The Charter of Chivasso 1943 - 80° anniversary

 

Introduction to the Charter of Chivasso

The present “Declaration of the representatives of the Alpine populations”, better known as the Charter of Chivasso, was drawn up on 19 December 1943 in Chivasso (Piedmont), during a clandestine conference organized by representatives of the Antifascist Resistance of the Alpine valleys. The small town was chosen because it was halfway between those who came from the Waldensian valleys and the Aosta Valley people, as well as easy to reach from Turin and Milan.

One of the main protagonists of the meeting was the notary Émile Chanoux from the Aosta Valley - who died a few months later in a Fascist prison

The Charter postulated for Italy the transformation into a federal and republican political system on a regional and cantonal basis. It is a fundamental document for historical autonomism, but its audacity still makes it an inspiration for a modern decentralization, a territorialism for the 21st century.

The Charter of Chivasso is dated, but certainly not dusty. His words are incredibly alive. It has the very force of an evangelical "Sermon on the Mount" for those who believe that self-government, at the lowest level permitted by history and nature, is the most humane way for humans to organize themselves politically.

Chivasso, 13 December 2023

Mauro Vaiani Ph.D.

(Autonomies and Environment interterritorial secretariat -
segreteria interterritoriale di Autonomie e Ambiente)

PS:

I thank my beloved friend Eric Canepa, for his kind help (M.V.).

The Charter of Chivasso (full English translation)

What the representatives of these valleys have stated, applies to all territories
(Émile Chanoux)

The Charter of Chivasso 1943

(aka Chivasso Declaration)

We, the populations of the Alpine Valleys,

NOTING

that the twenty years of leveling and centralizing misgovernment summarized by the brutal and boastful motto of ‘Roma Doma’, have had the following painful and significant results for our Valleys:

POLITICAL OPPRESSION, through the work of its political and administrative agents (soldiers, commissioners, prefects, federal officials, teachers), petty despots who are oblivious and ignorant of any local tradition, of which they were zealous destroyers;

ECONOMIC RUIN, through the dilapidation of forestry and agricultural assets, the ban on emigration with the hermetic closure of the borders, the effective lack of technical and financial organization of agriculture, masked by the empty display of central assistance, and the incapacity to establish a modern tourist structure, respectful of our localities, all of which are conditions that have resulted in Alpine depopulation;

DESTRUCTION OF LOCAL CULTURE, through the suppression of the fundamental language of the area, where it exists, the brutal and clumsy transformation into Italian of local names and inscriptions, the closure of schools and autonomous institutes, a cultural heritage which is also an asset for the purposes of temporary migration abroad.

AFFIRMING

that freedom of language, like freedom of worship, is an essential condition for the protection of the human personality;

that federalism is the most suitable framework to provide the guarantees of this individual and collective right and represents the solution to the problems of small nationalities and minor ethnic groups, enabling the definitive liquidation of the historical phenomenon of irredentism, guaranteeing in a future European construct the establishment of a stable and lasting peace;

that a democratic republican regime with a regional and cantonal basis is the only guarantee against a return of the dictatorship which found in the centralized Italian monarchic state the ready-made instrument for its domination of the country; that in this democratic-federal regime the working classes must certainly see their rights safeguarded with the appropriate worker autonomy in order to prevent any capitalist return;

and that this would be faithful to the best spirit of the Risorgimento.

WE DECLARE the following.

POLITICAL-ADMINISTRATIVE AUTONOMY:

In the general framework of the next Italian State, which, economically and administratively, we hope will be organized on federalist criteria and politically on democratic principles, we seek the recognition of the right of the Alpine Valleys to form autonomous political-administrative communities of the cantonal type.

As such, they will be assured, whatever their numerical size, at least one seat in the regional and national legislative assemblies.

The exercise of local, municipal and cantonal political and administrative functions must be entrusted to elements native to the place or having stable residence there for a specific number of years which will be determined by the local assemblies.

AUTONOMY OF CULTURE AND SCHOOLS:

Due to their geographical position as intermediaries between different cultures, respect for their traditions and their ethnic personality, and for the advantages deriving from the knowledge of different languages, in the Alpine Valleys a particular cultural and linguistic autonomy must be fully respected and guaranteed, consisting in:

The right to use the local language, where it exists, alongside Italian in all public documents and in the local press.

The right to teach the local language in schools of all levels with the necessary guarantees in competitions so that teachers are suitable to teach it. Teaching will generally be under the control and direction of a local council.

The immediate restoration of all local names.

