Editing Situationist International (section)

==History==

===Origins (1945–1955)===
The situationist movement had its origins as a left wing tendency within [[Lettrism]],<ref name="ReportManifesto57">''[[Report on the Construction of Situations]]'' (1957)</ref><ref name="SI58">{{cite web |url=http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline///si/is1.html |title=Internationale Situationniste No. 1 (June 1958) |publisher=Cddc.vt.edu |access-date=11 October 2013 |archive-date=13 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613133347/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/is1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> an artistic and literary movement led by the Romanian-born French poet and visual artist [[Isidore Isou]], originating in 1940s Paris. The group was heavily influenced by the preceding [[avant-garde]] movements of [[Dadaism]] and [[Surrealism]], seeking to apply critical theories based on these concepts to all areas of art and culture, most notably in poetry, film, painting and [[political theory]].<ref name="Debord1957Report"/> Among some of the concepts and artistic innovations developed by the Lettrists were the ''lettrie'', a poem reflecting pure form yet devoid of all semantic content, new syntheses of writing and visual art identified as [[metagraphics]] and [[hypergraphics]], as well as new creative techniques in filmmaking. Future situationist [[Guy Debord]], who was at that time a significant figure in the Lettrist movement, helped develop these new film techniques, using them in his Lettrist film ''[[Hurlements en faveur de Sade|Howlings for Sade]]'' (1952) as well as later in his situationist film ''[[The Society of the Spectacle (film)|Society of the Spectacle]]'' (1972).

By 1950, a much younger and more left-wing part of the Lettrist movement began to emerge. This group kept very active in perpetrating public outrages such as the [[Notre-Dame Affair]], where at the Easter High Mass at [[Notre Dame de Paris]], in front of ten thousand people and broadcast on national TV, their member and former Dominican Michel Mourre posed as a [[monk]], "stood in front of the altar and read a pamphlet proclaiming that [[God]] was dead".<ref name="Horn07p8">Horn (2007), p. 8</ref><ref name="Marcus89p279-86">[[Greil Marcus]] (1989) ''[[Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century]]'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=TVAoeipLL38C preview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170413042506/https://books.google.com/books?id=TVAoeipLL38C |date=13 April 2017 }} at Google books, pp. 279–86</ref> [[André Breton]] prominently came out in support of the action in a letter that spawned a large debate in the newspaper ''[[Combat (newspaper)|Combat]]''.<ref name="Boucharenc05">Boucharenc, Myriam (2005) [https://books.google.com/books?id=uYKf2PLK1BgC ''L'universel reportage''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170413042610/https://books.google.com/books?id=uYKf2PLK1BgC |date=13 April 2017 }}, pp. 94–6</ref><ref name="Breton50NotreDame">[[André Breton|Breton, André]] (1950) [http://juralibertaire.over-blog.com/article-le-scandale-de-notre-dame-41681161.html ''Lettre a Louis Pauwels" sur le «"scandale" de Notre Dame»''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728124014/http://juralibertaire.over-blog.com/article-le-scandale-de-notre-dame-41681161.html |date=28 July 2011 }}, in ''[[Combat (newspaper)|Combat]]'', 12 April 1950, ''OC III'', pp. 1024–5</ref>

In 1952, this left wing of the Lettrist movement, which included Debord, broke off from Isou's group and formed the [[Letterist International]], a new Paris-based collective of avant-garde artists and political theorists. The schism finally erupted when the future members of the radical Lettrists disrupted a [[Charlie Chaplin]] press conference for ''[[Limelight (1952 film)|Limelight]]'' at the [[Hôtel Ritz Paris]]. They distributed a [[polemic]] entitled "No More Flat Feet!", which concluded: "The footlights have melted the make-up of the supposedly brilliant mime. All we can see now is a lugubrious and mercenary old man. Go home Mister Chaplin."<ref name="Berna1952No">Serge Berna, Jean-Louis Brau, Guy Debord & Gil J. Wolman (1952) ''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/flatfeet.html No More Flat Feet!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229081935/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/flatfeet.html |date=29 December 2010 }}''. Internationale Lettriste No. 1 (Paris, November 1952). Translated by Ken Knabb. Emphasis in original.</ref> Isou was upset with this, his own attitude being that Chaplin deserved respect as one of the great creators of the cinematic art. The breakaway group felt that his work was no longer relevant, while having appreciated it "in its own time," and asserted their belief "that the most urgent expression of freedom is the destruction of idols, especially when they claim to represent freedom," in this case, filmmaker Charlie Chaplin.<ref name="1952Position">(1952) ''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/position.html Position of the Lettrist International] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720111435/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/position.html |date=20 July 2011 }}''. Internationale Lettriste No. 1 (Paris, November 1952). Translated by Ken Knabb.</ref>

