Mike and Andy talk through some of the implications of the “world order’s collapse,” as Canada’s PM puts it, the new assault on Rojava, and the winding treacheries of UK politics.  The post Anarchist News Review: “World order” in tatters and Rojava under attack appeared first on Freedom News.

ACTION MEDICS REPORT FROM RECENT DEMOS IN SWITZERLAND ~ Sanitätskollektiv Zürich ~ Between 17 and 20 January 2026, Sanitätskollektiv Zürich provided independent medical support at three demonstrations in Bern, Zurich and Winterthur. Across these protests — against the World Economic Forum (WEF) and in solidarity with Rojava — we observed extensive police deployments, the repeated use of force, and, in Bern in particular, systematic obstruction of medical access to injured people. On 17 January, three of our medics accompanied the unpermitted Smash-WEF demonstration in Bern. A march was prevented from going ahead by a massive police operation involving barrier vehicles, batons, pepper spray and fists. More than one hundred people were held for hours in a police kettle. Throughout the deployment we repeatedly observed disproportionate police action, which also denied us access to injured people. Even before the planned start at 3 p.m., numerous police units were present at Bern main station, carrying out identity checks. When the assembly formed on the station square, Bern cantonal police announced that only a static rally would be tolerated and that a march would be prevented. Several hundred officers, barrier vehicles and water cannons then sealed off the area. The demonstration was forced to circle within the police cordon and was gradually pushed towards the Church of the Holy Spirit, where it was kettled from around 4 p.m. Police then carried out multiple, sometimes violent, arrests. A detained person reported the use of rubber bullets fired at short distance from barrier vehicles inside the kettle. Demonstrators were pressed together by police vehicles, pepper spray was used against people in the kettle, and after our deployment ended we continued to receive messages from people injured by pepper spray near the station. On 19 January, four of our medics supported two demonstrations in Zurich: the authorised “Trump not welcome” march, attended by around 3,000 people, and a subsequent unpermitted protest in solidarity with Rojava. During the authorised demonstration there were no injuries. However, police presence was strikingly heavy compared to other demonstrations of similar size, with even small side streets blocked by barrier vehicles and water cannons positioned pre-emptively. After the final rally at Helvetiaplatz, around 800 people — led by a Kurdish and a revolutionary bloc — set off on another march. Following an accident involving a sound truck, which we treated on site, the march developed into a street blockade. Police issued dispersal orders and then deployed water cannons, some jets directed at specific groups. When objects and pyrotechnics were thrown by a small number of demonstrators, police additionally used irritants and rubber bullets. As a result of the extensive use of force, several people were injured. To dissolve a peaceful demonstration with tear gas projectiles and high-pressure water jets is, in our view, not proportionate. On 20 January, three of our medics accompanied a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Rojava in Winterthur, attended by families with children. Without warning or audible instructions, police fired blank shots from launchers at 6:45 p.m. and again later at close range, and deployed pepper spray. When demonstrators were pressed close to police lines, irritants and physical force were used without any apparent opportunity to leave the situation. We treated a low double-digit number of patients for eye and respiratory irritation, panic attacks and brief losses of consciousness. One person was handed over to the ambulance service. Across all three days, a clear pattern emerged: heavy policing, early escalation, and in Bern the outright denial of medical access. These practices endanger demonstrators and undermine both the right to protest and the provision of urgent medical care. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine-assisted edit from Barrikade.info The post Repression at WEF and Rojava protests appeared first on Freedom News.

