• Des communiqués et un peu d’Histoire- Florealanar
    https://florealanar.wordpress.com/2023/12/16/des-communiques-et-un-peu-dhistoire

    « Quelle que soit la cause que l’on défend, elle restera toujours déshonorée par le massacre aveugle d’une foule innocente où le tueur sait d’avance qu’il atteindra la femme et l’enfant.Je n’ai jamais cessé de dire… que ces deux condamna­tions ne pouvaient se séparer, si l’on voulait être efficace… Comme il (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • ★ Adresse aux déserteurs de toutes les nations- Socialisme libertaire
    https://www.socialisme-libertaire.fr/2023/12/adresse-aux-deserteurs-de-toutes-les-nations.html

    « Dans un monde où la barbarie est banale, les attaques du Hamas le 7 octobre 2023 ont constitué un nouveau pallier dans l’horreur : 1400 morts israéliens dont 1100 civils (prolétaires, pour la plupart) – massacrés dans des conditions atroces – et (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Libye : au moins 61 migrants présumés morts dans un naufrage
    https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2023/12/16/libye-au-moins-61-migrants-presumes-morts-dans-un-naufrage_6206211_3210.html

    Libye : au moins 61 migrants présumés morts dans un naufrage
    Au moins 61 migrants sont portés disparus et présumés morts après le naufrage de leur embarcation de fortune au large de la Libye, a rapporté à l’Agence France-Presse (AFP) le bureau de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) en Libye. « Un grand nombre de migrants, environ 61, sont présumés avoir péri à cause de fortes vagues », ayant submergé leur embarcation « partie de Zouara, dans le nord-ouest de la Libye avec 86 migrants à son bord », selon la même source.
    Il s’agit en majorité de ressortissants du Nigeria, de Gambie et d’autres pays d’Afrique, et parmi les victimes « figurent des enfants et des femmes », a-t-on ajouté. Au total, 25 personnes ont pu être sauvées et ont été transférées vers un centre de détention libyen à Tariq Al Sekka, près de Tripoli. « Une équipe OIM a pu apporter un soutien médical et ils sont tous en bonne santé », selon la même source.« Plus de 2 250 personnes ont perdu la vie en Méditerranée centrale cette année », a déploré sur X Flavio Di Giacomo, porte-parole de l’OIM pour la Méditerranée, en faisant état du lourd bilan de cet énième naufrage. « Ce chiffre dramatique démontre que malheureusement on ne fait pas suffisamment pour sauver les vies en mer », a-t-il ajouté.
    La Libye et la Tunisie sont les deux principaux points de départs en Méditerranée centrale pour les migrants qui tentent de gagner l’Europe en débarquant clandestinement sur les côtes italiennes.
    Selon les derniers chiffres du HCR (Haut commissariat aux Réfugiés de l’ONU) au 10 décembre, plus de 153 000 migrants sont arrivés en Italie cette année, en provenance de Tunisie et de Libye.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#tunisie#libye#mediterranee#traversee#mortalite#frontiere#UE#OIM#HCR#sante

  • Cet autre fléau cubain : le féminicide- Florealanar
    https://florealanar.wordpress.com/2023/12/15/cet-autre-fleau-cubain-le-feminicide

    Avec la découverte, le 13 décembre, du corps de Yamilet de Jesús Domínguez Torres, 36 ans, portée disparue depuis le 24 novembre dans la ville de Banes (province de Holguín), le nombre des féminicides à Cuba pour 2023, à quinze jours de la fin de l’année, s’élève à 81. Le 22 novembre dernier, c’est une (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Enseignante menacée à Issou : Attal instrumentalise l’affaire et se rêve en Darmanin de l’éducation- RP Dimanche
    https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/Enseignante-menacee-a-Issou-Attal-instrumentalise-l-affaire-et-

    Le ministre de l’Éducation nationale s’est rendu ce lundi au collège Jacques Cartier d’Issou, suite aux menaces dont a fait l’objet une enseignante après avoir montré en classe un tableau sur lequel figurent plusieurs nus féminins. Se saisissant de l’affaire, le ministre, loin de lutter contre les (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Calais : après le camouflet de la loi immigration, Darmanin réaffirme son discours raciste et xénophobe- RP Dimanche
    https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/Calais-apres-le-camouflet-de-la-loi-immigration-Darmanin-reaffi

    Alors que dans la nuit dernière, un migrant s’est noyé dans la Manche, Gérald Darmanin était en visite ce vendredi à Calais pour réaffirmer le contenu réactionnaire de la loi immigration et tenter de faire oublier le camoufler subit à l’Assemblée Nationale.Immigration / Racisme et violences d’État / (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Nicolas Stoïnov (1862-1963) : Libertaire-éducateur.- L’En Dehors
    http://endehors.net/news/nicolas-stoinov-1862-1963-libertaire-educateur

    Nicolas Stoïnov (1862-1963) : Libertaire-éducateur. Né le 19 décembre 1862 à Choumen de famille citadine d’origine paysanne qui continuait toujours de travailler la terre et de s’occuper, en même temps, principalement l’hiver, d’artisanat (tailleurs) à https://t.co/k4uxNYgAAW Partage Noir (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Israël annonce la mort de trois otages tués « par erreur » par ses soldats dans la bande de Gaza- L’En Dehors
    http://endehors.net/news/israel-annonce-la-mort-de-trois-otages-tues-par-erreur-par-ses-soldats-dan

    Israël annonce la mort de trois otages tués « par erreur » par ses soldats dans la bande de Gaza https://t.co/tRnPdFNL4i L’En Dehors (@endehors2) December 16, 2023 @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Mark Zuckerberg se prépare à la fin du monde : le créateur de Facebook se fait construire un bunker de 160 hectares à Hawaï - lindependant.fr
    https://www.lindependant.fr/2023/12/16/mark-zuckerberg-se-prepare-a-la-fin-du-monde-le-createur-de-facebook-se

    C’est une construction qui devait rester confidentielle, mais des informations ont finalement fuité. Selon plusieurs médias américains, dont le magazine Wired, repris par Cnews, le fondateur de Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, est en train de se faire construire un immense bunker sur l’île de Kaui, à Hawaï, pour se préparer à la #fin_du_monde

    Un projet colossal puisque le bâtiment devrait faire près de 160 hectares. Il serait composé d’un abri souterrain, des manoirs, des cabanes dans les arbres, des piscines, une salle de sport, un court de tennis, une salle de conférence, une cuisine de taille industrielle et surtout, un abri souterrain de 1 500 m².

    Enfin, un important dispositif de sécurité a été mis en place avec près d’une vingtaine de caméras pour une seule pièce. Coût des travaux, environ 300 millions de dollars, rapportent nos confrères. 

    Pour parvenir à faire sortir de terre cet immense bunker, de nombreux ouvriers ont été mobilisés, tous auraient également signé un contrat de confidentialité. S’ils venaient à divulguer des informations sur les travaux, ils pourraient être licenciés. 

    Un projet qui inquiète les habitants

    Mais voilà, le projet inquiète les habitants de l’île. En effet, certains ont commencé à se plaindre de nuisances sonores, mais aussi du trafic qui s’est accru et des risques pour la biodiversité. Ces derniers dénoncent le manque de transparence de #Mark_Zuckerberg. Il est également accusé par le maire local, d’avoir fait des manipulations juridiques pour obtenir le terrain où va se trouver son bunker.

    « tear down that wall ! »
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3krTQksXRvk

    edit la construction devait-elle « rester confidentielle » ? il a acheté en 2014
    Mark Zuckerberg in legal battle to force hundreds of native Hawaiians with ancestral rights to patches of his vast £80m estate to sell up
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2651528/mark-zuckerberg-legal-battle-to-force-native-hawaiians-with-ancestral-righ

    #apocalypse sans révélation #Hawaï #Meta

    • Changement climatique : Un déluge s’abat sur Kauai (Hawaii), 2018 ....
      https://claudegrandpeyvolcansetglaciers.com/2018/04/29/changement-climatique-un-deluge-sabat-sur-kauai-haw

      Le changement climatique provoque de plus en plus d’événements météorologiques extrêmes à travers le monde. Ce qui vient de se passer sur l’île hawaïenne de #Kauai les 14 et 15 avril 2018 est un bon exemple de ce qui nous attend dans les années à venir.

      Kauai n’est pas l’île la plus visitée de l’archipel hawaïen. D’un point de vue géologique, c’est la plus ancienne. Elle est connue sous le nom d’« Ile Jardin » . L’un des sites les plus célèbres de Kauai est le Canyon de Waimea.

      Kauai a beaucoup souffert au fil des ans. L’île a survécu au tsunami de 1946. Un autre raz-de-marée en 1957 l’a frappée avec des vagues atteignant 15 mètres de haut. Lorsque l’ouragan Iwa a balayé l’Ile Jardin en 1982, il a causé environ 250 millions de dollars de dégâts. En 1992, l’ouragan Iniki a tué six personnes à Kauai et endommagé ou détruit plus de 14 000 maisons. Cependant, les habitants de Kauai disent qu’ils n’ont jamais rien connu comme les trombes d’eau qui se sont déversées sur l’île ce mois-ci. Pour eux, c’est la tempête du siècle, mais il est probable que la prochaine surviendra dans seulement quelques années, compte tenu de la réalité du changement climatique. Le National Weather Service a déclaré que près de 125 centimètres de pluie sont tombés à Kauai en 24 heures. C’est l’événement pluvieux le plus important observé sur l’archipel hawaiien depuis le début des relevés en 1905
      Alors que Kauai panse ses blessures, les scientifiques préviennent que ce déluge est la première grande tempête à Hawaï liée au #changement_climatique. Il y a des ressemblances frappantes entre les inondations à Kauai et les récentes inondations en Californie. La cause est identique : L’atmosphère plus chaude retient plus d’humidité qui s’accumule jusqu’à ce qu’elle rencontre de l’air froid et sec, créant ainsi un système instable qui déclenche ce que certains météorologues appellent une « bombe de pluie ». Une étude publiée dans la revue scientifique Nature Climate Change a indiqué que la Californie doit s’attendre à des conditions météorologiques plus instables, faisant osciller des années sèches et humides, à cause du changement climatique provoqué par l’homme.

      #loser

    • Raniero Panzieri, Mario Tronti, Gaspare De Caro, Toni Negri (Turin, 1962)

      Conférence de Potere operaio à l’Université de Bologne en 1970.

      Manifestation de Potere operaio à Milan en 1972.

      Negri lors de son procès après la rafle du 7 avril 1979

      #Toni_Negri
      https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Negri

      Lénine au-delà de Lénine, Toni Negri (extrait de 33 Leçons sur Lénine), 1972-1973
      http://revueperiode.net/lenine-au-dela-de-lenine

      Domination et sabotage - Sur la méthode marxiste de transformation sociale, Antonio Negri (pdf), 1977
      https://entremonde.net/IMG/pdf/a6-03dominationsabotage-0-livre-high.pdf

      L’Anomalie sauvage d’Antonio Negri, Alexandre Matheron, 1983
      https://books.openedition.org/enseditions/29155?lang=fr

      Sur Mille Plateaux, Toni Negri, Revue Chimères n° 17, 1992
      https://www.persee.fr/doc/chime_0986-6035_1992_num_17_1_1846

      Les coordinations : une proposition de communisme, Toni Negri, 1994
      https://www.multitudes.net/les-coordinations-une-proposition

      Le contre-empire attaque, entretien avec Toni Negri, 2000
      https://vacarme.org/article28.html

      [#travail #multitude_de_singularités à 18mn] : Toni Negri, 2014
      https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/actualite-philosophique-toni-negri-5100168

      à l’occasion de la parution du Hors-Série de Philosophie Magazine sur le thème, les philosophes et le #communisme.

      Socialisme = soviets + électricité, Toni Negri, 2017
      http://revueperiode.net/les-mots-dordre-de-lenine

      L’appropriation du capital fixe : une métaphore ?
      Antonio Negri, Multitudes 2018/1 (n° 70)
      https://www.cairn.info/revue-multitudes-2018-1-page-92.htm

      Domination et sabotage - Entretien avec Antonio Negri, 2019
      https://vacarme.org/article3253.html

    • Les nécros de Ration et de L’imMonde ont par convention une tonalité vaguement élogieuse mais elles sont parfaitement vides. Celle de l’Huma parait plus documentée mais elle est sous paywall...

      edit L’Huma c’est encore et toujours la vilaine bêtise stalinienne :

      Figure de prou de "l’opéraïsme" dans les années 1960, arrêté durant les années de plomb en Italie, penseur de la "multitude" dans les années 2000, le théoricien politique, spécialiste de la philosophie du droit et de Hegel, est mort à Paris à l’âge de 90 ans.
      Pierre Chaillan

      (...) Figure intellectuelle et politique, il a traversé tous les soubresauts de l’histoire de l’Italie moderne et restera une grande énigme au sein du mouvement communiste et ouvrier international . Né le 1er août 1933 dans l’Italie mussolinienne, d’un père communiste disparu à la suite de violences infligées par une brigade fasciste, Antonio Negri est d’abord militant de l’Action catholique avant d’adhérer en 1956 au Parti socialiste italien, qu’il quittera rapidement.