During this period of the [[Letterist International]], many of the important concepts and ideas that would later be integral in situationist theory were developed. Individuals in the group collaboratively constructed the new field of [[psychogeography]], which they defined as "the study of the specific effects of the [[geography|geographical environment]] (whether consciously organized or not) on the emotions and behavior of individuals."<ref name="Debord1958Definitions"/><ref name="Debord1955Introduction">Guy Debord (1955) ''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/geography.html Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720111146/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/geography.html |date=20 July 2011 }}''. Les Lèvres Nues No. 6 (Paris, September 1955). Translated by Ken Knabb.</ref> Debord further expanded this concept of psychogeography with his theory of the [[dérive]], an unplanned tour through an [[city|urban]] landscape directed entirely by the feelings evoked in the individual by their surroundings, serving as the primary means for mapping and investigating the psychogeography of these different areas.<ref name="Debord1956Theory">Guy Debord (1956) ''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/geography.html Theory of the Dérive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720111146/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/geography.html |date=20 July 2011 }}''. Les Lèvres Nues No. 9 (Paris, November 1956). Reprinted in Internationale Situationniste No. 2 (Paris, December 1958). Translated by Ken Knabb.</ref> During this period the Letterist International also developed the situationist tactic of [[détournement]], which by reworking or re-contextualizing an existing work of art or literature sought to radically shift its meaning to one with revolutionary significance.

===Formation (1956–1957)===

In 1956, Guy Debord, a member of the [[Lettrist International]], and [[Asger Jorn]] of the [[International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus]], brought together a group of artistic collectives for the ''First World Congress of Free Artists'' in [[Alba, Piedmont|Alba]], Italy.<ref name="Horn07p5-7">Horn (2007), pp. 5–7, 42</ref> The meeting established the foundation for the development of the Situationist International, which was officially formed in July 1957 at a meeting in [[Cosio di Arroscia]], Italy.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International |author-last=Wark |author-first=McKenzie |date=20 June 2011 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=9781844677207 |edition=1 |pages=67 |language=en}}</ref> The resulting International was a fusion of these extremely small [[avant-garde]] collectives: the [[Lettrist International]], the [[International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus]] (an offshoot of [[COBRA (avant-garde movement)|COBRA]]), and the [[London Psychogeographical Association]] (though, Anselm Jappe has argued that the group pivoted around Jorn and Debord for the first four years).<ref name="Jappe99DebordJorn">[[Anselm Jappe]], 1999, p. 65 quotation: "For the first four years of the SI's existence, the pivot of the group was the collaboration between Debord and Asger Jorn, who complemented each other well precisely because they were so different".</ref> Later, the Situationist International drew ideas from other groups such as [[Socialisme ou Barbarie]].<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Hayes |first=Anthony |year=2017 |title=How the Situationist International became what it was |section=Appendix three: Whose spectacle? |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/132358 |access-date=3 May 2022 |archive-date=2 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220502044930/https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/132358 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The most prominent member of the group, [[Guy Debord]], generally became considered the organization's de facto leader and most distinguished theorist. Other members included theorist [[Raoul Vaneigem]], the Dutch painter [[Constant Nieuwenhuys]], the Italo-Scottish writer [[Alexander Trocchi]], the English artist [[Ralph Rumney]] (sole member of the London Psychogeographical Association, Rumney suffered expulsion relatively soon after the formation), the Danish artist [[Asger Jorn]] (who after parting with the SI also founded the [[Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism]]), the architect and veteran of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Uprising]] [[Attila Kotanyi]], and the French writer [[Michèle Bernstein]]. Debord and Bernstein later married.

In June 1957, Debord wrote the [[manifesto]] of the Situationist International, titled ''[[Report on the Construction of Situations]]''. This manifesto plans a rereading of [[Karl Marx]]'s ''[[Das Kapital]]'' and advocates a cultural revolution in [[western countries]].<ref name="Debord1957Report">Guy Debord (1957) ''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/report.html Report on the Construction of Situations and on the International Situationist Tendency's Conditions of Organization and Action] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514125701/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/report.html |date=14 May 2011 }}''. (Paris, June 1957). Translated by Ken Knabb.</ref>

===Artistic period (1958–1962)===
[[File:Asger Jorn (1963) by Erling Mandelmann.jpg|thumb|right|[[Danes|Danish]] painter, sculptor, [[ceramic art]]ist, and author [[Asger Jorn]], founding member of the Situationist International.]]