ICE-STYLE RAID AT ROME’S TERMINI STATION SHOWS THE MELONI GOVERNMENT’S SIEGE AESTHETICS, WITH THE POLICE AS AN OCCUPYING FORCE ~ Observatorio Repressione ~ What unfolded at Termini station on 14 January was no ordinary security check. It was a show of power. Helicopters hovered over the tracks, there were dogs, blocked streets, men in uniform everywhere. Hundreds of people were identified, few detained, a few arrested. A monumental spectacle designed to send a clear message: we’re in charge here. This isn’t security. This is armed propaganda. Balaclavas aside, the script is crystal clear. Last Thursday’s operation in Rome follows a precise model: that of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the United States. The “Trumptruppen,” as they were sarcastically but accurately called. The same muscular aesthetic, the same intimidating logic, the same obsession with the internal enemy. Migrants, the poor, the marginalised: perfect targets for building consensus through fear. If it was just theatre, we could file it as farce. But it’s not. In the days immediately preceding, while helicopters took off and the dogs sniffed, criminal complaints rained down — including against minors — for protesting genocide in Palestine and in solidarity with the Flotilla. Repression in the squares and that in the stations are the same thing: two sides of a single project. While uniforms occupied public space, work was in full swing behind desks. A new Security Bill and a new Security Decree: some 60 measures to guarantee what was once called “law and order” and is now sold under the more presentable name of “security.” It is the second crackdown since the April decree, the first to be truly alarming for the country’s democratic stability. And it won’t be the last. Nor the second to last. Something has changed, and is changing rapidly, in the strategy of the government led by Giorgia Meloni and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. That something has a name and surname: Donald Trump. Not just as a political ally, but as an operational model. Total securitisation, the aesthetics of siege, the police as an occupying force. The idea that governing means flexing one’s muscles, not solving problems. The Termini raid is a manifesto: identify to intimidate, arrest to demonstrate, strike to educate. The judicial outcome doesn’t matter; what counts is image. Substantive legality doesn’t matter; what matters is the perception of strength. It’s the ICE logic transplanted to Italy: a state that shows off to convince “its own” and terrorise “others.” Meanwhile, the regulatory groundwork is being prepared: more police powers , more searches, more “preventive” detentions, more administrative sanctions. Fewer rights, fewer guarantees, less room for dissent. Security as a club, not as protection. Social conflict treated as a pathology to be repressed, not as an issue to be addressed. Anyone who speaks of “security” is lying, knowing they’re lying. Because nothing is safe in a city transformed into a military set. Nothing is safe in a country that criminalises poverty and represses solidarity . Nothing is safe in a government that copies the worst authoritarian models from overseas and dresses them in the Italian flag. The raid at Termini station is not an exception. It’s a warning. Meloni and Piantedosi’s dream is clear: an ICE-style police force, a low-intensity democracy, a society governed by fear. It’s up to us to decide whether to accept the role of extra in this spectacle or break the scenery. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation The post Italy: Rehearsal for a police state appeared first on Freedom News.

NEW TARIFF THREATS SHOW HOW POINTLESS IT IS TO GROVEL: YOU JUST GET KICKED IN THE FACE ~ punkacademic ~ Britain’s modest contribution to a European attempt to bolster Greenland’s defences in the face of annexation by the United States has met with immediate economic warfare. Trump’s announcement that Denmark and Greenland’s would-be backers would be hit with 10% tariffs from 1 February has left the commentariat struggling to explain how the approach they have lionised for months — Starmer doing whatever Trump wants — has failed. When Trump held court last summer at Turnberry for his vassals to pay homage and subordinate themselves, it was obvious to all but the most delusional European elites that the Emperor was exacting tribute. They, too, would now do all they could to simper and fawn to avoid the worst of it. Even Starmer’s nominal support for Denmark and Greenland was a mere sentence in an obsequious eulogy for the ‘special relationship’ in his address on Monday. The Starmer approach has been praised by state media as cautious, sensible, unlike