KING MOB. Luddites:’69: our leaders tell us we must support them in their passive struggle against the bosses. n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: King Mob, n.d. [1969]. Broadside; ill.; 77 x 51 cm (folded).; silk screened poster. Black and red ink on yellow stock

Printed at the Poster Workshop in London. “[King Mob] publications often took the form of détourné pop-cultural images, such as the poster Luddites 69, in which Andy Capp, the stereotypical northern working-class cartoon character, shoots policemen, below a text reproduced from a nineteenth-century Luddite broadside: ‘I ham going to informe you that theers six thousand me cuming to you sooon and then we will goe and blow up all about hus, labring peple cant stand it no longer…’ Elsewhere, The Beano’s Bash Street Kids rag their teacher, who asks: ‘What do you demand in pitting the power of everyday life against hierarchical power?’ ‘Simple,’ respond the kids, ‘we demand everything, teacher!’” (Tate Museum)

We located copies at the Tate Museum (King Mob collection) and at Yale’s Beinecke Library.

KING MOB. [Cartoons]  The Following are a Collection of the Cartoons Which Were Rejected by the Committee of Public Safety……n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: King Mod / Black Hand Gang, n.d. [1968]. n.p. [8 stapled loose sheets]; ill.; 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on white stock

Posters produced by King Mob / Richard “Irish” Bell during the London School of Economics student occupation of 1968. However, “the cartoons were rejected by the Committee of Public Safety who patrolled the L.S.E. A stage managed repetition of the French ‘May’ posters – largely irrelevant to the English situation – were preferred…Posters were furtively taken down by the security guards – guards not only of a worthless property (the L.S.E. mausoleum) but a worthless morality too”. King Mob continues its critique of the L.S.E. occupation: “The L.S.E., like all other ‘English’ occupations so far, was a mere introjection of the bourgeois order. Who do we want: all the shit of the bourgeois society????? COMRADES, STOP BUGGERING ABOUT”

In presenting the posters in King Mob: A Critical Hidden History, David Wise writes: “There follows what was soon to be regarded as sexist and crude by the first wave of nice, refined feminists who alarmingly quickly dismissed King Mob in a simplistic way as male chauvinist. Had they never been in a public urinal (?) to find this is the type of stuff which goes down – often more in women’s toilets than men’s – though of most this now in our cleansed day and age is instantly wiped clean by hired firms of graffiti busters. These cartoons were of course a detournement of bog-wall style and deployed precisely for shock value in reaction to a fairly dire occupation at the London School of Economics, heavily manipulated by the paid-up intellectuals of the New Left Review … ” (p. 223)

We locate a copy at the Tate, part of the King Mob collection

KING MOB. The Death of Art Spells the Murder of Artists. The Real Anti-Artists Appear. n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: King Mob / The Black Hand Gang, n.d. [1968]. 1 p.; ill.; 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on pink stock.

Violent anti-art leaflet calling for the imitation of Valerie Solanas’ shooting of Andy Warhol, followed by a list of potential targets- Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Mike Kustow, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Mary Quant, Twiggy Shrimpton, Miles, Marianne Faithful. The names of Andy Warhol and Mario Amaya are crossed out, as both had both been shot by Solanas (Warhol was severely wounded in the attack)

