Article by Pino Aprile, 2014-09-18

Pino Aprile, writer, journalist, 2014-09-18. This is my article on the Southern Party (Partito Meridionale), published today in "Il Mattino": The race is between the idea of ​​a party that represents the rights of the South, devastated by (italian) governments of every color, especially in the last twenty years, and we have to break all taboos about the autonomy of our macro-region that to many people seems even too scant, because nowadays more and more people are talking about secession. These are the first, impulsive responses (not to say wrong), to solve an issue that has reached the limit: from Berlusconi's governments that diverted resources away from the South to abolish Local Property Tax, pay fines to European Union for cheating North Italian dairy farmers, finance rescues of earthquake-hit L'Aquila; Monti's government that gave 97% of resources to earthquake-hit schools in Middle and North Italy (of this 1/3 only to Lombardia) and 3% only to the South; Letta's government that killed the universities of South Italy with the act of the minister Carrozza and distributed the funds for the great infrastructural projects 97% for Middle and North Italy and 3% to th South (the same amount in Euro is what the North Italian companies that work for the construction of Autostrada A3 pay to Mafia); Renzi's government refuses kindergartens for children in South Italy and southern halves the co-financing for important projects in the South, because "People in South do not know how to spend"; this common affermation contradict itself because the problem "do not know how to spend" is in the Northern Regions, with regard to work against the hydrogeological risk: the Lucania is one of the most virtuous of Italy, Sicily is best of all the other regions in South Italy, that are bad at the same position as Piedmont, Liguria, Val d'Aosta, Trentino, Veneto, Friuli, Umbria ...In each case of the bad management of public resources in North Italian regions the government has appealed to institutional instruments and guaranteed the spending of the money, rather than withdraw them as in the South. Two weights, two measures. The insults (from ministers in charge) and other distractions to the detriment of the South are now so many, which is incomprehensible patience of the people in South Italy. It is not clear why citizens from Matera not block trains between Milan and Rome, to warn the government that they will take away the trouble when the railway will be come to Matera, after a century and a half of waiting. But there are already parties in the South? Why make it one for the South? The South is a colony: and as the colonies, the richest regions on natural resources, see the Lucania, with the largest land-based oil fields in Europe, are those most forgotten and the poorest. Because the native leaders of the colonized territories serve those who dominate, the colonizers. I'm using strong words for a necessary synthesis, but not false: does anyone remember the names of members of Italian Parliament who protested against: the abolition of many public kindergartens in South Italy? Or the exclusion from the school books of all the poets and writers from South Italy (Neapolitans and Sicilians)? Or investment in Railways only in Middle and North Italy? The national parties are the instruments of power for the North, and oppose local leaders in South who obtain consent from the population (the latest national election, 50% of candidates of the Democratic Party in the South, were from North Italy, not one from South was present in the lists in North Italy). only those who possess the power of their votes can request justice/fairness, discuss the discrimination against the South; The candidates elected because imposed by the national leadership is debt with that leadership and indirectly with North Italian Power Elite, not with the voters. The sociologist Ulrich Beck, of the London School of Economics, explains that in Europe is in progress a subtraction from them who have less, by them who have most: the strongest social classes remove resources and growing inequality, remotly; it's what the North Italy do with the South, it's what the Germany do with countries in debt and even with the regions of the East. So the solution is a party for South Italy? Or the macro-region, secession? But before writing "party," Professor Paolo Savona cites "the start of a civil movement." Without this, there is not one. The parties are tools for conscious and organized citizens. Those who care about the well-being of the South Italy, know that there are attempts to create parties pro-South. They are small and in conflict with each other. But every thing are born small; and the contrast is useful because from conflicts emerge a leader. In this boiling can happen that a group prevails and encompasses the other (as in physics, the aggregation of complex systems in larger and larger structures). More attempts there are, better it is... The Professor Gianfranco Viesti here has right: the union-like party makes sense in small areas; in a wide area as the South Italy it will be hard to hold together the ideas from right and left. Unless ... Unless we respect the recipe: join the project, not to divide ourselves on our different ideas. This requires a widespread awareness about the major reasons for the underdevelopment of the South Italy, the way in which it was built and how it was cultivated for the benefit of the Middle and North Italy. After a century and a half, this awareness is spreading. Professor Galli Della Loggia wrote that, at least the real historical events about the Italian Unification, those are almost taught in all the Italian schools. If Renzi recites primates of the Neapolitan Bourbons during the election campaign in Naples, it is because even he knows the truth about our history. The civil movement mentioned by Professor Savona are definitely part of the committees of the "Land of fires" (Terra dei Fuochi) against the toxic waste, associations against Ilva in Taranto, cooperatives against mafia ... The people of South Italy come together to solve common problems: not happened so long. The passage from here to the party is not easy (we come together to storm the castle, there is divided to manage: to do before the oven or the church?), It is true, and can be done. But ... the politics are opportunist, seize opportunities. It can happen (already having the necessary facilities) that the existing national parties compete among themselves in making their claims for the South Italy and for moving towards a more equality/fairness, just to stay on the saddle of the colony. This could hold Italy united. Otherwise, a new party will be born. And grow, will in turn raise the stakes. At the end of the path, there is the referendum as in Scotland. It may well be that Europe becomes united easily if made ​​of small countries and not of rancorous nations arose in bloodbath, divided by territorial selfishness.