the “juvenile” idea of standing on principle. And this, it was argued (often by useful idiot Chris Mason), would lead to results. The definition, then, of centrist politics as seen by its true believers: astute manipulation. Starmer and the leaders of other European countries even failed to leave X for fear of offending Elon Musk. Except it was all total bullshit. Starmer’s tech deal is dead. Von der Leyen’s EU deal is dead too. Trump’s announcement of new tariffs proves the point that grovelling, as NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte memorably did, is pointless. You just get kicked in the face. According to the Guardian, ‘some Greenland residents are now preparing for the worst, either stocking up on supplies or readying themselves to flee quickly’. So much for 3D chess. Leaders will not, in the end, ‘protect’ you. Britons should worry too. Politically, the UK is uniquely exposed amongst European nations to the change of weather in the US. After Brexit divided Britain from the EU and did severe harm to the UK economy, successive British governments bet the farm on a deal with a country over three thousand miles away, instead of the trading bloc twenty miles away. Britain’s military, too, is reliant on its US overlord. From nukes to F-35s, Britain is in hock to America. US nukes are parked up at Lakenheath, 80 miles northeast of London. But whilst the military is to the forefront of the mind when states ‘beef’ (as Bakunin knew they always would), the dependence of Britain and other European states on the US is more prosaic. British and European tech infrastructure is overwhelmingly dependent on hardware and software provided by US firms. Apart from the headline-grabbing contracts being awarded to Peter Thiel’s Palantir by the government on everything from health data to defence targeting, most businesses rely on US-based cloud hosting and software-as-a-service, provided by the likes of Amazon and Microsoft. The Dutch government recently was forced to nationalise, then privatise, a Dutch tech company in response to US whims as Trump sought a deal with China. British ‘leaders’ long cultivated a delusion that Britain could be ‘Greece to America’s Rome’ — providing quality and wisdom to a younger, more powerful, partner. Again bullshit, but it allowed generations of British politicians to languish in shibboleths such as ‘our armed forces are the best in the world’ because they’d seen Roger Moore ski off a cliff with a Union Jack parachute after they’d eaten their Sunday roast. Other European nations were less delusional, notably France with its longstanding scepticism of American influence and the NATO project. But most Western European nations’ political elites subscribed to a view of the US as an essentially-benign imperial power — at least as far as they were concerned. Whilst the US was happily killing millions in ‘anti-communist’ wars around the world, European nations — as Vincent Bevins notes in The Jakarta Method — were allowed to have social democratic welfare states. The common thread of course was white supremacy. The US would tolerate things in Western Europe that it wouldn’t elsewhere. Now that tolerance is gone. The US National Security Strategy, recently published, is an imperialist’s dream and arrogates to the US the power to intervene in Western European countries, ostensibly to defend the West in a doctrine that is essentially a repackaged far-right conspiracy theory. As anarchists we are no apologists for states or for warmongering institutions such as NATO. But the unvarnished reality of empire red in tooth and claw abroad is not distinct from the terror visited upon US citizens by ICE, including the murder of Renee Nicole Good. But that means the response isn’t either. States cannot solve the problems states create. The American state’s wars against its own people or those abroad will not be ended by rival militaries. They will be stopped by people acting collectively, in the US and around the world. As ICE has been driven out of restaurants, chased back to their compounds, publicly named and shamed by citizen journalists, so too can the mass power of people drive out US bases from countries around the globe and mass non-compliance, mass boycotts of US goods, deliver effects. The likes of Keir Starmer can never save us. We can only save ourselves. Greenlanders, Minnesotans, all of us know this in our core. With thousands of people marching on the US consulate in Greenland, this power is visible. And when made visible, it can also be broken. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Images: Wikimedia Commons, White House on Flickr The post Only people, not ‘leaders’, can stop Trump’s empire appeared first on Freedom News.