“Gradually, the attack on art acquired a quasi-terrorist edge later highlighted in the leaflet celebrating Valerie Solanas’ attempted offing of Andy Warhol in New York. A leaflet was rapidly produced entitled, ‘The death of art spells the murder of artists. The real anti-artist appears.‘ which rounded off with a death list of mainly English artists playing on and detourning the Bob Dylan lyric; ‘so don’t think twice, it’s alright.’ Again, though our leaflet said little or nothing about this and despite having this leaflet to hand, an intervention was done without sufficient explanation, though for sure it helped promote our terrifying image but not much else. A band of King Mob adherents with masks covering their heads and faces burst into a meeting of students occupying Hornsey College of Art, in north London and showered the gathering with leaflets. Insults were traded, ‘fucking art students without an idea’ and inevitably the protagonists were thrown out. To be sure, the level of action and discussion among Hornsey students was fairly abysmal – even stupid – but perhaps there were better ways of getting something essential across rather than exclusively utilizing threatening images. Well, maybe because nonetheless a tiny minority of these art students did pick something up from the King Mob, Valerie Solanas leaflet even though we weren’t aware at the time. Our mock death threats had however been building up over the previous months…Finally it must be emphasised that these death threats were nothing more than aggressive image making tactics to purposefully inspire fear as none of us entertained the slightest intentions of offing artists; we merely wanted to encourage them on their way, pushing them towards the self-destruction of their own artistic roles” (David and Stuart Wise, King Mob: A Hidden Critical History, pp. 79-80)

We locate a copy at the Tate as part of the King Mob archive

[KING MOB / Ron Hunt?]. Boredometer of the Rise and Fall of the New Proletarian Poverty, Figuring Lancaster Student Occupation. n.p. [United Kingdom]: n.p., n.d. [1970s]. 1 p.; ill.; 42 x 59 cm.; black ink on white stock

Little is known about this spectacularly visual poster. It offer a critical commentary on the Lancaster Student Occupation, which allows us to date it back to the early 1970s. This situ-style detournement of “Bash Street” comics suggests it could have been produced by Ron Hunt or members of King Mob (the language is very similar to the Bash Street Kids to go the Sit-in leaflet, which we posted about early this week) but we are not altogether certain). Readers with more information should contact us

“The occupation was very feeble qualitatively. Imagination was at a low bar. ‘Politics’ was in charge. People sat on their arses listening to people talking (a la J.C.R or seminar group or lecture) rather than extending themselves as far as the creative social imagination could reach; thus a good opportunity for a collective celebration was lost due to basically sexual timidity and deferential respect for property and persons, two major blocks to the realisation of the human imagination in life”

We do no locate copies on OCLC or in the trade

[KING MOB]. It Was Meant To Be Great But It’s Horrible” Confessions: S. Claus 1968 . n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: n.p. [King Mob], n.d. [Dec. 1968]. 1 p. (two-sided); 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on white stock. 1 p.; ill.; 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on white stock

Description below courtesy of bookseller Andrew Sclanders at beatbooks. See here. I could not have written a better description of this item.

“Written by Dave Wise and Ian and Diana Clegg, and distributed to shoppers in Oxford Street by King Mob during their anti-consumer intervention at Selfridges department store in December 1968. Text, with Christmas decorative illustrations designed by Dave Wise.

A King Mob contingent (including Fred Vermorel and Malcolm McLaren) visited Selfridges during Christmas 1968 and, with an amphetamine-fueled Ben Trueman dressed as Santa Claus, proceeded to give away free gifts to children. After the police were called, ‘Santa’ was arrested and the kids were made to give their presents back.

The texts reads [in part]: “It’s lights out on Oxford Street this year. No more midnight neon. No more conspicuous glitter for compulsive sightseers to gawp at the wonders of capitalism…You don’t deserve Christmas this year. You haven’t worked hard enough. You haven’t trotted fast enough through the in-put, out-put, clock-on, clock-off, the vicious circle of production and consumption. Save and spend, screw yourselves into the ground in preparation for the one time in the year when you’re allowed to let go, feast yourselves, overreach yourselves in a frenzied effort to enjoy – and spew it up afterwards”.

McLaren, who incorporated King Mob’s ideas into his promotion of the Sex Pistols (he based his ragged handwritten ‘Anarchy in the UK Christmas Day’ flyer for their Christmas 1977 concert in Huddersfield on this broadside), later mythologized the event in his 1991 film, ‘Ghosts of Christmas Past’ (Beatbooks)

See David Wise – King Mob: A critical Hidden History, p. 232

We locate a copy at the Tate (part of the King Mob collection) and another one at Yale.

