On the Poverty of Student Life (A6)

First published as a pamphlet by students of the University of Strasbourg and the Situationist International (SI) in 1966, De la Misère en Étudiant recognized and described student and youth alienation in that while claiming to be revolutionaries, students also prepared themselves for a professional career – “just in case.” The full title in English is, On the Poverty of Student Life: A Consideration of Its Economic, Political, Sexual, Psychological and Notably Intellectual Aspects and of a Few Ways to Cure it. In attacking the subservience of university students and the strategies of student radicals, it caused a significant uproar, led to the dissemination of Situationist ideas, and precipitated the events to come in France May of 1968.

For the first edition, supporters of the SI (mis)appropriated school funds to create and distribute 10,000 copies of the pamphlet. From there, dozens of editions were produced by worker- and student-run printing presses around the world, from Paris to East London, from Tokyo to Detroit.