AS THE RUBBLE THREW UP DUST, TRUMP REFUSED FOOD AID TO AS MANY AS 40 MILLION AMERICANS ~ Louis Further ~ With the usual caveat that anarchists attach scant value to voting and elections, it’s of concern that last month the US Supreme Court significantly undermined Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; this contains measures to ensure that electoral districts in any one state are arranged in rough proportion to its racial demographics. The Court has ruled that Louisiana cannot make such adjustments. Black votes now count for less. Elsewhere Republican-voting states are redrawing their electoral maps to favour white voters so actively and speedily that some legal commentators and ‘SCOTUS-watchers’ fear that this ruling could effectively result in permanent electoral majorities for the Republican (which now means far right/fascist) Party. The president is also widening his moves to overwrite the past—in this case by pardoning both more of those who tried to overturn the 2020 election in his favour and many of those found guilty of associated crimes. As the Court heard concluding oral arguments in this landmark voting rights case, the country’s president was publicly expressing major concerns about the way in which Time magazine had represented his haircut. He was also paying for the partial demolition of the White House with funds from supporters of genocide and abduction of non-whites by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), whose actions become ever more ferocious and sadistic. As the rubble threw up dust, Trump proved what a good Christian he is by refusing—illegally—to use the (non-charitable) resources mandated to feed perhaps as many as 40 million residents going hungry because of his government shutdown. This was quickly blamed on immigrants and trans people. Trump did, though, find the money to refurbish a bathroom in what he now seems to regard as his permanent home. Other signs of the extent to which Trump/MAGA cult is out of control (despite the fact that there is still little public contextual recognition of what is happening) are the sacking of those who refer to his attempted Putsch on January 6 2021 in a way of which he disapproves. Similarly, those who publicly criticise US support for Israel’s genocide often lose their jobs. Fascist senators like Ted Cruz (Texas) have legislation further to criminalise dissent. The media, of course, is feebly—if at all—trying to fend off blows from Trump, as he widens his reach to silence critics abroad. Correspondingly few are any murmurs that—although Trump is immune from legal consequences as president—those who ‘carry out his orders’ are not. MAGA cult members know that they need to stay in office indefinitely to retain that immunity. Judges’ demands for ‘accountability’ from ICE as it abducts and traffics non-whites across the country are being ignored. The ‘No Kings’ demonstrations on 18 October were estimated to have attracted more protesters than their equivalent in June by nearly 50%… seven million—or over 2% of the total population of the United States. Some sources are beginning to talk about the ‘2.5% rule‘. It would also be nice if such varied demonstrations do more than induce feelings of solidarity amongst those attending. But criticism of MAGA/Trump remains too ‘soft’ and disparate to make much impact; and lacks awareness of either the historical or geopolitical import of this resurgence of fascism. Trump’s response was characteristically vulgar. RACISM Trump and the MAGA merchants (some of whom now openly display Nazi flags) have surprised few recently by delivering themselves of a swill of offensive opinions. That slavery is and was a good thing; that racism is OK too. Vance, US vice president, stood up for such racism as this in his party and said that nobody wants to live next door to someone whose first language isn’t English; and that foreign nationals who criticised Charlie Kirk should be deported. Other forms of official government sadism include diminishing the support offered by what remains of the Department of Education responsible for young people with special needs by sacking those workers. Prosecutions for those abusing animals are also falling. Hatred is ever-present among Trump’s loyalists and ‘partners’: holocaust denier and antisemite Nick Fuentes, for instance, was given supportive exposure by prominent far right commentator Tucker Carlson—an event quickly endorsed by The Heritage Foundation, which is responsible for Project 2025, the blueprint of this administration. HEALTH ‘Policy’ in those government agencies formerly responsible for public health is increasingly based on the assumption that only the fittest deserve to survive This time last month 1,300 employees at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) were sacked—by email, without warning, without reason. This is a trend demoralising and frightening career professionals for months. Everyone has gone from the team that uses data of outbreaks in reports and guidance for the public. So have ‘epidemic intelligence service officers’ who detected and tracked emerging threats so as to mitigate their effects. And so on and so on, despite the by now familiar uncertainties and chaos around Scotch mist re-instatements. An estimated third of all employees at the CDC have now lost their jobs—on top of an expected additional 50% cut in budgets next year. Some commentators see this as a cruel experiment in just how far the deliberate and frenzied withdrawal of vital public health services from a society can go before collapse ensues. This is almost certainly only the first ‘act’ though… several ‘directives’ in Project 2025, which at first sight appear to be advocating [pdf] greater ‘efficiency’ are actually destructive and sinister; they envisage the replacement of dismissed staff (who are almost all highly experienced experts) with toadies, whose key attribute is not medical but loyalty to the fascist dogma which holds MAGA together. The way that Trump and his cabinet, including RF Kennedy Junior (who appeared the ‘flee the scene’ of a recent medial emergency), are stuffing their team, and diluting science with right-leaning anti-health dogma is alarming in the extreme.   The post Notes from the US: The fascist bathroom appeared first on Freedom News.

