A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #43 - History expresses those who interpret it - Libertarian Alternative / FdCA (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the 
new cannot be born: in this interregnum, the most varied morbid 
phenomena occur." ---- This is what Antonio Gramsci wrote in 1930 in his 
Prison Notebooks , when he was incarcerated in Turi prison. This is a 
frankly overused statement, but it is worth reflecting on, avoiding that 
philological tendency, prevalent throughout the left and beyond, which 
claims to attribute all-encompassing meanings to certain theoretical 
formulations. For our part, we believe instead that it is best to simply 
grasp the humility and timeliness of the warning, precisely because it 
refers to the present and the dramatic, unprecedented tendencies that 
characterize it. The belief that everything has changed is a recurring 
and widespread statement that appears to be a true "product of the 
crisis," formulated to frustrate any attempt to interpret the 
degeneration of the present from a perspective aimed at overcoming 
capitalist production relations that are increasingly descending into 
barbarism. Beyond the instrumental opposition between old and new, 
however, "novelties" exist, and they consist not only in the widespread 
tendency toward war, but also in its concrete spread throughout every 
sphere of capitalist society, increasingly shaped by militarism and 
increasing the destructive capacity of conflict. The sophisticated 
technologies employed, and artificial intelligence itself, are thus 
placed at the service of destruction and massacres, especially of 
civilian populations. Diplomacy, its institutions, and international law 
itself demonstrate their fragility and impotence in the face of truly 
dominant power relations, leaving the word to the weapons and conflicts 
that are spreading across the planet at this stage in history. 
Capitalism has historically established itself as a dynamic process 
tending towards internationalization, and the class that interprets it, 
the bourgeoisie, is also a class continually striving for change. One 
need only think of the First Imperialist World War to fully understand 
this class and the "innovations" it gave rise to: a class that dominates 
the world in order to pursue its own particular interests aimed at 
extracting and accumulating profits, expropriating and concentrating in 
ever-increasing numbers of greedy hands the social wealth produced by 
wage earners across the planet, which is the historical purpose of 
capitalism, namely its "incessant pursuit of gain." This inescapable 
necessity has dramatic consequences that hark back to a clear and highly 
relevant quote from Karl Marx himself:

"Capital," says the Quarterly Review, "avoids tumult and discord, and is 
by nature timid. This is true, but it is not the whole truth. Capital 
fears the absence of profit, or too little profit, as nature fears a 
vacuum. With an adequate profit, capital is very bold. 10% is safe, and 
can be employed anywhere; 20% becomes lively; 50%, positively reckless; 
100% makes it ready to trample on all human laws; 300%, and there is no 
crime it does not dare to commit, even at the risk of the 
gallows."[Capital , Book I, Chapter 24.]

Even these few lines, written over 150 years ago, manage to explain all 
the tragedies of the present and, beyond philological and psychological 
interpretations, allow us to understand the uncertainties, risks, and 
contradictions of the ruling groups of economic, political, and military 
power that the bourgeoisie expresses in the balance of power in the 
clash between powers that represent the frantic attempt to excel, or not 
to succumb, in the imperialist competition for control of world markets 
and strategic areas, such as the Middle East.

This is true for the United States, which, to counteract inevitable 
economic decline, must defend the dollar at all costs as the benchmark 
currency for global trade, especially in energy transactions, countering 
the rise of the Chinese yuan in order to stem its public debt, which now 
approaches $39 trillion and prevents it from pursuing the American 
dream, much less maintaining and, above all, effectively managing the 
world's strongest military. The Trump phenomenon arises from this 
America, now in economic, social, cultural, and militarily decline, 
faced with the changing global imperialist structure that undermines its 
hegemony over other emerging imperialist powers. Similarly, with 
Netanyahu and his government, the Israeli bourgeoisie defends its 
hegemony in one of the most heated scenarios on the planet, even at the 
cost of immense destruction and renewed massacres of civilian 
populations, where the use of the most refined technologies and AI is 
placed at the service of war, increasing its destructive fury, carrying 
out the genocide of entire populations. If the US sees China as a fierce 
economic and military power, it finds in Iran a significant competitor 
active throughout the Middle East, a competitor capable of effectively 
countering the myth and now illusion of an invincible Israel. Israel, an 
ally of the US in the recent aggression against Iran, risks annihilation 
at the hands of a regional power, a fundamentalist Shiite power that, 
after overthrowing the previous repressive regime installed in 1953 and 
supported by Western imperialist powers (the US and Britain) in 1979, 
has given rise to a fundamentalist and patriarchal regime that, like its 
predecessor, has distinguished itself by the bloody repression of all 
political and social dissent to ensure its domination. The most recent 
and generous struggles undertaken by the younger generations, in which 
women and workers in particular stood out for a better and freer 
existence, have been bloodily repressed and today they find themselves 
in the grip of US and Israeli aggression and the repression of the 
repressive apparatus of the Iranian state and its growing nationalism.

