GUY DEBORD ON THE NECESSITY OF LOOTING (unsigned tract originally translated into English by Donald-Nicholson Smith, distributed in the USA in December 1965) reprinted by internationale Situationnsites #10 (March 1966) AUGUST 13 - 16, 1965, the blacks of Los Angeles revolted. An incident between traffic police and pedestrians developed into two days of spontaneous riots.  […] “[…] Looting is a natural response to the unnatural and inhuman society of commodity abundance. It instantly undermines the commodity as such, and it also exposes what the commodity ultimately implies: the army, the police and the other specialized detachments of the state’s monopoly of armed violence. […]”  

GUY DEBORD ON THE NECESSITY OF LOOTING

(unsigned tract originally translated into English by Donald-Nicholson Smith, distributed in the USA in December 1965) reprinted by internationale Situationnsites #10 (March 1966)

AUGUST 13 - 16, 1965, the blacks of Los Angeles revolted. An incident between traffic police and pedestrians developed into two days of spontaneous riots.  […]

“[…] Looting is a natural response to the unnatural and inhuman society of commodity abundance. It instantly undermines the commodity as such, and it also exposes what the commodity ultimately implies: the army, the police and the other specialized detachments of the state’s monopoly of armed violence. […]”