During the first few years of the SI's founding, [[avant-garde]] artistic groups began collaborating with the SI and joining the organization. [[Gruppe SPUR]], a German artistic collective, collaborated with the Situationist International on projects beginning in 1959, continuing until the group officially joined the SI in 1961. The role of the artists in the SI was of great significance, particularly [[Asger Jorn]], [[Constant Nieuwenhuys]] and [[Pinot Gallizio]].<ref name="PoliOntheReport"/>

Asger Jorn, who invented [[Situgraphy]] and [[Situlogy]], had the social role of catalyst and team leader among the members of the SI between 1957 and 1961. Jorn's role in the situationist movement (as in [[COBRA (avant-garde movement)|COBRA]]) was that of a catalyst and team leader. [[Guy Debord]] on his own lacked the personal warmth and persuasiveness to draw people of different nationalities and talents into an active working partnership. As a prototype [[Marxism|Marxist]] intellectual Debord needed an ally who could patch up the petty egoisms and squabbles of the members. When Jorn's leadership was withdrawn in 1961, many simmering quarrels among different sections of the SI flared up, leading to multiple exclusions.
[[File:Internationale situationniste nº1.jpg|thumb|left|''Internationale situationniste'']]
The first major split was the exclusion of Gruppe SPUR, the German section, from the SI on 10 February 1962.<ref name="1963TheExclusion">(1963) ''[http://www.notbored.org/spur-exclusion.html The Exclusion of the Spurists] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520064219/http://www.notbored.org/spur-exclusion.html |date=20 May 2009 }}''. Internationale Situationniste No. 8 (Paris, January 1963). Translated by Ken Knabb.</ref> Many different disagreements led to the fracture, for example; while at the Fourth SI Conference in London in December 1960, in a discussion about the political nature of the SI, the Gruppe SPUR members disagreed with the core situationist stance of counting on a [[revolutionary proletariat]];<ref name="SI5Conf4">''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/SIOnline/si/london.html The Fourth SI Conference in London] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905181622/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/london.html|date=5 September 2008}}'',[http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/5.conf4.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923121507/http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/5.conf4.htm|date=23 September 2009}} Internationale Situationniste No. 5 (December 1960)</ref> the accusation that their activities were based on a "systematic misunderstanding of situationist theses";<ref name="1963TheExclusion"/> the understanding that at least one Gruppe SPUR member, sculptor [[Lothar Fischer]], and possibly the rest of the group, were not actually understanding and/or agreeing with the situationist ideas, but were just using the SI to achieve success in the [[Economics of the arts and literature|art market]];<ref name="1963TheExclusion"/><ref name="Kunzelmann">''[http://www.kurr.org/t_nothing.php Nothing to talk about]'' {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105221228/http://www.kurr.org/t_nothing.php |date=5 January 2009 }} key, Halil Altindere and Sezgin Boynik (editors)</ref> and the betrayal, in the ''Spur #7'' issue, of a common agreement on the Gruppe SPUR and SI publications.<ref name="SI7Conf5">''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/SIOnline/si/goteborg.html The Fifth SI Conference in Göteborg] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101029073104/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/goteborg.html|date=29 October 2010}}'',[http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/7.conf5.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923122644/http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/7.conf5.htm|date=23 September 2009}} Internationale Situationniste No. 7 (April 1962)</ref><ref name="DebordVernissage150362">[http://www.notbored.org/debord-15March1962.html Letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613154947/http://notbored.org/debord-15March1962.html|date=13 June 2010}} from Guy Debord and [[Uwe Lausen]] to the journal ''Vernissage'', 15 March 1962</ref>

