Marxism, Anarchism and the Situationists’ Theory of Revolution

Abstract

In recent protest movements, such as those against ‘globalization’, Situationist ideas and practices – which were developed in the late 1950s to the early 1970s − have inspired some of those radicals involved in such dissent. Given this revived interest in the Situationist International, this article takes the opportunity to examine the Situationists’ theory of revolution in relation to both Marxism and anarchism. It argues that while the Situationists’ theory of revolution, in respect of some of its key characteristics, corresponds to Bakunin’s vision of a revolutionary upheaval, the intellectual ancestry of the Situationists’ theory can be traced, chiefly, to the thought of Marx and the ideas of several Marxist thinkers, as well as to the ideas of pre-Situationist avant-garde ‘artists’.