A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #20-26 - The Moon and the Finger. Repression and Precarious Work: An Anti-Labor Perspective (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Social Repression. --- The various security decrees have now almost all 
been blissfully approved and have become part of the state's punitive 
arsenal: more evictions of social centers and housing occupations, a 
general criminalization of banal behaviors, where the legal right 
protected is unclear, increased repression of conflictual labor union 
struggle, etc. --- The shift of repression to the administrative level 
entails fewer procedural safeguards and exorbitant fines, with the 
effect of dissuading, especially those without resources, from fighting: 
young people and those driven by necessity, perhaps outside of organized 
movements.
In recent months, much of the movement's attention has been absorbed by 
the protests against these new regulations, but how does this resurgence 
of repression relate to the broader social landscape? I believe this 
isn't just an attack on dissent, and the goal isn't simply to silence 
dissident voices: the authorities' attack goes far beyond the realm of 
ideas and activism.
While in Italy the security decrees were being approved, in the United 
States there was a violent surge in anti-immigrant patrols by the ICE 
agency (Immigration and Customs Enforcement ,(See UN 20/2025 and 
1/2026). These patrols have led to the deportation of thousands of 
people who have since disappeared, and the detention in inhumane 
conditions of just as many, including children, as well as the summary 
execution of two people who were resisting the patrols. This intense 
anti-immigrant activity, justified with the usual excuse of "legality" 
and "security," and thinly disguised as ethnic "cleansing," actually has 
a class aspect that should not be overlooked. The kidnappings often 
occur in workplaces where immigrant, and therefore undocumented, workers 
are likely to be found, such as construction sites and restaurants, but 
also factories and logistics centers. Therefore, regardless of the 
government's presentation of it, this operation seems more like yet 
another piece of the war on the poor and the working class. Immigrant 
workers, already extremely vulnerable, now find themselves even more at 
the mercy of the whims of those who employ them, who can threaten to 
unleash "la migra" against them. The ICE squads (composed of far-right 
thugs, handsomely paid by the government, who bear an eerie resemblance 
to the fascist squads tasked with breaking strikes and destroying 
workers' organizations in the post-World War I era) ultimately act as 
the armed wing of corporations and so-called "employers," or rather, who 
would more accurately be called "employers." By radically making the 
lives of an entire and vast category of people precarious, they create a 
"reserve army" of potential exploiters, willing to accept any conditions 
just to earn a starvation wage. The open war on immigrants doesn't 
actually win back jobs for the white working class-a great electoral 
promise of the right-but it makes competition among workers increasingly 
ruthless, who are now expendable, along with their workplaces, useless 
in an increasingly financialized economy.
The repression against migrants (in the USA and elsewhere) and the 
escalation of the various "security decrees" are examples of the 
illegality of being (punish the thief not the theft), of which the final 
beneficiaries and instigators are the masters, the takers of jobs, time, 
life, resources, public money... We look at the finger of the security 
decrees, but beyond these there is the moon of power relations within 
society.

