Cahiers de l’Encyclopedie du Monde Actuel: Les Marxismes – Ideologies et Revolution [1970] & Le Golfe Persique [1974]

Anonymous [Khayati, Mustapha]. Les Cahiers de l’Encyclopedie du Monde Actuel 51. Les Marxismes: Ideologies et Revolution. Lausanne: Rencontres, January 1970. 32 p.; ill.; 14 x 20 cm.; ill. B&W wrappers with picture of an aging Marx.

Anonymous [Khayati, Mustapha]. Les Cahiers de l’Encyclopedie du Monde Actuel 107. Le Golfe Persique. Lausanne: Rencontres, October 1970. 32 p.; ill.; 14 x 20 cm.; ill. B&W wrappers with picture of an oil platform.

Texts now firmly attributed to Mustapha Khayati, which includes a brief review and discussion of Marxist and related movements (including two and a half pages on the SI) for the first one, and a brief historical overview of the the middle east and the role of oil for the other.

Gerard Berreby, who spoke to Donald Nicholson-Smith, Mustapha Khayati, and a few others explains the genesis of the Situationists’ participation to the Encyclopedie du Monde Actuel: “The participation of the ‘situationist group’ in the Encyclopedie du Monde Actuel wasn’t official. There were a few subsistence jobs to which some members of the SI devoted themselves. The work consisted in writing “EDMA cards” and, eventually, monthly booklets […] At first, likely around 1966, my wife, Cathy Pozzo di Borgo, and I began to produce, on a freelance basis, this type of card under the supervision of André Fougerousse – Cathy’s stepfather – for publication by Editions Rencontre in Lausanne. Along with Charles-Henri Favrod, Fougerousse had been (in 1962) one of the founders of this editorial project. Later on, we passed on some “card jobs” to our buddies, including Mustapha and Raoul […] The members of the SI – and Raoul first and foremost – continued to make contributions to EDMA more or less until 1974. As such, many of the booklets were written by situationists or ex-situs – even after the dissolution of the movement in 1972″ (Rien n’est fini, tout commence, p. 157. Translation is my own)

Gerard Berreby notes that “Following discussions with Mustapha Khayati, and upon inspecting the various documents involved, it appears as if Mustapha Khayati himself wrote the cards entitled Situationnisme (17 May 1967, card #1775), Guy Debord (23 September 1970, card #3875) and La Société du Spectacle (25 August 1972, card #5076). He also authored booklet #51, Les Marxismes, ideologies et révolution (January 1970).” In recent correspondence with Mustapha Khayati, he further confirms that booklet #174 – Le Golfe Persique (October 1974) is indeed his work as well.