L’associazione Utopia rossa considera suo fondamento politico il principio secondo cui il fine non giustifica i mezzi, ma nei mezzi si deve riflettere l’essenza del fine. Non ha programmi politici, come del resto non ne aveva la Prima internazionale. Nonostante le più diverse provenienze ideologiche dei suoi sostenitori, essa ritiene che l’anticapitalismo dilagato dopo l’inizio dell’Antirivoluzione russa (dicembre 1917) sia stato motivato fondamentalmente da idee precapitalistiche, cioè retrograde, e non da progetti di civiltà in grado di superare il capitalismo sviluppando ulteriormente i suoi modelli di democrazia. Ciò spiega anche il prevalere, nella storia della cosiddetta «sinistra», di simpatie per i regimi dittatoriali di ogni specie e colore. Utopia rossa si batte contro l’ulteriore diffusione di ideologie precapitalistiche vecchie e nuove (in campo politico, culturale, ecologico, religioso ecc.), come parte della sua battaglia per il superamento del capitalismo, se si vuole salvare la vita sulla Terra con la sua umanità. In questo senso la sua utopia continua ad essere rossa.

The Red Utopia association considers its political foundation to be the principle that the end does not justify the means, but that the means must reflect the essence of the end. It has no political program, just as the First International did not. Despite the diverse ideological backgrounds of its supporters, it believes that the anti-capitalism that spread after the start of the Russian Anti-Revolution (December 1917) was fundamentally motivated by pre-capitalist – that is, retrograde – ideas, and not by civilizational projects capable of overcoming capitalism and of further developing its democratic models. This also explains the prevalence, throughout the history of the so-called «left», of sympathies for dictatorial regimes of all kinds and colors. Red Utopia fights against the further spread of old and new pre-capitalist ideologies (in the political, cultural, ecological, religious, and other fields) as part of its battle to overcome capitalism, if life on Earth, including its humanity, is to be saved. In this sense, its utopia remains red.

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Visualizzazione post con etichetta Saudi Arabia. Mostra tutti i post
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domenica 11 giugno 2017

IRAN AND THE JIHADIST VIRUS, by Pier Francesco Zarcone

IN DUE LINGUE (Inglese, Italiano)
IN TWO LANGUAGES (English, Italian)

© US Central Intelligence Agency
The Jihadist (that is, Sunni) terrorist acts of June 7 in Tehran have provoked a degree of anxiety in those Western media which considered Iran a kind of impenetrable fortress for Sunni terrorism. This was an impenetrability that could only seem real because of the lack of attention paid in the West to news diffused in Iran, where the activities of ISIS precede that of the attacks.
ISIS is a source of problems for Iran due to its capacity to cope with unrest among the Sunni minorities existing in the country. Saudi Arabia could also take action in these matters, and in this regard, it is worth recalling that in May Saudi Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman had formulated explicit threats to Iran, warning: “We will not wait until the battle is in Saudi Arabia, but we will work so the battle is there in Iran”.
So, if the United States has been the great enemy of Iran since the Islamic Revolution, there are now two more in the field: ISIS and Riyadh.
Iran – Shiite heart and stronghold in the Muslim world – is not homogeneous from the ethnic or religious point of view. There are no official estimates, so we have to rely on data provided by the CIA (!): Persians are said to account for 61-65% of the population, followed by Azerbaijanis at 16%, Kurds at 10%, Lurs at 6%, Arabs, Baluchs and Turks at 2%, plus a remaining 1% divided among other minorities.
Two aspects should be mentioned about this composition: on the one hand, the level of integration among these ethnic groups is sufficiently high and, in fact, not all political and social leaders are Persians; on the other hand, there have been conflicts with independence movements in Khuzestan, Kurdistan and Baluchestan (regions with a strong Sunni presence), where fire smoulders under the ashes or is actually burning.
Integration affects religious differences less. The official religion in Iran is Twelver Shiism, accounting for about 90% of the population belong, 8% are Sunni (mostly Khuzestani, Kurds, Baluchs and Turkmens) and the remaining 2% are divided among non-Muslim minorities (Zoroastrians, Bahá’ís, Jews, Eastern Christians, Yazidis, Hinduists, etc.).
For Iran, the Sunni jihadist threat began to materialise with the taking of Mosul by ISIS, which the Iranians responded to with a sort of “blocking” of the border with Iraq.
At the beginning of summer of 2014, Tehran’s Interior Ministry spokesman announced that there were no “voids of security” at that frontier, and the commander of the army ground forces, General Kiumars Heidari, reaffirmed the concept and denied that terrorists operating in Iraq were a threat to Iran. In July of that year, Iran’s Police Chief, General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, announced that no ISIS armed group had crossed the border.
However, in May 2016, Iran established a 40 km-wide “zone of deterrence” in Iraqi territory, next to the border between the two countries: any violation would have resulted in an Iranian military response. Between 2014 and 2015, ISIS came within 12 km of that band, and five Iranian army brigades were alerted. However, at that time, there was no massive violation of the security zone.
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martedì 6 giugno 2017