      Le théoricien, animateurs de “l’opéraïsme”

    • Un journaliste du Monde « Gauchologue et fafologue / Enseigne @sciencespo » diffuse sur X des extraits de l’abject "Camarade P38" du para-policier Fabrizio Calvi en prétendant que cette bouse « résume les critiques ».
      Mieux vaut se référer à EMPIRE ET SES PIÈGES - Toni Negri et la déconcertante trajectoire de l’opéraïsme italien, de Claudio Albertani https://infokiosques.net/spip.php?article541

    • #opéraïsme

      http://www.zones-subversives.com/l-op%C3%A9ra%C3%AFsme-dans-l-italie-des-ann%C3%A9es-1960

      Avant l’effervescence de l’Autonomie italienne, l’opéraïsme tente de renouveler la pensée marxiste pour réfléchir sur les luttes ouvrières. Ce mouvement politique et intellectuel se développe en Italie dans les années 1960. Il débouche vers une radicalisation du conflit social en 1968, et surtout en 1969 avec une grève ouvrière sauvage. Si le post-opéraïsme semble relativement connu en France, à travers la figure de Toni Negri et la revue Multitudes, l’opéraïsme historique demeure largement méconnu.

      Mario Tronti revient sur l’aventure de l’opéraïsme, à laquelle il a activement participé. Son livre articule exigence théorique et témoignage vivant. Il décrit ce mouvement comme une « expérience de pensée - d’un cercle de personnes liées entre elles indissolublement par un lien particulier d’amitié politique ». La conflictualité sociale et la radicalisation des luttes ouvrières doit alors permettre d’abattre le capitalisme.

    • IL SECOLO BREVE DI TONI NEGRI, Ago 17, 2023,
      di ROBERTO CICCARELLI.

      http://www.euronomade.info/?p=15660

      Toni Negri hai compiuto novant’anni. Come vivi oggi il tuo tempo?

      Mi ricordo Gilles Deleuze che soffriva di un malanno simile al mio. Allora non c’erano l’assistenza e la tecnologia di cui possiamo godere noi oggi. L’ultima volta che l’ho visto girava con un carrellino con le bombole di ossigeno. Era veramente dura. Lo è anche per me oggi. Penso che ogni giorno che passa a questa età sia un giorno di meno. Non hai la forza di farlo diventare un giorno magico. È come quando mangi un buon frutto e ti lascia in bocca un gusto meraviglioso. Questo frutto è la vita, probabilmente. È una delle sue grandi virtù.

      Novant’anni sono un secolo breve.

      Di secoli brevi ce ne possono essere diversi. C’è il classico periodo definito da Hobsbawm che va dal 1917 al 1989. C’è stato il secolo americano che però è stato molto più breve. È durato dagli accordi monetari e dalla definizione di una governance mondiale a Bretton Woods, agli attentati alle Torri Gemelle nel settembre 2001. Per quanto mi riguarda il mio lungo secolo è iniziato con la vittoria bolscevica, poco prima che nascessi, ed è continuato con le lotte operaie, e con tutti i conflitti politici e sociali ai quali ho partecipato.

      Questo secolo breve è terminato con una sconfitta colossale.

      È vero. Ma hanno pensato che fosse finita la storia e fosse iniziata l’epoca di una globalizzazione pacificata. Nulla di più falso, come vediamo ogni giorno da più di trent’anni. Siamo in un’età di transizione, ma in realtà lo siamo sempre stati. Anche se sottotraccia, ci troviamo in un nuovo tempo segnato da una ripresa globale delle lotte contro le quali c’è una risposta dura. Le lotte operaie hanno iniziato a intersecarsi sempre di più con quelle femministe, antirazziste, a difesa dei migranti e per la libertà di movimento, o ecologiste.

      Filosofo, arrivi giovanissimo in cattedra a Padova. Partecipi a Quaderni Rossi, la rivista dell’operaismo italiano. Fai inchiesta, fai un lavoro di base nelle fabbriche, a cominciare dal Petrolchimico di Marghera. Fai parte di Potere Operaio prima, di Autonomia Operaia poi. Vivi il lungo Sessantotto italiano, a cominciare dall’impetuoso Sessantanove operaio a Corso Traiano a Torino. Qual è stato il momento politico culminante di questa storia?

      Gli anni Settanta, quando il capitalismo ha anticipato con forza una strategia per il suo futuro. Attraverso la globalizzazione, ha precarizzato il lavoro industriale insieme all’intero processo di accumulazione del valore. In questa transizione, sono stati accesi nuovi poli produttivi: il lavoro intellettuale, quello affettivo, il lavoro sociale che costruisce la cooperazione. Alla base della nuova accumulazione del valore, ci sono ovviamente anche l’aria, l’acqua, il vivente e tutti i beni comuni che il capitale ha continuato a sfruttare per contrastare l’abbassamento del tasso di profitto che aveva conosciuto a partire dagli anni Sessanta.

      Perché, dalla metà degli anni Settanta, la strategia capitalista ha vinto?

      Perché è mancata una risposta di sinistra. Anzi, per un tempo lungo, c’è stata una totale ignoranza di questi processi. A partire dalla fine degli anni Settanta, c’è stata la soppressione di ogni potenza intellettuale o politica, puntuale o di movimento, che tentasse di mostrare l’importanza di questa trasformazione, e che puntasse alla riorganizzazione del movimento operaio attorno a nuove forme di socializzazione e di organizzazione politica e culturale. È stata una tragedia. Qui che appare la continuità del secolo breve nel tempo che stiamo vivendo ora. C’è stata una volontà della sinistra di bloccare il quadro politico su quello che possedeva.

      E che cosa possedeva quella sinistra?

      Un’immagine potente ma già allora inadeguata. Ha mitizzato la figura dell’operaio industriale senza comprendere che egli desiderava ben altro. Non voleva accomodarsi nella fabbrica di Agnelli, ma distruggere la sua organizzazione; voleva costruire automobili per offrirle agli altri senza schiavizzare nessuno. A Marghera non avrebbe voluto morire di cancro né distruggere il pianeta. In fondo è quello che ha scritto Marx nella Critica del programma di Gotha: contro l’emancipazione attraverso il lavoro mercificato della socialdemocrazia e per la liberazione della forza lavoro dal lavoro mercificato. Sono convinto che la direzione presa dall’Internazionale comunista – in maniera evidente e tragica con lo stalinismo, e poi in maniera sempre più contraddittoria e irruente -, abbia distrutto il desiderio che aveva mobilitato masse gigantesche. Per tutta la storia del movimento comunista è stata quella la battaglia.

      Cosa si scontrava su quel campo di battaglia?

      Da un lato, c’era l’idea della liberazione. In Italia è stata illuminata dalla resistenza contro il nazi-fascismo. L’idea di liberazione si è proiettata nella stessa Costituzione così come noi ragazzi la interpretammo allora. E in questa vicenda non sottovaluterei l’evoluzione sociale della Chiesa Cattolica che culminò con il Secondo Concilio Vaticano. Dall’altra parte, c’era il realismo ereditato dal partito comunista italiano dalla socialdemocrazia, quello degli Amendola e dei togliattiani di varia origine. Tutto è iniziato a precipitare negli anni Settanta, mentre invece c’era la possibilità di inventare una nuova forma di vita, un nuovo modo di essere comunisti.

      Continui a definirti un comunista. Cosa significa oggi?

      Quello che per me ha significato da giovane: conoscere un futuro nel quale avremmo conquistato il potere di essere liberi, di lavorare meno, di volerci bene. Eravamo convinti che concetti della borghesia quali libertà, uguaglianza e fraternità avrebbero potuto realizzarsi nelle parole d’ordine della cooperazione, della solidarietà, della democrazia radicale e dell’amore. Lo pensavamo e lo abbiamo agito, ed era quello che pensava la maggioranza che votava la sinistra e la faceva esistere. Ma il mondo era ed è insopportabile, ha un rapporto contraddittorio con le virtù essenziali del vivere insieme. Eppure queste virtù non si perdono, si acquisiscono con la pratica collettiva e sono accompagnate dalla trasformazione dell’idea di produttività che non significa produrre più merci in meno tempo, né fare guerre sempre più devastanti. Al contrario serve a dare da mangiare a tutti, modernizzare, rendere felici. Comunismo è una passione collettiva gioiosa, etica e politica che combatte contro la trinità della proprietà, dei confini e del capitale.

      L’arresto avvenuto il 7 aprile 1979, primo momento della repressione del movimento dell’autonomia operaia, è stato uno spartiacque. Per ragioni diverse, a mio avviso, lo è stato anche per la storia del «manifesto» grazie a una vibrante campagna garantista durata anni, un caso giornalistico unico condotto con i militanti dei movimenti, un gruppo di coraggiosi intellettuali, il partito radicale. Otto anni dopo, il 9 giugno 1987, quando fu demolito il castello di accuse cangianti, e infondate, Rossana Rossanda scrisse che fu una «tardiva, parziale riparazione di molto irreparabile». Cosa significa oggi per te tutto questo?

      È stato innanzitutto il segno di un’amicizia mai smentita. Rossana per noi è stata una persona di una generosità incredibile. Anche se, a un certo punto, si è fermata anche lei: non riusciva a imputare al Pci quello che il Pci era diventato.

      Che cosa era diventato?

      Un oppressore. Ha massacrato quelli che denunciavano il pasticcio in cui si era andato a ficcare. In quegli anni siamo stati in molti a dirglielo. Esisteva un’altra strada, che passava dall’ascolto della classe operaia, del movimento studentesco, delle donne, di tutte le nuove forme nelle quali le passioni sociali, politiche e democratiche si stavano organizzando. Noi abbiamo proposto un’alternativa in maniera onesta, pulita e di massa. Facevamo parte di un enorme movimento che investiva le grandi fabbriche, le scuole, le generazioni. La chiusura da parte del Pci ha determinato la nascita di estremizzazioni terroristiche: questo è fuori dubbio. Noi abbiamo pagato tutto e pesantemente. Solo io ho fatto complessivamente quattordici anni di esilio e undici e mezzo di prigione. Il Manifesto ha sempre difeso la nostra innocenza. Era completamente idiota che io o altri dell’Autonomia fossimo considerati i rapitori di Aldo Moro o gli uccisori di compagni. Tuttavia, nella campagna innocentista che è stata coraggiosa e importante è stato però lasciato sul fondo un aspetto sostanziale.

      Quale?
      Eravamo politicamente responsabili di un movimento molto più ampio contro il compromesso storico tra il Pci e la Dc. Contro di noi c’è stata una risposta poliziesca della destra, e questo si capisce. Quello che non si vuol capire è stata invece la copertura che il Pci ha dato a questa risposta. In fondo, avevano paura che cambiasse l’orizzonte politico di classe. Se non si comprende questo nodo storico, come ci si può lamentare dell’inesistenza di una sinistra oggi in Italia?

      Il sette aprile, e il cosiddetto «teorema Calogero», sono stati considerati un passo verso la conversione di una parte non piccola della sinistra al giustizialismo e alla delega politica alla magistratura. Come è stato possibile lasciarsi incastrare in una simile trappola?

      Quando il Pci sostituì la centralità della lotta morale a quella economica e politica, e lo fece attraverso giudici che gravitavano attorno alla sua area, ha finito il suo percorso. Questi davvero credevano di usare il giustizialismo per costruire il socialismo? Il giustizialismo è una delle cose più care alla borghesia. È un’illusione devastante e tragica che impedisce di vedere l’uso di classe del diritto, del carcere o della polizia contro i subalterni. In quegli anni cambiarono anche i giovani magistrati. Prima erano molto diversi. Li chiamavano «pretori di assalto». Ricordo i primi numeri della rivista Democrazia e Diritto ai quali ho lavorato anch’io. Mi riempivano di gioia perché parlavamo di giustizia di massa. Poi l’idea di giustizia è stata declinata molto diversamente, riportata ai concetti di legalità e di legittimità. E nella magistratura non c’è più stata una presa di parola politica, ma solo schieramenti tra correnti. Oggi, poi abbiamo una Costituzione ridotta a un pacchetto di norme che non corrispondono neanche più alla realtà del paese.

