Raoul Vaneigem
Bio: Born 21 March 1934 in Lessines, Belgium. Father, Paul
Vaneigem, was a Socialist, anticlerical railway worker. Mother's name:
Marguerite Tilte. Between 1951 and 1956, Raoul pursued and obtained a
degree in Roman philology at the Free University of Brussels. Between
1956 and 1964, he was a professor at the Ecole Normale de
Nivelles. In 1960, he sent his work about French poetry to Henri Lefebvre, who then forwarded it to Guy
Debord. In 1961, he joined the Situationist International, and remained
a member until his resignation in November 1970. Between 1964 and 1972,
he was the editor of the Encyclopedia of the Current World. In
1986, he began work on an Encyclopedia Universalis. Especially in
the 1990s and 2000s, he published a great many nonfiction books, as well
as a novel. The father of three children, he now splits his time between Belgium and Barcelona.
Photographs
Newspaper photo of him at a
demonstration circa 1960-1961 (detail). Full image.
With Guy Debord in the early
1960s.
By himself in 2003.
In 2005.
Reviews of his books
The Movement of the Free Spirit
(1986)
A Declaration of the Rights of
Human Beings: On the Sovereignty of Life as Surpassing the Rights of
Man (2000).
Texts in Translation
Pre-Situationist:
Isidore Ducasse and the Count of Lautreamont in
the Poesies 1958
Fragments pour
une Poetique 1960
Situationist International:
First letter to Guy Debord, 24 January
1961
Letter to Guy Debord, 19
February 1961
Life goes by, life escapes (song lyrics)
1961
Basic Program of
the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism (with Attila Kotanyi)
Internationale Situationniste #6, 1961
Theses on the
Paris Commune (with Guy Debord and Attila Kotanyi), 18 March
1962
Basic
Banalities, part one, Internationale Situationniste #7,
1962
Basic
Banalities, part two, Internationale Situationniste #8,
1963
Ideologies,
Classes and the Domination of Nature Internationale
Situationniste #8, 1963
No dialogue with people who are suspect, no
dialogue with cunts, (with Jan Strijbosch) published as tract, 27
February 1963
"The
Revolution of Everyday Life," 1963-1965
Some Theoretical
Topics That Need To Be Dealt With Without Academic Debate or Idle
Speculation Internationale Situationniste #10, 1966
Aiming for
Practical Truth Internationale Situationniste #11, 1967
Notice to the
Civilized Concerning Self-Management Internationale
Situationniste #12, 1969
Situationist Orientation Debate:
Notes on the
orientation of the SI March 1970
Several precise points 23 April
1970
Note of synthesis for the meeting of 19 May
1970 May 1970
Letter of resignation from the Situationist
International, 14 November 1970
Post-Situationist:
“Terrorism or Revolution, an introduction to
Ernest Coeurderoy” (1972)
Contributions to The Revolutionary Struggle, Intended To Be Discussed,
Corrected, And Principally, Put Into Practice Without Delay (1974)
From
Wildcat Strike to Total Self-Management (1974)
A
Cavalier History of Surrealism (1977)
The Book of
Pleasures (1979)
“A Warning to Students of All Ages”
(1995)
“In Praise of Refined Laziness” (1996)
Foreword to “The Inhumanity of
Religion” (2000)
“Preliminary Notes on a Project for the
Construction of Oarystis, the City of Desires” (2002)
Interview (2003)
“The Prisons Must Be Destroyed” (2004)
New preface to “The Movement of the Free
Spirit” (2005)
“Appeal from a partisan of individual and collective autonomy” (2006)
“Long Live Oaxaca!” (2006)
“Answers to Six Questions” (2007)
“Long live the Commune!” (2007)
“Homage to André Aubry” (2007)
“The Insurrection of Life: An Interview” (2008)
“Life has every right and predation has none”: An interview (2008)
“What's Free is the Absolute Weapon”
(2011)
“Greece: the Cradle of a New World” (2012)
“Song of the Resigned” (2012)
“Beyond the Impossible” 2012
“Greece Learns to Do Without the State” (2014)
“Nothing Has Ended; Everything Begins” (excerpts) (2014)
“Obscurantism has always been power’s way of illuminating things” (2015)
Self-Portraits and Caricatures of the
Situationist International (2015)
“A Thousand Erotic Games” (Hieronymus Bosch) (2016)
Message of support for the ZAD at Notre Dame des
Landes and a song (2018)
“The Reasons of Wrath” (2018)
Concerning the "Yellow Vests": Everything is
possible, even self-managing assemblies in the middle of street
intersections, villages and neighborhoods (2018)
“Create Territories” (2019)
“Try to save established social rights? They are
already lost”: An interview (2019)
“We Have No Other Alternative Than to Dare the
Impossible” (Complete text of interview given to Le Monde)
(2019)
“The rebirth of the human is the only growth that is acceptable to us” (2019)
“Everything Starts Here and Now” (2019)
“The Zapatistas’ Fight is the Universal Fight of Life
Against the Desertification of the Earth” (2019)
“Salute to Diego” (2019)
“Unity and Differences in the Insurrections in France and Chile” (2020)
“For the Commune” (2020)
“Coronovirus” (2020)
“People of the World, One More Effort!” (2020)
“We Decree the Self-Defense of Our Health” (2020)
“The Branch of Freedom” (2020)
“The Branch of Liberty” (2020)
Letter to Laurence Mekhitarian (2020)
Interview with Le Soir (2020)
“Back to Basics: Theses on and Observations about the Struggle in France” (2020)
“For a Self-Managing Republic that Annuls the Republic of Parliaments and Businesses” (2020)
“To live and do away with the scorn for life” (2021)
“On the death of Marc Tomsin” (2021)
“Only Fear Governs Us: From the Programmed Degradation of the Living to its Spontaneous Rebirth” (2022)
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