Since [Jaime] Semprun considers the occupation of the Sorbonne to be "voluntarist" and "an untenable position,"[1] and since his accomplice [Guy] Fargette has cheerfully Masperized our texts, I would not be surprised if they soon accuse us of being ghost writers for Editions Hachette and the true authors of the Senatorial Inquest into the Student Demonstrations of 1986.[2]
A bizarre epoch, in which the truth does not comes from the mouth of "revolutionaries," but from the mouth of power: "The risk of a focal point for grievances squarely in the middle of the Latin Quarter becomes precise: it is necessary to act (...) Curious thing, for nearly an hour, it seems that nothing big happens in the street, all of the concerns of the Command Center are focused on the evacuation of the Sorbonne. (...) At the beginning of 6 December [1986], Mr Paolini, Prefect of Police, is informed that the Sorbonne has been evacuated and that only several groupuscules are coming and going; he is reassured and withdraws (...) A feeling then predominated among those responsible for the operation, those who ordered it as well as those who executed it: relief. Everything had been possible and everything passed. [19]68 was truly over." (p. 304, 312, 320, 305). One understands better why the appeal from of the Sorbonne to our defending corps, despite being filmed and recorded by fifteen journalists, was censored by almost all of the media.
One now tells me of strange satellites gravitating (from close-by and faraway) around the nebulous EdN.[3] The brothers Gayraud and Mercier,[4] and perhaps Arthur [Marchadier], since he [now] associates with Gerard Lambert? Nevertheless, ever since Barcelona,[5] Semprun must be vaccinated against Marchalombre. As for [Michel] Prigent, he has announced the publication of In girum[6] in English.
Best wishes,[1] Author's note: Given that, the day before the occupation, there were thousands of demonstrators whom the police prevented from entering the Sorbonne (pp. 491 and 492), it is not only us, but the entirety of the movement that Semprun -- who "has acquired by his activities the right to see his opinion taken into consideration" -- comically denounces as "voluntarist" and "in an untenable position."
[2] Students, police, press, power: the Senatorial Inquest into the Student Demonstrations of 1986 (Editions Hachette, June 1987).
[3] The Encyclopedia of Nuisances, founded by Jaime Semprun and Christian Sebastiani in 1984.
[4] See letter by Guy Debord dated 2 May 1986.
[5] See letter by Guy Debord dated 13 August 1981.
[6] The spoken text in Guy Debord's film In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (1978).
(Published in Jean-Francois Martos, Correspondance avec Guy Debord, Le fin mot de l'Histoire, August 1998. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! June 2007. Footnotes by the translator, except where noted.)