Richard Barbrook and Fabian Tompsett, Class Wargames Presents Guy Debord’s The Game of War
“While we were going about our work, Christine Albanel – who subsequently has become an Executive Vice-President of the mobile telephone corporation, Orange – had declared Debord’s archive a “national treasure” in her capacity as French Minister of Culture. However, while the modern-day grandee may feel obliged to acknowledge Guy Debord’s intellectual prowess, more and more people are coming to suspect that the current economic plight of the capitalist system has structural origins which cannot be dealt with through some quick-fix such as the politicians like to dream up. Although much of the work of the Situationists has been recuperated, the persistent need to get move beyond capitalism becomes more and more apparent. As our script – and Ilze Black’s excellent film made from it – illustrates, the political tensions of class antagonism have not been swept aside by the development of corporate-consumerist society. Indeed, we foresee the crisis as underscoring economic and political tensions which once again puts class war on the agenda. In this context, the publication of this script is a small contribution to developing an approach to the strategic and tactical thinking which will be needed to face the conflicts of the future.”
Richard Barbrook, Mark Copplestone, Stefan Lutschinger, Fabian Tompsett und Alex Veness, Klassenkampfspiele
“Gerade als wir begannen, uns an die Arbeit machten, erkläte Christine Albanel die im Anschluss eine Vizepräsidentin des französischen Telekommunikationsanbieters Orange wurde – in ihrer Funktion als Kulturministerin Debords Archiv zum Nationalheiligtum. Doch auch wenn gewisse Granden der Gegenwart mittlerweile nicht mehr umhin können, Debords intellektueller Schärfe ihren Respekt zu zollen, zweifeln immer mehr einfache Leute daran, dass es für die gegenwärtige Misere des Kapitalismus ein Heilmittel gibt und erkennen, dass die Notwendigkeit, den Kapitalismus endgültig zu überwinden, zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnt. Wie unser Drehbuch – und Ilze Blacks großartiger Film – zeigen, ist es der Konsumgesellschaft nicht gelungen, die Klassengegensätze aufzulösen. In der Tat, wir haben die politischen und ökonomischen Spannun- gen unserer Zeit vorhergesehen, die den Klassenkampf wieder auf die Agenda bringen. In diesem Kontext stellt die Publikation des Drehbuchs einen kleinen Beitrag zur Entwicklung jenes strategischen und taktischen Denkens dar, das erforderlich sein wird, um sich erfolgreich den Konflikten der Zukunft zu stellen.”
Richard Barbrook, Ludic Training for the Situationist Revolution
“In these troubled times, this Situationist ludic enlightenment is urgently required. The squabbling tendencies of today’s left are nothing more than a bunch of historical reenactment societies: the Bolsheviks are stuck in Petrograd 1917, the Anarchists fantasize about Barcelona 1936 and Autonomists hark back to Milan 1977. There are even some Situationist groupies who think they’re living in Paris 1968! Taking our cue from Debord, Class Wargames has an entertaining remedy for this debilitating determination to fight contemporary struggles with old strategies. If you want to reenact the heroic moments of the revolutionary past, we have an extensive collection of board games that will allow you to become Leon Trotsky, Buenaventura Durruti or Toni Negri in their prime for a few hours. Most wonderfully, by putting these dramatic events back into play, the dogmatic certainties of the Bolshevik, Anarchist and Autonomist sects are soon revealed as temporal contingencies. With cleverer moves and better dice throws, the fixed course of history can be changed on the game board. There isn’t and never has been one infallible method for securing victory in all time and places. Like its predecessors, this generation must also devise its own unique combinations of strategy and tactics for fighting the capitalist enemy.”
Marc James Léger, The Class War from Nato to NATO
“Addressing the conditions of actually existing warfare, Class Wargames bring into view the way in which the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Department of Defense consider that future conflicts will involve not only traditional state actors, but transnational networks of sub-state groups, whose definition ranges from terrorists and extremist organizations to protesters and activists. Since artists are embedded in protest groups, critical artists would therefore represent some of the constituents of this enemy network, as seen from the point of view of “national security.” It is accurate, in this respect, to refer to social movement actors as for example the Disrupt J20 protesters as vanguard militants.”
Richard Barbrook, The Ludic Science Club Crosses the Berezina
“In the early-21st century, Debord’s ludic message hasn’t lost any of its relevance. The Soviet Union may be long gone, but the Bolsheviks’ elitist politics still haunts the Left. Ironically, amongst the 2011-2 Occupy movements in the USA and Europe, their firm ideological rejection of formal hierarchies empowered a small group of highly networked individuals who coordinated the street protests and on-line activism of the spontaneous multitudes. In such circumstances, The Game of War becomes not only a history lesson about these revolutionary vanguards, but also a training tool for democratising the skills of political leadership so far monopolised by the few. By moving pieces across the board, its players are engaged in a practical critique of intellectual elitism within the Left.”
Marc James Léger, Don’t Network: the avant-garde after networks
“The question for Class Wargames, as for other critics of the network society, is whether the social factory can be turned into a world of cybernetic communism. The upshot is the extent to which capitalism is able to reproduce itself in these new conditions of the machinic phylum, and secondly, whether or not humanity will annihilate itself as it ponders this enigma, or, more indirectly, whether the self-organizing processes of artificial intelligence, particularly as they are applied to war games, will annihilate humanity on its behalf.”
Julia Rampen, Class Wargames: how an obscure board game led to Labour’s gamification of power
“”Play The Game of War, and you will learn how to transform the enclosed lands of spectacular capitalism into the participatory playgrounds of cybernetic communism,” says a disembodied voice over clips from historical dramas, demonstrations and famous moments from history. It’s the kind of video you wouldn’t be surprised to find on an obscure gaming-enthusiast site, which makes sense since it is hosted on what appears to be just that. Or at least, it would have remained obscure if it weren’t for one of those featured in the video, a man who was at the time a left-wing backbench Labour MP by the name of John McDonnell. Now shadow chancellor, McDonnell told the Labour party conference on Tuesday [26th September 2017] that his economic team would be playing war games to prepare for government.”
Richard Barbrook, Playing With Politics
“We would urge Leftists to enjoy playing political games together. What better metaphor can there be for socialists resolving their sectarian squabbles than moving pieces over a board? We can only successfully argue with each other by agreeing to observe the rules of the game without too much cheating. Competition requires cooperation. In honoured memory of Guy Debord, Class Wargames is proud to proclaim its world-historical mission: playing politics as the ludic guide to intelligent communist thinking. Proletarians of all nations, unite and fight on the game board!”
Mark Copplestone, Not Just A Game of Toy Soldiers
“This is not an attempt at realism: there is no attempt to deceive the eye, as in a model railway or museum diorama. This is a conscious design, representing in symbols (which in this case are paradoxically almost-realistic models) elements of historical reality, perceptions of Russia and, as the game progresses, the passing of time.”