      In carcere avete continuato la battaglia politica. Nel 1983 scriveste un documento in carcere, pubblicato da Il Manifesto, intitolato «Do You remember revolution». Si parlava dell’originalità del 68 italiano, dei movimenti degli anni Settanta non riducibili agli «anni di piombo». Come hai vissuto quegli anni?

      Quel documento diceva cose importanti con qualche timidezza. Credo dica più o meno le cose che ho appena ricordato. Era un periodo duro. Noi eravamo dentro, dovevamo uscire in qualche maniera. Ti confesso che in quell’immane sofferenza per me era meglio studiare Spinoza che pensare all’assurda cupezza in cui eravamo stati rinchiusi. Ho scritto su Spinoza un grosso libro ed è stato una specie di atto eroico. Non potevo avere più di cinque libri in cella. E cambiavo carcere speciale in continuazione: Rebibbia, Palmi, Trani, Fossombrone, Rovigo. Ogni volta in una cella nuova con gente nuova. Aspettare giorni e ricominciare. L’unico libro che portavo con me era l’Etica di Spinoza. La fortuna è stata finire il mio testo prima della rivolta a Trani nel 1981 quando i corpi speciali hanno distrutto tutto. Sono felice che abbia prodotto uno scossone nella storia della filosofia.

      Nel 1983 sei stato eletto in parlamento e uscisti per qualche mese dal carcere. Cosa pensi del momento in cui votarono per farti tornare in carcere e tu decidesti di andare in esilio in Francia?

      Ne soffro ancora molto. Se devo dare un giudizio storico e distaccato penso di avere fatto bene ad andarmene. In Francia sono stato utile per stabilire rapporti tra generazioni e ho studiato. Ho avuto la possibilità di lavorare con Félix Guattari e sono riuscito a inserirmi nel dibattito del tempo. Mi ha aiutato moltissimo a comprendere la vita dei Sans Papiers. Lo sono stato anch’io, ho insegnato pur non avendo una carta di identità. Mi hanno aiutato i compagni dell’università di Parigi 8. Ma per altri versi mi dico che ho sbagliato. Mi scuote profondamente il fatto di avere lasciato i compagni in carcere, quelli con cui ho vissuto i migliori anni della mia vita e le rivolte in quattro anni di carcerazione preventiva. Averli lasciati mi fa ancora male. Quella galera ha devastato la vita di compagni carissimi, e spesso delle loro famiglie. Ho novant’anni e mi sono salvato. Non mi rende più sereno di fronte a quel dramma.

      Anche Rossanda ti criticò…

      Sì, mi ha chiesto di comportarmi come Socrate. Io le risposi che rischiavo proprio di finire come il filosofo. Per i rapporti che c’erano in galera avrei potuto morire. Pannella mi ha materialmente portato fuori dalla galera e poi mi ha rovesciato tutte le colpe del mondo perché non volevo tornarci. Sono stati in molti a imbrogliarmi. Rossana mi aveva messo in guardia già allora, e forse aveva ragione.

      C’è stata un’altra volta che lo ha fatto?

      Sì, quando mi disse di non rientrare da Parigi in Italia nel 1997 dopo 14 anni di esilio. La vidi l’ultima volta prima di partire in un café dalle parti del Museo di Cluny, il museo nazionale del Medioevo. Mi disse che avrebbe voluto legami con una catena per impedirmi di prendere quell’aereo.

      Perché allora hai deciso di tornare in Italia?

      Ero convinto di fare una battaglia sull’amnistia per tutti i compagni degli anni Settanta. Allora c’era la Bicamerale, sembrava possibile. Mi sono fatto sei anni di galera fino al 2003. Forse Rossana aveva ragione.

      Che ricordo oggi hai di lei?

      Ricordo l’ultima volta che l’ho vista a Parigi. Una dolcissima amica, che si preoccupava dei miei viaggi in Cina, temeva che mi facessi male. È stata una persona meravigliosa, allora e sempre.

      Anna Negri, tua figlia, ha scritto «Con un piede impigliato nella storia» (DeriveApprodi) che racconta questa storia dal punto di vista dei vostri affetti, e di un’altra generazione.

      Ho tre figli splendidi Anna, Francesco e Nina che hanno sofferto in maniera indicibile quello che è successo. Ho guardato la serie di Bellocchio su Moro e continuo ad essere stupefatto di essere stato accusato di quella incredibile tragedia. Penso ai miei due primi figli, che andavano a scuola. Qualcuno li vedeva come i figli di un mostro. Questi ragazzi, in una maniera o nell’altra, hanno sopportato eventi enormi. Sono andati via dall’Italia e ci sono tornati, hanno attraversato quel lungo inverno in primissima persona. Il minimo che possono avere è una certa collera nei confronti dei genitori che li hanno messi in questa situazione. E io ho una certa responsabilità in questa storia. Siamo tornati ad essere amici. Questo per me è un regalo di una immensa bellezza.

      Alla fine degli anni Novanta, in coincidenza con i nuovi movimenti globali, e poi contro la guerra, hai acquisito una forte posizione di riconoscibilità insieme a Michael Hardt a cominciare da «Impero». Come definiresti oggi, in un momento di ritorno allo specialismo e di idee reazionarie e elitarie, il rapporto tra filosofia e militanza?

      È difficile per me rispondere a questa domanda. Quando mi dicono che ho fatto un’opera, io rispondo: Lirica? Ma ti rendi conto? Mi scappa da ridere. Perché sono più un militante che un filosofo. Farà ridere qualcuno, ma io mi ci vedo, come Papageno…

      Non c’è dubbio però che tu abbia scritto molti libri…

      Ho avuto la fortuna di trovarmi a metà strada tra la filosofia e la militanza. Nei migliori periodi della mia vita sono passato in permanenza dall’una all’altra. Ciò mi ha permesso di coltivare un rapporto critico con la teoria capitalista del potere. Facendo perno su Marx, sono andato da Hobbes a Habermas, passando da Kant, Rousseau e Hegel. Gente abbastanza seria da dovere essere combattuta. Di contro la linea Machiavelli-Spinoza-Marx è stata un’alternativa vera. Ribadisco: la storia della filosofia per me non è una specie di testo sacro che ha impastato tutto il sapere occidentale, da Platone ad Heidegger, con la civiltà borghese e ha tramandato con ciò concetti funzionali al potere. La filosofia fa parte della nostra cultura, ma va usata per quello che serve, cioè a trasformare il mondo e farlo diventare più giusto. Deleuze parlava di Spinoza e riprendeva l’iconografia che lo rappresentava nei panni di Masaniello. Vorrei che fosse vero per me. Anche adesso che ho novant’anni continuo ad avere questo rapporto con la filosofia. Vivere la militanza è meno facile, eppure riesco a scrivere e ad ascoltare, in una situazione di esule.

      Esule, ancora, oggi?

      Un po’, sì. È un esilio diverso però. Dipende dal fatto che i due mondi in cui vivo, l’Italia e la Francia, hanno dinamiche di movimento molto diverse. In Francia, l’operaismo non ha avuto un seguito largo, anche se oggi viene riscoperto. La sinistra di movimento in Francia è sempre stata guidata dal trotzkismo o dall’anarchismo. Negli anni Novanta, con la rivista Futur antérieur, con l’amico e compagno Jean-Marie Vincent, avevamo trovato una mediazione tra gauchisme e operaismo: ha funzionato per una decina d’anni. Ma lo abbiamo fatto con molta prudenza. il giudizio sulla politica francese lo lasciavamo ai compagni francesi. L’unico editoriale importante scritto dagli italiani sulla rivista è stato quello sul grande sciopero dei ferrovieri del ’95, che assomigliava tanto alle lotte italiane.

      Perché l’operaismo conosce oggi una risonanza a livello globale?

      Perché risponde all’esigenza di una resistenza e di una ripresa delle lotte, come in altre culture critiche con le quali dialoga: il femminismo, l’ecologia politica, la critica postcoloniale ad esempio. E poi perché non è la costola di niente e di nessuno. Non lo è stato mai, e neanche è stato un capitolo della storia del Pci, come qualcuno s’illude. È invece un’idea precisa della lotta di classe e una critica della sovranità che coagula il potere attorno al polo padronale, proprietario e capitalista. Ma il potere è sempre scisso, ed è sempre aperto, anche quando non sembra esserci alternativa. Tutta la teoria del potere come estensione del dominio e dell’autorità fatta dalla Scuola di Francoforte e dalle sue recenti evoluzioni è falsa, anche se purtroppo rimane egemone. L’operaismo fa saltare questa lettura brutale. È uno stile di lavoro e di pensiero. Riprende la storia dal basso fatta da grandi masse che si muovono, cerca la singolarità in una dialettica aperta e produttiva.

      I tuoi costanti riferimenti a Francesco d’Assisi mi hanno sempre colpito. Da dove nasce questo interesse per il santo e perché lo hai preso ad esempio della tua gioia di essere comunista?

      Da quando ero giovane mi hanno deriso perché usavo la parola amore. Mi prendevano per un poeta o per un illuso. Di contro, ho sempre pensato che l’amore era una passione fondamentale che tiene in piedi il genere umano. Può diventare un’arma per vivere. Vengo da una famiglia che è stata miserabile durante la guerra e mi ha insegnato un affetto che mi fa vivere ancora oggi. Francesco è in fondo un borghese che vive in un periodo in cui coglie la possibilità di trasformare la borghesia stessa, e di fare un mondo in cui la gente si ama e ama il vivente. Il richiamo a lui, per me, è come il richiamo ai Ciompi di Machiavelli. Francesco è l’amore contro la proprietà: esattamente quello che avremmo potuto fare negli anni Settanta, rovesciando quello sviluppo e creando un nuovo modo di produrre. Non è mai stato ripreso a sufficienza Francesco, né è stato presa in debito conto l’importanza che ha avuto il francescanesimo nella storia italiana. Lo cito perché voglio che parole come amore e gioia entrino nel linguaggio politico.

      *

      Dall’infanzia negli anni della guerra all’apprendistato filosofico alla militanza comunista, dal ’68 alla strage di piazza Fontana, da Potere Operaio all’autonomia e al ’77, l’arresto, l’esilio. E di nuovo la galera per tornare libero. Toni Negri lo ha raccontato con Girolamo De Michele in tre volumi autobiografici Storia di un comunista, Galera e esilio, Da Genova a Domani (Ponte alle Grazie). Con Mi chael Hardt, professore di letteratura alla Duke University negli Stati Uniti, ha scritto, tra l’altro, opere discusse e di larga diffusione: Impero, Moltitudine, Comune (Rizzoli) e Assemblea (Ponte alle Grazie). Per l’editore anglo-americano Polity Books ha pubblicato, tra l’altro, sei volumi di scritti tra i quali The Common, Marx in Movement, Marx and Foucault.

      In Italia DeriveApprodi ha ripubblicato il classico «Spinoza». Per la stessa casa editrice: I libri del rogo, Pipe Line, Arte e multitudo (a cura di N. Martino), Settanta (con Raffaella Battaglini). Con Mimesis la nuova edizione di Lenta ginestra. Saggio sull’ontologia di Giacomo Leopardi. Con Ombre Corte, tra l’altro, Dall’operaio massa all’operaio sociale (a cura di P. Pozzi-R. Tomassini), Dentro/contro il diritto sovrano (con G. Allegri), Il lavoro nella costituzione (con A. Zanini).

      A partire dal prossimo ottobre Manifestolibri ripubblicherà i titoli in catalogo con una nuova prefazione: L’inchiesta metropolitana e altri scritti sociologici, a cura di Alberto De Nicola e Paolo Do; Marx oltre Marx (prefazione di Sandro Mezzadra); Trentatré Lezioni su Lenin (Giso Amendola); Potere Costituente (Tania Rispoli); Descartes politico (Marco Assennato); Kairos, Alma Venus, moltitudo (Judith Revel); Il lavoro di Dioniso, con Michael Hardt (Francesco Raparelli)

      #autonomie #prison #exil

    • Le philosophe italien Toni Negri est mort

      Inspirant les luttes politiques en Italie dans les années 1960 et 1970, son travail a également influencé le mouvement altermondialiste du début du XXIe siècle.


