A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #41 - The battle is long and the enemies are numerous, but we will be even more numerous. Tomorrow is ours, comrades! - Libertarian Alternative / FdCA (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

As documented in the statement from our Iranian comrades, which we 
publish in this issue of Cantiere, the news coming from Iran is 
dramatic: the government is pursuing a bloody repression that has 
claimed thousands of lives, thousands of arrests, and threatened the 
death penalty for those who demonstrate against the regime. The protest, 
which has seen widespread and spontaneous popular participation, also 
involves workers, men and women, along with younger generations of 
students. The uprising, sparked by unbearable economic conditions, 
sanctions further tightened by Trump's first term, and inflation 
undermining low- and middle-income earners, has taken on specific class 
configurations to become the vehicle for concrete demands for political 
opposition and freedom, long repressed by an exploitative, reactionary, 
sectarian, and oppressive regime, severely weakened by the violent 
evolution of imperialist competition, with the United States and Israel 
as the main players in the Middle East dispute. If the pretext for the 
aggression against Venezuela was drug trafficking, if the intervention 
in Syria invoked freedom from a bloodthirsty regime, if in Nigeria the 
defense of Christianity was invoked, in Iran imperialism is cynically 
exploiting the spontaneous struggles of the oppressed masses to 
eliminate a dangerous competitor in the Middle East. These operations 
are fully understandable if placed within the logic of contemporary 
imperialism, understood as a political-military articulation of the 
needs of capital reproduction on a global scale. The theaters affected 
by the interventions coincide with strategic areas of the global energy 
system, both in terms of reserves and transit hubs. Yemen controls one 
of the main checkpoints in the global hydrocarbon trade; Syria is 
located along potential interregional energy corridors; Iran exerts 
structural power over the markets through the Strait of Hormuz; 
Venezuela and Nigeria represent key oil and gas reserves. This 
geographical recurrence does not appear contingent, but rather the 
expression of an imperial rationality oriented towards the control of 
the material conditions of accumulation." This escalation Imperialist 
competition, which also manifests itself within individual, more or less 
hegemonic states, is also being followed in Europe by a growing and 
widespread arms race that maximizes the profits and revenues of the 
military industry and the financial capital that supports it, worsening 
the living conditions of the lower classes. "We'll get Greenland by hook 
or by crook," declared US President Trump, not wanting to leave a 
strategic area open to Russian and Chinese interference. This amplifies 
the desire for domination aimed at mitigating and delaying the decline 
of the American empire and its allies, in a world witnessing the rise 
and rise of new and fearsome powers. The war in Ukraine continues in a 
bloody and devastating scenario that sees the prospects for peace 
receding and, at the same time, sees a still-inadequate European 
imperialism, divided over the prospect of continental rearmament that is 
reduced to being conducted state by state, but essentially united in 
fomenting support for the continuation of a conflict triggered by the 
US's need to separate European interests from those of Russia and China, 
asserting its hegemony over the EU.

The truce agreed in Gaza has not halted the genocide of the Palestinian 
civilian population, who continues to suffer hunger, poverty, and death 
at the hands of the Israeli government and its occupying army. China is 
reclaiming Taiwan, making it clear that it will tolerate no 
interference. Japan is rearming to counter its economic decline in a 
context that includes, in addition to the consolidation of Chinese 
hegemony over the entire Asian continent, India's bid to become the 
world's fourth power, and the strengthening of the economic and 
political role of the BRICS. After repeated threats, which have also 
involved Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland at various 
levels, the United States is attacking Venezuela both for its vast 
natural resources and to send a warning against Russian and, above all, 
Chinese interference on the continent, in order to reaffirm its own 
declining hegemony. The scenario looks complex, both because Venezuelan 
oil exports to China account for approximately 8% of China's total 
demand, the sub-optimal quality of Venezuelan oil, and the country's 
refining industry is obsolete and requires significant investment. 
Furthermore, several respected companies, all affiliated with Big Oil 
(ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips), believe that the investments 
needed to improve and increase Caracas' oil production to outcompete 
Russian and Chinese competition (Trump has called for massive 
investments, expected to be borne entirely by the companies, amounting 
to $100-$200 billion) risk putting US crude oil production out of 
business. Furthermore, oil companies are demanding greater guarantees 
and protections to avoid further nationalizations, expropriations, and 
corporate restrictions that would further penalize their interests, thus 
demanding significant changes in the Venezuelan regime to allow them to 
invest again. ENI, with its five hundred employees and approximately 
three billion euros in loans, is also involved in this complex scenario. 