ECONOMIC AUTONOMY:

To facilitate the development of the mountain economy and consequently combat the depopulation of the Alpine Valleys, the following is necessary:

A comprehensive system of taxation of the industries located in the Alpine cantons (hydroelectric, mining, tourism and processing, etc.), so that a part of their profits returns to the Alpine Valleys and this regardless of whether these industries are collectivized or not.

A system of fair tax reduction that varies from area to area depending on the richness of the land and the prevalence of agriculture, forestry or pastoralism.

A rational and substantial agrarian reform including:

the unification of agricultural family ownership, which is too fragmented today, with the aim of improving business performance through land exchanges and compensation and through adequate legislation;

the technical-agricultural assistance provided by resident personnel , having, for example, teaching duties in local schools, some of whose subject matter may have agricultural relevance;

the strengthening by the local authority of economic life through free production and consumption cooperatives.

The strengthening of industry which leads to the formation of an advanced and capable working class. For this purpose, the control or administration of local businesses may also be entrusted, where necessary, to the regional or cantonal administration, even in the case of collectivist organization, of local enterprises.

The dependence of local public works on the cantonal administration and the latter's control over all services and concessions of a public nature.

- - -

We, the representatives of the Alpine Valleys, want to see these principles affirmed by the new Italian State, just as we also want them to be affirmed in the case of those Italians who are or could find themselves under foreign political domination, and we proclaim them today with the certainty that in doing so we are serving the interests and aspirations of all those who, like us, believe in the ideals of freedom and justice.

Chivasso, 19 December 1943

* * *

The present English translation from the original Italian text was edited by Autonomies and Environment interterritorial secretariat on 11 december 2023 and first published by European Free Alliance (EFA) here: https://e-f-a.org/2023/12/12/charter-of-chivasso-80-anniversary/.

The main political event to celebrate the 80° anniversary was organized by Autonomies and Environment Pact (Patto Autonomie e Ambiente), along with EFA, in Chivasso, on 16 December 2023.

To learn more about the values of the Charter of Chivasso, and how the political work of the Autonomies and Environment Pact develops on it, subscribe to the Telegram channel:

https://t.me/Forum2043

Information: info@autonomieeambiente.eu

Bob Sinclair - World, Hold On (Lyric Video)

Remaining Awake Through a Necessary Change

 

We publish here some excerpts from this important interview with Kaniela Ing, national director of the Green New Deal Network and seventh-generation Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian. The integral version can be listened here. Do not be paralyzed by prejudice that the interviewee is a young mainstream environmentalist. Go further, go deep.

Let’s concentrate only on the essentials about the Maui and Lahaina disaster in Hawaii. Leave your beliefs aside, along with your prejudices. Whether you are a liberal or a conservative, a conformist or a dissident, a believer or a skeptic, an American citizen or an anti-American rebel, you need to stop a moment to think. There are a few words you have to learn the meaning of: ecocidal capitalism, colonialism, centralism.

Understanding that capitalist exploitation has reached its limits will not change you into a socialist. Understanding the urgent need to end colonialism will not make you an anti-patriot, but it will reconnect you to an ancient anti-imperialist tradition that is among the noblest in American history. Understanding that Washington’s centralism (and that which dominates in many other nations) must be questioned will not transform you into a follower of retrograde, bigot, conspiracy thinking, but it will only open your mind to the blessing of self-government by everyone and everywhere. After this little, perhaps useless, sermon, here are the crucial contents of this conversation.

Mauro Vaiani, this blog's author

 

Excerpts from the transcript

KANIELA ING: ...I will preface by saying that I’ve been really busy, but when I’m not doing these interviews, I just tend to, like, break down. These are really somber times. I was born and raised in Maui. I’m Kānaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian, come from seven generations. And our island is on fire. Our most historic town was set ablaze by wildfires. Hundreds of people have been evacuated and hospitalized. The death toll is climbing, and people are searching for loved ones right now...

...what I am wondering, personally, is, once the recovery efforts start to unfold and the cameras are gone, who’s going to be left more powerful or less powerful? Are people still going to be paying attention when the recovery work is going to last for years? And is that going to make community members stronger, or is it going to make the people who have mismanaged the land and water and created the conditions for these fires to happen even more powerful? And that’s what we’re focused on…

KANIELA ING: ...We’re a tropical island here on Maui. We’re not supposed to have wildfires. This came as a shock to everyone. There’s not enough firefighters here. We can’t ship them over from the next state. We’re an island. So, everyone right now is feeling a bit overwhelmed… Lahaina Town is actually — it’s often characterized as a tourist town, but the people who live there — which should be the focus — tend to be some of the most rooted Native Hawaiians that I’ve ever met. They… [are] really the keepers of the ancestral knowledge. And, you know, some of their — yeah, like, most of the folks that evacuated are, like, Kānaka Maoli or other immigrant folks. And my heart goes out to those families.