L'amministrazione Trump vuole creare un sistema di sorveglianza di massa per scoprire gli immigrati irregolari analizzando i contenuti sui social media. L’amministrazione Trump ha previsto di creare un team di sorveglianza che aiuterà l’ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) a trovare immigrati clandestini attraverso la scansione dei contenuti pubblicati sui social media. La scorsa settimana, Apple e Google hanno rimosso dai rispettivi store alcune app che permettevano di segnalare la posizione degli agenti dell’ICE. In base ai documenti pubblicati sulla piattaforma per gli appalti, l’agenzia federale cerca fornitori privati per un programma di sorveglianza. Un team di 28 esperti, che lavorerà nelle sedi dell’ICE in Vermont e Sud California, avrà il compito di analizzare i contenuti pubblicati su Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube e altri social media per raccogliere informazioni utili all’individuazione di immigrati clandestini. Ovviamente verrà anche utilizzata l’intelligenza artificiale. Articolo qui

Quanto mi piacciono i libri dai quali esco sapendone qualcosa in più rispetto a quando ci ero entrato! Volevo fosse il caso dello spillato di Federico Fubini, omaggiato dal “Corriere della Sera” del trenta giugno. Titolo: Dazi. Sottotitolo: Il secolo della guerra economica. In copertina: guantone a stelle strisce contro guantone a stelle europee, perché l’immaginario italo-americano resta affezionato allo Stallone di Balboa, e nel sottopancia un istogramma in dissolvenza, come fossero grattacieli lynchiani.  In effetti i guantoni, il sinistro sulla destra che cozza col destro sulla sinistra, potrebbero essere dello stesso pugile, per cui il dubbio: è una guerra autolesionista, e schizoide, se non proprio l’ennesimo show per un pubblico pagante pago di vedere gli altri darsi apparenti botte da orbi, in pieno stile wrestler, restando cieco di fronte all’evidenza che a finire pestato più di tutti resterà lui, pubblico spettatore, e non certo i proprietari dell’arena, i fornitori, i preparatori atletici, i lottatori in scena, gli sponsor dell’evento, le emittenze varie e eventuali? L’estenuante guerra vinta dai ricchi che continuano a dichiararne, terrorizzati come sono dall’idea di esserlo meno. Guerre combattute dai poveri, magari lo fossero solo di spirito, contro i poveri di volta in volta convinti di averlo finalmente trovato il ricco che renderà ricco anche loro, alla faccia di chi povero lo resterà anche stavolta perché avrà puntato sul ricco sbagliato, neanche l’errore madornale non fosse continuare a stare nello stesso gioco della guerra su cui si fonda la straricchezza di quei ricchi che sanno arruolare i poveri con la sola promessa di ricchezza, guadagnandoci pure, arricchendosi assecondando la propria natura, del resto i poveri non stanno tanto a sottilizzare tra una povertà e una ancora peggiore. Almeno per un po’ si saranno illusi di qualcosa, un altro niente di fatto è pur sempre meglio del solito niente di prima.   Metti il dazio, togli il dazio, questo dazio qua spostalo là e quello là mettilo qua, la politica doganale trumpiana è esilarante, è il gioco degli “assetti del potere” che sta creando “ostacoli al commercio internazionale” facendo barcollare nella sola Europa “trenta milioni di posti di lavoro”, ciò non toglie non serva un Dario Fo per metterla in opera buffa: sembra proprio di stare nella favola dell’imperatore che brontola nell’attesa di quel bimbo che lo punterà a dito per dirgli quant’è nudo, stufo – l’imperatore – di dover continuare a andare in giro chiappe all’arie rischiando di buscarsi polmoniti, alla sua età!, attorniato da comprimari il cui massimo sforzo critico è civettare un Presidente, ma quanto le dona la calzamaglia color carne! Che lo scenario economico e quindi geopolitico mondiale sia favoloso lo scrive Fubini stesso, ricordando come degli “organismi internazionali dalle regole condivise quali il Fondo monetario internazionale, la Banca mondiale o l’Organizzazione mondiale del commercio” ormai resta “quasi solo il guscio: vuoto come la corazza del Cavaliere inesistente del romanzo di Italo Calvino.” L’avverarsi delle ambizioni della sinistra più antagonista, per opera del suo antagonista più spavaldo e beffardo.  