Publication of the English and German editions of the pamphlet “La Tempesta. The unforeseen Palestinian issue in the global war” and introduction statement by the translators
We spread the English and German translations of the pamphlet “La tempesta. L’imprevisto palestinese nella guerra globale“, together with the introductory text by the translators
PDF: La Tempesta – German (Print)
PDF: La Tempesta – German (Read)
PDF: La Tempesta – English (Print)
PDF: La Tempesta – English (Read)
Introduction to the English and German versions by the translators
The winds of war are blowing harder and harder, and as the more months go by, the more the global situation seems to drift irrevocably towards the globalisation of war. The delicate geopolitical balances are being deliberately and wickedly undermined by unscrupulous rulers who, as usual, have little regard for those who are forced to suffer on their skin the consequences of these decisions. From the time the texts in this single release were written by comrades of the Sabotiamo la guerra assembly, to the time they were translated by who is writing this introduction, a few months have passed. Not years or decades. Less than a year. But as we know, history does not wait for our analyses.
The Western bloc and all its supporters continue to forage the Ukrainian army with supplies and weapons of all kinds and, after a long period of deadlock, after the arrival of a huge amount of funding and equipment, after the ok from the US to use American weapons on Russian territory, the counter-offensive of the Kyiv army started, and it even managed to cross into enemy territory in the Kursk region. Now, between Putin’s threats of a nuclear apocalypse and Zelensky’s high-sounding proclamations, between aberrant claims of thermobaric missile strikes (half-tonne devices that can literally set the air ablaze with a huge beam of death and devastation) on the Russian side and loud cheers for successful bombing of the Russian regions of Kursk and Belgorod on the Ukrainian one, among all this remains the poor people, the oppressed, forced to submit to perfidious power games. Forced to be recruited on either side of the front. People caught in the streets, locked up and sent to die in the name of the “democratic” Fatherland. Prisoners taken from their cells and sent to the front with a one-way ticket to expiate their sins in the name of “denazification”.
Meanwhile, on the other hot front, events are continuing to unfold and, if you like, to degenerate without end.
The Israeli government continues in its work of extermination and ethnic cleansing on Palestinian territory, and at the same time, the Mossad, the only secret service that, as historically proven, does not seem to have to answer to any international code of conduct, carries out, as per tradition, reckless plans of enemy elimination on foreign territories, particularly, for now, in Lebanon and Iran. But other enemies are hosted in Qatar, and some others throughout history have found refuge in Russia, in Turkey, to mention only a few cases known to us. How far it will go is therefore unknown. To all this is added the bombing of consulates in Syria and the escalation in the Red Sea. If to every action there is a reaction, what is certain is that this adventurous Israeli foreign policy, and that of the entire Western bloc that supports it, is clearly changing the geopolitical situation in West Asia (and not only) and may have drastic repercussions in terms of widening of the conflict and potential new alliances.
As the global balance of power changes and the clash between blocs intensifies and becomes more complicated, so does the presence on the streets, day and night, of those who just refuse to shut up and keep their heads down. In Germany, in France, and England, there have been many actions targeting the accomplices of war. For months, actions have been taking place in Berlin against the headquarters of the Social Democrats of the SPD and the Grüne. Companies that do a lot of business with the war such as Tesla, CEMEX, Bauer, Thyssenkrupp, Deutsche Bahn, Thales and we could go on and on. Institutions such as the ZUG and the Confederation of the German Armed Forces suffered damage in May, not to mention the arson attack on the Berlin-Tiergarten municipal building, on whose facade was written: «If Gaza burns, Berlin burns».
Every Saturday, practically since the beginning of this latest operation to exterminate the Palestinian population, many people gather in the Neukölln district (where the Turkish and Arab presence is conspicuous) and not infrequently there is unrest between the demonstrators and the police. This is not a small thing given the current times, when street conflict is at an all-time low practically all over Europe, except maybe in France where tempers often continue to flare and even there, the intervention of the proletariat of Arab origin plays a significant role.
In the face of all this and the continuous evolution of war, we are convinced that our analyses must have that elasticity which is essential to understand and deepen the reality in its perennial development. Not to sit at a desk and dispense history lessons but to broaden the debate, develop it, update it and translate it into practice. By intervening in a revolutionary and internationalist sense in the issues that all of us, as oppressed, are facing in this historical phase.
As anarchists, it is essential for us to get into the depth of questions, avoiding any superficial and simplistic readings of existent. We are wary of anyone, whether institutional authorities or antagonistic structures, who wants to impose reductive and dichotomous visions of reality on us (nonetheless, we find it interesting to note how much the approach to certain facts advocated by these two seemingly opposing entities is almost identical).
We are convinced that in critical situations, when the problems one faces become acute, every knots come to the comb and it becomes easier to understand who can be relied on and who cannot. The only dichotomy we accept is the one that divides the world into oppressed and oppressors, into exploited and exploiters. We do not recognise any “urgency” that could justify crossing – even temporarily – this dividing line. We reject any form of interclassism and unity front in the name of a supposed lesser evil. History has shown us, and continues to do so, how antagonistic areas that consciously or unconsciously end up on this slippery slope, do nothing but lend themselves to power and become the useful idiots in the service of masters, counter-revolutionary forces (whether democratic or authoritarian) and recovery.
