A-Infos (en) Italy, FdCA, IL CANTIERE #39 - Between Reformism and Neo-Stalinism for an Alternative Front - Ignazio Leone (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Xi in Mao's clothes, former KGB official Putin, and Emmanuel Philibert 
of Korea, the last heir to the Kim dynasty: this is the charming trio at 
the double event held in China in early September, which also saw the 
participation of illustrious international guests, including some of our 
Italian prides, such as the reborn Massimo D'Alema. But let's rewind and 
try to understand the subtle red thread (never was a saying less 
chromatically apt for the characters in question) that ties the 
aforementioned trio to the mustachioed former prime minister, 
protagonist of one of the wildest periods of privatization of Italy's 
public assets.
The 25th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) 
officially opened on August 31st. The summit, which brings together 10 
countries (China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, 
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), received widespread attention 
as it represents a further effort by the Chinese government to build a 
new world order that will definitively overturn the now fragile US-led 
balance of power.
The SCO summit was followed by a military parade in Beijing to celebrate 
the 80th anniversary of the People's Republic of China's victory over Japan.
So far, the bare facts, important in themselves, but not surprising: 
this is China's attempt to create a new world order that better suits 
its needs as an imperialist power.
What is, however, very perplexing, but only at first glance, are the 
comments from parts of the Italian left, both the so-called reformist 
left (and this is where D'Alema comes in) and those who consider 
themselves an alternative to capitalism.
D'Alema hopes and trusts that from Beijing "a message will come for 
peace and cooperation and for the return to a spirit of friendship among 
all peoples and to put an end to the wars that unfortunately, in such a 
tragic way, bloodied several countries around the world." His words are 
supported by the secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party, Maurizio 
Acerbo, who on his X profile declares that D'Alema "has not aligned 
himself with the new cold war with China that the US wants to impose on us."
Instead, he goes much further than the OttolinaTV website, making 
statements that, from my point of view, are quite singular: in the 
column "Don't call it Tg" of September 3, 2025, it is stated that (it is 
worth quoting the entire passage) "the significance of the largest 
military parade ever organized in its history[editor's note: China]- 
and, even more so, after the extraordinary success of the SCO summit, 
where the powers of the multipolar world gave a demonstration of unity 
never seen before - is clear: for the first time in centuries, the 
Imperialist forces are not the most powerful forces on the planet; the 
most technologically, industrially, and militarily advanced country in 
the world stands with all those peoples who have endured centuries of 
massacres, injustices, and colonizations at the hands of those who 
dominated international relations by virtue of their capacity for 
domination and violence. For the first time in centuries, the primacy of 
force is in the hands of those who are not interested in imposing their 
dominion on rogue states through plunder and war, but are instead ready 
to support with responsibility and determination the birth of a new 
world order and a new governance that truly (and not just in words) 
guarantees peace and development: sovereign equality among peoples, 
solidarity, international redistribution of resources, a truly 
democratic international law that guarantees universal rights for all 
peoples, and the security and well-being of the human person as the 
ultimate goal of politics. We should certainly not be surprised if the 
fascists of the third millennium are panicking, but they will have to 
resign themselves. For the first time in history, the most powerful, 
organized, and efficient civilization by far is socialist; A terrible 
day for the Molinaris and Rampinis of the world, a great day for humanity."
Unlike D'Alema, OttolinaTV has the merit of lowering its veil and 
clearly stating that there is a segment of the left for whom China is an 
alternative model to capitalism and not marching toward socialism, 
simply because... it is already socialist.
In fairness, it must be said that for years, figures of the caliber of 
Romano Prodi or Pino Arlacchi, a former PD MEP, have not failed to offer 
words of praise for China.
