Well beyond its own marginal activist circles, Situationism, of which Guy Debord was the central character, coloured the spirit of the times in the 1960s and had a diffuse but important influence on the movements of 1968. Debord’s book The Society of the Spectacle (1967), in which he developed a critique of consumer society, urban alienation and generalized commodity fetishism, could be read as a precursor of the 1968 movements. 

The complexity and the limits of the 2017 Catalan independence movement force us to (re)think it in a broader sense and ask ourselves how else the events could have gone. This question takes us back to the foundational shortcomings of the independence movement and the lack of synergy between it and the social movements in previous years. 

1. On the dialectics of productivity, relations of production and emancipationⁱ

In late November and early December the IIRE will again organize an international three-week school for socialist activists. This 'Ecosocialist school' is a unique opportunity for activists to come together, learn, exchange experiences and build networks. To facilitate participation, we keep costs as low as possible and, if necessary, help fund travel costs for activists from the Global South. For this year's school, we already have applications from several European countries, the U.S., Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Argentina, Algeria, Indonesia and Mexico. 

‘De kapo is verantwoordelijk voor de werkprestatie van de gevangenen, hij voorkomt sabotage en zorgt ervoor dat alles ordelijk en schoon is. Als soldaat zal het u aanspreken. Wanneer we niet meer tevreden zijn, is hij kapo af en slaapt hij weer bij zijn mannen. Hij weet dat hij de eerste nacht door hen zal worden doodgeslagen,’ aldus Heinrich Himmler, leider van de SS, in 1944 tot zijn generaals.