December

On the crisis of the Anti-globalisation Movement

1
Since its appearance in Seattle in December 1999 the  movement against
globalisation  contained two different currents. The first, dominant one
contested only the most devastating effects of globalisation and neo-liberalism
relating to the unequal distribution of the resources and of the riches
advocating a positive  globalisation from below , a  democratic  one. Thus they
accepted the main pattern of the globalizers according to which the moment has
come to eventually liberate ourselves from the nation states. These are
considered either to be on the scrap heap or a brake on the way to  progress .
The second, though minor component denounced not only the effects but the very
nature of globalization or rather capitalism as the reason of the intensifying
social contradictions between rich and poor.

2
Within the US this division was never expressed in it profundity. As soon as the
movement reached Europe this contradiction often acquired virulent forms. With
the mobilisation of Genoa in July 2001 Europe actually became the focus of the
movement bringing a youth to the streets which was politicized only recently
while leaving the traditional workers  movement on the margins. Because of the
political traditions of Europe the differentiation between moderates and
radicals could not other than acquire the form of the old dichotomy consisting
of reformists or social democrats on one hand and revolutionary traditions on
the other hand. Nevertheless the radical approach did not express itself not so
much on the political and programmatic level, but first of all on that of the
methods and means of struggle. The most radical sectors of the movement focused
actually on bringing about clashes with the police forces turning every
demonstration into a media spectacle. As this radicali!
sm was only formal it was easy for the social democrat apparatuses to keep the
control over the biggest part of the movement. To exert this hegemony these
apparatuses did not directly expose themselves but used a series of leaderships
and groups produced by the movement itself or originating from the post-68 new
left.

3
The Social Forums, posing as organisms which miraculously could protect unity,
representativity and their own strength, were in reality co-ordinations or small
parliaments within which the different organized political currents fought each
other in a bid to exert hegemony and subsequently to negotiate the necessary
tactical compromises to maintain the momentum of the mobilisation. The World
Social Forum (WSF) with its general stuff was from the very beginning not only
hostage of the big social democrat apparatuses, but also a hierarchical and
anti-democratic structure. It never represented the diversity and the radicalism
of the movement.

4
The anti-imperialist forces and organisation both of the oppressed and
semi-colonial countries as well as of Europe never had a due voice within the
World Social Forum. The main reason for that is that against them a de facto
exclusion was put in place being supported by all the forces in control. From
the very beginning the WSF in Porto Alegre under the control of the Brazilian PT
excluded all the movements fighting with armed means against oligarchic and
pro-imperialist regimes. This was even more grave and emblematic as in this very
period the Palestinian Intifada erupted and served as a point of crystallisation
for the anti-imperialist struggles worldwide. After September 11 the equidistant
position of  against war and terrorism  became hegemonic as the social democrat
apparatuses intended it to be while the US aggressed Afghanistan (October 2001)
and compiled the notorious black list of  terrorists  which includes not only
Islamic but also almost all revolutionary liber!
ation movements.

5
Because of the constitutive pacifist and non violent clause we refused to be
part of the WSF although we participated in all the anti-globalisation
mobilisations. This choice was necessary and has been revealed correct. That
clause not only excluded the fighting anti-imperialists and the European
revolutionaries but served as an indicator for the fact that the social democrat
apparatuses had the helm in hand within the WSF. They refused to characterise
globalization as being imperialist and they did not want to hear about the
necessary link between the social and civic struggles in the heart of the empire
and the more decided anti-imperialist ones on the periphery.

6
It was the Iraqi resistance which pushed the anti-globalisation movement with
the back to the wall and evoked its irreversible crisis. The anti-globalisation
movement was in fact protagonist of the demonstrations for peace and against the
Anglo-American aggression. But as soon as the occupants had conquered Baghdad
the mobilisations ceased though they would have been even more necessary as the
armed popular resistance started to attack the imperialist troops. Only very
small components affirmed the legitimacy of the resistance and even fewer
supported it   all with an unacceptable delay. The biggest part of the movement
kept away from the question, maintained an infamously silence and refused
systematically to mobilise for the victory of the resistance. Finally all the
latent contradictions within the WSF exploded. The radical fractions were
obliged to come to the fore and   though not supporting the resistance    had at
least to recognise its legitimacy.

