“All hierarchy depends on the police.”

— Ratgeb

In June 1968, Raoul Vaneigem received a circular from the "Writers' Union" that inviting him to join them. In addition, they wanted to know if he wanted to "participate in the work of the professional commission (PC), the ideological commission (IC), or both," and if he would like to send thirty francs to his peer, Jean-Pierre Faye, a member of Tel Quel and founder of Change.

Vaneigem responded with the letter below, which was published under the title "Writers' Union" in the September 1969 issue of Internationale Situationniste #12:

I blame the absorbing intellectual histories of lettrism and situationism authored by Marcus Greil and McKenzie Wark for my recent explorations of Vaneigem—- whose books are difficult to procure, a reality that is slightly ameliorated by the availability of his work online— particularly, Contributions to The Revolutionary Struggle, Intended To Be Discussed, Corrected, And Principally, Put Into Practice Without Delay, which is also titled:

Behold the society we will build. Behold the reason that we seek your destruction.
Contributions to The Revolutionary Struggle,Intended To Be Discussed, Corrected, And Principally, Put Into Practice Without Delay
— Ratgeb (Raoul Vaneigem)

Whether authored by Ratgeb or Raoul, there is a line that sticks in my head at the present political moment, namely, “The best guarantee against any other (and, of necessity) oppressive power (i.e. parties, unions, hierarchical organizations, groups of intellectuals or of activists... all of them embryonic states) is the prompt construction of radically new living conditions.”