through europe

In piazza del Quirinale la sera del 12 novembre una folla grida a perdifiato: “Galera galera.”
E’ il popolo italiano, che vuoi farci. Feroce con i tiranni che paiono scivolare giù dal piedistallo, dopo averli adorati quando erano trionfanti.
Ma questa volta il branco non è solo feroce, è anche stupido.

Credono che Berlusconi esca di scena, ma la verità è che stiamo assistendo al capolavoro finale di Berlusconi, che lui lo sappia o no, che lui abbia o meno l’energia e l’intelligenza per portare fino alla conclusione la sua avventura anarco-autoritaria. Se il povero vecchio mammasantissima non reggesse all’emozione e al cardiopalma ci sarà qualcuno che prenderà il suo posto, più giovane e più freddo, per condurre in tragedia quella che finora a ieri è stata una farsa costosa e pericolosa. Ricapitoliamo i fatti, per dissipare la nebbia auto-consolatoria scalfariana.

  On Tuesday evening, at the end of another day of petty parliamentary bargaining, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced that he will resign once the Italian budget is approved by the Parliament. This step has allegedly been made to comply with the requests “of the European Commission” (this should probably read the BCE, the IMF, and the financial markets).

After almost twenty years, it seems that the political trajectory of Berlusconi is about to come to an end. In truth, his political career ended at least one year ago, when his parliamentary majority was saved by “persuading” a handful of MPs from the benches of the opposition to change sides.

Imaginémosnos que la protesta del 15O se hubiera desarrollado en la famosa caverna de Platón. La de la alegoría (República, VII). La historia es conocida: dentro de una cueva se hallan unos pobres desgraciados, con las manos y los pies atados desde siempre, que no pueden moverse sino solo mirar una pared. A sus espaldas, un gran fuego. Entre el fuego y ellos hay un entresuelo donde unas personas mueven unos títeres. El fuego proyecta las sombras de los títeres en la pared dando la impresión de que parezcan seres vivos, enormes y aterradores. Los prisioneros no conocen otra realidad que la donde se han criado y, nada más oir a los titiriteros decir unas palabras, ellos piensan que la voz salga de las sombras.

On Friday, at the end of the G20 meeting in Cannes, the President of the EU Commission Josè Barroso announced that “Italy has asked on its initiative to the IMF to monitor its commitment to fiscal and economic reforms.”  This monitoring process will start immediately – next week, Barroso will fly to Rome with a group of IMF inspectors – and will be repeated every three months, in order “to verify” that the Italian Minister of Economy is implementing the “reforms” effectively. Great emphasis was placed on the fact that the Italian government “voluntarily asked” for IMF surveillance.

A disturbing trend has taken place in the aftermath of October 15th in Rome, shaped by mainstream media and multiplied by the social networks. For the first time in Italian history almost an entire country participated in the repression of violent dissent, in the segregation of spaces of alterity, using the same tools that were supposed to denounce the weakness of the turbo-capitalist system. Millions of young adults played the game of the Good Cop, at the expense of three or more decades of civil conquests. Class traitors, fucking police everywhere you turned, even and especially online, worse than in real life. What a depressing bore.