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Situationism's failure to confront race and colonialism

In Salvage magazine, Andrea Gibbons writes about Abdelhafid Khatib of the Algerian section of the Situationist International, who was one of the few people of color involved in the group. Not coincidentally, Khatib’s written contributions to the SI canon—in particular, his work on race and psychogeography—were largely neglected by not only historians, but also by Debord and other dominant members of the SI. Gibbons suggests that this refusal to take Khatib seriously helps explain Situationism’s glaring failure to confront race and colonialism:

I find no explanation of Khatib’s – or Dahou’s – absence from Debord’s elliptical and Vaneigem’s vituperous memoirs. Perhaps Khatib remains alive and remembered to Algerians. Perhaps he remains alive in Arabic, or in martyrdom, or in prisons. Perhaps there are more traces of him in French that have not yet been translated and through which I have not struggled: perhaps that explains his absence from the multitude of works available on the Situationist International.

Still, this all tastes to me of betrayal. It signifies an absence both of material solidarity and theoretical rigour. It represents a movement once again claiming such surety in what it was doing, and yet as desperately unengaged with the reality of the city as lived by migrants and workers as it was with the cataclysmic anticolonial struggles toppling government after government and bringing France to its knees. Its members closed their eyes to it.

This troubles me; but the ongoing and continuous nonchalant references to this closing of eyes, and this editorial note on police harassment, a continued inability to honour Khatib by intellectually grappling with the reality, troubles me even more. Especially given its contrast with the Situationists’ open and vocal defense of Trocchi, imprisoned for drugs in New York, rather than in Paris for his nationality and the colour of his skin while in pursuit of Situationist aims. Surely it must mean something that the principal documented attempt at psychogeography was cut short by a curfew and imprisonment of a comrade simply for being an Arab. Surely we must care, even if they didn’t.

I wish they had taken hold of the opportunity, bailed or broken Khatib out as comrades should do, and rethought what understanding psychogeography – in Khatib’s words ‘the study of the laws and precise effects of a consciously or unconsciously elaborated geographical environment acting directly on affective behavior’ – could be. Explored with more integrity ‘the science fiction of urbanism’, to understand a city in some ways multiplied and enriched, in others limited and controlled, through difference. Attempted to see through different eyes, understand what a different skin might experience. Above all, to understand that the built environment does not stand above these things, but is coconstitutive of them. With Lefebvre they edged towards this, but not in a way that held meaning to Abdelhafid Khatib’s experience. The point of it all was to understand the now, in order to build something new. How could they escape the oppressions of the old if they could not even see them?

Image: An illustration that accompanied Abdelhafid Khatib’s “Descriptive Essay on the Psychogeography of Les Halles,” published in Internationale Situationniste in 1958.

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See, when I read leftist writings like this I tend to agree with the author, about how unfair things are and so on. But, somewhere down the text I always get a little bit annoyed by the overly self-righteous tone, especially when you are talking on behalf of someone that you see as the “oppressed”. I wonder what annoys me, as I certainly know for a fact that there are a lot of unfairness and prejudice in this world. In these wonders, I remember the many years that I spent into the western first class academia and how many times I heard people talking passionate about the burdens of the oppressed. They talked and acted with so much self-righteousness that was almost impossible to see the hypocrisy: even though they talked and acted on behalf of someone else (who might not even have asked for their help) they’re still thinking solely about themselves. Because, oh god, we know how well accepted it is for grants, academic positions, book writings and so on to be the defender of the oppressed. I certainly don’t know what Andrea Gibbons motivations are, but somehow it reminds me of that. As, the many people that I know who are actually doing something to help others are usually much more quiet than this.

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This is correct: “Perhaps there are more traces of him in French that have not yet been translated and through which I have not struggled: perhaps that explains his absence from the multitude of works available on the Situationist International.”

“The Watts Riot, 1985: The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy” is a piece published by Situationist International December of 1965. It was translated by Ken Knabb. I picked it up in 'zine form from a small local press in my home town about five years ago.

An online version can be found here: http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/10.Watts.htm
I’m not sure who translated the version on bopsecrets.org.

I’m not sure to what extent Khatib played a part in writing The Watts Riot piece, but I think it’s certainly radical enough (especially in 1965!) to prove that a title like “Situationism’s Failure to Confront Race and Colonialism” was ill-conceived. At least pose a title like this as a question! Your headlines play a part in people’s opinions. Be responsible with them, please.

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Bernardo I think you’ll appreciate my response to this conversation.

I am of the Facebook generation and have to see people posting all these articles where some Vice or buzzfeed writer is using figures of popular culture to bring up the race issue. When actually reading most of these articles, you find out that the logic is faulty or just plain absent. It makes the race issue in America and abroad feel like a joke.

of COURSE historians neglected race issues brought up by the Situationists. The folks in charge of popularizing publications through out history have, largely, been racist. I am wondering why Salvage published an entire article that is all about the author not noticing that the situationists have published works on race and colonialism. (They have).

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Look, there was little comradery in Situationist circles. Debord had an authoritarian streak and was happy to expel anyone who dissented. The Situationist International is interesting not as a group, but as an outlet for Debord. Of course he didn’t defend Khatib. He didn’t defend anyone but himself and his ideas–which, on the whole, were worth defending. Selfishness has its uses.

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Thanks for all these thoughtful responses. I understood Andrea Gibbons’s piece not as saying that the Situationists failed to discuss race and colonialism entirely, but that they failed to discuss it sufficiently or adequately. For example, although they wrote an incredibly astute piece about the Watts Riots and the situation of African American in the US, but as Gibbons points out, they published very little about the situation of Algerians in France. That seems like a major omission to me. That said, as m1rrag rightly mentions, not all of their writing has been translated into English, so those who don’t read French have only a partial view of all the topics they covered.

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the issue is not about discussing things - its about the practice of psychogeography. the actual practice of the situationists had to change - bernstein saw it. as noted above, debord chose to protect his brand rather than take a stand with a fellow situationist, a member of the international, against the state. and the others followed - it was easier to write about revolution, to pose as revolutionaries than to change and respond to the material conditions they faced. shameful.

whats even worse is shit like mckenzie wark who in “spectacle of disintegration” uses the war to justify the expulsions of the artists. more debordian arse licking, so debord fails to defend and support khatib but responds to the war by expelling artists. the two are linked but not in the way wark sees it. debord was eurocentric, a francophile. he couldn;t face up to his proivelidge - a key one being language - the language of revolutionary theory. isou haad already shown that hypergraphy and lettrism was necessary to destroy language. the artists provided the most direct critique of language. thats why debord expelled them.

Two criticisms of Andrea Gibbons’ piece on the Situationists have just been published, calling into question both both her methods and conclusions:
By me: https://thesinisterquarter.wordpress.com/2016/10/13/beyond-salvage-andrea-gibbons-on-the-situationists/
By Gerald Keaney: https://geraldkeaney.wordpress.com/andrea-gibbons-situationism/