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Beppe Grillo's Children's Crusade - a brief examination of the first millenarian mass-movement of 21st century Europe

Written by Federico Campagna, 28.02.2013
On February 24th and 25th all Italian citizens above the age of 18 were called to vote for the new Parliament. After almost 20 years of declining stagnation under Berlusconi’s rule, and after the brief but devastating experience of ‘austerity politics’ as enforced by Monti, everybody expected the Italian Left to conquer absolute majority in both chambers of the Parliament. Electoral results came as a shock to most: Berlusconi caught up with the Left-wing coalition, gathering almost 30% of the votes, Monti’s party stopped at 10%, while Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S), an as-yet-unseen populist movement led by former TV comedian Beppe Grillo, conquered an unexpected 25% of preferences and became the single most voted party in a hung Parliament.
 
Although there are several interesting aspects to this situation – not least the Left’s astonishing inability to win even under the most favourable conditions, or Berlusconi’s equally astonishing ability to survive against all odds – I would like to focus on Beppe Grillo’s M5S, which constitutes an interesting and dangerous novelty in the Italian and European scenarios.
 

Father

Written by Federico Campagna, 24.01.2013
It was as if time had never been allowed inside the room. There were no windows and no pictures on the walls. Cream wallpaper stretched up to the ceiling, then broke into the circular pattern of shadows projected by the hanging lamps. The synthetic fur covering the floor purred along with the movements of the President’s feet over it. The President looked around the room, then towards a point right a couple of metres behind the screen of his computer. The muscles in his shoulder relaxed, lowering his elbows just below the edge of his desk. He wished that his were still the times of ticking clocks, counting the cascade of minutes as mothers repeat their lullabies night after night. But sound also seemed to have sunk silently into the rug, in the pores of the wallpaper. It had to look like his decision had been taken through doubt and suffering, and he needed the proof of passing hours.

The President run his hand along the balding top of his hair. The foundation was wearing off, and the edge of a scale rubbed against the tip of his fingers. He kept playing with it for a while, running it under his nails, one after the other, as deep as it could go without hurting his flesh. Social etiquette was an unnecessary concern in the depth of his underground bunker. There was no need to conceal his nature any more than a man would silence his bowels in the privacy of his bathroom. After all, it was only a few years earlier that his mutant nature had won him millions of votes during the elections. He had to tame it down to the minimum necessary visual proof, so to appear as reassuring to pure-breed humans as he was to the mutant underclasses. Hence the foundation, the human mannerisms and the elocution classes to help him control the intonation of his speeches – only dropping the mutant accent when required.

Hiding From the Gods: on emancipation and the Public

Written by Federico Campagna, 07.11.2012
Strength through unity, unity through faith
Norsefire
 
Action within unity!
British Union of Fascists, 1932-1940
 
 
The Reflux
 
Ten years after 1968, Italy was probably the only Western European country in which the wave of rebellion and dangerous dreaming of the 60s hadn’t yet exhausted its energy. The desire for autonomy, communism and communization seemed to be deeply rooted both in the hearts of the factory workers and in those of the students. While the institutional apparatus of the P.C.I. appeared determined to entrench itself within the parliamentary framework and the rhetoric of gradual and progressive social change, myriad other groups were still opting for the uncompromising strategy of full communism ‘here and now’. Countless collective experiences, free radios, workers’ associations and even armed groups were, at that time, still blossoming in almost every Italian city.
 

What We Are Fighting For

Written by Federico Campagna, 01.10.2012

 

A brief excerpt from the new volume 'What We Are Fighting For', published by Pluto Press, edited by Federico Campagna and Emanuele Campiglio. Contributors include Franco Berardi Bifo, Mark Fisher, David Graeber, Owen Jones, John Holloway, Saul Newman, Alberto Toscano, Christian Marazzi, Nina Power, Zillah Eisenstein, Michael Albert, Dan Hind, Richard Seymour and Peter Hallward.
 
“Here are the first flowers of spring: the beginning of an epochal dialogue about the human future. Inspired by the Occupy movements across the world, What We Are Fighting For should inspire all of us to join the conversation.” Mike Davis

Nature's Nothing

Written by Federico Campagna, 17.07.2012

I started out with nothin
and I still got most of it left

Seasick Steve

 

In the spring of 1836, just one year before his death, the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi wrote what is considered his poetic testament, La Ginestra o il Fiore del Deserto (The Broom or the Flower of the Desert). Starting off with the description of a flower of a broom plant growing on the arid slopes of the volcano Vesuvius, Leopardi progressed into a fiery attack against both the delusions of his century – which still believed in a ‘magnificent progressive fate’ – and those who failed to recognize the malignity of Nature towards us humans.
Nature in particular is targeted by Leopardi as the true enemy of humanity.

He has a noble nature
who dares to raise his voice
against our common fate,
and with an honest tongue,
not compromising truth,
admits the evil fate allotted us,
our low and feeble state:
a nature that shows itself
strong and great in suffering,
that does not add to its miseries with fraternal
hatred and anger, things worse
than other evils, blaming mankind
for its sorrows, but places blame
on Her who is truly guilty, who is the mother
of men in bearing them, their stepmother in malice.
They call her enemy:
and consider
the human race
to be united, and ranked against her”1
 

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