Gyllene Flottan

Gyllene Flottan [The Golden Fleet] was a left-wing group in Sweden, existing during the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. It was ideologically aligned with the Situationist International, an avant-garde revolutionary movement. The Situationists, whose intellectual foundations were derived primarily from libertarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century (particularly Dada and Surrealism), initially put its emphasis on concepts like unitary urbanism and psychogeography. Gradually the focus moved more towards revolutionary and political theory. Much like the main organ of that particular ideological current, the Situationist International, the Gyllene Flottan had its heyday around the protests of 1968, gradually disappearing by the first years of the 1970s.

Little is known about the Gyllene Flottan. The name was most likely taken from an art exhibit in Denmark by the Situationist Jeppesen Victor Martin, which consisted of geopolitical paintings featuring coastlines, strategic arrows and toy battleships sprayed over with metallic paint. The group was centered in the capital Stockholm, although some members appear to have been from Gothenburg. It is primarily notable through the fact that its members were those that introduced situationist writings to Sweden by its brief but hectic work with publishing political texts. Among them were Instruktion i vapendragning in 1970 (a translation of "Instructions pour une prise d'armes" [Instructions for an Insurrection], originally published 1961), as well as longer translations of texts by Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem among others.

The group also produced a number of works on its own, prominent among them the poster "Häng stalinisterna högt" [Hang the Stalinists High] (on the subject of the contemporary left-wing) and the brochure Kung Gustafs sardiner [King Gustaf's Sardines] which discussed the "meaningful meaninglessness of the Swedish students". Another Situationist group existed in Sweden, the Second Situationist International of Jørgen Nash, but there appears to have been no connection between the Gyllene Flottan and the Nashists. (Source)

Publications

• Häng stalinisterna högt [Hang the Stalinists High], Stockholm: Gyllene Flottan, Apr 1970, [1] p. [1] (Swedish)
• Kung Gustafs sardiner, eller de svenska studenternas betydelsefulla obetydlighet jämte två tilläg, Stockholm: Gyllene Flottan, Jun 1970, 14 pp. Inspired by De la misère en milieu étudiant. [2] (Swedish)
• Illusionernas dag, Stockholm: Gyllene Flottan, Dec 1970. Détournement of August Strindberg's Det Nya Riket. [3] (Swedish)
• Guy Debord, Proletarietet som subjekt och som representation: ur "La société du spectacle", Stockholm: Gyllene Flottan, 1970, 48 pp. (Swedish)
• Raoul Vaneigem, Grundläggande banaliteter, Stockholm: Gyllene Flottan, n.d., 70 pp. (Swedish)
• Början på en epok, Stockholm: Gyllene Flottan, 1970, 48 pp. (Swedish)
• Instruktion i vapendragning, del 1, Stockholm: Gyllene Flottan, 1971, 91 pp. Anthology; texts by Vaneigem, Khayati, Garnault, Debord, Kotanyi. (Swedish)
• List of publications

Literature

• Olov Hyllienmark, "Jakten på Gyllene Flottan. Introduktion till situationisterna", Innehåll 10, Oct 1997. (Swedish)
• "Mysteriet Gyllene Flottan", Konst & Politik, 12 May 2014. Prededed by reprints of 3 publications of Gyllene Flottan. (Swedish)