WHY QATAR?, by Pier Francesco Zarcone

IN DUE LINGUE (Inglese, Italiano)
IN TWO LANGUAGES (English, Italian)

Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia, May 21, 2017 © Jonathan Ernst
The sudden rupture of diplomatic relations with Qatar announced by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Yemen on June 5 triggers a crisis with unexpected outcomes and is likely to spell big trouble as much for those who wanted it as for the likely behind-the-scenes co-protagonist: the United States.
It takes no stretch of the imagination to argue that this situation, which exploded shortly after Trump’s May 20-21 visit to Saudi Arabia, is connected with this trip. On that occasion, the US president assumed two positions that were only formally contradictory but, in substance, reveal the existence of a precise design for further destabilisation in the area.
Trump both riled against jihadist terrorism and pointed to Iran as his great enemy. So, on one hand, he sides with that Saudi Arabia which has spread and fuelled the real feeding ground of that terrorism around the world, namely Wahhabi Islamic radicalism; on the other, picks on Iran which is not spreading that terrorism if for no other reason than Jihadism is Sunni while the Iranian state is Shiite. Iran certainly has something to do with the Qatar crisis, but not as the only factor.
The issue is complex and has to be put in context.
In Trump’s view, two “mistakes” made by the United States in the Near East have to be rectified: the first was the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime, with the consequence of allowing the Iraqi Shiite majority to gain power, thus extending Iranian influence in the region, then expanding with the Syrian crisis; the second was Obama administration’s “clearance” of Iran by reaching an agreement with Tehran on the nuclear issue. For Trump, the logical outcome of this is strengthening ties with Israel and Saudi Arabia.
From this point of view, Qatar became a target because of its ambiguous and opportunistic policy. At the May 20-21 Riyadh Summit, the government of this small state failed to adhere to the Saudi programmes – which are shared by Trump – and furthermore the media of Qatar carried the fiery declarations of Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani against the decisions of the summit: namely the lines against Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian movement Hamas, two organisations that Qatar supports and finances. Add to this the fact that Qatar maintains excellent political and trade relations with Iran.
The lack of religious and ideological homogeneity between Doha and Tehran is totally irrelevant both because Near East policies have particular logics – in fact, Qatar is a well-known supporter of Jihadism in Syria and Libya – and because economic interests have their weight – in fact, Qatar and Iran share exploitation of a very rich offshore gas field, the South Pars/North Dome field.
The latter is already sufficient for Qatar not to break its relations with Tehran, given that it accounts for more than two-thirds of the gas production of both countries.
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mercoledì 29 marzo 2017

YEMEN: A HUSHED UP IMPERIALIST WAR, by Pier Francesco Zarcone

This article was translated from Italian into English by Phil Harris for IDN-InDepthNews, flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate. We thank Phil Harris and Roberto Savio for the friendly concern. [Red Utopia]

IN DUE LINGUE (Inglese, Italiano)
IN TWO LANGUAGES (English, Italian)

The US government intends to increase military aid to Saudi Arabia in its war against Yemen, according to recent reports. For the vast majority of the general public the news may be surprising, given that the ongoing conflict in Yemen is almost “non-news” as a result of the almost complete silence of the mainstream media. More importantly, most people probably do not know the causes.

FROM MONARCHY TO REPUBLIC

A summary reconstruction of the troubled and bloody history of Yemen can start in 1962, when a military coup backed by Egypt deposed the last monarch, Zaydi Shiite Muhammad al-Badr, and the Republic was proclaimed.
However, mountain tribes - supplied by Saudi Arabia - continued to support the king, leading to a bloody civil war in which Egyptian troops intervened directly (it was Nasser’s “small Vietnam”).
The civil war ended in the late 1960s (partly because of Egypt’s disengagement as a result of defeat in the Six-Day War against Israel) thanks to agreements between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which essentially “dropped” al-Badr. Victory went to the Republicans. So much for the north of Yemen.
In the south, controlled by Britain, which had set up the Federation of South Arabia, the National Liberation Front (Marxist) started a guerrilla war in 1963 against the British, finally forcing London to grant independence to South Yemen, where the People’s Republic of Yemen (which became the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1970) was established in 1967 with Aden as its capital, and with the distinction of being the only communist state in the Arab world.
Attempts at unification between the two Yemeni Republics date back to the early 1970s, but to no avail until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 1990, North and South Yemen reunited. It was an unhappy union, because the communists in the south soon realised their error and in 1994 tried to secede. The army remaining loyal to the unity government, much stronger than the secessionist army and also supported by elements in the south, subdued the rebellion during the same year.
It is interesting to note that the rebels had received help from Saudi Arabia which, regardless of the profound ideological difference with them, did not look kindly on Yemeni unification, which it considered could become a dangerous pole of attraction for the hegemonic pretensions of Riyadh over the Arabian Peninsula.
At this point we jump to the present century.
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RED UTOPIA ROJA – Principles / Principios / Princìpi / Principes / Princípios

a) The end does not justify the means, but the means which we use must reflect the essence of the end.