The exclusion was a recognition that [[Gruppe SPUR]]'s "principles, methods and goals" were significantly in contrast with those of the SI.<ref name="1963TheCounter"/><ref name="Debord180662">[http://www.notbored.org/debord-18June1962.html Letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613161653/http://notbored.org/debord-18June1962.html |date=13 June 2010 }} from [[Guy Debord]] to [[Rodolphe Gasche]] (member of the Gruppe SPUR), 18 June 1962</ref> This split however was not a declaration of hostilities, as in other cases of SI exclusions. A few months after the exclusion, in the context of judicial prosecution against the group by the German state, Debord expressed his esteem to Gruppe SPUR, calling it the only significant artist group in (Germany) since [[World War II]], and regarding it at the level of the [[avant-garde]]s in other countries.<ref name="DebordSpur280462">[http://www.notbored.org/debord-28April1962.html Letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228054921/http://www.notbored.org/debord-28April1962.html |date=28 February 2021 }} from Guy Debord To the Spur group, 28 April 1962</ref>

The next significant split was in 1962, wherein the "Nashists," the Scandinavian section of the SI led by [[Jørgen Nash]], were excluded from the organization. Nash created the [[2nd Situationist International]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roJ1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA104 | title=Debord, Time and Spectacle: Hegelian Marxism and Situationist Theory | isbn=9789004356023 | last1=Bunyard | first1=Tom | date=20 November 2017 | publisher=BRILL }}</ref>

===Political period (1963–1968)===

By this point the Situationist International consisted almost exclusively of the Franco-Belgian section, led by [[Guy Debord]] and [[Raoul Vaneigem]]. These members possessed much more of a tendency towards political theory over the more artistic aspects of the SI. The shift in the intellectual priorities within the SI resulted in more focus on the theoretical, such as the [[Spectacle (Situationism)|theory of the spectacle]] and [[Marxism|Marxist]] critical analysis, spending much less time on the more artistic and tangible concepts like [[unitary urbanism]], [[détournement]], and [[situgraphy]].<ref name="Blissett2002Guy">Luther Blissett (2002) ''[http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/pub_contents/9 Guy Debord Is Really Dead] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110313022240/http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/pub_contents/9 |date=13 March 2011 }}''</ref>

During this period, the SI began having more and more influence on local university students in France. Taking advantage of the apathy of their colleagues, five "Pro-situs", situationist-influenced students, infiltrated the [[University of Strasbourg]]'s [[Student activity center|student union]] in November 1966 and began scandalising the authorities.<ref>{{cite book | last=Plant | first=Sadie | title=The Most Radical Gesture | publisher=Routledge | location=New York | year=1992 | isbn=978-0-415-06222-0 |page=94}}</ref><ref name="Vague1997Anarchy">{{cite book | last=Vague | first=Tom | title=Anarchy in the Uk: the Angry Brigade | publisher=AK Press | location=Stirling | year=1997 | isbn=978-1-873176-98-6 |pages=13–14}}</ref> Their first action was to form an "[[social anarchism|anarchist]] appreciation society" called The Society for the Rehabilitation for [[Karl Marx]] and [[Ravachol]]; next they appropriated union funds to [[Flyposting|flypost]] "Return of [[the Durruti Column]]", André Bertrand's ''[[détournement|détourned]]'' comic strip.<ref name="Vague1997Anarchy"/> They then invited the situationists to contribute a critique of the University of Strasbourg, and ''[[On the Poverty of Student Life]]'', written by Tunisian situationist [[Mustapha Khayati|Mustapha/Omar Khayati]] was the result.<ref name="Vague1997Anarchy"/> The students promptly proceeded to print 10,000 copies of the pamphlet using university funds and distributed them during a ceremony marking the beginning of the [[academic year]]. This provoked an immediate outcry in the local, national and international media.<ref name="Vague1997Anarchy"/>