To those who accuse us of dogmatism, we reply in a very pragmatic manner that we want nothing to do with those who choose to collaborate in a miserably active manner with a regular army, and therefore framed within a State, with the secret services (internal and foreign) of the State at war, with its military police and all other State henchmen. We have and will never have anything to do with these people even after the end of war, because it will simply not be possible to build relationships of trust with those who have decided to go down these absurd paths. To those who tell us that we cannot express ourselves «not being under the bombs», we reply that it is not our habit to let ourselves be silenced, and that it is precisely when one is not under the bombs that it is necessary and possible to elaborate lucid reasoning to prepare for worse times and to avoid, as far as possible, committing the same mistakes made by others. Our solidarity goes to those who are at the front not by choice, but by condition. To all proletarians forced to endure a capitalist war that is not their own.
Similarly, we reject the absurd platitude that one must necessarily and preemptively speak out against all the heinousness of the Arab world when criticising the Zionist genocide of the Palestinian people. We will not lend our side to those who attempt to misrepresent reality by framing the ongoing massacre as a simple defence following an attack. The attempt to wipe the Palestinian population off the face of the earth is a daily, structural and structured activity that has been going on for decades and is an «organising principle» of the State of Israel. We all know very well that this is the case. Even those who seek to disguise their pro-Israel positions by accusing us of anti-Semitism or of some paradoxical and unlikely support for the leadership of religiously motivated political organisations know this. We believe that confusing effect with the cause is a symptom of a tendency to relativisation and a certain inability to get to the heart of the matter. We believe that the rise of certain authoritarian and reactionary organisations is the violent effect of years and years of Western abuse, massacres and violence in those territories. It is so in Palestine, it is so in Afghanistan, it is so in Iraq, it is so in Nigeria and it is so in many other territories where the West has always extended its dirty hands. We see certain phenomena as the natural and brutal expression (often in the absence of viable alternatives) of the vengeance, anger and revulsion felt by the oppressed and exploited who live in that part of the world that Westerners have chosen to enslave, rape, terrorise, starve and occupy. Instead of merely being indignant and outraged watching the news on our big smart TV from a comfy sofa against the despicable barbarians who fly planes into western skyscrapers, who shoot and blow themselves up inside a discotheque in one of Europe’s most glamorous capitals, who launch themselves in hang-gliders toward those who have decided to go dancing five kilometres away from the world’s largest open-air prison in the face of millions of desperate people, instead of just being shocked by these horrors, we said, well, we should at least ask ourselves a couple of questions. By this we certainly do not want to legitimise or worse glorify indiscriminate massacres of civilians, nor of course incense the groups, organisations and individuals who carry them out (we think it is paradoxical to have to point this out, but there it is), our intention is to clarify incontrovertibly what we mean by deepening and analysing reality.
We are well aware that certain positions provoke strong stomach aches in the reformist international, but we think that moderating oneself in the name of a spasmodic search for an illusory unity of movement is a counterproductive, short-sighted and highly energetic practice. On the contrary, we are convinced that clear words and coherence are useful tools to orient ourselves in the hostile world around us.
It was with these ideas in mind and with this spirit that we decided to translate La Tempesta. Because we believe that the unforeseen Palestinian issue in the global war demands a stance on the part of us anarchists. A stance that cannot be translated into either neutrality or direct intervention in the field. We are therefore not talking about taking up arms and going to fight in Palestine, and neither are we talking about supporting the birth of a Palestinian State on the ruins of the Israeli one. We are talking about revolutionary solidarity among the oppressed. We are talking about focusing on defeating the oppressors, engaging first and foremost against those at “home” and acting accordingly. Not abstractly or symbolically, but with all the concreteness and intransigence of which we are capable.
We are also convinced that the exchange of contents and international meetings can be a small step in a direction that we consider to be urgent and essential. That of creating affinities that can spill over into a movement capable of undermining the war machine, and all its ramifications. We have no ready-made recipes on how to stop the apparatus of war; on the contrary, we are used to being on guard by those who try to administer them to us. In this regard, we consider a broadening of the debate desirable and fundamental. We are convinced that confrontation – even tough – between individuals, and even more between comrades, represents a valuable opportunity for growth. Through knowledge and determination it is possible to find ways to intervene concretely and without rhetoric in the reality that surrounds us. Let us try not to waste the opportunities presented to us.
[Received via mail | Published in English in https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/14/publication-of-the-english-and-german-editions-of-the-pamphlet-la-tempesta-the-unforeseen-palestinian-issue-in-the-global-war-and-introduction-statement-by-the-translators/ | Published in German in https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/14/veroffentlichung-der-deutschen-und-englischen-ausgabe-der-brochure-la-tempesta-der-palastinensische-zwischenfall-im-globalen-krieg-und-des-einleitenden-kommunique-der-ubersetzer/ | Published in Italian in https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/14/pubblicazione-delle-edizioni-tedesca-e-inglese-dellopuscolo-la-tempesta-limprevisto-palestinese-nella-guerra-globale-e-comunicato-introduttivo-a-cura-dei-traduttori/]