      Toni Negri, à Rome (Italie), en septembre 2010. STEFANO MONTESI - CORBIS / VIA GETTY IMAGES

      Il était né dans l’Italie fasciste. Il disparaît alors que l’extrême droite gouverne à nouveau son pays. Le philosophe Toni Negri, acteur et penseur majeur de plus d’un demi-siècle de luttes d’extrême gauche, est mort dans la nuit du 15 au 16 décembre à Paris, à l’âge de 90 ans, a annoncé son épouse, la philosophe française Judith Revel.

      « C’était un mauvais maître », a tout de suite réagi, selon le quotidien La Repubblica, le ministre de la culture italien, Gennaro Sangiuliano. « Tu resteras à jamais dans mon cœur et dans mon esprit, cher Maître, Père, Prophète », a écrit quant à lui, sur Facebook, l’activiste Luca Casarini, l’un des leaders du mouvement altermondialiste italien. Peut-être aurait-il vu dans la violence de ce contraste un hommage à la puissance de ses engagements, dont la radicalité ne s’est jamais affadie.

      Né le 1er août 1933 à Padoue, Antonio Negri, que tout le monde appelle Toni, et qui signera ainsi ses livres, commence très tôt une brillante carrière universitaire – il enseigne à l’université de Padoue dès ses 25 ans –, tout en voyageant, en particulier au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient. C’est en partageant la vie d’un kibboutz israélien que le jeune homme, d’abord engagé au parti socialiste, dira être devenu communiste. Encore fallait-il savoir ce que ce mot pouvait recouvrir.

      Cette recherche d’une nouvelle formulation d’un idéal ancien, qu’il s’agissait de replacer au centre des mutations du monde, parcourt son œuvre philosophique, de Marx au-delà de Marx (Bourgois, 1979) à l’un de ses derniers livres, Inventer le commun des hommes (Bayard, 2010). Elle devient aussi l’axe de son engagement militant, qui va bientôt se confondre avec sa vie.

      Marxismes hétérodoxes

      L’Italie est alors, justement, le laboratoire des marxismes dits hétérodoxes, en rupture de ban avec le parti communiste, en particulier l’« opéraïsme » (de l’italien « operaio », « ouvrier »). Toni Negri le rejoint à la fin des années 1960, et s’en fait l’un des penseurs et activistes les plus emblématiques, toujours présent sur le terrain, dans les manifestations et surtout dans les usines, auprès des ouvriers. « Il s’agissait d’impliquer les ouvriers dans la construction du discours théorique sur l’exploitation », expliquera-t-il dans un entretien, en 2018, résumant la doctrine opéraïste, particulièrement celle des mouvements auxquels il appartient, Potere Operaio, puis Autonomia Operaia.

      Des armes circulent. Le terrorisme d’extrême droite et d’extrême gauche ravage le pays. Bien qu’il s’oppose à la violence contre les personnes, le philosophe est arrêté en 1979, soupçonné d’avoir participé à l’assassinat de l’homme politique Aldo Moro, accusation dont il est rapidement blanchi. Mais d’autres pèsent sur lui – « association subversive », et complicité « morale » dans un cambriolage – et il est condamné à douze ans de prison.
      Elu député du Parti radical en 1983, alors qu’il est encore prisonnier, il est libéré au titre de son immunité parlementaire. Quand celle-ci est levée [par un vote que le parti Radical a permis de rendre majoritaire, ndc], il s’exile en France. Rentré en Italie en 1997, il est incarcéré pendant deux ans, avant de bénéficier d’une mesure de semi-liberté. Il est définitivement libéré en 2003.

      Occupy Wall Street et les Indignés

      Il enseigne, durant son exil français, à l’Ecole normale supérieure, à l’université Paris-VIII ou encore au Collège international de philosophie. Ce sont aussi des années d’intense production intellectuelle, et, s’il porte témoignage en publiant son journal de l’année 1983 (Italie rouge et noire, Hachette, 1985), il développe surtout une pensée philosophique exigeante, novatrice, au croisement de l’ontologie et de la pensée politique. On peut citer, entre beaucoup d’autres, Les Nouveaux Espaces de liberté, écrit avec Félix Guattari (Dominique Bedou, 1985), Spinoza subversif. Variations (in)actuelles (Kimé, 1994), Le Pouvoir constituant. Essai sur les alternatives de la modernité (PUF, 1997) ou Kairos, Alma Venus, multitude. Neuf leçons en forme d’exercices (Calmann-Lévy, 2000).
      Ce sont cependant les livres qu’il coécrit avec l’Américain Michael Hardt qui le font connaître dans le monde entier, et d’abord Empire (Exils, 2000), où les deux philosophes s’efforcent de poser les fondements d’une nouvelle pensée de l’émancipation dans le contexte créé par la mondialisation. Celle-ci, « transition capitale dans l’histoire contemporaine », fait émerger selon les auteurs un capitalisme « supranational, mondial, total », sans autres appartenances que celles issues des rapports de domination économique. Cette somme, comme la suivante, Multitude. Guerre et démocratie à l’époque de l’Empire (La Découverte, 2004), sera une des principales sources d’inspiration du mouvement altermondialiste, d’Occupy Wall Street au mouvement des Indignés, en Espagne.

      C’est ainsi que Toni Negri, de l’ébullition italienne qui a marqué sa jeunesse et décidé de sa vie aux embrasements et aux espoirs du début du XXIe siècle, a traversé son temps : en ne lâchant jamais le fil d’une action qui était, pour lui, une forme de pensée, et d’une pensée qui tentait d’agir au cœur même du monde.
      Florent Georgesco
      https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2023/12/16/le-philosophe-italien-toni-negri-est-mort_6206182_3382.html

      (article corrigé trois fois en 9 heures, un bel effort ! il faut continuer !)

    • Pouvoir ouvrier, l’équivalent italien de la Gauche prolétarienne

      Chapeau le Diplo, voilà qui est informé !
      En 1998, le journal avait titré sur un mode médiatico-policier (« Ce que furent les “années de plomb” en Italie »). La réédition dans un Manière de voir de 2021 (long purgatoire) permis un choix plus digne qui annonçait correctement cet article fort utile : Entre « compromis historique » et terrorisme. Retour sur l’Italie des années 1970.
      Diplo encore, l’iconographie choisit d’ouvrir l’oeil... sur le rétroviseur. J’identifie pas le leader PCI (ou CGIL) qui est à la tribune mais c’est évidement le Mouvement ouvrier institué et son rôle (historiquement compromis) d’encadrement de la classe ouvrière qui est mis en avant.

      #média #gauche #Italie #Histoire #Potere_operaio #PCI #lutte_armée #compromis_historique #terrorisme

      edit

      [Rome] Luciano Lama, gli scontri alla Sapienza e il movimento del ’77
      https://www.corriere.it/foto-gallery/cultura/17_febbraio_16/scontri-sapienza-lama-foto-6ad864d0-f428-11e6-a5e5-e33402030d6b.shtml

      «Il segretario della Cgil Luciano Lama si è salvato a stento dall’assalto degli autonomi, mentre tentava di parlare agli studenti che da parecchi giorni occupano la città universitaria. Il camion, trasformato in palco, dal quale il sindacalista ha preso la parola, è stato letteralmente sfasciato e l’autista è uscito dagli incidenti con la testa spaccata e varie ferite». E’ la cronaca degli scontri alla Sapienza riportata da Corriere il 18 febbraio del 1977, un giorno dopo la “cacciata” del leader della CGIL Luciano Lama dall’ateneo dove stava tenendo un comizio. Una giornata di violenza che diventerà il simbolo della rottura tra la sinistra istituzionale, rappresentata dal Pci e dal sindacato, e la sinistra dei movimenti studenteschi. Nella foto il camion utilizzato come palco da Luciano Lama preso d’assalto dai contestatori alla Sapienza (Ansa)

    • ENTRE ENGAGEMENT RÉVOLUTIONNAIRE ET PHILOSOPHIE
      Toni Negri (1933-2023), histoire d’un communiste
      https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/Toni-Negri-1933-2023-histoire-d-un-communiste

      Sans doute est-il compliqué de s’imaginer, pour les plus jeunes, ce qu’a pu représenter Toni Negri pour différentes générations de militant.es. Ce qu’il a pu symboliser, des deux côtés des Alpes et au-delà, à différents moments de l’histoire turbulente du dernier tiers du XXème siècle, marqué par la dernière poussée révolutionnaire contemporaine – ce « long mois de mai » qui aura duré plus de dix ans, en Italie – suivie d’un reflux face auquel, loin de déposer les armes, Negri a choisi de résister en tentant de penser un arsenal conceptuel correspondant aux défis posés par le capitalisme contemporain. Tout en restant, jusqu’au bout, communiste. C’est ainsi qu’il se définissait.

    • À Toni Negri, camarade et militant infatigable
      https://blogs.mediapart.fr/les-invites-de-mediapart/blog/181223/toni-negri-camarade-et-militant-infatigable

      Toni Negri nous a quittés. Pour certains d’entre nous, c’était un ami cher mais pour nous tous, il était le camarade qui s’était engagé dans le grand cycle des luttes politiques des années soixante et dans les mouvements révolutionnaires des années soixante-dix en Italie. Il fut l’un des fondateurs de l’opéraïsme et le penseur qui a donné une cohérence théorique aux luttes ouvrières et prolétariennes dans l’Occident capitaliste et aux transformations du Capital qui en ont résulté. C’est Toni qui a décrit la multitude comme une forme de subjectivité politique qui reflète la complexité et la diversité des nouvelles formes de travail et de résistance apparues dans la société post-industrielle. Sans la contribution théorique de Toni et de quelques autres théoriciens marxistes, aucune pratique n’aurait été adéquate pour le conflit de classes.
      Un Maître, ni bon ni mauvais : c’était notre tâche et notre privilège d’interpréter ou de réfuter ses analyses. C’était avant tout notre tâche, et nous l’avons assumée, de mettre en pratique la lutte dans notre sphère sociale, notre action dans le contexte politique de ces années-là. Nous n’étions ni ses disciples ni ses partisans et Toni n’aurait jamais voulu que nous le soyons. Nous étions des sujets politiques libres, qui décidaient de leur engagement politique, qui choisissaient leur voie militante et qui utilisaient également les outils critiques et théoriques fournis par Toni dans leur parcours.

    • Toni Negri, l’au-delà de Marx à l’épreuve de la politique, Yann Moulier Boutang
      https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/toni-negri-lau-dela-de-marx-a-lepreuve-de-la-politique-20231217_Z5QALRLO7

      Il n’est guère de concepts hérités du marxisme qu’il n’ait renouvelés de fond en comble. Contentons-nous ici de quelques notions clés. La clé de l’évolution du capitalisme, ne se lit correctement que dans celle de la composition du travail productif structuré dans la classe ouvrière et son mouvement, puis dans les diverses formes de salariat. Le Marx le plus intéressant pour nous est celui des Grundrisse (cette esquisse du Capital). C’est le refus du travail dans les usines, qui pousse sans cesse le capitalisme, par l’introduction du progrès technique, puis par la mondialisation, à contourner la « forteresse ouvrière ». Composition de classe, décomposition, recomposition permettent de déterminer le sens des luttes sociales. Negri ajoute à ce fond commun à tous les operaïstes deux innovations : la méthode de la réalisation de la tendance, qui suppose que l’évolution à peine perceptible est déjà pleinement déployée, pour mieux saisir à l’avance les moments et les points où la faire bifurquer. Deuxième innovation : après l’ouvrier qualifié communiste, et l’ouvrier-masse (l’OS du taylorisme), le capitalisme des années 1975-1990 (celui de la délocalisation à l’échelle mondiale de la chaîne de la valeur) produit et affronte l’ouvrier-social.

      C’est sur ce passage obligé que l’idée révolutionnaire se renouvelle. L’enquête ouvrière doit se déplacer sur ce terrain de la production sociale. La question de l’organisation, de la dispersion et de l’éclatement remplace la figure de la classe ouvrière et de ses allié.e.s. L’ouvrier social des années 1975 devient la multitude. Cela paraît un diagramme abstrait. Pourtant les formes de lutte comme les objectifs retenus, les collectifs des travailleuses du soin, de chômeurs ou d’intérimaires, les grèves des Ubereat témoignent de l’actualité de cette perspective. Mais aussi de ses limites, rencontrées au moment de s’incarner politiquement. (1)

      https://justpaste.it/3t9h9

      edit « optimisme de la raison, pessimisme de la volonté », T.N.
      Ration indique des notes qui ne sont pas publiées...

