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.

PER SAPERNE DI PIÙ CI SONO UNA COLLANA DI LIBRI E UN BLOG IN VARIE LINGUE…

Visualizzazione post con etichetta radical Islamism. Mostra tutti i post
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venerdì 3 novembre 2017

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NEAR EAST, by Pier Francesco Zarcone

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

Raqqa, October 21, 2017 © Bülent Kiliç
The military breakthrough in the Syrian war appears to be definitive … at least according to Robert S. Ford, former US ambassador in Damascus, known for his collusion with local radical Islamists.
Even though the conflict has not yet come to an end, in a recent article published in Foreign Affairs Ford wrote that the Syrian army has now won the war and “the United States will have to abandon any hopes of supporting a separate Kurdish region”, having “no good options in Syria” anymore, so that “hopes of getting rid of Assad … are far-fetched fantasies”.
The reason for this situation was Russian intervention. An obvious question comes to mind: why and in what way did the Russians succeed? In this regard, it is necessary to clarify a number of points.
First, it must be remembered that one must never enter into a conflict without having a well-defined and delimited political objective: in this case it was solely rescuing the current Syrian government. Secondly, the Kremlin clearly understood that many of the players in the Syrian conflict – moreover fragmented – were the long arm, or substitutes, of external entities such as the United States, Turkey, the Syrian Kurdish opposition Democratic Union Party (PYD, Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat), Jordan and also Israel. Russia dealt diplomatically with all these subjects, provoking fallout also on the battlefield.
In addition, in order not to be trapped in a swamp with no way out, Moscow used very limited resources wisely and effectively: 4-5,000 soldiers and from 50 to 70 aircrafts, for a cost of about 3 million euros per day (in practice no more than one-fifth of US military spending in the Near East). And the losses suffered were more than contained.
From the ratio between means employed and practical results, some have concluded that Russian “military productivity” was greater than that of the United States, also because there was absolutely no lack of achievements in the field. On the other hand, Russia immediately and in its entirety used the presence destined for Syria – in fact without unnecessary warnings – and, unlike what happened in the so-called “US-led coalition”, did not need to implement it significantly.
From a political point of view, Russia intervened itself, that is, without pretending that the further phase of the war effort be supported by the Syrian Armed Forces – which in the Arab world can give good returns. So, no fake “advisers” who officially do not fight, but presence and commitment directly alongside the ally.
It has been said that Moscow was able to adopt the so-called “strategy of the reckless pedestrian”, that is of the person who, in crossing a very busy road with extreme boldness, manages to stop the cars rather than be run over.
A very calculated risk strategy, because currently neither the United States nor Russia seek direct confrontation; consequently, the first of the two that succeeds in “placing itself” on a certain “ground” de facto prevents the other from taking the same initiative.
Instead, the United States – threats aside – hesitated too much. In addition, with the deployment of S-300 missiles – and later S-400s –, the Russians imposed a sort of no-fly zone on Washington: perhaps not absolute, if it is taken into account that, in violation of an agreement concluded a few hours earlier with the Russians, the United States bombed Syrian troops besieged by ISIS at Deir ez-Zor, killing 62 soldiers of Damascus and acting in real terms as support – albeit in vain – for the concomitant ground offensive of the militia of al-Baghdadi’s “caliphate” (the enemy of the United States, in theory). The missile attack on Syria’s Shayrat base ordered by Trump came, however, from the sea.
In military terms, the conclusion is that if, on the one hand, Russian power of blocking air space is not total, on the other, US recourse to prudence attests that Syrian skies are substantially controlled by the Russians. Putin certainly took a risk, but the United States did not; and so it did not provide its Syrian allies, pseudo-democrat or “moderate Islamic” allies, with the modern armaments – anti-aircraft and air-ground missiles – they asked for nor did it engage on the ground with its own soldiers.
Finally, the Russians showed the possibility of a negotiation to the non-hardcore enemy sectors; down this road, in agreement with the Syrian government, it created the Reconciliation Center, which guarantees protected transport for declared defeated enemies and their families – and aid to the civilian population.

IN IRAQ

In the context of the current confrontation between the Iraqi government and the autonomous one of Erbil following the Kurdish referendum on independence in September, the Iraqi Armed Forces aim to take back the Assyrian city of Faysh Khabur, the border crossing with Turkey. This would mean denying the United States free passage to northern Syria, which instead is guaranteed by the Kurds.
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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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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.