KANIELA ING: ...Lahaina town was a thriving center of Hawaii. It was like the heart of Hawaii before not just statehood, but before Hawaii was even a territory of the United States. So, if you start from one end of Front Street and walk to the other, it’s like a Disneyland ride through the colonial timeline of capitalism in Hawaii, starting from royalty, going to whaling, sandalwood, sugar and pineapple, tourism to luxury. And to me, the fire is a tragic symbol of this trajectory’s terminal point, like where it all ends up if you continue down this mode of extraction as a way to live. But… it also contains the most deep and durable relics of our history of resistance: the museums, the architecture, the infrastructure, the banyan tree — the oldest and largest in the United States, which has burned, 150 years old this year. Like, it includes all that, but also just the fact of how slow it was to develop is a testament to the people-powered, usually Native-led resistance that each industry faced along the way.

KANIELA ING: ...The National Weather Service says the cause of this fire was a downed power line, and the spread because of hurricane-force winds. And the spread was caused by dry vegetation and low humidity. …Corporate polluters… caused the conditions that led to this fire. In addition, there [was] mismanagement of land. ...They’ve been grabbing land and diverting water away from this area for a very long time now, for generations. And Lahaina was actually a wetland. ...[At] Waiola Church, you could have boats circulating the church back in the day. But, you know, because they needed water for their corporate ventures, like golf courses and hotels and monocropping, that has ended. So the natural form of Lahaina would have never caught on fire. These disasters are anything but natural. So, yes, colonial greed... and the gross mismanagement of our land and water… [We need] returning the stewardship of land and water to the people… And really, if community members and union members were to unite and had been organized years ago, we could have had a much different future. And that’s still something that I think we should continue working to build, is that labor and environmental unity.

KANIELA ING: ...[Some Hawaiian communities] were like, “Look, we don’t want to cooperate with this new extractive economy that [colonizers] created, so we’re going to live by ourselves in our own community on this beach. We’re going to govern ourselves.” And they’re quite organized, and they’re living in a way that’s subsistent and in harmony with nature. Now, it’s not to be glamorized. A lot of these folks face some really dire conditions not being a part of this capitalist system. But a lot of them are doing it based on really strong and sensible beliefs… Now… when a disaster hits, it’s going to impact these people first and worst, no doubt. And we need to make sure that both relief and recovery efforts, in the longer term, are prioritizing the low-income and Indigenous people that are some — some are still unaccounted for. Some don’t even have IDs. And, you know, they need to be front of mind with everything we do, from, you know, day zero, when the disaster breaks, to years out, when we’re recovering…

KANIELA ING: ...So, going into Lahaina, the people that actually lived there for generations are the keepers of some of the most profound Indigenous knowledge that I have ever met. They understood subsistence fishery, how native plants were buffers against, like, you know, disasters, how to create regenerative agricultural practices. And it’s that view of the world where, you know, our success isn’t determined by how much we hoard, but rather how much we produce for others and share, and where, like, our economy is not based on how well the rich are doing, but how many people, how many of us, can actually thrive. Like, it’s that — it’s not just Indigenous knowledge, but it’s that value system that really needs to be reestablished… Indigenous leaders also need to be resourced to build the good. They need to be the purveyors of and architects of the new green and, like, community-rooted world that’s still possible, even in these dire times.

KANIELA ING: ...there needs to be a longer focus on recovery, that these — that we can’t rebuild the community in a few weeks. It’s going to take years. And we need to do it intentionally, not just making sure — not just bringing us back to the status quo, because the status quo is what led us here, but making sure that we have more democratic and community-controlled institutions that come out of this. Unfortunately, the groups that are best poised to deploy direct aid, because of their institutional connections, are also the most likely to enable disaster capitalists from exploiting the situation. So, we need to create — we need to understand that, you know, as we’re, like, trying — as people want to help, that they’re resourcing groups that have an eye towards community organizations, to the organizers that will actually be there once the cameras leave, and will be rebuilding from the ground up over the course of the long run.

* * *

No to escalation in Ukraine

 

We have to say NO to escalation in Ukraine.

We are urged to pretend immediate #ceasefire and then #peacetalks.

Mr Jens Stoltenberg is kindly asked to resign. Without any mandate, he spoke recklessly about the future of #Crimea and #Sevastopol.

And it is not the first time that he state something well beyond his role.