      Balibar offre une toute autre lecture des apports de T.N. que celle du très recentré YMB
      https://seenthis.net/messages/1032920

      #marxisme #mouvements_sociaux #théorie #compostion_de_classe #refus_du_travail #luttes_sociales #analyse_de_la tendance #ouvrier_masse #ouvrier_social #enquête_ouvrière #production_sociale #multitude #puissance #pouvoir

    • Décider en Essaim, Toni Negri , 2004
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=pqBZJD5oFJY

      Toni Negri : pour la multitude, Michael Löwy
      https://www.en-attendant-nadeau.fr/2023/12/18/toni-negri

      Avec la disparition d’Antonio Negri – Toni pour les amis – la cause communiste perd un grand penseur et un combattant infatigable. Persécuté pour ses idées révolutionnaires, incarcéré en Italie pendant de longues années, Toni est devenu célèbre grâce à ses ouvrages qui se proposent, par une approche philosophique inspirée de #Spinoza et de #Marx, de contribuer à l’émancipation de la multitude

      .

    • Un congedo silenzioso, Paolo Virno
      https://ilmanifesto.it/un-congedo-silenzioso


      Toni Negri - Tano D’Amico /Archivio Manifesto

      Due anni fa, credo, telefona Toni. Sarebbe passato per Roma, mi chiede di vederci. Un’ora insieme, con Judith, in una casa vuota nei pressi di Campo de’ Fiori (un covo abbandonato, avrebbe pensato una canaglia dell’antico Pci). Non parliamo di niente o quasi, soltanto frasi che offrono un pretesto per tacere di nuovo, senza disagio.

      Ebbe luogo, in quella casa romana, un congedo puro e semplice, non dissimulato da nenie cerimoniose. Dopo anni di insulti pantagruelici e di fervorose congratulazioni per ogni tentativo di trovare la porta stretta attraverso cui potesse irrompere la lotta contro il lavoro salariato nell’epoca di un capitalismo finalmente maturo, un po’ di silenzio sbigottito non guastava. Anzi, affratellava.

      Ricordo Toni, ospite della cella 7 del reparto di massima sicurezza del carcere di Rebibbia, che piange senza ritegno perché le guardie stanno portando via in piena notte, con un «trasferimento a strappo», i suoi compagni di degnissima sventura. E lo ricordo ironico e spinoziano nel cortile del penitenziario di Palmi, durante la requisitoria cui lo sottopose un capo brigatista da operetta, che minacciava di farlo accoppare da futuri «collaboratori di giustizia» allora ancora bellicosi e intransigenti.

      Toni era un carcerato goffo, ingenuo, ignaro dei trucchi (e del cinismo) che il ruolo richiede. Fu calunniato e detestato come pochi altri nel Novecento italiano. Calunniato e detestato, in quanto marxista e comunista, dalla sinistra tutta, da riformatori e progressisti di ogni sottospecie.

      Eletto in parlamento nel 1983, chiese ai suoi colleghi deputati, in un discorso toccante, di autorizzare la prosecuzione del processo contro di lui: non voleva sottrarsi, ma confutare le accuse che gli erano state mosse dai giudici berlingueriani. Chiese anche, però, di continuare il processo a piede libero, giacché iniqua e scandalosa era diventata la carcerazione preventiva con le leggi speciali adottate negli anni precedenti.

      Inutile dire che il parlamento, aizzato dalla sinistra riformatrice, votò per il ritorno in carcere dell’imputato Negri. C’è ancora qualcuno che ha voglia di rifondare quella sinistra?

      Toni non ha mai avuto paura di strafare. Né quando intraprese un corpo a corpo con la filosofia materialista, includendo in essa più cose di quelle che sembrano stare tra cielo e terra, dal condizionale controfattuale («se tu volessi fare questo, allora le cose andrebbero altrimenti») alla segreta alleanza tra gioia e malinconia. Né quando (a metà degli anni Settanta) ritenne che l’area dell’autonomia dovesse sbrigarsi a organizzare il lavoro postfordista, imperniato sul sapere e il linguaggio, caparbiamente intermittente e flessibile.

      Il mio amico matto che voleva cambiare il mondo
      Toni non è mai stato oculato né morigerato. È stato spesso stonato, questo sì: come capita a chi accelera all’impazzata il ritmo della canzone che ha intonato, ibridandolo per giunta con il ritmo di molte altre canzoni appena orecchiate. Il suo luogo abituale sembrava a molti, anche ai più vicini, fuori luogo; per lui, il «momento giusto» (il kairòs degli antichi greci), se non aveva qualcosa di imprevedibile e di sorprendente, non era mai davvero giusto.

      Non si creda, però, che Negri fosse un bohèmien delle idee, un improvvisatore di azioni e pensieri. Rigore e metodo campeggiano nelle sue opere e nei suoi giorni. Ma in questione è il rigore con cui va soppesata l’eccezione; in questione è il metodo che si addice a tutto quel che è ma potrebbe non essere, e viceversa, a tutto quello che non è ma potrebbe essere.

      Insopportabile Toni, amico caro, non ho condiviso granché del tuo cammino. Ma non riesco a concepire l’epoca nostra, la sua ontologia o essenza direbbe Foucault, senza quel cammino, senza le deviazioni e le retromarce che l’hanno scandito. Ora un po’ di silenzio benefico, esente da qualsiasi imbarazzo, come in quella casa romana in cui andò in scena un sobrio congedo.

  • Contre la loi immigration, contre les CRA, mobilisons nous !- A Bas les CRA !
    https://abaslescra.noblogs.org/contre-la-loi-immigration-contre-les-cra-mobilisons-nous

    Pour mettre en œuvre sa loi raciste, l’État va doubler le nombre de places en CRA La loi Darmanin, qui après une motion de rejet votée à l’assemblée nationale le 11 décembre passera en commission mixte paritaire très droitière, va encore renforcer la répression contre les personnes immigrées / sans (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • La mer Rouge sous la pression des houthistes yéménites
    https://archive.ph/2023.12.15-115002/https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2023/12/15/la-mer-rouge-sous-la-pression-des-houthistes-yemenites_6205987_3210.html

    La multiplication des assauts houthistes en mer Rouge affecte d’ores et déjà fortement le commerce maritime d’Israël, dont les bâtiments sont les premières cibles revendiquées des rebelles. Le 9 décembre, le groupe avait déclaré dans un communiqué qu’il « empêcherait le passage des navires à destination de l’entité sioniste » si la nourriture et les médicaments ne pouvaient pas entrer dans la bande de Gaza.

    Quels que soient le pavillon des navires ou la nationalité de leurs propriétaires, les bâtiments à destination d’Israël « deviendront une cible légitime pour nos forces armées », précisait la milice yéménite.

    Certaines compagnies maritimes ont donc décidé de détourner leurs navires et préfèrent désormais contourner l’Afrique pour rallier la Méditerranée, ajoutant quelque 13 000 kilomètres à leur itinéraire et de dix à quatorze jours de navigation. Près d’une vingtaine de navires israéliens empruntent ainsi actuellement cette longue route, dont des bâtiments de ZIM, le plus gros armateur israélien. L’allemand Hapag-Lloyd et le chinois Cosco ont aussi dérouté des navires. Mais pas le français CMA CGM, numéro trois mondial des porte-conteneurs, qui n’a pas renoncé au passage par la mer Rouge et le canal de Suez, même sans soutien de navires militaires.

    […]

    Les attaques des houthistes, principalement au moyen de drones bon marché (entre 10 000 et 50 000 euros pièce) mettent aussi au défi la soutenabilité des moyens engagés par les marines militaires pour les contrer. Ces dernières semaines, l’US Navy et la marine française ont dû tirer des missiles d’une valeur de plusieurs millions d’euros pour protéger leurs bâtiments ou des navires commerciaux. « Quand on “tue” un Shahed [un drone iranien low cost] avec un Aster [le missile français notamment utilisé en mer Rouge], en réalité c’est le Shahed qui a tué l’Aster », a ainsi estimé le chef d’état-major des armées françaises, le général Thierry Burkhard, lors d’un colloque le 7 décembre, à l’Institut Montaigne, à Paris.

  • [CCL] 12h30 10 ans de cantine végane- Lille Alternataire
    http://lille.cybertaria.org/spip.php?article5231

    Le lundi 6 octobre 2014, date de démarrage « officiel » des cantines véganes hebdomadaires du CCL. Elles étaient jusqu’alors très occasionnelles. Annonce d’une première réunion publique (16 septembre 2014). Houmous, légumes coco, crumble aux pommes et aux poires ? - (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Fête du livre des éditions Noir et Rouge. Samedi 27 dec. et dimanche 28 dec. 2023- Autre futur
    http://www.autrefutur.net/Fete-du-livre-des-editions-Noir-et-Rouge-Samedi-27-dec-et-dimanche-28-de

    Petite Fête du livre organisée par Noir et Rouge ! Au plaisir de vous voir de nouveau ! Samedi 27 dec. : de 10 heures à 18 heures Dimanche 28 dec. : de 11 heures à 16 heures Des milliers de livres d’occasion. De la BD, des romans, des essais, des livres d’art, d’histoire et de politique. Des (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Des textes de retenus dénoncent la situation au CRA de Vincennes- A Bas les CRA !
    https://abaslescra.noblogs.org/des-textes-de-retenus-denoncent-la-situation-au-cra-de-vincennes

    Des retenus du CRA de Vincennes ont écrit quelques textes pour expliquer la situation dans le centre de rétention. Ils subissent une répression et une pression continue. Ils décrivent les conditions dans les centres de rétention, qui sont des prisons pour étrangers, conçus de plus en plus comme des (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • Elias Sanbar
    https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/l-invite-de-8h20/l-invite-de-8h20-du-we-du-vendredi-15-decembre-2023-1303967

    L’invité du Grand Entretien d’Ali Baddou et Marion L’Hour est #Elias_Sanbar, ancien Ambassadeur de la Palestine auprès de l’UNESCO. Commissaire de l’exposition « Ce que la #Palestine apporte au monde » à l’Institut du Monde Arabe, à Paris jusqu’au 31 décembre 2023.

    10 semaines de massacres avant de donner la parole à un palestinien

    edit "C’est très très dur. Nous sommes obligés de nous faire violence pour en discuter. Si nous nous laissions aller, nous serions dans le silence absolu /.../ C’est que nous sommes un peuple de trop. /.../ Toute notre histoire depuis 48 est celle là."

    #Israël #media #France

  • When the Coast Guard Intercepts Unaccompanied Kids

    A Haitian boy arrived on Florida’s maritime border. His next five days detained at sea illuminate the crisis facing children traveling to the U.S. alone and the crews forced to send them back.

    Tcherry’s mother could see that her 10-year-old son was not being taken care of. When he appeared on their video calls, his clothes were dirty. She asked who in the house was washing his shirts, the white Nike T-shirt and the yellow one with a handprint that he wore in rotation. He said nobody was, but he had tried his best to wash them by hand in the tub. His hair, which was buzzed short when he lived with his grandmother in Haiti, had now grown long and matted. He had already been thin, but by January, after three months in the smuggler’s house, he was beginning to look gaunt. Tcherry told his mother that there was not enough food. He said he felt “empty inside.”

    More strangers, most of them Haitian like Tcherry, continued to arrive at the house in the Bahamas on their way to the United States. One day police officers came with guns, and Tcherry hid in a corner; they left when a man gave them money. The next time he and his mother talked, Tcherry lowered his bright, wide-set eyes and spoke to her in a quieter voice. “It was like he was hiding,” his mother, Stephania LaFortune, says. “He was scared.” Tcherry told her he didn’t want to spend another night on the thin mattress in the front room with scuffed pink walls. She assured him it would be over soon. A boat would take him to Florida, and then he would join her in Canada, where she was applying for asylum. LaFortune texted Tcherry photos of the city where she lived. The leaves had turned brown and fallen from the trees. Still, she was there, and that’s where Tcherry wanted to be. He waited another week, then two, then three.