Di macroeconomia e dunque del nocciolo della politica cosa mai ne posso capire io lettore di letteratura, in particolar modo di quegli scrittori che tante volte provocano tali buchi a bilancio cheppoi va da sé gli editori debbano stampare chef, tiktoker, ex-presidenti del Consiglio e giallisti tinti di nero per non doversi riciclare del tutto in copisterie di catena? Non ho le carte, non faccio deal, sono profano al punto da trovare brillante una sintesi associativa che immagino del tutto usurata per indicare gli effetti dell’economia finanziaria su quella reale, “da Wall Street a Main Street”, e da mandare giù come pillola prescritta dello specialista la descrizione di stablecoin: le chiamiamole valute “digitali private sostenute da depositi, per lo più in dollari, di valore equivalente”.   Sono il corrispettivo italiano di quegli americani, stimati il 38% del totale, “che non possiedono azioni quotate alla Borsa di New York e che non hanno altro che debiti”, convinti – erroneamente – “di avere poco a che fare con l’andamento di Wall Street e molto da perdere dalla globalizzazione”, dico erroneamente perché se il 38% di americani azioni non ne ha, il restante 62% sì, e se si rovinano economicamente due americani su tre, il terzo non si arricchirà certo a loro spese, anzi: loro le spese le ridurranno, potendosele comunque permettere, e sarà proprio il terzo, ulteriormente colpito dalle contrazioni del mercato, a rimetterci il poco che aveva e vedere ancora più lontana la possibilità di acquistarla una Ferrari, ora che l’azienda “ha alzato i suoi listini del 10% prima ancora che entrassero effettivamente i vigori i dazi al 25% sulle auto in arrivo negli Stati Uniti.” Per dire: le conseguenze della guerra dei dazi non potranno mai essere le stesse per chi dovrà rinviare all’anno prossimo l’acquisto di una Ferrari e per chi già da ora deve pagare “spesso anche il 28% sulle loro carte di credito: interessi da mafia dei colletti bianchi, che in Europa verrebbero puniti per il reato di usura”. Da lettore non specialista ho l’ambizione anti-economica che Vollmann rielabori in centinaia e centinaia di pagine psichedeliche il materiale che Fubini precipita nel capitolo che in Dazi ne conta soltanto tredici: La storia nelle vite di tre uomini: Clinton, Stiglitz e Vance. Per essere più sintetici di Fubini: Stiglitz, nato in una steel town 82 anni fa, aveva capito per tempo “che la globalizzazione beneficia i detentori di capitale e i lavoratori con diplomi di college o con master in università prestigiose, nei Paesi avanzati; ma svantaggia chi non ha né qualifica né capitali” e aveva fatto in modo che il messaggio arrivasse a Clinton quando era lui il Presidente. Clitton il 20 aprile del 1999 dalla libreria della Casa Bianca disse: “Questo è il momento di agire per impedire che le crisi finanziarie raggiungano livelli catastrofici in futuro.”  Dopodiché non si agì affatto, e qui entra in scena Vance, nato in una steel town circa quaranta anni dopo Stiglitz, solo che Vance non diventa un economista anche premio Nobel e saggista prolifico tanto acquistato quanto ignorato come Stiglitz: Vance a 32 anni pubblica Elegia americana prima di diventare vicepresidente degli States a 40, rappresentando in pieno la narrazione dell’elettorato di Trump: uno che non ci crede più ai rimedi macroeconomici di uno Stiglitz, uno che rivuole la fabbrica in casa anche se da casa sua sta espellendo i migranti indispensabili per coprire la forza lavoro richiesta. Vance vuole riscatto ovvero vendetta subito, Promuovendo l’America Grande Ancora, il cui acronimo un italiano forse rende meglio l’idea. E se sostituissimo Promuovendo con Costruendo?  Riflessione: lo scrittore di autofiction Vance ha e ha avuto un effetto sul mondo cosiddetto reale molto più sensibile dello stimato e inascoltato saggista Stiglitz. Dipende dai lettori che raggiungi, da come li raggiungi, da cosa gli racconti, se quello che racconti a quegli stessi lettori piaccia doverlo sentirselo dire, dopo essersi dovuti prendere persino l’impegno di leggerlo, per ascoltarlo.   