b) Support for the struggle of all peoples against imperialism and/or for their self determination, independently of their political leaderships.

c) For the autonomy and total independence from the political projects of capitalism.

d) The unity of the workers of the world - intellectual and physical workers, without ideological discrimination of any kind (apart from the basics of anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism and of socialism).

e) Fight against political bureaucracies, for direct and councils democracy.

f) Save all life on the Planet, save humanity.

g) For a Red Utopist, cultural work and artistic creation in particular, represent the noblest revolutionary attempt to fight against fear and death. Each creation is an act of love for life, and at the same time a proposal for humanization.

* * *

a) El fin no justifica los medios, y en los medios que empleamos debe estar reflejada la esencia del fin.

b) Apoyo a las luchas de todos los pueblos contra el imperialismo y/o por su autodeterminación, independientemente de sus direcciones políticas.

c) Por la autonomía y la independencia total respecto a los proyectos políticos del capitalismo.

d) Unidad del mundo del trabajo intelectual y físico, sin discriminaciones ideológicas de ningún tipo, fuera de la identidad “anticapitalista, antiimperialista y por el socialismo”.

e) Lucha contra las burocracias políticas, por la democracia directa y consejista.

f) Salvar la vida sobre la Tierra, salvar a la humanidad.

g) Para un Utopista Rojo el trabajo cultural y la creación artística en particular son el más noble intento revolucionario de lucha contra los miedos y la muerte. Toda creación es un acto de amor a la vida, por lo mismo es una propuesta de humanización.

* * *

a) Il fine non giustifica i mezzi, ma nei mezzi che impieghiamo dev’essere riflessa l’essenza del fine.

b) Sostegno alle lotte di tutti i popoli contro l’imperialismo e/o per la loro autodeterminazione, indipendentemente dalle loro direzioni politiche.

c) Per l’autonomia e l’indipendenza totale dai progetti politici del capitalismo.

d) Unità del mondo del lavoro mentale e materiale, senza discriminazioni ideologiche di alcun tipo (a parte le «basi anticapitaliste, antimperialiste e per il socialismo».

e) Lotta contro le burocrazie politiche, per la democrazia diretta e consigliare.

f) Salvare la vita sulla Terra, salvare l’umanità.

g) Per un Utopista Rosso il lavoro culturale e la creazione artistica in particolare rappresentano il più nobile tentativo rivoluzionario per lottare contro le paure e la morte. Ogni creazione è un atto d’amore per la vita, e allo stesso tempo una proposta di umanizzazione.

* * *

a) La fin ne justifie pas les moyens, et dans les moyens que nous utilisons doit apparaître l'essence de la fin projetée.

b) Appui aux luttes de tous les peuples menées contre l'impérialisme et/ou pour leur autodétermination, indépendamment de leurs directions politiques.

c) Pour l'autonomie et la totale indépendance par rapport aux projets politiques du capitalisme.

d) Unité du monde du travail intellectuel et manuel, sans discriminations idéologiques d'aucun type, en dehors de l'identité "anticapitaliste, anti-impérialiste et pour le socialisme".

e) Lutte contre les bureaucraties politiques, et pour la démocratie directe et conseilliste.

f) Sauver la vie sur Terre, sauver l'Humanité.

g) Pour un Utopiste Rouge, le travail culturel, et plus particulièrement la création artistique, représentent la plus noble tentative révolutionnaire pour lutter contre la peur et contre la mort. Toute création est un acte d'amour pour la vie, et en même temps une proposition d'humanisation.

* * *

a) O fim não justifica os médios, e os médios utilizados devem reflectir a essência do fim.

b) Apoio às lutas de todos os povos contra o imperialismo e/ou pela auto-determinação, independentemente das direcções políticas deles.

c) Pela autonomia e a independência respeito total para com os projectos políticos do capitalismo.

d) Unidade do mundo do trabalho intelectual e físico, sem discriminações ideológicas de nenhum tipo, fora da identidade “anti-capitalista, anti-imperialista e pelo socialismo”.

e) Luta contra as burocracias políticas, pela democracia directa e dos conselhos.

f) Salvar a vida na Terra, salvar a humanidade.

g) Para um Utopista Vermelho o trabalho cultural e a criação artística em particular representam os mais nobres tentativos revolucionários por lutar contra os medos e a morte. Cada criação é um ato de amor para com a vida e, no mesmo tempo, uma proposta de humanização.