"The Workers of Italy and the Revolt in Reggio Calabria"
Until today, the English-speaking world – if it has been interested in “The Workers of Italy and the Revolt in Reggio Calabria,” which lays out what the Italian section of the Situationist International thought about the famous armed insurrection that began in Reggio Calabria in July 1970 and lasted until February 1971 – has had no choice but to read Ducasse’s translation of this text, which was published in Italy in October 1970. Ever since the early 1970s, Ducasse’s translation has been the only one that has been available.
"The Workers of Italy and the Revolt in Reggio Calabria"
Until today, the English-speaking world – if it has been interested in “The Workers of Italy and the Revolt in Reggio Calabria,” which lays out what the Italian section of the Situationist International thought about the famous armed insurrection that began in Reggio Calabria in July 1970 and lasted until February 1971 – has had no choice but to read Ducasse’s translation of this text, which was published in Italy in October 1970. Ever since the early 1970s, Ducasse’s translation has been the only one that has been available.
(Strangely, “Gli operai d’Italia e la rivolta di Reggio Calabria” has never been translated into French – the language in which most situationist documents were written – perhaps because it was written and published one year after the Italian section produced the first and last issue of its journal, as well as one year after the French section of the SI published the 12th and last issue of its journal.)
In any case, this is most unfortunate, because Ducasse’s translation is nothing sort of a falsification. Not only does it drop out six passages (a total of eleven sentences), but it also includes a long passage (a total of eight sentences) that originally appeared in a completely different text by the Italian Section (“Is the Reichstag Burning?” which was published a year before “The Workers of Italy” and concerns a completely different subject).
Our translation not only restores the deleted sentences and removes the ones that were improperly added to it, but also corrects the many mistakes and distortions that Ducasse made. As a result, our translation isn’t merely a second or a competing translation of this important text, but truly the first one to be made. It appears at the same URL that we previously used to host Ducasse’s version (before we realized what an abomination it is): http://www.notbored.org/calabria.html
Those interested in taking stock of how bad Ducasse’s version is can compare ours with the “copy” of Ducasse’s falsified version that is posted here: http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/italy.html