E cosa dovrebbe gridare il bambino europeo al petulante imperatore nordamericano che lascia indizi peggio di Pollicino, sbottando ogni tanto un vagamente depistante meglio un jockstrap in filo spinato che un fottuto kimono di seta cinese? Scrive Fubini: chiamare col suo nome la coercizione economica fra Stati che è l’ultima moda del commercio internazionale, poiché  > “In sostanza Trump e Bessent [il Segretario del Tesoro] potrebbero stare > cercando di mettere l’Europa davanti a una brutale alternativa: comprare > debito americano man mano che viene emesso – e comprarlo malgrado rendimenti > contenuti – oppure rischiare di perdere l’accesso al mercato dei consumatori > americani e a quel che resta dell’ombrello di sicurezza del Pentagono.”  Che gli unici valori realmente difesi dalle civiltà egemoni odierne o meno, quelli per i quali sono disposte ad architettare aggressioni verso tutto e tutti dalle soft alle ultrahard, siano quelli che ci stanno in una borsa, specialmente se la Borsa è la loro, per capirlo mica bisognava aspettare il ventunesimo secolo e leggere Fubini! Bastava l’Ottocento e leggere Balzac. O Bel Ami di Maupassant, che secondo me è la più bella biografia mai scritta sui normalissimi uomini di potere, e dei secoli precedenti al 1885, anno in cui fu pubblicato, e di quelli a venire. Per le mire dell’America made-in-Trump verso la per nulla virginale Europa può valere il trattamento che George Duroy riservò alla ammansita, cavalcata e pussata via signora Walter: lei  > “D’un tratto, smise di lottare e, vinta, rassegnata, si lasciò spogliare.” antonio coda L'articolo Letteratura da manuale. Per capire i dazi bisogna leggere Maupassant (mica Fubini…) proviene da Pangea.

EVEN MORE PREDICTABLE THAN THE RISE OF FASCISM AROUND THE GLOBE HAS BEEN ITS SHARP DESCENT INTO INFIGHTING AND BICKERING ~ Sourdough ~ The coalitions that had propelled the far right resurgence have begun to break down. With of Elon Musk recent split from Trump, the tech right is acting like a microcosm of how fascism cemented once again within state power will work. Having failed to successfully cut the federal government’s spending by his intended $2 trillion —–and jumping ship to rescue his flailing stock prices—the rapid deterioration of Musk and Trump’s relationship has become something of public laughingstock. What likely began as a feud over electric vehicle subsidies, and ostensibly the budget, deficit soon climaxed in Trump’s top campaign donor accusing him officially of being a paedophile, and top Trump stooges calling for Musk’s deportation. Following this blow-up and subsequent celebration, however, there has been a period of détente, and it grows increasingly likely that the feud will simply be paved over and forgotten to allow the right to be re-integrated. So what does this mean for those of us without the carefully calibrated amnesia of a fascist? The first takeaway is that the fascists are not as secure in their position as they may seem. The brutality they so often express outwardly will repeatedly turn inward once their self-styled ‘drive for action’ becomes momentarily unsatisfied. Fascism thrives on conflict. By perpetuating conflict and a general state of warfare against the human race and human mind, fascism may distract from its immiseration of even its most fervent supporters, an outsourcing campaign of diversion, whether cultural, ideological, or based on external  features. To fuel its forward propulsion, fascism must continually cannibalise itself and its supporters. No easier can this be seen than in the Nazi’s ‘Night of the Long Knives’, when the brownshirts who had done their utmost for fascism to gain power were liquidated by the same monster they had helped to create. Although not its first victims, the fascists themselves will inevitably be their regime’s last. The second takeaway is that fascists have no solidarity, or if they do it is the solidarity of vultures. The world is for now their rotting corpse, and they are only allied so long as it helps them pick it clean. In a worldview where opportunism and strength overwhelm all other urges, constant backstabbing and jockeying for power are inevitable. Fascism is foremost an ideology of victimhood—at the hands of foreign and internal enemies. By victimising others, and outsourcing their suffering to someone lower on the ladder, fascists overcome their own humiliation as well as ensuring their inevitable place among future victims. Rather than banding together in solidarity, fascism teaches survival of the fittest and permanent war. It is the perfect ideology for capitalism’s de-classed: increasingly