 

We have to be blunt: we do not trust @jensstoltenberg anymore. He does not have any mandate to state anything about the future of #Crimea, not to mention #Sevastopol. We, as citizens of #EU, ask him to resign from his position in the @NATO.

— Mauro Vaiani (@mauro_vaiani) May 7, 2022

 

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Source of the picture of this post:

https://www.dw.com/en/no-war-celebrities-call-for-de-escalation-in-ukraine/a-60672789

 

 

A Case for Decentralism International

Source of the map: Wikipedia

I want to link here a very good article written by Kunwar Khuldune Shaid, a Pakistan-based journalist, published by The Diplomat on June 22, 2020. The title is Pakistan's 'Occupied Balochistan'.

Not may people are aware that in 1948 Balochistan was an independent state, named Kalat. Under duress, Balochistan was obliged to accede to the newly created post-colonial country of Pakistan. Since then the Baluch have fought and are still fighting in an effort to have back the rights promised them in various treaties with both the British and the Pakistani governments.

It is a clear case of internal neocolonialism, perpetrated by Pakistan, a country with a history of centralism, militarism, violence, with the blessing of former colonialist power, Great Britain. Nowadays, this history of violence is still going on, thanks to financial and military assistance by the present neocolonialist "World Order", led by USA, China.

Mr Shaid explains in a few sentences, that Balochi struggle is directly connected with similar oppression happening in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (aka East Turkestan, aka Uyghuristan), Kashmir, and many other territories.

Both in China, Pakistan, and everywhere, centralism means neocolonialism, exploitation, genocide and ecocide.

Connecting all resisting territories, making their oppressed peoples aware they are oppressed by the same evilness, is what we mean by Decentralism International.

How to Shutdown USA Empire with Caitlin Johnstone

I met Caitlin Johnstone on Twitter and I immediately appreciated her anti-interventionist and anti-imperialist arguments, starting from her opposition to USA-Western-Globalist interventionism in Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, and militarist propaganda against Russia, China, and elsewhere. I don't know much about her education, and political background, if she had any, but I bet she knows enough about George Orwell and many others anti-totalitarian writers.
She lives in the periphery of the USA-Western-Globalist Empire, and precisely in Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria. Then, she is a candid provincial, living very far from the imperial centers, like me. In time, I understood she is a world-class public intellectual.
I consider her a perfect embodiment of the active, connected, politically aware and socially mobilized citizen of our contemporary world. More precisely, a tangible proof that social mobilization, as envisaged by the great Karl Deutsch, is a reality.
I consider her a de-facto contributor to what I define Decentralism International, along with many other anti-colonialists, localists, autonomists, independentists and independentistas, who are active in every corner of the world.
Decentralism is growing in the contemporary world, and of course changing, making people of very different background to come along together, against centralism. Decentralism meets profound human needs that globalization has empowered instead of repressed, as I argued in my research Disintegration as Hope.
For Caitlin Johnstone opposes centralized, militarized, authoritarian USA-Western-Globalist Empire, she is also hated by the many who are messing with centralism.
Geopolitically speaking, radical-chic leftism, cleptocrat democratic centrism, neoconservative warmongering rightism, all are subaltern to USA-Western-Globalist centralism, militarism, and imperialism.
They all have many more biases in common, about "global change", "global progress", "global defense", than what their leaders, intellectuals and elites would love to admit.
They simply do not want to acknowledge that structural racism, social injustice, colonialist militarism, cannot be resolved by those who created them. 
Puerto Rico, Vermont, Hawaii, as independent states, will be able to do something about, not certainly the USA Presidency or global financial elites.
But I will return on this many more times, hopefully discussing with person like Caitlin Johnstone.
For the moment, among so many lovers of centralism and imperialism and therefore haters of Caitlin Johnstone, nobody will doubt I side on her.And I strongly recommend to follow her.

Stop War for Empire

After #Soleimani crisis, we invite to listen carefully to what Mike Prysner has already said ten years ago, in 2010, on December 16. He payed a high price for being so blunt, along with other 131 veterans and other anti-war activists who were arrested in front of the White House.


Sources and other links:

https://youtu.be/_JP0WP9R9Ts

https://twitter.com/Ian56789/status/1213159001942372354

https://www.answercoalition.org/131_arrested_at_white_house

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHGM0ni7Yx4



Other comments:

Those who were fighting for civil rights and political refom in #Iran, #Iraq, #Lebanon, #Turkey, #Rojava, #Syria and many other places are now facing persecution and death, more than ever, thanks to @realDonaldTrump, @SecPompeo and other #USA #DeepState #Warmongers.