===May events (1968)===
{{Main|May 1968 events in France}}

The Situationists played a preponderant role in the May 1968 uprisings,<ref name="ClarkAndNSWinter97"/> and to some extent their political perspective and ideas fueled such crisis,<ref name="ClarkAndNSWinter97"/><ref name="Lasn2000">[[Kalle Lasn|Lasn, Kalle]] (2000) ''Culture Jam''. New York: Quill. Quotation: <blockquote>In May 1968, the Situationist-inspired Paris riots set off "a chain reaction of refusal" against consumer capitalism.</blockquote></ref><ref name="BandiniImpactAndBoycott">{{Harvnb|Bandini|1988|loc=Preface to second edition}}<blockquote>L'I.S. diventa il detonatore, il reiferimento spesso taciuto per ragioni settarie, la fabbrica di metafore entrate nel linguaggio comune che ne ignora molto spesso l'esatto senso: e su tutte valga la metafora debordiana della nostra societa' come "societa' dello spettacolo.</blockquote></ref> providing a central theoretic foundation.<ref name="Rivarol1984">''[[Rivarol (magazine)|Rivarol]]'', 16 March 1984, quotation:<blockquote>the Situationist International, the political and revolutionary movement that was at the origin of the events of May 1968</blockquote></ref><ref name="Présent1984">''[[Présent]]'', 10 March 1984, quotation:<blockquote>...the enragé [[Guy Debord]], the leader of the situationists, the most nihilistic, the most destructive of the anarcho-surrealist movements, probably the principal promoter of subversion of 1968.</blockquote></ref><ref name="BabronskiEtAl1984">Babronski, Lamy, Brigouleix, ''[[France-Soir]]'', 9 and 10 March 1984, quotation:<blockquote>the situationists, a movement of libertarian tendency that was one of the detonators of the May '68 events.</blockquote></ref><ref name="WordsAndBullets1984">{{cite web | title=Words and Bullets – The Condemned of the Lebovici Affair | author=Guy Debord | url=http://www.notbored.org/les-mots.html | publisher=NOT BORED! | date=August 2003 | access-date=23 June 2008 | archive-date=25 July 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725073302/http://www.notbored.org/les-mots.html | url-status=live }}. On May '68, it quotes Babronski et al. (1984)</ref><ref name="20AnsJune68">The monthly magazine ''[[20 Ans]]'', June 1968 issue, quotation:<blockquote>The Situationist International is the vanguard of the student movement.</blockquote></ref><ref name="Rivarol3May1968">''[[Rivarol (magazine)|Rivarol]]'', 3 May 1968, quotation:<blockquote>it has largely been forgotten that, as early as February, the riots at Nantes showed the real face of these 'situationists,' fifteen hundred students under red and black flags, the Hall of Justice occupied...</blockquote></ref> While SI's member count had been steadily falling for the preceding several years, the ones that remained were able to fill revolutionary roles for which they had patiently anticipated and prepared. The active ideologists ("enragés" and Situationists) behind the revolutionary events in Strasbourg, Nanterre and Paris, numbered only about one or two dozen persons.<ref name="Atkins1977">{{Harvnb|Atkins|1977}}</ref>

This has now been widely acknowledged as a fact by studies of the period,<ref name="Jappe99May68">[[Anselm Jappe]], 1999, p. 81.</ref><ref name="Gombin71May68">[[Richard Gombin]](1971).</ref><ref name="Syring98">[[Marie Luise Syring]] (1998) (editor) ''Um 1968: konkrete Utopien in Kunst und Gesellschaft'', quotation: <blockquote>By far the greatest influence that the theory of art and aesthetics exercised upon the protest movement of students and left-wing intellectuals was in all likelihood that of the Situationists, something which practically nobody recalls today.</blockquote></ref><ref name="DemonetEtAl75">[[Michel Demonet|Demonet, Michel]] et al. (1975) ''[[Des Tracts en mai 68]]''. Paris: Champ Libre, 1978.</ref><ref name="Dumontier1990">[[Pascal Dumontier]] (1990) ''[[Les Situationnistes et mai 68]]: Théorie et la practique de la révolution (1966–1972)''. Paris: Gérard Lebovici.</ref><ref name="Fauré98">[[Christine Fauré]] (1998) ''[[Mai 68: Jour et Nuit]]''</ref> what is still wide open to interpretation is the "how and why" that happened.<ref name="ClarkAndNSWinter97"/> [[Charles de Gaulle]], in the aftermath televised speech of 7 June, acknowledged that "This explosion was provoked by groups in revolt against modern consumer and technical society, whether it be the communism of the East or the capitalism of the West."<ref>De Gaulle, Televised speech of 7 June 1968. Quoted in [[René Viénet]] (1968) ''Enragés et situationnistes dans le mouvement des occupations'' (Paris: Gallimard)</ref>

They also made up the majority in the [[Sorbonne Occupation Committee|Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne]].<ref name="ClarkAndNSWinter97"/> An important event leading up to May 1968 was the scandal in Strasbourg in December 1966.<ref name="Viénet68sec1">[[René Viénet]] (1968) ''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/enrages.html Enragés and Situationists in the Occupations Movement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327205321/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/enrages.html |date=27 March 2008 }}'' (Translated by Loren Goldner and Paul Sieveking, New York: Autonomedia, 1992), sec.1</ref> The [[Union Nationale des Étudiants de France]] declared itself in favor of the SI's theses, and managed to use public funds to publish [[Mustapha Khayati]]'s pamphlet ''[[On the Poverty of Student Life]]''.<ref>Mustapha Khayati (November 1966)</ref> Thousands of copies of the pamphlet were printed and circulated and helped to make the Situationists well known throughout the nonstalinist left.

