The Situationist International's interpretation of the

Paris Commune of 1871 The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...

was influenced by their collaboration with

Henri Lefebvre Henri Lefebvre ( , ; 16 June 1901 – 29 June 1991) was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of s ...

with whom they had been in contact since the late 1950s.Lefebvre, Henri. Interview by Kristin Ross. “Henri Lefebvre on the Situationist International.” ''Not Bored'', 1983
/ref> Lefebvre’s writings on revolutionary romanticism and everyday life were important influences on the early SI. In the early 1960s Guy Debord,

Attila Kotányi Attila Kotányi (; 1924, Hungary – 18 October 2003, Düsseldorf) was a poet, philosopher, writer and architect-urbanist. In his early years in Budapest, Attila Kotányi belonged to the Budapest Dialogical School an intellectual circle of phi ...

and

Raoul Vaneigem Raoul Vaneigem (; born 21 March 1934) is a Belgian writer known for his 1967 book ''The Revolution of Everyday Life''. He was born in Lessines ( Hainaut, Belgium) and studied romance philology at the Free University of Brussels from 1952 to 1 ...

agreed to assist Lefebvre in his preparations for a book on the Commune (which he eventually published in 1965 as ''La Proclamation de la Commune''). The results of their brainstorming sessions were written down in 1962 by the SI in their “Theses on the Paris Commune.” After Lefebvre published his respective notes on their collaboration, in a 1962 piece entitled “La Signification de la Commune,” the two parties had a falling out as the SI ostensibly disagreed with the journal in which he published. Both the SI and Lefebvre published extensively on the feud in the following decade. Debord, Kotányi and Vaneigem gave the theses the symbolic date of 18 March; the anniversary of the start of the Commune. The theses remained unpublished in their official journal until its final issue in 1969. The SI's interpretation of the Commune is informed by their

libertarian Marxism Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (2 ...

. Henri Lefebvre’s influence on the theses is notable in the theses' preoccupation with everyday life, social space, and the Commune as a revolutionary festival. The SI’s interpretation of the Commune is also clearly influenced by their own activist programs in the late 1950s and early 1960s. For instance, in the seventh thesis the authors applaud the Communards’ violence against monuments, as signs of capitalist power, and claim that the Commune “represents the only implementation of a revolutionary urbanism to date.” In their own

unitary urbanism __NOTOC__ Unitary urbanism (UU) was the critique of ''status quo'' "urbanism", employed by the Letterist International and then further developed by the Situationist International between 1953 and 1960. The praxis (process), praxis originates fr ...

program and other writings the SI advocated similar attacks on the signs of capitalism and their practice of constructing situations was very much intertwined with a transformation of social space.Kotányi, Attila, and Raoul Vaneigem. “Basic Program of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism.” Translated by Ken Knabb. ''Internationale Situationniste'', vol. 6, 1961. ''Situationist International Online''
/ref>

References

Works about the Paris Commune 1969 documents Situationist writings {{critical-theory-stub