    Tcherry didn’t laugh or play for months on end, until one day in February, when two sisters, both Haitian citizens, were delivered to the house. One was a 4-year-old named Beana. She wore a pink shirt and cried a lot. The other, Claire, was 8. She had a round face and a burn on her hand; she said that at the last house they’d stayed in, a girl threw hot oil on her. Claire did everything for her sister, helping her eat, bathe and use the bathroom. Like Tcherry, the girls were traveling to join their mother, who was working at a Michigan auto plant on a temporary legal status that did not allow her to bring her children from abroad. Their clothes were as dirty as his. Sometimes Tcherry and Claire watched videos on his phone. They talked about their mothers. “I am thinking about you,” Tcherry said in a message to his mother in early February. “It has been a long time.”

    Finally, nearly four months after Tcherry arrived at the house, one of the men in charge of the smuggling operation woke him and the two girls early in the morning. “He told us to get ready,” Tcherry recalls. With nothing but the clothes they wore, no breakfast or ID, they were loaded into a van and were dropped off at a trash-lined canal just outside Freeport, Bahamas. In the muck and garbage, more than 50 people stood waiting as a boat motored toward them. “Not a good boat,” Tcherry told me, “a raggedy boat.” But nobody complained. The 40-foot vessel tilted from the weight as people climbed aboard and pushed into the two dank cabins, sitting shoulder to shoulder or standing because there was no more space. Tcherry felt the boat speeding up, taking them out to sea.

    For almost 12 hours they traveled west, packed together in cabins that now smelled of vomit and urine. In the lower cabin, a baby was crying incessantly. A heavily pregnant woman offered up the last of her package of cookies to the child’s mother to help soothe the infant. Tcherry was thirsty and exhausted. Not far from him, he heard a woman say that the children’s parents must be wicked for sending them alone into the sea.

    The passengers had been promised they would reach U.S. shores hours earlier. People were starting to panic, sure that they were lost, when passengers sitting near the windows saw lights, at first flickering and then bright — the lights of cars and buildings. “That is Florida,” a young man said as the boat sped toward shore. Tcherry pulled on his sneakers. “If I make it,” he thought, “I will spend Christmas with my family.”

    But as quickly as the lights of Florida came into view, police lights burst upon them. A siren wailed. People screamed, a helicopter circled overhead and an officer on a sheriff’s boat pointed a long gun toward them. Uniformed men climbed on board, yelled orders and handed out life jackets. The group of 54 people was transferred to a small Coast Guard cutter. As the sun rose over Florida just beyond them, a man with a tattoo on his arm of a hand making the sign of the benediction began recording a video on his phone. “As you can see, we are in Miami,” he said. “As you can see, we are on a boat with a bunch of small children.” He intended to send the video to relatives waiting for him on land, and he urged them to contact lawyers. But his phone was confiscated, and the video was never sent.

    The Coast Guard frames its operations in the sea as lifesaving work: Crews rescue people from boats at risk of capsizing and pull them from the water. But the agency, which is an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, also operates as a maritime border patrol, its ships as floating holding facilities. Since the summer of 2021, the Coast Guard has detained more than 27,000 people, a number larger than in any similar period in nearly three decades. On a single day in January, the agency’s fleet of ships off the Florida coast collectively held more than 1,000 people. The public has no way of knowing what happens on board. Unlike at the U.S.-Mexico border, which is closely monitored by advocates, the courts and the press, immigration enforcement at sea takes place out of public view.

    The Coast Guard routinely denies journalists’ requests to witness immigration patrols, but in early March, I learned that several days earlier, a boat carrying dozens of Haitians had been stopped so close to land that they were first chased down by the Palm Beach County sheriff’s marine unit. Among them were three unaccompanied children: two young sisters and a 10-year-old boy. In the months afterward, I obtained a trove of internal Coast Guard documents, including emails and a database of the agency’s immigration interdictions, and I tracked down Tcherry, Claire and Beana and 18 people traveling with them. Many of them told me about the five days they spent detained on Coast Guard ships — an experience, one man said, “that will remain a scar in each person’s mind.”

    People intercepted at sea, even in U.S. waters, have fewer rights than those who come by land. “Asylum does not apply at sea,” a Coast Guard spokesperson told me. Even people who are fleeing violence, rape and death, who on land would be likely to pass an initial asylum screening, are routinely sent back to the countries they’ve fled. To try to get through, people held on Coast Guard ships have occasionally taken to harming themselves — swallowing sharp objects, stabbing themselves with smuggled knives — in the hope that they’ll be rushed to emergency rooms on land where they can try to claim asylum.

    The restrictions, combined with the nearly 30-year spike in maritime migration, created a crisis for the Coast Guard too, leading to what one senior Coast Guard official described in an internal email in February as “war-fighting levels of stress and fatigue.” Coast Guard crew members described to me their distress at having to reject desperate person after desperate person, but the worst part of the job, several said, was turning away the children who were traveling alone. From July 2021 to September 2023, the number of children without parents or guardians held by the Coast Guard spiked, a nearly tenfold increase over the prior two years. Most of them were Haitian. “The hardest ones for me are the unaccompanied minors,” one crew member told me. “They’re put on this boat to try to come to America, and they have no one.”

    The treatment of children is perhaps the starkest difference between immigration policy on land and at sea. At land borders, unaccompanied minors from countries other than Mexico and Canada cannot simply be turned back. They are assigned government caseworkers and are often placed in shelters, then with family members, on track to gain legal status. That system has its own serious failings, but the principle is that children must be protected. Not so at sea. U.S. courts have not determined what protections should extend to minors held on U.S. ships, even those detained well within U.S. waters. The Coast Guard says that its crew members screen children to identify “human-trafficking indicators and protection concerns including fear of return.” A spokesperson told me that “migrants who indicate a fear of return receive further screening” by Homeland Security officials.

    But of the almost 500 unaccompanied children held on the agency’s cutters in the Caribbean and the Straits of Florida between July 2021 and early September 2023, five were allowed into the U.S. because federal agencies believed they would face persecution at home, even amid escalating violence in Haiti, including the documented murder and rape of children. One other child was medically evacuated to a hospital in Florida, and six were brought to land for reasons that the internal Coast Guard records do not explain. The rest were delivered back to the countries they left, and it’s often unclear where they go once they return. Some have nowhere to stay and no one to take care of them. On occasion, they are so young that they don’t know the names of their parents or the country where they were born. One official from an agency involved in processing people delivered by the U.S. Coast Guard to Haiti told me “it is an open secret” that the process can be dangerously inconsistent. “Children leave the port,” the official said, “and what happens to them after they leave, no one knows.”

    Stephania LaFortune had not wanted to send her 10-year-old son on a boat by himself. She knew firsthand how perilous the journey could be. In May 2021, before the boat she had boarded made it to a Florida beach, some of the passengers jumped into the water to wade through the heavy waves. “They almost drowned,” she told me when I met her in Toronto. LaFortune waited on the beached vessel until U.S. Border Patrol officials came to detain her. In detention, she claimed asylum and was soon released. For months, she searched for other ways to bring Tcherry to her, but LaFortune ultimately determined she had no alternative.

    The first time LaFortune left Tcherry, he was 3 years old. Her husband, a police cadet, had been shot in his uniform and left to die in a ditch outside Port-au-Prince, and LaFortune, fearing for her life, departed for the Bahamas. Tcherry stayed behind with his grandmother. Four years later, as violence began to flare again, Tcherry’s mother finally made good on her promise to send for him. She arranged for him to fly to the Bahamas, where she had remarried and had a baby girl. But Tcherry was in the Bahamas not even a year when LaFortune told him that she would be leaving again — not because she wanted to, she assured her sobbing son, but because she had seen how Haitians were harassed and deported, and she simply didn’t believe there was real opportunity there. Tcherry’s stepfather and his younger half sister, who were Bahamian citizens, joined LaFortune months later. She arranged for Tcherry to live with relatives, promising to send for him as soon as she could.

    LaFortune’s asylum case in Florida dragged on, so she and her husband and daughter traveled over land to Canada, where they hoped they could get legal status more quickly. While they waited for a decision in their asylum case, the relative Tcherry was staying with said he could no longer take care of a growing boy by himself. After begging others to take her son, LaFortune found a woman she knew back in Haiti who said she was planning to make the trip to Florida herself with her own children. For $3,000, the woman said, she could take Tcherry with them. LaFortune sent the money. The woman took Tcherry to the smuggler’s house and did not return for him.

    That house, and the one where Tcherry was moved next, were filled with Haitians fleeing the crisis that began in July 2021, when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by a team of mostly Colombian mercenaries hired through a Miami-area security company. The U.S. Justice Department has accused nearly a dozen people, some based in the United States, of setting the assassination in motion. As the Haitian state crumbled, proliferating gangs, many with ties to the country’s political elite, burst from the neighborhoods they’d long controlled and began terrorizing Port-au-Prince and swaths of the rest of the country. Kidnapping, extortion, the rape of women and children, and the torching of homes and neighborhoods became routine weapons of fear. Thousands have been murdered, and in June the United Nations estimated that nearly 200,000 have been internally displaced. Haitians able to gather the resources have left however they can. Many have traveled over land to the Dominican Republic or by air to South and Central America. And thousands have boarded boats bound for the beaches of Florida.

    The people on the vessel with Tcherry had reasons, each as urgent as the next, for being there. There was a 31-year-old street vendor whose Port-au-Prince neighborhood had been taken over by gangs; she said that when she tried to flee north by bus, men with guns forced her and other women off the bus and raped them. A man from a district in the north said he’d been beaten more than once by thugs sent by a political boss he’d opposed; both times they threatened to kill him. A man who worked as a Vodou priest in Port-au-Prince said he left because he needed money for his sick daughter, and gangs were confiscating his wages. The pregnant woman who helped comfort the crying baby said she had been kidnapped and raped; she was released only after her family sold land and collected donations to pay for her ransom. Two women were traveling with their daughters, but Tcherry, Claire and Beana were the only young children traveling alone.

    Tcherry sat on the deck of a Coast Guard cutter called the Manowar along with the rest of the group, exhausted, scared and confused. Nobody had explained to him what would happen next. Crew members in blue uniforms finally gave them food, small plates of rice and beans, and began to search their belongings and run their photos and fingerprints through federal immigration and criminal databases. Tcherry and the sisters followed the orders of a crew member with blond hair, cut like the soldiers in movies Tcherry had seen, to sit in the shaded spot under the stairs to the bridge.

    On the stern of the cutter, a man in his early 30s named Peterson sat watching the children. He had crossed paths with them weeks earlier in one of the houses; seeing they were hungry, he had brought them extra slices of bread and even cut Tcherry’s hair. Claire reminded him of his own young daughter in Haiti. Peterson had not wanted to leave his child, but gangs had recently taken control of roadways not far from his home in the coastal city of Saint-Marc. He had not earned a decent wage for many months, not since he lost his job as a driver at a missionary organization. He had decided to leave for the United States so he could send money back to Haiti for his daughter, who remained behind with her mother.

    Now it occurred to Peterson that his connection to Tcherry and the girls could work to his advantage. Surely the Coast Guard wouldn’t return children to Haiti, he thought. Surely they wouldn’t separate a family. “I thought that there might be an opportunity for me to get to the U.S.,” he told me. He approached Tcherry, Claire and Beana and told them they should tell the crew he was their uncle.

    Peterson’s small kindness in the smuggler’s house had given Tcherry reason to trust him. When it came time for the blond-haired crew member, Petty Officer Timothy James, to interview the children, Peterson stood close behind. With the help of another Haitian man who spoke some English, Peterson told James that he was their uncle. James asked the children if it was true. Tcherry and Claire, both timid, their eyes lowered, said it was. Beana was too young to understand. James handed her a brown teddy bear, which the crew of the Manowar keeps on board because of the growing number of children they detain, and sent the children back to the stern.

    But no more than a couple of hours later, Peterson changed his mind. He’d noticed that the pregnant woman had been evaluated by Florida EMTs, and he moved over to offer her a deal: If she would tell the crew he was her husband and let him join her if they brought her to land, his brother in Florida, who already paid $6,000 for his place on this boat, would make sure she was compensated. “I helped her understand that that is something she could profit from,” he says. The woman agreed, and Peterson, who now needed to tell the truth about the children, divulged to a crew member that he was not their uncle. “I was just trying to help if I could,” he said.

    James crouched down beside the children again and told them not to lie. “Why did you leave your home to go to the United States,” he read off a questionnaire. “To go to my parents,” Tcherry replied. To Tcherry, the questions seemed like a good sign. He was unsure whether he could trust these crew members after the officer on the sheriff boat pointed a long gun at them the night before. “I thought they were going to shoot me,” Tcherry says. But James calmly directed the children to sit in the one shaded place on the boat, and gave them cookies and slices of apple. “He was nice,” Tcherry says — the nicest anyone had been since Peterson brought them bread in the house.

