Moving and powerful text of Bifo, even though Yanis Varoufakis is right: "renouncing Europe but not Italy, France, Greece, Germany, Britain etc. only plays into the hands of those propagating the fantasy of returning to the bosom of our benevolent nation-states"
the question is: how to refuse simultaneously the authoritarian Euroland and any sort of nationalism? The only answer is: with a new form of internationalism. On which basis? The fact that a human (I continue here another nettime conversation) is always more than a mere human, that a local place is fortunately more than itself, that a political fight contains an "ideological" surplus that connects it to other places, etc. We need a narrative able to give a face to this surplus, this "more than", and we also - more than anything else - need a people of tellers able to produce this Great Narrative. Long life to the outernational to come! Frédéric 2017-07-11 12:17 GMT+02:00 nettime's sinking ship <[email protected]>: > https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/yanis- > varoufakis-franco-berardi/resignation-letter-from- > franco-bifo-berardi-to-ya > > Dear friends and comrades of the Democracy in Europe Movement 25, > > Dear friends and comrades of the Democracy in Europe Movement 25, > > After the shameful decisions of the Paris meeting of Minniti Collomb > de Maziere it’s time to understand that there is something flawed in our > project of re-establishing democracy in Europe: this possibility does > not exist. Democratic Europe is an oxymoron, as Europe is the heart of > financial dictatorship in the world. Peaceful Europe is an oxymoron, as > Europe is the core of war, racism and aggressiveness. We have trusted > that Europe could overcome its history of violence, but now it's time to > acknowledge the truth: Europe is nothing but nationalism colonialism > capitalism and fascism. > > During the Second World War not many protested against deportation, > segregation, tortures and extermination of Jews, Roma, communist > militants and homosexuals. People had no information about the > extermination. Now we are daily acquainted about what is happening all > around the Mediterranean basin, we know how deadly is the effect of the > European neglect and of the refusal to take responsibility for the > migration wave that is a direct result of the wars provoked by two > centuries of colonialism. > > The Archipelago of infamy is spreading all around the Mediterranean > Sea. > > Europeans are building concentration camps on their own territory, > and they pay their Gauleiter of Turkey Libya Egypt and Israeli to do the > dirty job on the coast of the Mediterranean sea where salted water has > replaced ZyklonB. > > To stop the migratory Euro-Nazism is going to build enormous > extermination camps. The non governmental organisation, guilty of > rescuing people from the sea will be contained, downsized, criminalised, > repressed. > > The externalisation of the European borders means extermination. > Extermination is the word that defines the historical mission of Europe. > Nazism is the only political form that corresponds to the soul of the > European people. > > In the last twenty-five years (since when, in February 1991, a ship > loaded with 26,000 Albanians entered the port of Brindisi) we have known > that the great migration had began. Two paths were possible at that point. > > Opening its borders, starting a global distribution of resources, > investing its wealth in a long lasting process of reception and > integration of young people coming massively from the sea. This was the > first path. > > The second was to reject, to dissuade, to make almost impossible the > easy journey from Northern Africa to the coasts of Spain Italy and Greece. > > Europeans have chosen the second way, and they are daily drowning > uncountable children and women and men. > > Auschwitz on the beach. > > With the exception of a minority of doctors, voluntary workers, > activists and fishers who now are accused of being the abetters of > illegal migrants, the majority of the European population are refusing > to deal with their own historical responsibility. > > Therefore I declare that I’m not European anymore, and I declare > that I have never been European. > > We have naively expected that the alliance of the British murderers > the French killers the Italian stranglers the German slaughterers and > the Spanish slayers could give birth to a democratic peaceful friendly > union. This pretence is over, and I’m sick of it. > > Five centuries of colonialism, capitalism and nationalism have > turned Europeans into the enemy of the human kind. May they be cursed > forever. > > May Europeans be swept away by the storm they have generated, by the > weapons they are building, by the fire they have ignited, by the hatred > they have cultivated. > > Because of the aforementioned reasons I must renounce to the honour > of being part of the advisory board of DIEM25. > > > ------------- > > > > >From Yanis Varoufakis: > > A few days ago, I received a letter from Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi that > works like a punch-in-the-stomach type of wake-up call addressed to all > Europeans. To crown its tough message, Bifo concludes that his > conscience cannot fathom being a European any longer, given Europe’s > daily crimes against logic and humanity. Thus, Bifo concludes, he is > compelled also to resign from DiEM25’s Advisory Panel. Here are my > reasons why we, at DiEM25, refuse to accept his resignation. > > Dear Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, dear friend, dear comrade, > > Hannah Arendt once said that as long as one German died at Auschwitz > because of her or his opposition to Nazism, the Germans are not > responsible collectively for Nazism. > > Your letter to us, renouncing the horrors perpetrated in Europe’s name > and resigning from our Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) in protest, > offers Europeans the same kind of possibility of redemption that > Arendt’s ‘single-German-dying-in-Auschwitz’ offered the people of Germany. > > You wrote a splendid and timely “J’ accuse” letter to Europeans as a > true, unreconstructed, fed-up, European. And in so doing you offered > Europe a small, tiny but important chance to save its soul. > > It is very likely, as you fear, that Europe will throw that chance away; > that Europeans will fail to exploit the minuscule chance that you > offered. But it does not matter. > > What matters is, first, that you, an authentic European, are putting > Europe in the dock while, at one and the same time, offering it a > precious chance of redemption. Only a true European radical, democrat > and humanist could do that. > > Secondly, it matters that there are many others like you. And that > DiEM25, on whose Advisory Panel you have served, and from which you are > now resigning in a bid to shake up our collective and individual > consciences, is full of Europeans like you. > > Europeans who, like you, are mad as hell with our Europe, as it is > and as it acts. > Europeans who, nevertheless, realise that to shed their ‘European’ > label in disgust at what Europe is doing to its citizens and to the > citizens of the rest of the world requires also declaring that they are > no longer Italian, French, British, Greek, Italian… since it is the > nation-states of Europe that perpetrate, in the first instance, the > scandalous policies that you so powerfully, and rightly, denounce. > Europeans who, mad as we are at Europe’s crimes, understand that > renouncing Europe but not Italy, France, Greece, Germany, Britain etc. > only plays into the hands of those propagating the fantasy of returning > to the bosom of our benevolent nation-states; a fantasy that I know you > abhor and one that DiEM25 is railing against. > Europeans who, enraged by what is being perpetrated in their name, > are determined to demonstrate that the only way of being good citizens > of the world is to be IN and AGAINST this. > > This is the reason we, at DiEM25, are proud of you and your “J’ accuse” > letter of resignation from our Advisory Panel. > > And it is the reason why we do not accept it! > > > > > > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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