Some time ago, we came across a piece called “Armies in the Streets” (Ejércitos en las calles; Eserciti nelle strade) whose original Italian (by Nonostante Milano) was translated to Spanish by Bardo Ediciones nearly 16 years ago. It deals with NATO’s preparations for the occupation of domestic urban territory, and the Bardo introduction gives some examples that resonate eerily with the present u.s. administration’s growing militarization (not to mention that of the mexican government), involving most recently the federalization of the capital and the FBI’s use to catch… people evading fares on public transit. Without further ado, here you go: our translation of the introduction to the Spanish edition. -A
INTRODUCTION (Bardo Ediciones)
On August 4, 2007, the Italian government —with Berlusconi at its head—, under the pretext of one general security emergency and one more timely (with respect to the trash in the zone of Naples), deployed 3000 soldiers into the streets of some Italian cities. A third of these were destined for tasks of surveillance in “sensitive zones” (like the United States, British, and Israeli embassies and consulates, the synagogues, various institutions, etc.), another third sent to the CIEs [Centros de internamiento de extranjeros: Centers for internment of foreigners] (to stand in for the police and thus act as prison guards and torturers for the immigrants enclosed in them) and the remaining 1000 were to patrol the streets of the urban areas. “There is no militarization of the cities”, contested Minister of Interior Roberto Maroni, “just an improvement in the control and nocturnal supervision of some zones of risk”. The decree that, in addition to give greater power to mayors in terms of “urban security”, also included the collection of finger prints from all of the nomadic camps in Italy (children included) and proposed —for the future— the collection of DNA, brought about only timid and gentle false protests from the comfortable seats of the opposition parties. Meanwhile, it did not appear to worry many people if the soldiers only would stay for only the six announced months (with a possible extension of “at most” another six months) or if their presence were unlimited.
What was made to look like an initiative to “fight crime” and to “guarantee the security of the citizens, who should feel like the owners of their own houses”, is no more than an excuse for the population of those cities to become accustomed to seeing how those the European metropolis [plural] will look in a not-so-distant future, as inequalities and the number of poor people (with the predictable consequences of these) continue to grow. In fact, there is already an enormous number of armies in the streets: police of different corps, private security agents, citizen-police, video-surveillance cameras. On the eve of the decree’s application, the Minister of Defense (agreeable necktie-fascist Ignazio La Russa) announced with his virile voice: “The soldiers will be with the uniformed youths of the forces of order and will patrol on foot. I strongly insisted on that point, because this way there will be a greater visibility”.
Despite the Italian government having been the one to take initiative, some European politicians had earlier weighed the possibility of resorting to the army to resolve internal conflict. As in France, in the 2005 revolts of the banlieues1. The voices calling for a military intervention to rein in the revolts were not few. Declarations of French government representatives followed regarding the use of drones (small non-piloted planes)2 in the surveillance of the banlieues. They let slip that “for now” [the drones] would not be armed.
All of this is no more than a new chapter of the Global Civil War that has been developing for a while, and which is conditioning itself to the “necessities” of every particular terrain. Our reality, here in Europe, is far from comparison to that of Iraq or Palestine, but not as much as we think. We have, as a recent example, what happened in the central region of Italy, more precisely in the city of L’Aquila. After the 2009 earthquake, the military machine went rapidly into full swing to rehearse the occupation of a territory (in this case within its own borders) and, above all, to carry out experiments in ghettoization of the population into tightly-closed refugee camps with internal rules as severe as they were absurd. For example, disinfect your hands with alcohol before eating, under the supervision of member of the Red Cross, whenever you want their “help” and not be left with an empty stomach. Because, by the way, it is not permitted to cook, nor is it permitted to use the Internet, consume “stimulants” (wine, coffee, Coca-Cola, chocolate) or meet up to debate. It is about making laboratory slaves out of these human lives handed over to the claws of the state by force of nature, and by their poorly constructed homes due to the greed of smart-ass businesspeople, the same who now return to enrich themselves with the reconstruction. Enclosing and humiliating people, underestimating them, taking away from them any autonomy over their daily lives. Searches, checkpoints, soldiers, and henchman everywhere, with access to the camps rigorously restricted to the residents. Such is the “necessity” to practice the isolation of certain zones and of their populations that, this time, the State does not allow even its beloved journalists! And while they continue burying their family members, it is better that the inhabitants of L’Aquila forget about protesting: if distributing flyers is prohibited and if the Civil Protection interrupts the provision of food to those who decide to live in their own tents or RVs, who can imagine what could happen if within this experiment someone raises their head, looks the enemy in the eyes, and takes action? There is war everywhere, not just in some faraway countries. And it is no longer just against a few “outsiders”… it is clear as day that it could touch anyone.