Colonialism and Modernity

Modernity is constituted and reproduced through colonialism, André Gorz stated: "Colonialism is not an external practice of monopoly capitalism. It is from the first an internal practice. Its victims are not just the exploited, oppressed, dismembered nations, but the populations living in the dominant countries."
Colonization is always a violent phenomenon, is the price that humanity and nature pays to capitalism. Therefore to imagine a modernity without colonialism is an illusion. Those two elements go together, form a single system, are inseparable, even if one of the two, colonialism, is rendered invisible in many cases, made opaque by the apparent modern shine of increasingly sophisticated products that alienate people.
We can therefore say that modernity is constituted and reproduced through colonialism. It is a perverse system. The modern world is a colonial system, is a world of inequality and dehumanization, where the reproduction and domination, exploitation and alienation are now made natural elements.
The process of colonization for the Neapolitan Nation was imposed by force, and took many forms. At first it resulted in a political-military colonization accompanied by economic domination. The occupation by force of arms to a territory is also expressed in the political domination on the native by imposing an irrational economic system based on exploitation. But so far, the subjectivity of the colonized has not been transformed. To ensure the maintenance over time of colonization, and thus of modernity, it is necessary to impose the transformation of the subjectivity of the colonized. The colonized had hitherto a free subjectivity, although it was dominated by the use of force. The colonizers have induced into the mind of colonized an identity marked by inferiority, a slow re-education process to inferiority. The colonization of subjectivity is manifested through the control of history, education, servile treatment, through a colonial dialectic that dehumanizes the colonized, and therefore it is also a colonization of being and knowing, physical and intellectual. The colonial violence has "beastified" the colonized through a crescendo of physical and psychological abuses. Through education the colonized is convinced that the only valid culture, civilization and science are only those "modern", brought by the colonizers, while the native's culture is only superstition and folklore. In this way the colonizers try to completely erase the native's culture. Once the colonized has lost its identity, the colonizer can justify his mission of domination. The colonizer has come to say at that moment, as Frantz Fanon explains that not only the colonized has never owned a value, but that is impervious to ethics and the colonized is not able to acquire any ethics. In this way, it is warranted and justified its exploitation and racism. The colonization of identity has ensured the continuation modernity/coloniality beyond the physical presence of the colonizer in the territory of the colony.

