SENZA CENSURA n.7
Italy, february 2002

EDITORIAL

When starting our editorial activity, we intended firstly to point out a few aspects of the contradictory process of realignment of the imperialist hierarchies after the end of the so-called "bipolar world".
We also stressed the importance of considering the inner dynamics in the 'global' superstructures built by the imperialist bourgeoisie in order to govern (qualitatively and quantitatively) a unprecedented crisis of the capitalist mode of production.
Not only to underline the emergence of this crisis, but mostly to find some ground for the recomposition of the proletariat (especially in the European metropolis) in the definition of its conflict with the imperialist bourgeoisie and its allies.
That's why we often criticised the limits of some "antagonistic" positions, pointing out that the effort of the analysis and action - staying in the field of the functions and development of the supranational institutions of the imperialist bourgeoisie - should be focused on a new definition of the function of superstructures such as IMF-WB and the NATO in the process of re-constitution of the imperialist poles, especially of the European pole.
This year, a few dramatic events have attracted the attention of the main supranational structures of the imperialist bourgeoisie and its mass media.Two of them were "new" and the third "an old issue".
On the one hand, the formation of a European monetary power (with the Euro) and the outbreak of the Argentinean financial crisis, on the other the confirmation that the crisis in the Middle East - where the Palestinian issue is the most evident manifestation - involves already two continents in the war: from Maghreb to the Horn of Africa till India and China.

With the recession in the US and Japan, these problems were at the centre of the agendas in imperialistic summits (G7 and NATO).
From the late January to the beginning of February, the great frame of the global propaganda set out to show to the working classes and the oppressed people of the world an acceptable development of the capitalist system and even the coming of a more sustainable world, trying to hide the tragic and neo-authoritarian drift of the class struggle and the conflict among the States all over the world.
The summit of the World Economic Forum in New York, through the delegates of the IFM and World Bank, has held out its hand to the issues of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, finding an "ideological glue" in the formulations of a guru of the "immaterial production" (J. Rifkin) and throwing a bridge between the common condemnation of the Islamic terrorism and the ancient seat of the hopes of the poor of the world: the Papal Catholic University.
The editorial staff of "Senza Censura" doesn't intend to interfere with these events if not to correctly evaluate their mystifying and deviating efficacy on the international class movement and the revolutionary leftist organisations (especially in Italy and in Europe).

At the same time, nearly ignored by the governmental and opposition mass media, two almost secret and well protected small "summits" of the rulers of the world took place: the G7 in Ottawa (ended on the 9th of February) and the annual "Nato Summit for the safety policies" in Munich, supported by the Foundation Herbert-Quandt - expression of BMW (February 1st to -3rd).
In the final records of the meeting in Ottawa, the governments of the main world powers (through the economic and financial ministries and the governors of central banks) reasserted their supremacy in controlling, under the supervision of IFM-WB and in co-ordination with the "International group of financial action", the financial flows to effectively struggle against the financing sources of terrorism, "inviting" all the countries to co-operate in this struggle.
However, it's of great importance for the work of the editorial staff, the information and debate about the Nato summit in Munich. For two "theoretic" and "practical" reasons.
Firstly because the events after the summit in Washington clearly showed that the following summits, also in Munich, would be the actual carrying out of the "new strategical concept" of the NATO decided in that summit. The function of "management of the crisis" wherever the Euro-Atlantic interests are in danger and without the "UNO umbrella" was meanwhile enriched by a new formulation of the article 5 of NATO treaty and the outbreak of the "world war against terrorism".
The symptoms of the actual development were the decision of increasing of a third the US military budget (from 331 to 451 billions of dollars) and the declarations of Edmund Stoiber - the candidate of the CDU against Schroeder - during the summit in Munich: "Europe has to rearm in order to follow the USA". Declarations that announce the next formation of the European Army (ESDI) in a process that will necessarily influence the "constituent convention" of the European Union.
Secondly, the unavoidable development of militarism in the present system of the imperialist States cannot but have immediately consequences on the imperialist poles (and especially on the European Union) in terms of a rapid and wide strengthening of the instruments of control, repression and preventive counter-revolution.
Therefore, the whole "treatment" reserved to the demonstrations against the summit in Munich anticipates someway, in the intentions of the supporters of the "European social model", the context where the future activities of the proletarian class and the radical left will be set in Europe: the towns surrounded by the domestic police and military forces from the other European countries (as it was in Genoa last summer); demonstrations and meetings forbidden by the authorities; preventive detention of activists and leaders of the counter-demonstrations; the arrest of hundreds of foreign activists when arriving in Munich; violent repression of activists leaving from other European towns (as it was in Zurich) and of all demonstration in Munich. Here the police surrounded the house of the National Association of German trade-unions where the final meeting of counter-demonstrations was held and arrested hundreds of people. Such a thing didn't happen in Munich since 1933 when the Nazis came to power in Germany.
In other words the wide application of the European agreements against terrorism and of the choices of the Trevi group: Schengen agreements. An application euphemistically called by the European politicians and law-makers "the suspension of Schengen agreements".
Moreover, these events were totally ignored by bourgeois mass media and even by the so-called "antagonist and radical counter-information", perhaps too much involved in the information and mobilisation about "global issues". However, in spite of the activities of the new structures of control and repression of the European Union and of the old and new reformists in the European countries, the main ground of conflict between the imperialist bourgeoisie and the proletariat of the European countries will unavoidably be continental. This is the actual basis for organising and developing new experiences of struggle for the future.
That's why the present issue of our publication has not only developed the editorial work about the main areas of conflict in Europe and the Middle East, but has also tried to report news and comments about the summit in Munich.
On the other hand, it should be clear that the European Convention "pressed by the need of creating as soon as possible a common politics about foreign themes and security in order to guarantee a real power to European imperialism" will open not only a political debate among the governments about the institutional structures of the countries of the European Union, but also grounds of conflict between the European proletariat and the political representatives of the European imperialist bourgeoisie.
The sessions of the Constituent Convention should last at least a couple of years but, according to most "pessimistic previsions" (Kissinger), the complete and effective process of constitution of a European "global power" could last about a decade. To compare, it's worth considering that the Third Reich took less than 6 years to carry out a politics of "global" imperialist power.
Therefore, in order to be effective the proletarian organisations and the radical European left should work at the continental scale in the future.
The counter-demonstrations against the summit in Munich have stressed the existence of a great number of organisations in the European countries which share a common ground of work in the struggle and criticism against the military structures of the imperialist bourgeoisie (NATO) and the development of a European imperialist pole.
Some of these organisations have succeeded in rooting their politics in their countries the last years and express a relative potential and a continuity, at least about the counter-information. Perhaps the time has come that these organisations start a common work that could be really effective in Europe.
That's why the editorial staff of "Senza Censura" immediately declares its will to verify the possibility to carry out a co-ordination among the other European publications aiming at working and acting together against the constitution of the European imperialist pole and against the main military structure of the imperialist bourgeoisie (NATO).