— Mauro Vaiani (@mauro_vaiani) January 3, 2020

A lesson from New Caledonia

I am really sorry about it, but self-government was not built in a single day of glory.
It was instead another independence referendum that went short of a victory, today 4 November 2018, in New Caledonia (Kanak, Nouvelle Calédonie, Nuova Caledonia).
The OUI to full self-government obtained a solid 43%, much more than expected. Two of three provinces voted overwhelmingly OUI.

Unfortunately the third province, the South with the capital Nouméa, which is the most subsidized from France, preferred to remain attached to Paris. 

It is not a definitive political defeat, for the independence movement.
The decolonization process won't be stopped.

Further consultations are already planned in the coming years about the final status of New Caledonia.

It must also be remembered that New Caledonia is already largely self-governing and its autonomy is going to be gradually improved.
So, it is important to look forward, with hope.

However, in my modest opinion, this popular vote in favor of colonial dependence, teaches a lesson to every decentralist movement all around the world.

Decentralism activists should learn how deeply people are brain-washed with a slippery "interdependence" narrative, which is even more powerful than older nationalism (which is not definitely buried, by the way).
The blessing of self-government is not frontally denied - it won't be possible - but it is ambiguously represented as a risky path, and this may result as an easy winning card in a referendum.
You do not even need a "Project Fear", again, as the one put in place to stop Scottish independence in 2014.
You do not even need open brutality, as the one delivered in 2017 to stop Catalan independence.
It is much more easier to speak softly about metropolitan "solidarity", economic "opportunities", individual and family "protection" thanks to a passport which is more widely internationally recognized.
Listening to this paternalistic narrative, the colonized ends up obeying the colonizer.

To cope with this powerful globalist domination of imaginary, virtuality and reality, it is very important to plan self-government as a gradual but irreversible, step-by-step process.
Every territory in search of less dependence, has to fight a nonviolent war of position, made of small advancements and slowly advancing trenches. Fiscal and financial autonomy must be conquered little by little. Powers and resources must be taken one by one from the dominant power.
Step by step, one day soon, a country might have become so soundly and effectively self-governing, that recognition of full and formal independence will be a last and easy move. It happened this way, as some may know, to a few former British dominions (New Zealand, Australia, Canada). It will happen also in New Caledonia.

Moreover, even in the case of a victory, this process would be necessary as well. Too many countries have become formally independent and in fact they are still colonies. The process of conquering effective self-government, little by little, is nonetheless essential, everywhere in this corrupted, polluted, militarized, centralized, still neocolonialist world.

In the meantime, we wish the Kanak people all the best. We were inspired by their colorful and meaningful independence campaign. We believe their full self-government will become reality very soon, because it is the only natural and human political state for everyone, everywhere.

International solidarity with Kanak independence movement
from Florence (Committee Liberty Tuscany)

Portorico e il rilancio di un pensiero decentralista

I decentralisti di tutto il mondo sono diversi, magari anche divisi dalle loro storie umane e politiche, differenti nella declinazione delle loro aspirazioni libertarie, timidi nell'affrontare i problemi sociali e ambientali nella loro lotta contro tutte le concentrazioni di ricchezza e di potere.
C'è però una idea antica, semplice, radicale che li unisce: la decolonizzazione deve andare avanti, per tutti, dappertutto, con risolutezza, anche se essa non sembra essere nell'interesse diretto e immediato dei colonizzati, oltre che dei colonizzatori.
Il caso di Portorico è emblematico e dirimente.
Questi 11 minuti di RedFish, con rara semplicità e capacità di sintesi (in una lingua inglese media e facilmente comprensibile), serviranno a tutti a ricordare che i potenti, ricchi, liberi, aperti, civili Stati Uniti d'America hanno una colonia particolarmente sfruttata e dimenticata.
Non stiamo parlando dello Yemen e della Siria dilaniati dal militarismo imperialista delle potenze globali e regionali.
Non stiamo parlando dei paesi africani ridotti in schiavitù dal sistema del franco CFA.
Non stiamo parlando delle nazionalità e dei territori oppressi dal centralismo cinese o russo.
Siamo in America!
No, non è colpa di Trump, anche se sono state proprio la sua ruvidezza e la sua improntitudine a risvegliare tante coscienze addormentate.




L'indipendenza di Portorico non sarà, di per sé, la fine del colonialismo, che potrà sempre trasformarsi in neocolonialismo, ma è l'unica direzione praticabile per coloro che credono che il mondo non debba finire distrutto da grandi stati centralisti, distruttori di libertà individuali, sistemi sociali, tradizioni locali, intere culture oltre che l'intero ecosistema.
Portorico è uno dei varchi al quale sono attesi tutti coloro che si dicono decentralisti (civici, ambientalisti, localisti, autonomisti, indipendentisti).
Non esitiamo.
E' il nostro momento.