But to stop this machine of war, control, destruction, and death, the old concept of “peace” will be of no help. The message that is generally deployed, “no to war”, is in itself ambiguous and not very consistent. There is a war, or many wars which have a common nexus, that brings us to think that it is about distinct stages of a single war. It helps nothing for the Catalán Socialist Party (PSC) to come with its little flags to an action against the Gaza war (January 2009). And the anarchists who found themselves on site knew that: the only possible reaction in the face of this hypocrisy was to throw the PSC out of the demonstration, since this party is one of the mainstays of the Spanish war industry3. And there is more. Following the Italian initiative to militarize the cities, the government of Zapatero4 has said that it would be a good time to “imitate” this adventure. So, who knows, at any moment a city, maybe Bilbao, Sevilla, or Valencia, could imitate our neighbors in Milan or Naples.
This NATO report confirms that the militarization will not stop, and that we are at war, that the education for “peace and non-violence” is more than anything a weapon to immobilize people. We are commanded by the leadership summits, the civic platforms, and the “humanitarian” groups to be peaceful. But the States and the structures they support have nothing peaceful about them.
All States are part of this war against all, more than anything against the poor and the oppressed, whether they rebel or not. And all of those who are not on their side, inevitably, are against them. Here, neutrality does not matter, does not exist. And we have to look at the world and decide which side we are on because, maybe, we are not seeing clearly. We have to realize that THEY are organizing, are acting. It is no secret, nor is it new.
But the war is not only the armies and the weapons. There is an entire rearguard industry that is not simply part of the war, but, sometimes, is the war itself. We have, on the one hand, companies that benefit from wars in sites were there are raw materials, like the Spanish petroleum companies and the evident interest of the Aznar government to participate in the Iraq war, and on the other, companies that participate in management of war, like DHL in the transportation of war material or other companies in that self-describe as “humanitarian organizations”, like the Red Cross or the UN, who play the role of secret service, among other things. But in the central office of Bonn, the leaders of DHL already know very well that their participation in the war in Afghanistan, their logistical support for the German armed forces, has not gone unnoticed. Was the number of vans and trucks of theirs which up to now have ended up a little toasted, thanks to the affectionate warmth of unknown persons, enough for them to realize5? Or did they have to analyze as well the attacks against their infrastructure? And, even more deep in the internal front, how to forget the “difficulties” that have arisen in Belgium for the builders of CIEs and for La Poste because of their management of bank accounts for prisons and immigrant detention centers6? And, in France, the offices of the architect Alain Derbesse received a scorching visit on December 16, 2009 in order to honor his devotion to the construction of prisons, comissaries, and other structures of repression7?
Industries and services as well as a number of individuals desire and support the Global Civil War. All of them have a name, and their names should be pronounced. This is the moment —for the simple fact that it is already very late— to look at our lives and our surroundings, to open our eyes and be identifying the enemies. And be observing attentively their thirst to oppress, their motivation to dominate and devour or, simply, crush and leave to rot anyone who finds themselves, by coincidence or intentionally, in the way of their roads of death. But, to completely and truly put an end to what destroys us, it is necessary to accept the possibility that many of the things that we consider “private”, in reality are not so. They are impositions. It is just as absurd to believe that anything is worth saving from this system. Or, even better, what survives, flourishes, and finds an easy life in the existing reality, very probably is contributing to its persistence and expansion. One of these impositions is calm, or —if we prefer to call it another way— peace. Social peace and its tranquility. But that calm should be ours, not theirs: the calm of observing, listening, analyzing, acting, and striking. As long as it is necessary.
January 2010
1 [Poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of French cities, particularly Paris. The 2005 revolts began in such a Paris suburb.]
2 [In 2025, the explanation of what a drone is feels so quaint.]
3 An interesting fact: since Zapatero’s PSOE came into power, the business of arms trade with Israel is going better than ever.
4 [José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) was Prime Minister of Spain from 2004-2011.]
5 For these and other news from Germany, see http://directactionde.blogspot.com
6 See http://suieetcendres.blogspot.com
7 On these and other actions in solidarity with the revolting in France’s prisons: http://www.non-fides.fr/?A-brief-outline-of-the-solidarity