Question

How have the Situationists influenced contemporary anarchism?

Answer 1

The SI, especially thesis 91-94 of Debord's <em>Society of the Spectacle</em> http://bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/4.htm , formulated the clearest <strong>anarchist</strong> critique of anarchism in the 1960s. This critique represents for many anarchists, specifically anarchists who have since declared anarchism to be distinct from the leftist heritage of Communism, Social Democracy, and State Socialism, the beginning of a new era for anarchist thinking and practice.

The inspiration for this thinking can be seen in the critique of work & the left (Black & AJODA), an ongoing dialogue with anarchists and so-called post-situationists since the 1970s, and the cultural influence that the SI had vis-a-vis punk rock and bohemian counter-culture ever since.

Here is a summary of the critique of anarchists in Debord's SoS.

1) Bakunin critiqued Marx for declaring that a stateless society must pass through a "dictatorship of the proletariat" while in practice participating in a conspiratorial group that acted outside, and above, the First International.

This is addressed in modern anarchist practice by a demand for transparency in all aspects of organizational issues and an attempt to have anarchist practice be indistinguishable from anarchist goals.

2) The ideology of pure freedom (Debord's term for anarchist political philosophy), flattens the difficulties of political struggles *in reality* while demanding the all-encompassing goal of the total negation of the current order. Both mystical and doctrinaire, anarchists have remained the soul of struggle and its impossibility.

This critique is ignored or addressed by different anarchist tendencies in different ways. The most clear engagement of this critique can be seen through the lens of Italian anarchist analysis from the 1970s that has resulted in the simple practice of Insurrectionary Anarchism.

3) Consensus and unanimity in anarchist practice (especially in the Spain Revolution) has been a strategic failure. This critique has been contested by anarchist practice and success in non-revolutionary moments like the anti-globalization movement, alcoholics anonymous, and the Occupy movement. The critique of anarchists as "specialists of freedom" still rings true.

4) Anarchists believe that revolution is immanent. It is possible at any time and does not require a particular historical process to unfold. This faith means that there is not anarchist clarity around how to extend partial victories. This critique still holds true and can be seen as recently as the Occupy Movement.

edited to fix link

Answer 2

In a lot of ways... one of the more specific ones is through Malcom Mclauren's influence on the Sex Pistols and Punk. He was a post-situationist, was part of a group called Kings Mob, and ran a store called Sex that had a lot to do with developing the "punk" aesthetic. His project the Sex Pistols (arguably his project) embraced themes that punks continued to embrace. But that doesn't explain the influence of Crass. It just shows that punk and situationist theory aren't too distant.

Another is that the Situationists were a fairly decent challenge to anarchists. The events of May '68 were inspiring to many anarchists and situationist theory had strong ties to those events. Also, the post-structuralist or post-modernist french theorists have a lot of ties to those events and the discourse surrounding them. Some anarchists have found Debord and Vaneigem's work to be very significant in its focus on everyday life, the progression of capitalist society (and life in it) from its state when many of the "classic" anarchist writers critiqued it to its more current state, and the conceptualization of revolution in this stage of capitalist development.

That's about as much as I can really explain... I'm nowhere near having a very clear understanding of this phenomenon myself. But, a lot of contemporary anarchist thought has surely been influenced by the Situationists (and post-structuralists). On the other hand, there is plenty of analysis of capitalism, representation, consumer culture, and media representation that does not stem from Situationist critiques.

I hope someone provides a better answer for this than me

Answer 3

I know a small part of the answer. Black and Red published Fredy Perlman's translation of Society of the Spectacle in... 1969? So it's definitely been around North American anarchism almost as long as the French.