A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #470 - CLASSES: CULTURAL, VALUE, AND POLITICAL HORIZON. Cultural Hegemony (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The results of the recent referendum on justice, coupled with the 
subsequent shocks and a handful of resignations, had driven the 
center-left's "broad camp" representatives to their heads. These factors 
had been enthusiastically interpreted as symptomatic of an imminent 
collapse in support for the government, and as examples of its desperate 
attempt to reverse the negative electoral trend by slightly reshaping 
its slogans on certain issues (see the detention of the Flotilla activists).
Suddenly, a narrative (and we emphasize this term, since the rhetorical 
construct is central) of revenge and recovery by the center-left 
opposition had emerged, corroborated by the results of the latest 
election polls, with the broad camp unexpectedly "overtaking" the 
governing coalition. Preparations were already being made for the 
victory celebrations of the next general election, with talk already 
swirling about expanded primaries...
then came the first round of local elections... and everyone woke up 
sweaty and with their dreams shattered.
Thus, a new about-face has occurred, even among the media most critical 
of the Meloni government, even though they had enthusiastically embraced 
the referendum results, describing them as the most vivid testimony to a 
phantom left-wing "cultural hegemony" that still serves as a bulwark, 
since the right was apparently incapable of producing a ruling class 
capable of occupying that role.
It's worth understanding how much truth and how much hope lies in this 
belief.
First, even if it still makes sense today to view politics through the 
Gramscian lens of cultural hegemony, we must not trivialize it into 
something it isn't. Whether the right or the left produces an 
incompetent ruling class isn't the determining factor; rather, it's 
whether this same ruling class manages to play a leading role as 
intellectuals integral to their own class. But those who speak today of 
left-wing cultural hegemony might also be asked what their understanding 
of social classes is, because it's far from a given that they have a 
clear understanding of them! Who speaks today of the proletariat, who 
speaks today of the working class? We need to ask ourselves what 
cultural, value-based, and political horizon a class predominantly 
identifies with. And we need to interpret situations clearly: the truth 
is that support for nationalistic, racist, and fascist-inspired 
propaganda is still very strong in Italy, with a voter base that is 
distributed across the board and heterogeneously across social 
backgrounds. The core values of the strongman in command, the 
idolization of economic power, the demonization of any form of 
internationalism, and so on, stem from a long recent political and 
cultural journey that has already had its greatest champion in Silvio 
Berlusconi.
Talking about left-wing cultural hegemony to sleep soundly is decidedly 
misleading. First of all, because this is a country where the majority 
of voters are more receptive to "Salvini-Meloni-Vannaccian" rhetoric 
than to any other kind of leadership. And then, there are all those 
millions who don't vote, or haven't voted for some time. And no, 
unfortunately, they're not all anarchist comrades. Abstentionism, which 
is enormous and growing (36% in 2022, after 27% in 2018), cannot have 
been foolishly migrated en masse into a "left-wing hegemony," because 
the reasons for abstentionism include multiple, fragmented, and 
sometimes diametrically opposed choices; in many cases, it is simply the 
result of a total disinterest in politics, which results in 
abstentionism not even as a conscious choice.
It is even more striking to consider that for the referendum on justice, 
that same percentage rose to approximately 41%, despite the fervently 
positive turnout. And the No victory must also be contextualized in a 
completely different way than in the general election: the No camp 
itself has garnered, more than ever before, broadly transversal support; 
furthermore, as described in the previous April issue of SL, much of the 
No campaign was waged by the right alone, playing to see who could tell 
the biggest lies. The results are well known. You'll see that even 
Nordio is fascinated by the left-wing cultural hegemony!

Alessandro Usai

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/wp-content/uploads/giugno2026_compressed-1.pdf
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