    James kept reading the form. “What will happen when you get there?” he asked. Tcherry looked up. He latched onto the words “when you get there” and took them as a promise. He asked James when they would be on land. James said the same thing he told everyone on the boat: that the decision was not up to him, that he was just doing his job. Tcherry was convinced James would send him and Claire and Beana to their mothers. He thought of the story his mother had told him about his father’s murder, his body in a ditch by the road, and of his last memory of Haiti, when he passed through a gang checkpoint on the way to the airport. “I saw bandits approaching toward us, and he had a gun pulled,” Tcherry told me. “My heart started beating fast, and I thought he was going to shoot.” He was overwhelmed with relief that he would never have to go back there.

    A boat came to bring someone to land. But it was not there to pick up Tcherry or the other children. A Coast Guard medical officer had reviewed the pregnant woman’s vitals and made a decision that because she “may go into labor at any moment,” she would be brought to a hospital in Palm Beach County accompanied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Before she was taken away, Peterson said the woman told him she would not claim to be married to him after all. She didn’t want a stranger on her baby’s birth certificate. She offered to say she was his cousin. “I knew that being the cousin would not be enough,” Peterson recalls, “and I have to say that I lost hope.”

    The pregnant woman disappeared on a small boat toward land. Those left on the stern began to talk among themselves, asking why the baby, who had barely stopped crying, and the other children had been left aboard the cutter. They said they could not keep going like this, eating only small portions of scarcely cooked and saltless rice and beans, unable to bathe and forced to urinate and defecate in a toilet seat attached to a metal box with a tube off the side of the open deck. They decided they would rise in unison and protest, and they passed the word from one to the next. At around 9 p.m., dozens of people began to yell toward the bridge demanding interpreters, lawyers or just to know what would become of them. From the bow where he stood, James heard faint yelling, and then the voice of the officer in charge over the loudspeaker. “They’re starting an uprising on the fantail,” he said. “I need you back there.”

    Timothy James came from a conservative family in a conservative little town in the mountains of North Carolina. He and his wife held handguns aloft in their wedding photos, and his first job after dropping out of college was as a sheriff’s deputy at the jail. James joined the Coast Guard in 2015. “My main goal,” he told me, “was to chase down drug runners and catch migrants” — two groups that were more or less the same, as far as he understood.

    He’d been on the job no more than a few weeks before his expectations were upended. “I had no idea what I was talking about,” he told me. There was much less “running and gunning, catching bad guys” than he’d anticipated. Instead, the people he detained would tell him their stories, sometimes with the help of Google Translate on his phone, about violence and deprivation like he had never contemplated. People described what it was like to live on $12 a month. There were children and grandmothers who could have been his own, and young men not so unlike him. They were not trying to infiltrate the country as he’d thought. They were running because “they didn’t have another option,” he says.

    James and his colleagues learned the lengths people would go to try to get to land. Since last fall, people detained on cutters have pulled jagged metal cotter pins, bolts and screws from the rigging and swallowed them, apparently trying to cause such severe injury that they’d be taken to a hospital. Last August, near the Florida Keys, three Cuban men were reported to the Coast Guard by a passing towboat operator; most likely fearing they would be brought back to Cuba, they stabbed and slashed their legs with blades and were found in puddles of blood. In January, a man plunged a five-inch buck-style knife that he’d carried onto a cutter into the side of his torso and slashed it down his rib cage. The crew taped the knife to the wound to stop him from bleeding out as he fell unconscious. Most of these people were delivered to Customs and Border Protection and rushed to hospitals on land, where they probably intended to claim asylum. By the time James began working as operations officer on the Manowar last summer, he and other crew members started every leg at sea by scouring the decks for anything that people might use to harm themselves. (According to a DHS spokesperson, “medical evacuations do not mean that migrants have a greater chance of remaining in the United States.”)

    People detained on cutters have in rare cases threatened to harm Coast Guard members or others they’re traveling with. In January, a group the Coast Guard detained pushed crew members and locked arms to stop their removal to another cutter, according to an internal record. That same month, a group of Haitians held children over the side of a boat, “threatening to throw them overboard and set them on fire” if the Coast Guard came closer. Weeks later, a group of Cubans brandished poles with nails hammered into them and tried to attack an approaching Coast Guard boat. Conflicts between crew and those they detain have escalated to the point that Coast Guard members have shot people with pepper balls and subdued others with stun maneuvers.

    James tensed as he heard the order over the loudspeaker. He thought of the crowd-control techniques he’d learned to immobilize someone, and stepped down the side walkway toward the stern. In front of him were dozens of angry men and a few women, yelling in Haitian Creole. James hesitated and then walked forcefully up to the group, his hands pulled into his sides as if he were ready to throw a punch. Instead, he took a knee. He gestured to the men around him to come join him. He spoke into a cellphone in English, and on the screen he showed them the Google Translate app: “You’ve got to tell everybody to calm down,” it read in Creole. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”

    Before they could respond, five other crew members came down the stairs, plastic zip ties and batons hanging from their belts. Tcherry was sitting under the stairs, beside Claire and Beana, who had not let go of the teddy bear. “Shut up, shut up,” one of the crew told the protesters as he stepped in front of Tcherry. “One of them said he was going to pepper-spray their eyes and handcuff them,” Tcherry says. James told his colleagues to wait. The yelling in English and Creole grew louder. A man to Tcherry’s left began to scream and roll on the ground, and then he rolled partway under the handrail. A crew member grabbed the man by the back of the pants and hauled him up. James secured his wrist to a post on the deck. “Nobody’s dying on my boat today,” James said.

    Above Tcherry, another crew member stepped onto the landing at the top of the stairs. He held a shotgun and cocked it. James claims that the gun was not loaded, but the threat of violence had its intended effect. The protesters stepped back and went quiet.

    James kept speaking into the phone. “What do you want?” he asked the men.

    “If we go back, we’re dead,” one man replied. They said they could not endure being on the boat much longer.

    “If it were up to me, we’d be taking you to land,” James said. “But it is not up to us.” There was a process to seek protection, he told them. “But what you’re doing now is not that process.”

    Coast Guard crews do not decide who will be offered protection and who will be sent back. Their responsibility is only to document what the agency calls “manifestation of fear” (MOF) claims. The Coast Guard instructs them to make note of such claims only when people proactively assert them or when they observe people exhibiting signs of fear, such as shaking or crying. They are not supposed to ask. That may help explain why the agency has logged only 1,900 claims from more than 27,000 people detained in this region between July 2021 and September 2023. Fewer than 300 of those came from Haitians, even though they make up about a third of people held on cutters. Officials in the Coast Guard and in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told me that Haitians face a systemic disadvantage in making a successful claim for protection: Almost no one working on Coast Guard boats can speak or understand Creole. (The Coast Guard told me it has access to contracted Creole interpreters aboard cutters.)

    Regardless of the person’s nationality, the process is nearly always a dead end. Each person who makes a claim for protection is supposed to be referred to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer, who conducts a “credible fear” screening by phone or in person on a cutter. Between July 2021 and early September 2023, USCIS approved about 60 of the approximately 1,900 claims — around 3%. By contrast, about 60% of asylum applicants on land passed a credible-fear screening over roughly the same period. Unlike on land, people who are denied on ships have no access to courts or lawyers to appeal the decision. And the few who are approved are not sent to the United States at all. Should they choose to proceed with their claims, they are delivered to an immigration holding facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, where they are evaluated again. They’re told they should be prepared to wait for two years or more, until another country agrees to take them as refugees. Only 36 of the people with approved claims agreed to be sent to Guantánamo. The State Department says there are currently no unaccompanied minors held at the Migrant Operations Center at Guantánamo, but a recent federal contract document says that the facility is prepared to accept them.

    The Manowar crew had been tasked by the local Coast Guard office with logging any requests for protection. But the night after the protest had been too chaotic and exhausting for them to do so. In the morning, a larger cutter with more supplies arrived. The people detained on the Manowar would be transferred to that boat. Before they departed, James told them that anyone who intended to seek protection should seek help from the crew on the next boat. “Tell them, ‘I’m in fear for my life,’ just like you told me,” he said. “You tell whoever is processing you that specific thing.”

    But subsequent crews logged no such claims, according to records I obtained. One man told me that, in response to his plea for protection, an officer on the next boat wrote a note on a piece of paper, but nobody ever followed up. Another said that an officer told him their claims would be heard later. But there were no more interviews. “We had no opportunity,” a woman in the group says. When I asked the Coast Guard about this, a spokesperson told me the agency meticulously documents all claims. “Since we do not have a record of any of those migrants communicating that they feared for their lives if returned to Haiti, I cannot say that they made MOF claims while aboard,” he said.

    Tcherry fell asleep on the larger cutter and woke at around dawn to commotion. He saw an EMT pressing on the chest of a middle-aged woman who lay several yards away from him. She had been moaning in pain the night before. The crew member keeping watch had found her dead, her nose and mouth covered in blood. Another Haitian woman began to sing a hymn as the EMT performing CPR cried. A small boat took the woman’s body away and then returned for another man who had been complaining of pain and could not urinate. “I thought they would take us to land after the woman had died,” Tcherry says. “I thought they would let us go.” But that afternoon, he was transferred to yet another cutter that pulled away from Florida and into the high seas. Tcherry finally understood he was being sent back.

    The Coast Guard was first deployed as a maritime border-patrol agency to stop an earlier surge of migration from Haiti. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan made a deal with Jean-Claude Duvalier, the Haitian dictator, that allowed the Coast Guard to stop and board Haitian boats and deliver those detained directly back to Haiti. They would be processed on Coast Guard cutters, far from lawyers who could review their cases. The order, advocates argued at the time, undermined U.N. refugee protections and a U.S. refugee-and-asylum law that Congress passed just the year before. “This effort to push borders into the world’s oceans was new, and it marked a perverse paradigm shift,” Jeffrey Kahn, a legal scholar at the University of California, Davis, wrote recently.

    A decade after the Reagan agreement, as Haitians again departed en masse following a military coup, the George H.W. Bush administration further buttressed the sea wall. Bush signed an order that said federal agencies had no obligation to consider asylum claims from Haitians caught in international waters, no matter the evidence of danger or persecution. Lawyers and activists protested, calling the maritime regime a wholesale abdication of human rights doctrine. But the Bush order still stands. By the mid-1990s, its reach expanded to nearly anyone of any nationality caught in the sea, whether out in international waters or a couple of hundred feet from the beach.

    Pushing migrants and refugees away from the land borders to avoid obligations under law has now become common practice. In the United States, consecutive policies under Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have attempted to cast whole swaths of the land south of the border as a legal no-man’s land like the ocean. They have outsourced deterrence, detention and deportation to Mexico and Central America. Trump and Biden have sought to bar people from seeking asylum if they don’t first try to apply for protection in countries they pass through on their way to the United States. Europe, for its part, has pushed people coming by boat through the Mediterranean back to North African shores, where countries have imposed brutal regimes of deterrence.

    None of those measures have prevented the latest wave of migration from the Caribbean. In January, amid a generational spike in Haitians and Cubans held on their cutters, the Coast Guard acknowledged that crew members were reaching a breaking point. “We are in extremis,” a senior official wrote to colleagues in a widely circulated internal email in January. “I know you and your teams are pushed beyond limits.” The head of the Coast Guard for the eastern half of the United States, Vice Adm. Kevin Lunday, wrote in February to colleagues that two outside experts had told him their crews were under extreme stress similar to the levels experienced in “sustained combat operations.”

    Coast Guard members told me they had become accustomed to retrieving corpses from capsized boats, worn down by water or gnawed on by sharks. It was not uncommon to walk down a stairway or into a bunk room and come upon a crew member sobbing. Crew members waited months for mental health appointments, and the agency was talking openly about suicide prevention. “I don’t see how the current level of operations is sustainable,” Capt. Chris Cederholm, the commander of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Miami, wrote to colleagues, “without the breaking of several of our people.” Some were struggling with what one former crew member called a “moral dilemma,” because they had begun to understand that the job required them to inflict suffering on others. “We hear their stories, people who say they’d rather we shoot them right here than send them back to what they’re running from,” one Coast Guard member says. “And then we send them all back.”

