To Nonsubscribers of Radical America

"This piece documents a clash between the Situationist International, on one side, and Black & Red and Radical America on the other. Members of the U.S. arm of SI sent a letter denouncing the Debord and Vaneigem translations. The primary critique was that the texts were not translated and printed by SI themselves. They demanded that Black & Red and Radical America print an SI statement in their next issue explaining all that was wrong with their transla-tions. They demanded that all copies of the Debord and Vaneigem texts be destroyed, and any future editions include the address of the SI post office box in New York City. They objected to the use of images in the text, especially in the Vaneigem book.Black & Red and Radical America granted the SI wish to reproduce their statement, but they also printed SI’s somewhat absurd letter of demands. At the start of the letter, they quote Jon Supak, one of the original translators of Society of the Spectacle, who turned against Black & Red when he joined the SI: “B&R does not exist in any good sense that I know of. There is a small group of people in Det. who are vaguely ‘around’ the pamphlets & ‘projects’ stamped ‘Black & Red’—which is to say really that there is a group of people in Detroit ‘around’ Fredy Perlman.” When Black & Red reprinted the SI statement, they added in bold letters: “Unauthorized repro-duction by the ‘nonexisting’ Black & Red.”" The Detroit Printing Co-op by Danielle Aubert.