Swedish Version
Modernitet konstitueras och reproduceras genom kolonialism, förklarade André Gorz: "Kolonialism är inte bara en yttre praxis av den monopolistiska kapitalismen. Det är faktiskt först och främst en intern praxis. Kolonialismens första offren är inte nationer i fjärran som exploateras, förtrycks och sönderdelas, men kolonialmaktens egna befolkning, eller en del av befolkningen. Föreställningen enligt vilken världen förenklad delas in i "kejserliga" nationer och exploaterade nationer ge en falsk bild av verkligheten, enligt den bilden de rika nationalstaterna skulle befinna sig på ena sidan av ett staketet och resten av världen på andra sidan." Kolonisering är en våldsam fenomen, är priset som mänskligheten och naturen får betala kapitalismen. Därför att föreställa sig moderniteten utan kolonialism är en illusion. Dessa två element hänger ihop, bildar delar av ett enda system, är oskiljaktiga, även om en av de två, kolonialismen, görs osynlig, i många fall blir den omärkbar med pga modernitetens glans som alstras från alltmer sofistikerade produkter, tjänster och bekvämligheter som alienerar människor. Man kan säga då att moderniteten konstitueras och reproduceras genom kolonialismen. Det är ett orimligt system. Detta världssystem består av ojämlikhet och avhumanisering. I det system reproduktion och dominans, exploatering och utanförskap är naturliga element. Koloniseringens process införs alltid med våld och antar sedan olika former. Först kommer den i form av politisk och militaristisk kolonisering och åtföljs sedan av ekonomisk dominans. Ockupationen med vapenmakt i ett område uttrycks också i den politiska dominans på ägarna till det territoriet genom att ålägga dem ett ekonomiskt system av irrationell exploatering, många gånger i arbetsrelationer. Men än så länge, den subjektivitet av de koloniserade har inte förvandlats. För att säkerställa kolonialismens vinningar i tiden, och därmed av moderniteten, införs omvandlingen av subjektiviteten i de koloniserade. Den koloniserade hade hittills en fri subjektivitet, även om den dominerades av användning av våld. Kolonialismen arbetar ihärdigt på de koloniserades identitet, för att bryta ner den, för att inmata i de koloniserade, underlägsenhet, man utbildas till minoritet. Koloniseringen av subjektiviteten visar sig genom kontroll av historian, utbildningssystemet och en konstant servil behandling av de koloniliserade. Genom dialektiken avhumaniseras de koloniserade och är därför också en kolonisering av att vara och känna, fysisk och intellektuell. Det koloniala våldet omvandlar till odjur de koloniserade genom den fysiska och psykiska övergrepp. Genom utbildningssystemet övertygas de koloniserade att den enda kulturen, civilisation och vetenskap är bara den "moderna" dvs kolonialistens, medan de koloniserades ursprungliga kultur framställs som folklore och vidskepelse. På så sätt försöker kolonialismen helt radera de koloniserades ursprungliga kulturen. När de koloniserade har förlorat sin identitet, kan kolonisatören rättfärdiga sin position. Kolonisatören kan då säga till sitt samvete att det var rätt att "civilisera" de vilda - vilket förklaras av Frantz Fanon - att de koloniserade har aldrig ägt några värderingar, att de koloniserade är ogenomtränglig för etik och inte kan skaffa det. På detta sätt motiverar kolonisatören sitt utnyttjande. Koloniseringen av identiteten har då säkrat den fortsatta symbios mellan modernitet och kolonialism bortom den fysiska närvaron av kolonisatören på de koloniserade territorier.

Italian Racism Against Naples and Neapolitans

Rione Traiano, Naples, September 5, 2014. Davide Bifolco, a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed by police after running with 2 other friends from roadblock. "I'm ashamed to be an Italian. Now the State, who is going to apologize to us for what happened?" said Bifolco's brother Tommaso. "Around here we see a lot of deaths but last night an entire neighborhood came out into the streets and you know why? Because it wasn't a mobster that got killed but an innocent boy," said Tommaso Bifolco. A woman who gave her name as Annalisa was among those who came out to protest the shooting, and said there were around a hundred others with her. "What happened is shameful. The police should defend us and instead they killed an innocent boy. Here in Rione Traiano neighborhood, we don't want the police anymore," Annalisa said. Davide Bifolco's mother, Flora, said that she saw her son just minutes before he was fatally shot, when he returned home to ask for some headgear because he was cold. "Now, if he's brave enough, that police officer has to kill me too, because he killed my son Davide," said Bifolco's mother. Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris expressed his condolences to the family and said he hoped that "already within the next few hours, we might have a clearer picture of the sequence of events". On the other hands Mario Borghezio deputy of the European Parliament affirmed: "David Bifolco? I was a hooligan and a hooligan remains, even if he is dead.". Mario Borghezio, leading member of the Northern League, does not mince words to tell his racist version about the boy who was killed by a policeman in Naples. "So you have to call one that runs away roadblock without a helmet...." Mario Borghezio continues affirming: "Davide is dead because of Naples. Unrepresentable are those screaming mothers from Rione Traiano. Them are the shit of Italy, as says the daughter of one of the imprisoned Italian marines in India." Mario Borghezio shows is full-bodied racism saying: "For Naples needs someone like General Mori during the fascist era. It needs killing raids against the neighborhoods of Camorra"

I say kill this motherfucker!!