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Fonte della foto: http://planningbeyondcapitalism.org/reflections-on-puerto-rico-colonialism-and-us-imperialism/

Who will be the next in Europe

His excellence the 130th president of #Catalonia was arrested today by the German federal police in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, under the accusation of "rebellion", following a "European" (?) arrest warrant issued by the neofrancoist regime of #Spain.
How did we get so far?
It is a long history, not easy to summarize and socialize.

They came for the Saharawis and we remained silent.
They came for the Kurds and we remained silent.
They came for the Berbers and the Tuaregs and we remained silent
They came for Africans exploited by the French neocolonialism and we remained silent.
They came for Cyrenaica and Tripolitania and we remained silent.
They came for Yemen and Syria, destroyed by American and Saudi barbarian bombing and we remained silent.
They came for Scotland, Flanders, Corsica, Sardinia and we remained silent.
They eventually came for Catalonia, one of the most developed and progressive countries of the world.
What are we going to do, now?
Wake up, Europeans. 
In the coming time of Easter, let's cling to the roots of our identity (Matthew 10, 27):
What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

* * *

Free all the political prisoners now!
General amnesty for all the self-government advocates and activists!
Let's welcome the free state of Catalogna in Europe!

Decentralists of the world unite!

We honor Barcelona and Catalonia for the moral clarity, civic duty, social cohesion, political moderation they demonstrated in their worst time.
#NoTincPor - I am not afraid - was their local response to global terror.Sadly, terror in Catalonia has been ridden by the global mainstream media as an occasion to advocate for further concentration of power, centralism, militarism, imperialism, neocolonialism, war on "Islamic terror" - by which in fact they mean more military action and neocolonialist intrusion in Islamic countries and beyond.
To cope with terror spread by the "radical losers", following the lesson of Hans Magnus Enzensberger, we need exactly the opposite: strong local democracies with real powers to include and protect their citizens, localized welfare, bottom-up social change, local patrolling, independent judiciary.
A radicalized generation is living with us and many of them will hardly be recovered to a sense of humanity, but a network of human-scale, fair, inclusive communities can, if not heal their deviation, at least put them under control.
A network of self-governing communities can be much more resilient in the globalized world, and not only this.
Catalonia, Scotland, Corsica, Sardinia, Tuscany - along with Vermont and many others - can be crucial actors in the effort to put an end to serial Western-led "regime changes", "exportations of democracy", barbaric proxy wars (as the one unleashed by Barbaria Saudita in Yemen), and other neo-colonialist American, British, French disastrous interventions in the world.
It is up to us, to stop centralism, militarism, imperialism, which are deeply intertwined with the spread of global terror.
Not "war on terror", but decentralism is the antidote to war and terror.
Decentralists of the world unite!

Hayir - No

This blog dedicates this day, which is important in Italy as the Liberation Day, to commemorate the Turkish democratic resistance to the Turkish Hoax.
We will never recognize the late Turkish referendum on "executive Presidentialism".
We will never appease Erdogan and its regime.
We will ever support, instead, Turkish social and political opposition forces in their request of referendum repetition, in fairer conditions.
In particular after that all the political prisoners, representatives, journalists are eventually freed, and full press freedom has been established in Turkey.
This is a dramatic question, which requires moral clarity and resoluteness.
Let's hold it hard.

* * *

To deepen this dramatic topic, those who understand Italian can follow the great job of Mariano Giustino, correspondent of Radio Radicale from Istanbul.

EU is so rotten that even a Labourist can understand it

In the vigil of the French elections, which I believe will greatly shake the status quo, I suggest this reading to those who missed it:


The Sixth Way: Devolution by Dorette Corbey, published by Social Europe on 4 April 2017


Dorette Corbey is a politician from the Dutch Labour Party. Yes, exactly the party who went destroyed in the last Dutch political elections.


European Union is so rotten that even a Labourist can understand the necessity of profound Euroreform, and a new season of devolution.

Only the multiplication of strong local self-governing authorities - both newly independent republics as Scotland and Catalonia, and the multiplication of European autonomous regions and provinces - may bring democracy and socialism back to the people, keeping at bay chauvinism, preserving peace, justice, and free circulation in Europe.

The people need a say in the great challenge of overcoming the present sense of deprivation, the rising of inequalities, the fear of more neo-colonialist, imperialist wars.

Human-scale democracy, provided by the multiplication of free republics in Europe, scaling down EU and big states' concentration of power, may provide to the people new spaces of hope.
 