It is not the purpose of this article to analyze China and its 
contradictions in detail. What we want to focus on is the consolidation 
of an unprecedented alliance, at least an ideal one, between reformist 
sectors with past and/or present ties to the Democratic Party, and 
sectors attributable to a radical left that has never severed its 
umbilical cord with Stalinism and simply cannot imagine an alternative 
to capitalism other than failed authoritarian and statist socialism (a 
failure to achieve freedom and equality for all human beings on this 
planet, because Chinese-style socialism, on the other hand, is proving, 
compared to liberal-democratic regimes, to be more effective in 
exploiting the workforce and extracting surplus value).
Alongside this pole, there are, of course, those who have always 
supported, even sincerely, social-democratic and neo-Keynesian 
hypotheses, which we believe are more than legitimate to doubt: the 
failures reported even in fairly recent times (Syriza docet) are a clear 
demonstration of the impossibility, even from a purely technical 
standpoint, of implementing policies of this kind in a non-expansionary 
economic cycle like the one we have been stuck in for decades, unless we 
"force" the status quo and break with concerted action, with all the 
consequences that entails.
Faced with this bleak political landscape, a libertarian project would 
have a vast expanse of open space, currently overrun by shady figures 
grazing, ruminating on fears and social hatred, ready to dust off their 
weapons as a means to overcome the decades-long economic crisis, as well 
as using migrants as scapegoats for any problem.

The question is always the same: what to do?
We certainly can't continue to do what we've done up to now: the 
libertarian project is increasingly a minority one, and soon it may not 
even be able to fulfill its function of mere testimony.
"We'll be talking about communist paradises in a few centuries," said 
our comrade Camillo Berneri in a piece titled "For a Communalist Action 
Program." "Now it's something to be laughed at and pitied at the same 
time[...]Politics is the calculation and creation of forces that bring 
reality closer to the ideal system, through formulas of agitation, 
polarization, and systematization, designed to be agitating, polarizing, 
and systematizing in a given social and political moment." An actualist 
anarchism was Berneri's dream: and it is precisely what is needed today, 
to ensure the survival not only of the anarchist movement, but also of 
the very prospect of a truly alternative society to the current one, one 
capable of inspiring and awakening from torpor or indifference the 
majority of the population that lives by its own labor.
To do this, it is necessary to develop a minimum program, based on 
unifying and concrete proposals, supported by a broad front or a 
political-social alliance that has a few but clear differentiating 
factors, such as:
* Internationalism: there are no good (or "less bad") bourgeoisies and 
imperialisms to side with;
* Anti-capitalism: the rejection of all forms of exploitation, whether 
that of the neoliberal market or that of "state socialism," with the 
prospect of a self-managed and federal society, in which workers and 
communities directly decide on production and resources, without bosses 
or bureaucracies. To comprehensively overcome the capitalist system, it 
is necessary to combine daily struggles (wages, welfare, social rights) 
for concrete and immediate improvements;
* Creation of a new alternative imaginary, capable of pointing to the 
concrete possibility of diverse societies, founded on solidarity, 
self-governance, and social justice: one could start, for example, by 
valorizing those experiences that, despite a thousand difficulties, are 
still trying to advance political and social projects based on 
grassroots democracy and community self-management, women's leadership, 
and social ecology (Rojava and Zapatista Chiapas).
Just as an example, a minimum program could include:
* generalized wage increases: campaign for the introduction of a minimum 
wage and/or reintroduction of the sliding wage scale;
* reduction of indirect taxes (VAT, excise duties), i.e., those taxes 
that regressively affect the working classes;
* Reintroduction of the pre-1980s personal income tax brackets, to ease 
the tax burden on low- and middle-income earners and truly reintroduce 
the principle of tax progressivity;
* Taxation of large fortunes to refinance education, healthcare, and the 
ecological transition;
* Abolition of current immigration laws and regularization of migrants 
so they can assert their rights and avoid constant blackmail;
* Stop military spending, leave NATO, and terminate all military 
contracts and agreements with Israel.
We can no longer afford to arrive divided and scattered across a 
thousand parishes at such a delicate historical moment: a revolutionary 
united front or alliance of the 99% is essential.
Who will have the political courage to take the first step towards this?

https://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
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