Law, international institutions, bourgeois political democracy itself, 
its institutions and constitutions-all these superstructures that have 
supported the ascendancy of democratic liberalism as a benign 
institutional expression of Western capitalist states-are now 
demonstrating their complete impotence in dealing with the new course of 
imperialist competition, which is seeing the emergence of new and 
insidious forces demanding recognition of their role in the world 
market. The imperialist balance of power is thus shifting in a 
contradictory scenario, where international relations are no longer 
governed by diplomatic agreements and international law, but by the 
irremediable brutality of the balance of power between the major 
economic and military powers.In this scenario, the United States refuses 
to resign itself to its decline and decides to dictate the rules with 
increasing and evident brutality, without any mediation, as it did in 
the past. Another important aspect to highlight is the so-called 
"campist" camp, well represented within a Stalinist-derived left that is 
far from dormant. As in the era of "real socialism," the current 
Venezuelan regime is also touted as socialist and therefore worthy of 
defense against what is believed to be the only existing imperialism, 
the US, which has exploited and oppressed Latin America for over 150 
years. Such reasoning ignores the social and class implications of the 
Venezuelan national bourgeoisie's desire to free itself from US 
imperialism and the bourgeois elements that have benefited from it, in 
order to directly manage the country's resources. To achieve this goal, 
the national bourgeoisie necessarily becomes anti-imperialist, giving 
rise to "Bonapartist" regimes that pursue a relationship with the lower 
classes aimed at unifying the homeland against imperialism. Such an aim 
implies significant social reforms to improve the miserable living 
conditions of broad segments of the population, thus combating 
underdevelopment and backwardness. This is undoubtedly positive, but it 
cannot be ignored that these objectives represent the hegemonic 
interests pursued by the Venezuelan national bourgeoisie, as the 
governing force, with an authoritarian tendency aimed at repressing all 
forms of social and class dissent. In a period in which the mechanisms 
of capital valorization enter into crisis, war becomes a concrete 
prospect that opens the way to the entire militarization of societies: 
the living conditions of the subaltern classes are attacked, trade 
unions weakened, national and international bourgeois law and 
institutions are reduced to impotence, and struggles are repressed 
within the emerging framework of a war economy that sees the resurgence 
of militarism with all its patriotic and reactionary myths that 
undermine historic civil conquests and presuppose national unity against 
the enemy lurking at the borders, according to the traditional cliché of 
imperialist wars.which has also exploited and oppressed the Latin 
American continent for over 150 years. Such reasoning ignores the social 
and class implications of the Venezuelan national bourgeoisie's desire 
to free itself from US imperialism and the bourgeois elements that have 
benefited from it, in order to directly manage the country's resources. 
