Dear readers,
I received a query from a scholar regarding the Internationale Lettriste and its potential relationship with the Egyptian revolution.
Could readers please share insights on the following:
- Is the man pictured here (from the first issue of Internationale Lettriste, 1952) is indeed Gamal Abdel Nasser? How do we know for sure?
- What was the Internationale Lettriste‘s stance on Nasser and Egyptian politics in general? Are there specific references in Internationale Lettriste or Potlatch?
Thanks in advance. I will convey whatever information is shared to the aforementioned scholar or put you directly in touch with her.
Cheers
Situationnisteblog
It does look like Nasser, though I don’t know for certain. To the second question, however, I don’t think they really had much of a stance at all. The specific article that this photograph was illustrating certainly had nothing whatsoever to do with Egypt: rather, it concerned the break with Isou over the Chaplin affair. If they used Nasser’s image, it was probably just because the revolution in Egypt happened to be a current news story at the time (the revolution began in July 1952, and this was published in November 1952), his image would have been all over the French newspapers, and maybe they saw a parallel between his revolution against Farouk and their own against Isou.
For, their claims about being an ‘international’ notwithstanding, they were really rather parochial in these very earliest days. That did start to change a little bit when Mohamed Dahou (‘Midou’) joined, which seems to have around or perhaps shortly after that first issue of Internationale Lettriste. He was certainly there in time to sign the Manifesto in the second issue (February 1953), and the third (August 1953) indicated that he’d established of an Algerian section in April 1953. But perhaps that’s the point: he, and the IL more generally, and indeed the French more generally, were much more concerned with Algeria and the French Maghreb than with the British protectorate of Egypt.
A couple of inconsequential namechecks aside, the only piece of any real substance that touches on the Egyptian revolution is an article in Potlatch no. 6, 27 July 1954, entitled ‘Notes pour un appel à l’Orient’ and signed by Dahou. But the gist of that article is that the Arab states — for it discusses Egypt only among others — are dying, and in particular that there never was any Egyptian revolution, for it died in the early days with the textile workers shot for communism. “We must move past any idea of nationalism,” it declares. “North Africa must free itself not only from foreign occupation, but from its feudal masters. We must recognise our country everywhere — and there alone — that an idea of freedom reigns that suits us. Our brothers are beyond questions of frontier or race. Certain oppositions, such as the conflict with the state of Israel, can only be resolved through revolution in both camps. We must tell the Arab countries: we have common cause. There is no ‘West’ against you.”
The French can be found here: http://debordiana.chez.com/francais/potlatch6.htm#notes
Thank you for this!
A new book in French!
Lire Debord, éditions l’Echappée
Coordonné par Laurence Le Bras et Emmanuel Guy
Avec 250 pages de notes inédites de Guy Debord
Inédits de Guy Debord :
Bases politiques de mai 1963
En 1963, Debord cherche à définir quelle devra être pour l’avenir la stratégie de l’Internationale situationniste. L’esquisse de ce texte mêle considérations pratiques et débats d’idées, exemples concrets et notes générales sur les options théoriques à adopter.
Mai 88
Parmi les projets que Debord n’a pas pu mener à bien figure un ouvrage sur la révolution de Mai 68, qu’il avait prévu de publier 20 ans après les évènements. En voici les notes préparatoires.
Du couple en milieu pro-situ
Cette « petite pièce pour marionnettes » présente avec beaucoup de dérision la permanence des comportements sexistes et de la faconde machiste dans l’après 68.
Notes pour un ouvrage sur la Fronde
L’analyse originale que fait Debord de ce moment se concentre exclusivement sur la classe des féodaux et relie la Fronde, comme action historique, à un mouvement littéraire.
Notes pour la préparation des films La Société du spectacle et In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
Les notes préparatoires des films de Debord témoignent d’une quête de détournement du cinéma lui-même : en faire autre chose qu’un outil d’abrutissement des masses.
Projet de dictionnaire
Élaboré dans les années 1980, le projet de dictionnaire de Debord s’attache à démontrer la place cruciale de la langue, tant dans l’aliénation quotidienne en régime spectaculaire, que dans tout projet révolutionnaire qui voudrait l’abolir.
Notes pour le projet « Apologie »
Ces notes se présentent comme un ensemble d’écrits contradictoires, grâce auxquels Debord affine sa pensée et son discours sur lui-même, son histoire et celle de son temps.
En écho à ces inédits, des textes explicatifs de François Coadou, Anselm Jappe, Frédéric Thomas, Jacopo Galimberti, Nicolas Ferrier, Greil Marcus, Tom McDonough, Fanny Schulmann, Monica Dall’Asta, Gabriel Ferreira Zacarias, Vanessa Theodoropoulou, Laurent Jeanpierre, Patrick Marcolini et Christian Le Guerroué.
http://www.lechappee.org/lire-debord
This blog is dead?