precise, Guy’s fifteen theses on organization (April 1968)[2] was unanimously accepted today, with this specification of point 12: the practical autonomy of the national groups cannot go against our international solidarity concerning general theory and our basic practices (in particular, the excluded and the people with whom one of our groups has broken must be immediately rejected in all countries).

After the collective experiences of the [recent] revolutionary period, the group in France has now “doubled its effective numbers” by coming to agreements with the best of those who collaborated with the SI in this epoch. The selection was severe!

Those of us who have already read Robin Hood Rides Again[3] have found it generally good, and say that there is no fundamental critique to be made.

Still no news from Tony, but we have seen his brother Ignace.

Best wishes,

Francois-Hubert de Beaulieu, Guy Debord, Rene Vienet, Patrick Cheval, Christian Sebastiani, Rene Riesel, Raoul Vaneigem
Absent at this hour, comrade [Mustapha] Khayati approves this letter.

[1] Translator: that would be Jonathan Horelick, ex-member of the Students for a Democratic Society.

[2] Published in Internationale Situationniste #12, September 1969.

[3] [Robert Chasse,] The Power of Negative Thinking, or Robin Hood Rides Again (April 1968).


(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol "0": Septembre 1951 - Juillet 1957: Complete des "lettres retrouvees" et d l'index general des noms cites by Librairie Artheme Fayard, October 2010. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! February 2011. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)




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