Let's go on, studying and working against what's wrong in Europe and beyond.

The Turkish Hoax

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/

The Easter (16 April 2017) Turkish referendum has been rigged since the beginning: opposition leaders arrested; representatives deprived of their immunity; journalists and intellectuals persecuted, exiled, beaten, or even killed; the state machine have been purged of honest functionaries and filled with AKP hardliners.

Nonetheless, Erdogan has lost in all the major cities, in the most open and developed tourism areas, in the Kurdish provinces.

The above map clearly explains the situation. Only further cheating in provincial election stations and within the "deep state", has managed to collect a victory of "Yes", and a very close one.

At the moment we are writing (April 17, 10.24 CET), provisional counting is at %99.97 of the votes; Yes (Evet) is at %51.41 (25.156.860 votes); No (Hayır) is at %48.59 (23.777.014 votes).

Evidently, this result is no way legitimate. It cannot be neither trusted nor accepted.
 
Now we have to support all Turkish democratic forces in their struggle for freedom, and social and territorial autonomies, especially the HDP.

Something must change also in the other Turkish parties. They are too much subaltern to centralist and nationalist mainstream. That's why they have not been able to oppose #croockeErdogan.

Erdogan had his Phyrric victory, but we strongly believe this is not the end for democracy, this is the start of his end.

May the Risen Lord, the Easter G-d bless all the peoples of Anatolia in their journey of awakening and in their resistance to Erdogan's corrupt, authoritarian regime. 

The Coming Turkish NO

On the coming Easter-Pascha Sunday, April 16th 2017, if Erdogan's regime has not yet completely rigged the electoral mechanism, the communities and the peoples of Turkey will deliver a NO vote to the proposed AKP-MHP constitutional reform.

As it happened in Italy on December 2016, and in many other corners of the world, we bet that: electors will not believe the state propaganda; they will not obey the dominant party; they will not consent to further concentration of power and riches.

Let us hope.

If we are wrong, if Erdogan's lackeys have completely mined Turkish institutions, Turkey's (and our) future will eventually be far more complicated (but even in the worst case I am not pessimistic and I will soon explain why, in the coming days).

Let us pray and act, for democracy, decentralism, freedom and justice for all.

May all of you be blessed on Easter-Pascha!

How to Cure American Hubris

One of the few reasonable Trump's promises has been broken. As one can read from those who voted for him, "President Trump's launch of military action in Syria represents a betrayal of the Americans who hoped he would pursue a different foreign policy than his two immediate predecessors".

The imperial military-industrial establishment is stronger than ever, still concentrating power and riches. President Trump was exposed as subaltern, incompetent, and eventually reckless.

In this dramatic hours, we must pray for the innocent victims. We must expose American responsibilities in triggering the Syrian "Civil War" and in other imperialistic adventures. We must be aware of the #SyriaHoax. We must say #NOWAR again and again.

But all this is not enough.

We need a much more radical approach to cure American imperial hubris.

Two important things can be reminded tonight:

- all over the world we must act to dismantle the American empire of bases; here in Tuscany we have to do something against NATO aggressive poising;

- in America we have to give support to peace movements, ranging from the anti-imperialistic activism up to the anti-war isolationism (the opposite sides of the political spectrum must cooperate in this dramatic situation).

In particular we must support American progressive decentralists, all over the United States. They can scale back and down the immense power concentrated in Washington and give birth to a new American spring of human-scale democracy, and social inclusion, and peace.

The best drug to cure American hubris we have met on the net up to know, is this intervention from the Free Vermonter Robert Williams Jr.

Please read it, diffuse it.

Unlikely as it may sound, Vermont Second Republic is the royal road to put an end to American internal inequality, international imperialism, militarism and corruption.

Out of touch European Parliament voted on Turkey

MEPs have given the strong impression of being out of touch.
Instead of going - in greater number and with more energy than they did - to Turkey, in Istanbul, in Ankara, to pretend the liberation of political prisoners, to talk with the resistants, to visit prisons, to travel to the bombed South-East, they voted an incomprehensible, moralistic, pointless statement, which eventually will be useful only to reinforce Erdogan's rhetorics:


Insights:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20161117IPR51549/freeze-eu-accession-talks-with-turkey-until-it-halts-repression-urge-meps

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/24/eu-parliament-votes-freeze-membership-talks-turkey

https://hdpenglish.wordpress.com/

Heeding the Trump nation

Yes, Americans elected an unqualified salesman as President of the United States. I think the magic words were: bring back our jobs, soldiers. There are voices to be heard, and probably a lesson to learn.