With our clear and systematic campaign for the Iraqi resistance we had not only
to face the opposition of the anti-globalisation movement but an all out
ostracism. It is also thanks to this campaign that the resistance gained ground
within the movement, however, still being confronted with the reluctance of even
the most radical forces to form a real co-ordination of the pro-resistance
forces.

7
The complex decline of the movement might cause the definite split and
fragmentation of the WSF. This outcome is even desirable and every attempt to
keep it artificially together like it is today is doomed to fail. While unity is
desirable and necessary it is definitely not under the asphyxiating commando of
the social democrats. This will become even clearer with the next WSF scheduled
for Porto Alegre. It will be carried out under the aegis of a PT government
which completely succumbs to imperialist globalisation which the movement claims
to fight. Having set as our aim the formation of an anti-imperialist front, the
Anti-imperialist Camp must intensify its initiatives towards the components
which will abandon the WSF breaking with the social democrat apparatuses. This
is a very difficult task as it amounts to nothing less than to link and unify
the antagonist forces within the imperialist countries and the combatant forces
of the aggressed and oppressed countries first of!
all Palestine and Iraq. Without this bridge there will neither be a sustainable
victory in the countries on the first line of struggle, nor will the antagonist
forces of the Western countries have any future.

Political Committee of the Anti-imperialist Camp
December 5, 2004

Stop the massacre in Iraq!
Call for action on March 19th, anniversary of the aggression

In order to clear the ground for their election farce, the Anglo-American
occupation forces have committed a new massacre of genocidal type. They punished
the resisting city of Falluja, cutting it off from any supplies, razing it to
the ground, using Phosphor and Napalm bombs thus killing tens of thousands
civilians.

They perpetrated this crime against humanity as a clear signal to the resisting
Iraqi people: We inflicted upon you a new Dresden, if you continue to resist the
occupation you will be extinguish by a full scale Hiroshima!

The elections they are putting up are therefore a blackmail. Whoever does not
accept the American-type democracy is threatened to go to torture camps or to be
killed. For example Abduljabbar al-Kubaysi, who dedicated himself to the
construction of a political front of the resistance, was kidnapped by the US
army and since then simply disappeared. Free and democratic elections can only
take place after the occupation forces left Iraq. Consequently the forthcoming
faked elections must be boycotted.

We call upon all democratic and anti-fascist people to defend the right of the
oppressed Iraqi people to self-determination and to resist the occupation. Let s
turn the second anniversary of the aggression on March 19 into an international
day of protest for the withdrawal of the occupation troops. This is our common
platform on which we have to unify.

As anti-imperialists we go one decisive step further: We take side with all the
wretched of the world fighting the emerging American empire which believes to be
exclusively chosen by God. Charged with the divine mission to launch a crusade
the US waged its pre-emptive permanent war to crush any resistance and to spread
its pure capitalist values. To counter this very threat for humanity we have to
support the resistance of the Iraqi people in the same way as we support the
anti-imperialist struggle of the Palestinian or Venezuelan people as a part of a
global liberation movement. Only together we will be able to defeat the US
empire opening the door to the struggle for freedom, equality and fraternity for
all.

End the occupation of Iraq and Palestine!
No to the election farce   free all political and war prisoners!
Down with the US war and empire!
Support the Iraqi resistance!

Anti-imperialist Camp
December 5, 2004

***

2) March to central park on Sunday march 20th, 2005
The whole world will be marching and watching

The world-wide antiwar movement has called for massive demonstrations against
the war on the weekend on March 19-20 -- the second anniversary of the invasion
of Iraq. We have a responsibility to respond with renewed determination and
commitment in the face of the Bush Administration's launching of a new phase of
the war against the Iraqi people.

A few months ago, Mayor Bloomberg, the NYPD, and Bush told us that we could not
march to and rally in Central Park. We do not accept this decision and are
determined to challenge it in the courts and by assembling tens of thousands of
people to retake Central Park --our Park. The antiwar movement cannot afford,
and must not allow, this infringement on our rights, especially in a city as
important as NYC.

We call on all antiwar and progressive activists, organizations, and coalitions
to work towards building a massive march on Sunday March 20th to Central Park
under the slogan OUT NOW!

We propose to set up an OUT NOW coalition, open to all individuals and
organizations willing to work together to stop the war. The reason why we are
proposing that we call this movement  OUT NOW!  is because these two simple
words convey the absolute zero tolerance for the occupation of Iraq that must
drive our organizing hence forth. We need everyone to know that the mass
movement is re-opening a full-scale campaign to stop the war and end the
occupation and that the movement means business.