The declining imperialist powers, the emerging ones, the regional ones, 
and their respective bourgeoisies find themselves in conflict over the 
division of a strategic and resource-rich area, according to imperialist 
logic and practices that, precisely, dare to commit any crime "even at 
the risk of the gallows." The current phase, moreover, demonstrates a 
historical truth: capitalism does not constitute a harmonious system as 
a whole, rationalizable and programmable, much less controllable in its 
development, since the entire capitalist system is unable to eliminate 
its internal conflicts, which sometimes explode into violent forms, with 
war as an inevitable consequence. The wars that have been fought and are 
being fought, with all their hurricane of misery, destruction, and 
death, must therefore be interpreted in their concrete social and class 
dynamics: it is the bourgeoisies that "attack" each other, not the vast 
masses of wage earners, since in no country do the latter possess the 
capital and power that constitute the exclusive advantage of the very 
bourgeoisies that fight each other to continue exploiting them. Wars can 
all be traced back to the phenomenon of imperialism, and therefore the 
omission and distorting logic of "the aggressor and the aggressed" must 
be rejected. It is the "unreserved" masses, those who possess only their 
labor power, who are exploited, attacked, and bloodily implicated in 
capital's wars, in Ukraine, Sudan, Palestine, Iran, and throughout the 
Middle East, as well as in the more than fifty conflicts that have 
claimed death, immense destruction, hunger, and misery, driving tens of 
thousands of human beings to flee their countries in search of better 
living conditions. In this dramatic context, where a third world 
conflict is concretely looming, it is legitimate and desirable to hope 
that global diplomacy will reach ceasefire agreements to avert further 
victims and further destruction. But to avoid dangerous illusions, it is 
also essential to understand that global diplomacy is made up of 
precisely those bourgeoisies that attack each other within the context 
of the widespread imperialist conflict. Thus, "diplomacy" is not neutral 
and impartial, but a sphere in which a double game is played, 
alternating power relations with the search for a formal and extremely 
fragile peace that coexists with a growing arms race and an even more 
widespread war, in the exclusive interest of capital.

The No vote won in the constitutional referendum on March 22nd and 23rd 
regarding the separation of judicial careers.

The constitutional amendment strongly supported by the Meloni government 
has been rejected. Within hours of the polls' results, there was 
legitimate jubilation from the diverse government opposition, which 
embraced a range of contentions, from a sometimes emphatic defense of 
the Constitution and the Republic to calls for the government's 
resignation, from the "Anti-Fascist No" and "Social No" campaigns, to 
the revival of the "primaries" and the "broad field" campaign in view of 
the 2027 general elections. The broad political, trade union, and social 
spectrum, including sectors of the Catholic Church, that supported the 
"No" vote is gripped by a more than understandable euphoria over a 
hoped-for but uncertain victory: "Italy has awakened," they proclaim in 
unison. For our part, we believe this result cannot be underestimated, 
as it weakens the government and its prospects and, above all, opens up 
spaces for political and class action that a "Yes" victory would 
undoubtedly have closed. But the positive outcome must not leave room 
for decontextualization. The government's defeat-let's use this somewhat 
triumphalist definition-occurred exclusively on an institutional level, 
contributing to the electoral truce that halted, albeit temporarily, the 
social opposition movement, its struggles, its content, and its 
grassroots organization. This trend will not be automatically avoided, 
given that the No victory reevaluates the role of parliamentary 
political parties, which are reclaiming political initiative for 
electoral purposes, to the detriment of the generalization of the 
conflict. But let's look at the data.

The referendum's turnout was 58.93%; not low, but not exceptional 
compared to the previous one. In the 2016 referendum on the Renzi-Boschi 
constitutional reform, turnout was 65.47%, with the "No" vote receiving 
59.12%. It's true that compared to today, the coalitions back then were 
disjointed: the Democratic Party was in government and therefore favored 
a "Yes" vote, while the Brothers of Italy, being in opposition, favored 
a "No" vote. Again, the "No" vote was a clear victory, but six years 
later, in the 2022 general election, that victory didn't prevent the 
Brothers of Italy, the heir to the Italian Social Movement, from which 
current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hails, from taking over the 
government. This is to affirm that the institutional terrain and its 
alliances, however vast, do not constitute any guarantee precisely 
because they represent the changing theatre of politics, a perspective 
this is still very present today in the victorious No camp.

The widespread satisfaction with the No vote's victory must instead be 
placed within the broader context of the crisis and war. Some data: the 
Strait of Hormuz, currently blocked by Iran, carries 20% of the world's 
oil and 25% of liquefied natural gas, significant percentages of other 
refined petroleum products, and, above all, fertilizers (approximately 
50% of the world's urea passes through Hormuz), essential for 
agriculture. The blockade's projections are causing energy and food 
prices to skyrocket, with devastating effects on inflation and thus on 
the purchasing power of wages and the living conditions of workers 
worldwide. The concrete consequences of the crisis and the imperialist 
wars waged by the international bourgeoisies to divide the spoils of the 
world's energy resources point to an inescapable and urgent necessity: 
the international unity of the proletariat against capital and its wars; 
a struggle to be waged precisely against the bourgeoisie that exists in 
each country without any delegation to the institutions.

In Italy too, we must therefore use the weakening of the government not 
to relaunch new electoral alliances in view of the 2027 general 
election, but to resume and generalize the struggles for unifying 
objectives such as wages, healthcare, education and transport, pensions 
and the fight against precarious employment, to return to victory in the 
defense of the living conditions of the subaltern classes and to 
relaunch and strengthen the internationalist unity of workers around the 
world against militarism and imperialist wars, against the hunger, 
poverty, devastation and death they impose.

Long live the international unity of the proletariat!

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