[KING MOB / Ron Hunt]. The Bash Street Kids Go to the Sit-in. n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: n.p., n.d. [ca. 1969]. 1 p. (two-sided); 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Leaflet passing a harsh judgment on student sit-ins in Cambridge and at the LSE: “And with this void at its heart the student participators in the sit-in could never achieve anything…How many lessons will the student need?? We shall be fortunate indeed if his puerile masochism cannot withstand the necrophilia that was the sit-in…”

Then, authors state the need for the revolution to be one of everyday life “Our theory is one of total liberation, our practice to bring this about as completely as possible at every level and every stage before the revolution. We therefore only come together in small groups, we groove together, make love together…We find affirmation in each other of our will to LIVE”.

The text ends with a call to action: “To despise the bourgeoisie means : EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED. Let nothing we hate, let no symbols of our alienation remain. We shall strike against our oppressors whenever and wherever we can. PAINTING WALLS, FLY POSTING, THEFT, SABOTAGE, ARSON. SHEER DELIGHT. TO LIVE MEANS TO ENJOY. ALL STUDENTS ARE POTENTIAL PROLETARIANS”

We locate copies at the Tate (part of the King Mob archive) and at the British Library. Not in David Wise’s King Mob – A Critical Hidden History.

Readers who have more context and information on this leaflet are encouraged to comment or contact me

KHAYATI, Mustapha. Contributi Che Servono a Rettificare l’Opinione del Publico Sulla Rivoluzione nei Paesi Sottosviluppati. Milan: Ed. 912, n.d. [1968]. 1 p. (two sided); ill.; 31 x 50 cm.; black and purple ink on white stock.

Two-sided poster released by Ed. 912 to promote the publication of l’estremismo coerente dei situazionisti, the first Italian language compendium of Situationist texts.

Side A: (1) Italian translation of Khayati’s “Contributions servant à rectifier l’opinion du public sur la révolution dans les pays sous-développés” (which was initially published in Internationale Situationniste 11 in October 1967); (2) front and back covers of the book L’estremismo coerente dei situazionisti.

Side B: Two detournements: (1) Mao shown reading a speech, stating “Noi seguiamo una politica consistente nell’unificare, nel criticare ed educare la borghesia nazionale” (Trans: “We do not follow a policy of unifying, criticizing and educating the national bourgeoisie”). The text is taken from Mao’s speech at the Eleventh Session of the Supreme State Conference, and was published in the People’s Daily on June 19, 1957. A longer excerpt (for context) follows

The contradiction between the national bourgeoisie and the working class is one between exploiter and exploited, and is by nature antagonistic. But in the concrete conditions of China, this antagonistic contradiction between the two classes, if properly handled, can be transformed into a non-antagonistic one and be resolved by peaceful methods. However, the contradiction between the working class and the national bourgeoisie will change into a contradiction between ourselves and the enemy if we do not handle it properly and do not follow the policy of uniting with, criticizing and educating the national bourgeoisie, or if the national bourgeoisie does not accept this policy of ours

(2) A naked Miss Martine Crown, from Miami Beach Florida, stating “La facilita con cui gli studenti si soddisfano dice tutto sulla lor impotenza. La rivoluzione proletaria o sara una festa o non sara” (trans: The ease with which students are satisfied says everything about their impotence. The proletarian revolution will either be a celebration or it will not be”). At the bottom of the page: “appropriandosi delle miserabili ideologie delle burocrazie sedicente socialiste del terzo mondo, gli studendi non fanno che riprodurre un frammento della passivita’ che opprime utti” (trans: “appropriating the miserable ideologies of the self-styled socialist bureaucracies of the third world, the students only reproduce a fragment of the passivity that oppresses all”)

Not on OCLC or in the trade

For an English language broadside of the same text, see: https://situationnisteblog.com/2013/06/04/contributions-serving-to-rectify-the-opinion-of-the-public-concering-the-revolution-in-underveloped-countries-1973/