Quotations from two key situationist books, Debord's ''[[The Society of the Spectacle]]'' (1967) and Khayati's ''On the Poverty of Student Life'' (1966), were written on the walls of Paris and several provincial cities.<ref name="Viénet68sec1" /> This was documented in the collection of photographs published in 1968 by [[Walter Lewino]], ''L'imagination au pouvoir''.<ref name="SI12BeginningOfAnEra">''The Beginning of an Era'' ([http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/12.era1.htm part1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923121011/http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/12.era1.htm |date=23 September 2009 }}, [http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/12.era2.htm part 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323124837/http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/12.era2.htm |date=23 March 2009 }}) Situationist International No. 12, 1969</ref>

Though the SI were a very small group, they were expert self-propagandists, and their slogans appeared daubed on walls throughout Paris at the time of the revolt. SI member [[René Viénet]]'s 1968 book ''Enragés and Situationists in the Occupations Movement, France, May '68'' gives an account of the involvement of the SI with the student group of Enragés and the occupation of the [[Sorbonne (building)|Sorbonne]].

The occupations of 1968 started at the [[University of Nanterre]] and spread to the Sorbonne. The police tried to take back the Sorbonne and a riot ensued. Following this a general strike was declared with up to 10 million workers participating. The SI originally participated in the Sorbonne occupations and defended barricades in the riots. The SI distributed calls for the [[occupation of factories]] and the formation of [[workers' councils]],<ref name="SI12BeginningOfAnEra"/> but, disillusioned with the students, left the university to set up the [[Council for Maintaining the Occupations]] (CMDO) which distributed the SI's demands on a much wider scale. After the end of the movement, the CMDO disbanded.

===Aftermath (1968–1972)===
By 1972, [[Gianfranco Sanguinetti]] and [[Guy Debord]] were the only two remaining members of the SI. Working with Debord, in August 1975, Sanguinetti wrote a pamphlet titled ''Rapporto veridico sulle ultime opportunità di salvare il capitalismo in Italia'' (''The Real Report on the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy''),<ref>{{cite web |author=u2r2h |url=http://tangibleinfo.blogspot.com/2010/08/gianfranco-sanguinetti-full-text-of.html |title=Complete (translated) texts |publisher=Tangibleinfo.blogspot.com |date=13 August 2010 |access-date=11 October 2013 |archive-date=13 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013162433/http://tangibleinfo.blogspot.com/2010/08/gianfranco-sanguinetti-full-text-of.html |url-status=live }}</ref> which (inspired by [[Bruno Bauer]]) purported to be the cynical writing of "Censor", a powerful industrialist. The pamphlet argued that the ruling class of Italy supported the [[Piazza Fontana bombing]] and other covert, [[false flag]] mass slaughter for the higher goal of defending the capitalist status quo from communist influence. The pamphlet was mailed to 520 of Italy's most powerful individuals. It was received as genuine and powerful politicians, industrialists and journalists praised its content. After reprinting the tract as a small book, Sanguinetti revealed himself to be the true author. In the outcry that ensued<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.notbored.org/report.html |title=Gianfranco Sanguinetti |publisher=Notbored.org |access-date=11 October 2013 |archive-date=26 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826043551/http://www.notbored.org/report.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and under pressure from Italian authorities Sanguinetti left Italy in February 1976, and was denied entry to France.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Preuves de l'inexistence de Censor|url=http://debordiana.chez.com/francais/preuves.htm|access-date=2021-02-27|website=debordiana.chez.com|archive-date=22 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022033951/http://debordiana.chez.com/francais/preuves.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

After publishing in the last issue of the magazine, an analysis of the May 1968 revolts and the strategies that will need to be adopted in future revolutions,<ref name="SI12BeginningOfAnEra"/> the SI was dissolved in 1972.<ref name="Karen2001">{{cite web | title=Situationism in a nutshell | author=Karen Elliot | url=http://www.barbelith.com/cgi-bin/articles/00000011.shtml | publisher=Barbelith Webzine | date=1 June 2001 | access-date=23 June 2008 | archive-date=9 May 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509104610/http://www.barbelith.com/cgi-bin/articles/00000011.shtml | url-status=dead }}</ref>