isolated, materially impoverished, and always angry. Instead of solidarity fascism teaches a sort of ‘individualism of fools’: you are special and unique, and yet something is foiling your flourishing, and therefore you must outsource your agency to these great men who now control your fate, squabbling on television. The struggle for the liberation of humanity—for a stateless, classless society—must also include liberating people from the hold of these dangerous ideologies. Not out of sympathy, but simply as a byproduct of our desire to free all humanity from all forms of oppression. As our enemies engage in warfare amongst themselves, they demonstrate how un-sustainable their own system is. No doubt this infighting will continue to grow, even if for now it is hastily forgotten and contained. The death of fascism will come by a thousand cuts, many internal. The more they struggle to enact and shape their despotism, the more they will fall on and victimise each other. We must continue to resist in any way possible. Give nothing, and you give them the weapons to harm themselves. The way forward is through the mouth of the fascist beast together, while it chases its own tail. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image: Parrhesiastes CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 The post The fascists eat themselves appeared first on Freedom News.

THE SLIPPAGE FROM CONTAINING WMDS TO CALLS FOR REGIME CHANGE RINGS ALL TO FAMILIAR — BUT WARS’ MAIN FUNCTION IS STILL TO PRESERVE REGIMES ~ Simon, Andy and Uri discuss this weeks headlines, including the scorching weather, the mountain-to-molehill cheapening of terrorism charges, direct action in Germany, and ruling-class realignment in Britain and the USA The post Anarchist News Review: Israel-Iran war, Kneecap and attacks on Amazon appeared first on Freedom News.

ALTHOUGH THE ROLE IS SYMBOLIC, KAROL NAWROCKI WILL CONTINUE TO BLOCK ANY LIBERAL REFORM WHILE FASCISM GAINS GROUND ~ Nikita Ivansky ~ After the first presidential election polls were published on Sunday, it seemed like Polish society had just dodged the bullet—the far-right Karol Nawrocki trailed the centrist Rafał Trzaskowski by only 1%. Several hours later it became clear that the far-right had won, which means the governmental deadlock in Poland will most likely continue until the next parliamentary elections. To a certain extent, Nawrocki is the Polish version of Trump: an inexperienced politician surrounded by dozens of scandals that don’t affect his popularity among conservatives. Unlike the US president, however, the Polish president has very limited power, mostly symbolic. The only thing that makes Nawrocki problematic is his presidential power of veto, which will continue to block any reforms proposed by the current liberal conservatives running the country. The current prime minister, Donald Tusk, had similar problems with the outgoing far-right president, Andrzej Duda. Of course, anti-migrant legislation continues to be passed by the current government without the far right placing any obstacles. For example, the recent revocation of the right to asylum passed by the ruling coalition was signed quickly by Duda. This only reinforces the crisis of liberal politics, which has failed to develop a reasonable response to the rise of the far right. On the other hand, the Polish government failed to pass a law that would legalise abortion in the country, which was one of their major promises ahead of their 2023 victory. In fact, parts of the parliamentary majority voted with the right against legalisation. Nawrocki’s victory was also made possible by US conservative support. At the beginning of May, Donald Trump met with Nawrocki to boost his political career. Just a couple of days before the elections, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was held in Warsaw. The results show all of these efforts managed to sway public opinion.  Like elsewhere in Europe, Polish liberals and social democrats are now caught between Russian-funded fascists and US-supported far-right political parties. Anti-authoritarians who work to organise grassroots resistance and mobilise society against these authoritarian forces cannot rely on them as allies. The post Poland: Presidential victory for Trump’s candidate appeared first on Freedom News.