Letter
From Guy Debord Otherwise, this formulation will reinforce
To Andre Frankin
Saturday, 18 March 1961
Dear Andre
I very much regret the blunders of those
from Brussels concerning the bringing of
texts to you and the eventual content of
those texts. The most serious
misunderstanding must be located between
[Robert] Dehoux and Bakir, because the
people from Brussels believed they were
coming, not to an informational meeting,
but to a meeting that would decide upon
and write a programmatic text.
I perfectly understand the care you took to
provide the comrades from Liege with time
for a more exhaustive political reflection. It
is very unfortunate that this wasn't
understood by all (and before the meeting
of 12 March [1961]).
It is also quite obvious that it wasn't
possible to extend the P. O.[1] group to
Liege by having you participate in it.
This group, even provisionally reduced to
Brussels, must come to the fore; but the
absence of solid and experienced militants,
like those from Liege, renders still more
difficult the constitution of an effective
political programme. The contacts they
have with Paris fortunately engender a
certain critical action on their platform,
which they will not definitively adopt
without getting our opinion. But this can
not off-set, from afar, the influence of
trustworthy worker-militants who lack
their own organization.
If the liaison committee that you formed in
Liege at this moment truly represents the
maximum agreement possible, even with
Bakir, then try to make the best use of it. I
admit that I am very sceptical of such a
formulation, except if this committee
actually prepares a new, precise platform.
the illusions concerning the "respective
organizations" -- except the JGS [2] -- that
do not at all seem to come from sustainable
milieux.
Thus, I await with interest the documents
that will be elaborated in Liege. But I do not
at all see how I must "choose Brussels or
Liege," as you have invited me to do. All
the same, I suppose that the first task of
your liaison committee can not be to
critique and combat the P. O. group in
Brussels! I hope that, before long, you
yourselves will attempt a re-grouping of all
the elements of the avant-garde, at first in
Belgium, and later in liaison with the
international regroupment then in motion.
Cordially yours,
Guy
[1] Pouvoir Ouvrier [Workers' Power].
[2] Jeunes Gardes Socialistes [Young
Socialist Guards], a youth organization
sponsored by the Belgian Socialist Party.
(Published in Guy Debord, Correspondance,
Volume 2, 1960-1964. Footnotes by Alice
Debord. Translated from the French by
NOT BORED! April 2005.)