International Action Center

Full call:
www.antiimperialista.com/view.shtml?category=9&id=1102460620

***

3) Release of Moreno Pasquinelli and Maria Grazia Ardizzone confirmed
Court refuses the prosecutor s appeal

Recently the Italian court of appeal refused to bring the two leaders of the
Anti-imperialist Camp back to prison who previously have been released by a
judgement of the magistrate. This is a further confirmation that the indictment
which led to the arrests of April 1 was not only based on an untenable juridical
amalgam but also on a political machination orchestrated by the police and in
particular the DIGOS (Italian political intelligence) and ROS (intelligence of
the paramilitary Carabinieri forces).

First of all the ridiculous thesis collapsed according to which Paquinelli,
Ardizzone and Monteverdi had been part of the Turkish organisation
Revolutionary People s Liberation Front  only because they had helped a
political refugee from Turkey to establish himself in Italy. Also falling is the
insinuation that our three comrades had operated underground and in secrete
given the fact that they have taken political action in the day of light
directly addressing the public. So doing they followed the principle to lend
solidarity to all movements and militants struggling for the rights of the
oppressed peoples and especially the Turkish and Kurdish one.

On the other hand the appeal court decided to keep Avni Er and Zeynep Kilic in
custody despite the arbitrariness of the accusations and the grave
irregularities committed by the enquiring organs.

We denounce in the strongest terms possible the unjust and unjustified decision
to keep our two Turkish comrades in prison. This move is not only to be
explained by the attempt to not further endanger an already shaky indictment but
also by the servile attitude of the Italian authorities towards the US that is
to say its local watchdog, the Turkish regime, which is the author of the entire
repressive operation.

Anti-imperialist Camp
December 3, 2004

***

4) Italy: Pre-trial detention of William Frediani and comrades prolonged
Accusations enlarged to subversion for supporting the Iraqi resistance

On December 6 the examining magistrate of Pisa, Luca Salutini, followed the
request of the public prosecutor, Antonio Di Bugno, issuing a new accusation
against the comrades allegedly involved in the case of the  COR  (Cells of
Revolutionary Offensive). William Frediani (member of the Anti-imperialist Camp
detained in Pisa), Alessio Perondi (detained in Torino) as well as those
comrades released in the last weeks are being additionally accused of
associating with the aim of subverting the democratic order  (  270 bis of the
penal code).

The date of issuance of the new accusation was not chosen by random. For the
previous accusation of building a  criminal association  (  416 c.2) the maximum
pre-trial confinement is six months. Therefore the authorities would have had to
release Alessio Perondi. Now the accused can be kept in custody for one year.

It is to be noted that the new accusations were enunciated without producing any
new evidence. It is therefore a completely arbitrary act with political
intentions which probably can be traced back to the Roman government. We should
not forget that the campaign against the COR started with a declaration of the
minister of interior, Pisanu, depicting the COR as public enemy no 1 and was
seconded by an intelligence statement.

We are faced with illegitimate acts committed by a police state clearly
violating the norms of the rule of law. The driving idea of the accusations is
simply to keep the comrades in prison.

Regarding the case of Alessio Perondi, who is suffering from a grave illness, it
is even worse: He has been shifted from the prison of Pisa, where there would
have been the clinical means to cure him, to the prison of Prato and later to
the prison of Torino where his health situation has definitively deteriorated.
There he is kept in a cell into which water leaks in case of rain, only to give
an example.

Especially against William Frediani a vicious press campaign is being launched
led by  La nazione  turning him into the ideologue of the COR without any
concrete evidence. To back their claim they quoted him as saying  we have to
clearly affirm that the resisting people, especially the Iraqi and the
Palestinian one, are no terrorists, but brave men and women fighting for the
fundaments of freedom: self-determination .

Thus everybody can understand the real reasons for the repression. They are the
same ones why the Italian leaders of the Anti-imperialist Camp were arrested on
April 1 and accused of terrorism   because they openly supported the Iraqi
resistance!

We assist to the implementation of the new imperial law based on Americanism in
line with the  clash of civilizations  waged by Bush. Whoever dares to tell the
truth risks to end up in prison. Also therefore we have to step up our
mobilisations.

Free William and Alessio!

Anti-imperialist Camp
Italy, December 7, 2004

***




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Antiimperialist Camp
PF 23, A-1040 Vienna, Austria
www.antiimperialista.org/en
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