A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova: Reflections on coexistence with the territory -- Starting from the Flegrea Area (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

As an anarchist*, utopia and "idealism" are not disconnected from the 
reality of things and paths of practice. The point I try to make 
concerns the social ecology of Murray Bookchin and the political and 
social prefiguration of Errico Malatesta, two philosophers to whom I am 
very attached, in connection with the geopolitical situation of the 
Campi Flegrei and of the entire Neapolitan area. ---- The Beautiful 
Idea, as we call it, in the anarchist imagination, is a symbol and goal 
that has been set for us to move towards, perhaps without ever fully 
achieving, since we never stop learning and evolving. This concept 
serves us, as a sort of Kantian regulative ideal, to establish an 
ideological basis on how to directly address the issue or at least on 
how to relate to it in general.

The bradyseism of the entire Phlegraean area (of which let's not forget 
Naples is part) is a problem, due to the material conditions that have 
lasted for millennia, for which in my opinion there are only two 
solutions: either we all leave - but from almost all of Italy in this 
case considering the seismic swarms of recent decades and the geological 
condition of the entire peninsula - or we learn to live with it as is 
done in places like Japan, Iceland, Hawaii and so on.

Now when I talk about "coexistence" I am referring to an interaction of 
social ecology, sociocultural, political connection and "complementary 
usufruct" with one's home, one's neighborhood, city and bio-cultural 
region. Starting from us in the Mastrogiovanni Group of Naples who now 
find ourselves experiencing the problem firsthand, we must implement a 
structure of empathy with the territory we are part of, if we want to be 
part of it - and this applies to all those who want to have it is a 
healthy interaction, which does not reproduce the hierarchical 
exploitation of individuals over others.

As much as I hate Pasolini enough, he was right about some things: one 
of all that the Italian people are completely depoliticized and in 
ideological atrophy. And when I refer to politics I am not talking about 
the republican plutocracy of the so-called "representative democracy" 
but about that to which Murray Bookchin referred, taking for example the 
hints (albeit fleeting) of direct democracy in ancient Athens, in other 
words the sense of socio-cultural cohesion that is inserted into 
neighborhood and mutualist policies, the mixing of the requests of each 
of us with others and their situations in our territory of belonging. 
This has nothing to do with Nationalism, since a "culture" (rather than 
a "nation") is made up of the mixes and evolutions of those who live it, 
not on the random basis of racism and patriarchal binarism.

All this to say: Bradyseism and the sooner or later certain eruption of 
Vesuvius are an integral part of our society, materially and 
philosophically, so much so that they are intrinsic in our way of acting 
and relating to life. The question is that if we have to live together, 
we must trigger prefigurative processes of construction of what the 
world of our society should be and not go begging for the grace of 
"governance", which doesn't give a damn both for structural issues, as 
Nationalist and Capitalist State, both because the Italian State has 
never been interested in anything about the south.

As for "prefiguration", I mean that practice that sees us building the 
utopia of tomorrow in the decadent skeleton of today, with the utopian 
practices and natures that should be true human normality. The practical 
composition of our action must be an experiential and educational spur 
for the precarious, for queer, racialized and disabled people, in such a 
way that we will not be the ones to emancipate them but they themselves 
will do it in the spontaneity of self-organised, self-managed and above 
all intersectionally aware.

So what we at Mastrogiavanni demand (and do not ask) is that we begin to 
treat bradyseism and Vesuvius with due respect. In the sense that we 
must focus everything on the fact that the "infinite popular war" (pass 
me the somewhat Maoist term) against bradyseism must be continuous and 
incessant.

1. Houses must be made safe, seriously and immediately, implemented with 
all anti-seismic standards, as they do in the rest of the world.

2. That displaced people are guaranteed that they will be able to return 
to their homes when they are safe and that Monterusciello1 will never 
happen again.

3. There is an absolute and immediate need for a permanent safety zone 
for emergencies, as far away as it needs to be, where all these people 
can live with dignity with all services, but without it becoming a 
concentration and sorting camp.

4. We don't care about rentals, they shouldn't exist regardless and, for 
the most part, those who rent are the usual (real) parasites who have 
rented properties that they knew very well were at risk.

5. All this must be categorically controlled by us inhabitants, we must 
know what happens in these places, have our own experts and our own 
criteria.

6. There is a categorical need for a network of mutual support and 
mutual aid with displaced people, with the movement training of a group 
similar (if not also in official connection) to the Food Not Bombs 
structure. This group should constitute both a form of material support 
for the population and a front of active anti-system propaganda and 
intersectional awareness.

7. We must organize permanent demonstrations towards the places of the 
institutions to demand what is congenital to the natural life of each of 
us: bread, roses and freedom.

I often think, reluctantly, that we will not be able to change the world 
today but I will also tell you that this does not mean that we should 
not try and, even when faced with blows, continue to shift the logic 
that pervades our society more and more to the left, until this damned 
Franco-bourgeois binary of right and left is shattered and Anarchy 
becomes the human and transhuman raison d'être.

Mario Di Domenico

1In the years 1982-84 the Flegrea Area saw intense bradyseismic 
activity. Due to the damage suffered by the buildings of Pozzuoli due to 
continuous seismic stress, it was decided to remove part of the 
population. These residents were hosted in the new neighborhood of 
Monterusciello, identified as a safer area. Fortunately, the volcanic 
eruption that was said to be imminent did not occur and the bradyseismic 
crisis ended at the end of 1984: nevertheless the population did not 
return to their homes.

https://umanitanova.org/riflessioni-sulla-convivenza-con-il-territorio/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en