I post here a few voices of the so-called "Trump Nation", extracted from this USAToday survey.

Heeding these people, it appears clear to me that Trump was supported by a tide of new electors, rather different and distant from the stereotype of social conservative people, old and new Republicans, Evangelicals. A merely moralizing emphasis on ignorance, bigotry, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, can be misleading in an effort of understanding Trump's (narrow) victory.

Let's read.

Dustin Grab, New York , age 29

Dustin Grab (source)

“I like Donald Trump because he’s been saying the same thing about trade since I have been born. He is saying the same thing about the NAFTA and GATT that we went into in [the] ’90s and how we’ have been making policies that benefit a lot of people but maybe not so much America itself. I also really like the fact that he wants to audit the Federal Reserve. I think questioning globalism is the biggest thing after the Brexit vote that we had the other day. I think that’s the next step for major governmental policy is to step back and look at these trade deals that we have, and a lot of them in secret like the TPP where we don’t really know what we’re getting into before we vote on it, and step back and see if we’re actually benefitting from these trade deals and re-negotiate the ones that aren’t benefitting us. So I think questioning globalism is going to be the biggest thing to help out our country and economic status.”

Manny Paulet (American Hispanic), Indiana, age 47

“I support Donald Trump because he's the first American in about three decades that has decided to work for the benefit of the average person. America has a long term addiction to cheap labor. He's going to break this addiction by starting a trade war with other countries. A trade war will cause us to re-industrialize and there will be a better distribution of income. He's a plain-spoken guy, but nothing that he's ever said has made me think that he's racist. He's shown in his hiring and in his businesses that he'll always hire the best person for the job. He doesn't care what your silly sexuality orientation is, your color, your gender or anything like that. Keeping illegal immigration is a big step forward in maximizing the economic value of each American worker. Without those step-up jobs, the long-term integration system that the United States has had, almost since its history, cannot resume. It's broken. Right now, we've got people who are stuck at the bottom, for the most part. If we give them these step-up jobs, which re-industrialization will allow for, then they'll be able to progress and the next generation will be able to integrate better into our society. I don't think it should be at all controversial for a politician to say that America should come first. I expect that the politicians of every country want their country to come first. That is not blame-worthy, that is praise-worthy. This is first politician in 30 years that I've had hope that can enact real change for America and make America better for every American for the forseeable future.”

Phil Berrios (Latin American), New York , age 61

“He’s the best man for the job. He’s going to bring back more jobs for the Americans, which we lost a lot of jobs to Mexico and everywhere else. And he’s going to make America great again. The Obamacare I'’m not too crazy about. This guy’ is going to [give] better health care. And, like I said, more jobs and more opportunities for the American. You have a lot of people unemployed. They're looking for new jobs. We should just bring back the jobs that left the United States.”



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Further readings:

- A liberal view I strongly disagree with: Paul Krugman, accusing a huge number of "white people, living mainly in rural areas — who don'’t share at all our idea of what America is about. For them, it is about blood and soil, about traditional patriarchy and racial hierarchy".

- A very good Naomi Klein, understanding the complexity of structural inequalities.

- Robert Parry adding important points about Clinton's foreign policy big mistakes in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq - To put it simple: US establishment bears the responsibility of having bullied Russia and triggered the Islamic State.

- Something about Bernie Sanders, always wise.


- Last, but not least, a great Glenn Greenwald, with his understanding of the complex intertwinement of poverty and identity, which should remind to Ernest Gellner, Tom Nairn, or, more recently, R. Brian Ferguson, for a more profound insight. A must read.

Is Renzi's New Constitution the Solution?

My article on Renzi's new Constitution has been published by The Globalist.  Please read and spread.


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#Renzi’s New Constitution: Really the Solution to #Italy’s Troubles? @mauro_vaiani https://t.co/oipz16nr5z

— The Globalist (@theglobalist) 28 settembre 2016

Interventionism or Peace

Fonte: Ansa

Western money, arms, and interventions in Iraq and Syria originated the multiplication of terror militias and armed factions. Then Western intervention triggered the bloody Syrian Civil War, conceived as (another) violent regime change. Then Western intervention provided the material, social, political conditions for the foundation of (another) Islamic State.
Russian and Iranian interventions checked and balanced American, Turkish, Saudi hubris.
Kurdish Rojava resistance have showed liberation and democratic self-government for all the oppressed peoples, are possible.
Now (another) American-Russian general truce in Syria has been promised.
It would be the best way to honor 9/11 15th anniversary and the Islamic Eid.
Let's hope, and also pray, and hear the peoples' voice.
Stop interventionism.
Give peace a chance.