To achieve this goal, the national bourgeoisie necessarily becomes 
anti-imperialist, giving rise to "Bonapartist" regimes that pursue a 
relationship with the lower classes aimed at unifying the country 
against imperialism. Such an aim implies significant social reforms to 
improve the miserable living conditions of broad segments of the 
population, thus combating underdevelopment and backwardness. This is 
undoubtedly positive, but it cannot be ignored that these objectives 
represent the hegemonic interests that the Venezuelan national 
bourgeoisie pursues, as the governing force, with an authoritarian 
tendency aimed at repressing any form of social and class dissent. In a 
period in which the mechanisms of capital valorization enter into 
crisis, war becomes a concrete prospect that opens the way to the entire 
militarization of societies: the living conditions of the subaltern 
classes are attacked, trade unions weakened, national and international 
bourgeois law and institutions are reduced to impotence, and struggles 
are repressed within the emerging framework of a war economy that sees 
the resurgence of militarism with all its patriotic and reactionary 
myths that undermine historic civil conquests and presuppose national 
unity against the enemy lurking at the borders, according to the 
traditional cliché of imperialist wars.which has also exploited and 
oppressed the Latin American continent for over 150 years. Such 
reasoning ignores the social and class implications of the Venezuelan 
national bourgeoisie's desire to free itself from US imperialism and the 
bourgeois elements that have benefited from it, in order to directly 
manage the country's resources. To achieve this goal, the national 
bourgeoisie necessarily becomes anti-imperialist, giving rise to 
"Bonapartist" regimes that pursue a relationship with the lower classes 
aimed at unifying the country against imperialism. Such an aim implies 
significant social reforms to improve the miserable living conditions of 
broad segments of the population, thus combating underdevelopment and 
backwardness. This is undoubtedly positive, but it cannot be ignored 
that these objectives represent the hegemonic interests that the 
Venezuelan national bourgeoisie pursues, as the governing force, with an 
authoritarian tendency aimed at repressing any form of social and class 
dissent. In a period in which the mechanisms of capital valorization 
enter into crisis, war becomes a concrete prospect that opens the way to 
the entire militarization of societies: the living conditions of the 
subaltern classes are attacked, trade unions weakened, national and 
international bourgeois law and institutions are reduced to impotence, 
and struggles are repressed within the emerging framework of a war 
economy that sees the resurgence of militarism with all its patriotic 
and reactionary myths that undermine historic civil conquests and 
presuppose national unity against the enemy lurking at the borders, 
according to the traditional cliché of imperialist wars.In a period in 
which the mechanisms of capital valorization enter into crisis, war 
becomes a concrete prospect that opens the way to the entire 
militarization of societies: the living conditions of the subaltern 
classes are attacked, trade unions weakened, national and international 
bourgeois law and institutions are reduced to impotence, and struggles 
are repressed within the emerging framework of a war economy that sees 
the resurgence of militarism with all its patriotic and reactionary 
myths that undermine historic civil conquests and presuppose national 
unity against the enemy lurking at the borders, according to the 
traditional cliché of imperialist wars.In a period in which the 
mechanisms of capital valorization enter into crisis, war becomes a 
concrete prospect that opens the way to the entire militarization of 
societies: the living conditions of the subaltern classes are attacked, 
trade unions weakened, national and international bourgeois law and 
institutions are reduced to impotence, and struggles are repressed 
within the emerging framework of a war economy that sees the resurgence 
of militarism with all its patriotic and reactionary myths that 
undermine historic civil conquests and presuppose national unity against 
the enemy lurking at the borders, according to the traditional cliché of 
imperialist wars.

In Italy, too, the scenario perfectly fits the aforementioned cliché, of 
which the recent budget law is the most coherent consequence: profits 
and income are protected through a class-based tax policy that protects 
capital and tolerates tax evasion; social services such as healthcare, 
education, social security, public housing, and transportation are being 
cut; the loss of purchasing power of wages, widespread unemployment and 
the spread of precarious employment, workplace deaths, environmental 
devastation, and the unlivability of the countryside are being ignored; 
information is becoming increasingly regime-controlled, and the 
struggles of workers, students, and youth movements are being responded 
to with repression; the rights of women and the less protected sectors 
of society are being attacked; intolerance toward the weakest and toward 
diversity is being fueled, in a context that sees the resurgence of 
patriarchy, racism, and openly fascist expressions being persecuted at 
the individual, collective, and organizational levels. Throughout 
society, especially in schools of all levels, militaristic poison is 
spreading, aimed at shaping a war mentality. This is what has been 
repeatedly declared by military leaders of various states and by NATO 
Secretary General Rutte, and is necessary to better manage the huge 
rearmament expenditures planned for the coming years, paid for, as we 
have already documented, by resources plundered from the lower classes. 
Imperialist aggression is fought not with government action but with a 
united social mobilization that arises from below and consolidates 
itself phase by phase. Therefore, mass demonstrations against war, its 
victims, and its destruction are welcome, in the knowledge that "the 
battle is long and the enemies are numerous, but we will be even more 
numerous, we will always be more numerous. Tomorrow is ours, comrades." 
But the statement we also quote in the epigraph is not enough: this 
beautiful exhortation, to become real, requires the conscious action of 
the organized political minority, operating within the reality of the 
class struggle to defend its autonomy and to sustain the conflict in 
phases of crisis and defeat, in order to return to victory. This is the 
ambitious task we have set ourselves.

https://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/wpAL/
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