For a Spanish language broadside of the same text, see: https://situationnisteblog.com/2014/08/13/la-verdad-de-los-paises-subdesarrollados-en-la-revolucion-internacional-1973/

For the book l’Estremismo coerente dei situazionisti, see https://situationnisteblog.com/2020/02/18/lestremismo-coerente-dei-situazionisti-1968/

[DEBORD, GUY]. [“A partir du mercredi 25 fevrier 1976″…] in Le Film Francais 1613. Paris: Le Film Francais, 20 Feb 1976.

Full page advertisement promoting the screening of Guy Debord’s films La Societe du Spectacle and Refutations de tous les jugements… at the Olympic Cinema in Paris, starting on February 25, 1976. The Olympic was the property of Frederic Mitterand, a nephew of French President Francois Mitterand (he would go on to become Minister of Culture and Communiation under Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009).

The screening of Debord’s films was disrupted when a commando unit seized the film reel. In a letter to Gerard Lebovici dated 5 March 1976, Debord discusses the incident and recommends that Lebovici follow a defined course of action, including press coverage of the incident (“an indignant, professional and democratic article” in Film Francais — which would never be written…)

The ad is reproduced in Oeuvres, p. 1314

[JORN, Asger]. Asger Jorn – Peintures et “Gouaches-Collages”. “Calligraphie désorientéee. Paris: Galerie Rive Gauche, June 1965. n.p. [16 p.]; ill.; 21 x 18 cm.; ill. Wrappers reproducing one of Jorn’s paintings.

Catalog from the exhibition held at the Galerie Rive Gauche in France in June 1965. Includes excerpts of an article by H.C.L. Jaffe, which was originally published in “De Groene Amsterdammer” on the occasion of Jorn’s exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in 1965. 6 B&W illustrations. Presentation of works published by the Institut Scandinave de Vandalisme Compare.

Lacroix 237. We locate 7 copies on OCLC.

BANDINI, Mirella.L’Estetico il Politico da Cobra all’Internazionale Situazionista 1948-1957.  Rome: Officina Edizioni, October 1977. 391 p.; ill.; 24 x 15.5 cm.; black cover with text in white and green.

“A comprehensive, well-illustrated work, covering the early years of the S.I. and divided into three majors sections; ‘L’Internazionale Situazionista’, ‘Documenti’, and ‘Cronologia, Schede bio-bibliografiche, Glossario, Bibliografia’. The documents section includes any key texts, some reproduced in facsimile (eg part of Jorns ‘Peinture detournee’ – 1959, and ‘Ein Kultureller Putsch – wahrend Ihr schlaft! – 1959). The ‘bio-bibliographies’ are of Constant, Guy Debord, Pinot-Gallizio, and Asger Jorn. There is also a general bibliography of much continental material (mostly Italian) not included in this bibliography.” (Ford,  p. 2)

Guy Debord was made aware of Bandini’s project in 1975, as she had reached out to him for more information. In a letter to Gianfranco Sanguinetti dated 10 October 1975, he writes “”An Italian woman, who will soon publish a collection about Gallizio, with a very unintelligent but quite honest introduction, and full of charming documents, and who also is preparing a book on the origins of the SI, has written to me and asks for your address. Do you want me to give it to her, and which one (c/o the Doge)?” (Correspondance Vol. 5, p. 298; emphasis is mine) translation courtesy of NOTBORED!). It is unclear whether Debord and Bandini corresponded further on the subject; the Correspondance does not include any letter.

Bandini’s book is an important and lasting contribution to SI scholarship. The book, which had been out of print for many years, was published once more in 1999 (Ed. Costa & Nolan). A French translation was published by Editions Sulliver in 1998, but is out of print.

Chollet 344; Correspondance Vol. 5, p. 298 ; Ford 4; Gonzalvez 180-181; Trespeuch 67