Economic pressure.
With the demise of the two-bloc policy, social democratic welfare states 
have been systematically dismantled, including through union 
"concertation." Today, as a result of this process, there are no more 
small bonuses to be given to the various categories; the system is 
increasingly unlivable. The state has no role in social mediation, but 
society must be made obedient and disciplined, by any means: truncheons 
in the streets, division and personalized control in the workplace.
The unions' adversarial activity is at a standstill, criminalized, 
hampered by a thousand restrictions on the right to strike, unpopular 
among the public, dispersed in electoral pursuits, and above all, 
eclipsed by the state unions that administer the power granted to them 
by the employers through the government over the heads of their members, 
in an irreversible sell-off of rights. Even the hope of fighting for 
better jobs is fading; let alone talk of self-management or models of a 
different society. The only proposals for innovation seem to come from 
technocratic pulpits and focus on personal well-being, work-life 
balance, etc.
Workplaces under capitalism have always been total places, controlling 
not only the human body but also the mind. But in recent years, this 
process has been violently accelerated, with the uberization of work, 
the self-exploitation of young workers who have no idea of their basic 
rights and are forced to compete with each other, the concentration of 
businesses, the digitalization and virtualization of everything. We are 
witnessing the loss, not just of class solidarity (let alone 
internationalist solidarity?), but of basic solidarity within the 
workplace. There is a constant feeling of not being needed, that the job 
could be outsourced, stolen by technology or immigrants, that degrees 
are increasingly worthless and cost more... It is no coincidence that a 
military career can be presented as a highly advantageous option, 
something that would have been unthinkable until a few years ago. Just 
think of the famous "German model," which offers highly attractive 
benefits to recruits. Yet in the United States, the military, one of the 
largest employers, has always been the only way for many to afford 
education, healthcare, or simply a salary. Moreover, the rhetoric of 
permanent crisis, useful for justifying the diversion of billions to war 
cliques and for widespread recruitment, creates a caste extremely loyal 
to the government, a new feudalism that, in the event of a violent 
crisis, will be extremely useful for reactionary purposes and to support 
the status quo .

Toeing the
Line. Caught between repression, welfare cuts, and a "sick" world of 
work, we are increasingly vulnerable and dependent on paid labor. 
Imagining alternatives to the dominant model of production and 
consumption is further from the realm of possibility than ever. It's 
extremely difficult even to start micro-businesses in a scenario 
dominated by large-scale concentrations and "standard" production. A 
beautiful hypocrisy, given the status of secular saints attributed to 
entrepreneurs...
We are therefore forced to accept work, and accepting work means 
accepting hierarchy, confirming current working conditions, 
"collaborating," accepting that one's lifespan is assigned a monetary 
value, and accepting the value of money itself.
The strategy of demanding new jobs and defending existing ones, while 
obviously justified by the material situation, presents us with the 
paradox of relying even more on the very system that is crushing us. 
Defending jobs now often also involves defending policies that force us 
to pay to work, for our training, for PPE, and for the tools needed for 
the job. And on the other hand, we must also be very careful that 
emotional labor or other "intangible" aspects of work don't end up on 
the bargaining table: when it's said that emotional labor is unpaid, a 
smart entrepreneur might as well put a price tag on it. Requests for 
more jobs, or better conditions, or better wages, even if legitimate, 
are not based on a logic of exploitation. Can we imagine striving for a 
goal that goes beyond this production/reproduction model? I recall, for 
example, the path taken by the sex workers' collective "Ombre Rosse," 
which calls for the recognition of sex work as a starting point for 
advancement, but not from a labor perspective, recognizing that 
exploitation exists in every job.

The Work I Want:
Work, labor, labor . The critique of waged, capitalist labor, with its 
burden of alienation and useless and harmful products, gives way to a 
reflection on action: even in a society freed from waged labor, there 
will be work to do; indeed, there will be even more to do! "Bullshit 
jobs," as David Graeber calls them, will disappear, and engaging in 
common activity will be something that happens naturally and with 
motivation. Let's try to imagine a form of action that is useful, 
self-managed (but not self-exploitative), non-hierarchical, exciting, 
communal, voluntary, and generative. Liberation from work also involves 
the overthrow of consumerism: until people stop spending, they will not 
stop working. A society freed from trade and surplus goods will see a 
radical reduction in consumption, collective care and sharing of most 
things, reuse, recycling, and repair.
When Luciano Bianciardi described precarious employment, social 
competition, and the alienation of modern work, he certainly did so from 
a position of relative privilege and from the perspective of the 
industrialized "West." But his words still seem very fitting to me.
" People must learn not to move, not to collaborate, not to produce, not 
to create new needs, and indeed to renounce the ones they already have." 
(Luciano Bianciardi, La vita agra.)

Julissa

https://umanitanova.org/la-luna-e-il-dito-repressione-e-lavoro-precario-un-punto-di-vista-antilavorista/
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