    Tim James told me he tried to take his mind off the job by lifting weights and frequenting a cigar bar where service members and cops go to talk about “the suck,” but he soon realized he needed more than weights or whiskey to reckon with the mounting stress, even despair. “I go home, and I feel guilty,” he told me, “because I don’t have to worry about somebody kicking in my front door, you know, I don’t have to worry about the military roaming the streets.” He sought mental health support from a new “resiliency support team” the agency created. But James had not been able to shake the memories of the children he detained, particularly one 7-year-old Haitian girl with small braids. She’d been wearing shorts and a tank top, her feet were bare and she smiled at James whenever their eyes caught. “My mom is dead,” she told James with the help of an older child who spoke a little English. “I want to go to my auntie in Miami.”

    In the girl’s belongings the crew found a piece of paper with a phone number she said was her aunt’s. After James interviewed her, they sent her unaccompanied-minor questionnaire to the district office in Florida, and they waited for instructions on what to do with her. Out on the deck, James couldn’t help hoping she’d be taken to shore, to her aunt. But late in the morning the next day, the crew received a list from an office in Washington, D.C., of the people to be sent back. The girl was on the list. James cried on the return trip to port. One of his own daughters was about the girl’s age. “I can’t imagine sending my 7-year-old little kid across an ocean that is unforgiving,” James told me, nearly in tears. “I can’t imagine what my life would be like to have to do that.”

    That was just weeks before he encountered Tcherry, Claire and Beana. So when Peterson admitted the children were alone, the news came as a blow. “It’s a pretty hard hit when you think the kids have somebody and then it turns out that they really don’t,” James told me. He could see that Tcherry thought he would be making it to shore. “To see the hope on his face and then have to kind of turn around and destroy that is tough,” James told me. He never learns what becomes of the people he transfers off his cutter: that the pregnant woman gave birth in a hospital to a healthy boy and has an asylum case pending; that the body of Guerline Tulus, the woman who died on the cutter of what the medical examiner concluded was an embolism, remains in a Miami morgue, and that authorities have not identified any next of kin. He does not know what happened to the three children after they were sent back, but many months later, he says, he still wonders about them.

    Tcherry followed Claire and Beana up a rickety ramp in the port of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, past a seized blue and yellow cargo ship into the Haitian Coast Guard station. The ground was littered with plastic U.S. Coast Guard bracelets that previous groups of people had pulled off and thrown to the ground. Officials from the Haitian child-protection authority and the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration watched as Tcherry and the rest of the group disembarked. “They looked scared and they said they were hungry,” a veteran official at IBESR, the Haitian child-protection agency, who was working at the port that day told me. “As a Haitian, I feel humiliated,” he says, “but we can’t really do anything about it. We’ve resigned ourselves.” To him, the people the Americans offloaded in Haiti always looked half dead. “It seems to me that when those children fall in their hands, they should know how to treat them. But that’s not the case.”

    Tcherry’s throat hurt and his legs were weak. He had never felt such tiredness. He ate as much as he could from the warm plate of food the UN provided. Slumped over on a bench, he waited for his turn to use the shower in a white and blue wash shed on the edge of a fenced lot behind the Haitian Coast Guard station. The officials brought several people to a hospital and got to work figuring out what to do with the unaccompanied children.

    The U.S. Coast Guard and State Department say that the children they send back are transferred into the hands of local authorities responsible for the care of children. “When we have custodial protection of those children, we want to make sure that the necessary steps are taken,” Lt. Cmdr. John Beal, a Coast Guard spokesperson, told me, “to ensure that when we repatriate those migrants, they don’t end up in some nefarious actor’s custody or something.” But no U.S. agency would explain the actual precautions the U.S. government takes to keep children from ending up in the wrong hands, beyond initial screenings aboard cutters. Last year, the Coast Guard stopped tracking the “reception agency” in each country, because according to the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. government has set up rules establishing which agencies take these children and no longer needs to track them on a case-by-case basis.

    Haitian child-protection officials in Cap-Haïtien say their agency always finds relatives to take children, though sometimes after weeks or months. But the official with one of the other agencies involved in the processing of returned and deported Haitians at the Cap-Haïtien port said this claim is simply not true. The official said that children have departed the port with adults and with older children without any agency confirming they have an actual relationship or connection. “This is a serious concern in terms of trafficking,” the official told me. IBESR said those claims were unfounded. “According to the procedure, every child who leaves the port is accompanied by someone,” the IBESR official said, adding that when possible, the agency follows up with families to make sure children arrive safely. But the agency acknowledged there are limits to the support it can provide because of a lack of resources.
    Before they left the cutter, Peterson told Tcherry and the sisters that he would take care of them until they could contact their parents, who would figure out where they needed to go. Tcherry agreed. Peterson later told me he’d thought carefully about whether he wanted to get involved in the kids’ affairs once they were off the boat. He’d talked to other adults onboard, and they all agreed that someone needed to step up, that the Haitian government was surely not to be trusted. “If I didn’t do it,” Peterson says, “they would remain with the Haitian state, with all the risks that they could’ve faced, including kidnapping.”

    Peterson told the child-protection agency that he was the children’s guardian. The officials said they would need to contact the parents to confirm, so Peterson did the only thing he could think to do: He called the man who had been his conduit to the boat out of the Bahamas. The man sent him photos of the children’s IDs and put Peterson in touch with Claire and Beana’s mother, Inose Jean, in Michigan. She screamed and cried with relief upon learning her daughters were alive. Peterson explained that he’d taken care of the girls at sea and he asked her what to do with them. She said she would call back. Two hours later, she instructed Peterson to take the girls to her friend’s house in Cap-Haïtien.

    But Peterson still had no number for Tcherry’s mother. So he told the officials that Tcherry was Claire and Beana’s cousin, and that he’d gotten the image of Tcherry’s ID from Inose Jean. At dusk, Peterson walked with the three children through the metal gate of the Haitian Coast Guard station, at once incensed and relieved that he’d been allowed to take them. “The Haitian authorities didn’t talk to the children’s mothers,” Peterson says. “There was not enough evidence to actually prove I was who I was, or to prove a relationship.” They took a taxi to Jean’s friend’s house, and Claire, who recognized the woman from years earlier, rushed into her arms.

    The woman agreed to let Tcherry spend a night there. Peterson went to a cheap hotel with spotty electricity and a dirty pool. The man in the Bahamas finally sent Peterson Tcherry’s mother’s number. “I am the person who stood up to care for Tcherry on the boat,” Peterson told LaFortune. She collapsed onto the bed in her room, the only piece of furniture in the Toronto apartment she shared with her husband and her daughter. She had spent the last six days in a terrified daze, calling the people in the Bahamas she’d paid, begging for any news and fighting images in her mind of her son sinking into the sea. The next morning, after Tcherry woke, Peterson called LaFortune again. Tcherry looked weak and his voice was frail and hoarse. “When will I be with you, Mommy?” he asked.

    LaFortune did not for a moment consider trying to put Tcherry on another boat. She told him she would wait until she got asylum in Canada and send for him legally. But Haiti was even more dangerous for Tcherry than when he’d left. One man who was detained with Tcherry, whom I interviewed in Haiti two weeks after he returned there, said he feared he would be killed if he left Cap-Haïtien for his home in Port-au-Prince. After he ran through the roughly $50 the U.N. agency gave each of the returnees, which he used for a hotel, he did go back and was attacked on the street as he traveled to a hospital, he said, to get medicine for his daughter. He sent me photographs of gashes on his body. A second man sent me photos of a deep head wound that he suffered during an attack by the very armed men he had said he was running from. Another woman from the boat who told me she fled because she was raped says she is now “in hiding” in Port-au-Prince, living with relatives and her daughter, whom she does not allow to leave the house.

    Others on the boat have been luckier. In late 2022, the Department of Homeland Security started an unusually broad new legal-immigration program that now allows Haitians and Cubans, along with Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, to apply for two-year entry permits on humanitarian grounds from their countries, rather than traveling by land or sea first. The Department of Homeland Security says that since the program began, it has processed 30,000 people a month. More than 107,000 Haitians and 57,000 Cubans have been approved for entry, including a man who was detained with Tcherry. On Oct. 18, he stepped off a plane in Fort Lauderdale with a legal entry permit. He made it just under the wire, given the timing of his interdiction in February. In late April, DHS added a caveat to the new program: Anyone stopped at sea from then on would be ineligible to apply to the parole program. The Coast Guard says the new program and the accompanying restriction have caused the numbers of Cubans and Haitians departing on boats to fall back down to their pre-2021 level. “People have a safe and lawful alternative,” Beal, the Coast Guard’s spokesperson in Florida, told me, “so they don’t feel their only option is to take to the sea.”

    Tcherry rode a bus with Peterson over the mountains to Saint-Marc. In the stucco house on a quiet street where Peterson lived with his fiancée and her parents, Tcherry struggled to stop thinking about his experience at sea. “When I sleep, when I sit down, I want to cry,” Tcherry told me days after his arrival there. “They had us for five days. We couldn’t eat well, couldn’t sleep well. Couldn’t brush our teeth.” He thought of his body soaked from the sea spray, of the woman who died. Although Peterson assured him it was not true, Tcherry kept wondering if the officers had just thrown her body into the sea. “He is having nightmares about the boats,” Peterson told me a week after their arrival, “reliving the same moment again and again, and he starts crying.”

    LaFortune told Tcherry that she was arranging for him to travel to his grandmother in another part of the country. But it soon became clear to her that the roads were too dangerous, spotted with gang and vigilante checkpoints guarded often by men carrying AK-47s. Peterson told LaFortune that Tcherry could stay with him as long as she needed him to. But as the weeks turned to months, Tcherry felt that Peterson began to change. He said Peterson needed money, and he was asking Tcherry’s mother to send more and more. Peterson was frequently out of the house, working odd jobs, and often could not answer LaFortune’s calls. She grew worried. When she did talk to Tcherry, he was as quiet as he was in the smuggler’s house in the Bahamas.

    Two months passed. LaFortune’s asylum case was denied, and she and her husband appealed. Four more months passed. LaFortune’s husband heard news that gangs were closing in on Saint-Marc. LaFortune decided that they must move Tcherry, that it was time to risk the journey on the roads. In September, she sent an old family friend to collect him. They rode on a bus through a checkpoint where the driver paid a fee to a masked man. “I saw a man holding his gun,” Tcherry says. The man made a sign that they could pass.

    Tcherry arrived at a busy bus station in Port-au-Prince and looked for his grandmother. He saw her in a crowd and remembered her face, her high forehead and wide smile. “That is my grandma,” he said, again and again. His mutters turned to song. “That is my grandmother, tololo, tololo, that is my grandmother.” He sank into her arms. He held her hand as they boarded another bus and passed through another checkpoint, back to where he began.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/when-the-coast-guard-intercepts-unaccompanied-kids

    –—

    Reprise du #modèle_australien et son concept de l’#excision_territoriale :

    “People intercepted at sea, even in U.S. waters, have fewer rights than those who come by land. “Asylum does not apply at sea,” a Coast Guard spokesperson told me. Even people who are fleeing violence, rape and death, who on land would be likely to pass an initial asylum screening, are routinely sent back to the countries they’ve fled.”

    Excision territoriale :

    https://seenthis.net/messages/416996
    #Australie

    #droits #mer #terre #USA #Etats-Unis #asile #migrations #réfugiés #MNA #mineurs_non_accompagnés #enfants #enfance #Haïti #réfugiés_haïtiens

    via @freakonometrics

  • Mine games

    Rare earths are to the 21st century what coal was to the 19th and oil to the 20th. Our everyday electronics - and Europe’s climate goals - depend on them. But China controls almost all supply chains. Can Europe free itself from this dependence?

    Your mobile has them. Your laptop as well. They are likely in the toothbrush you used this morning. E-scooters are full of them. So are electric cars.

    Rare earths and other minerals are essential for wind and solar power installations, defence, and for the gadgets that we now rely upon in our daily lives. The demand for critical raw materials is going to skyrocket in the years ahead, far beyond current supply.

    There is no “climate neutrality” ahead without them. This implies more mining than ever before. “We, eight billion of us, will use more metal than the 108 billion people who lived before us,” according to Guillaume Pitrón, author of the book Rare Metals War.

    The political headache is that Europe depends heavily on imports of these critical raw materials, primarily from China.

    China controls EU supply of critical raw materials
    The trade in rare earths and other materials is controlled by the Chinese. Russia and Chile are significant suppliers as are some European nations.

    European dependency on Russian gas was a wake-up call last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Now the EU urgently wants to reduce the similar dependency on Chinese supplies of rare earth elements, lithium, bismuth, magnesium and a series of other critical minerals.

    European consumers have for decades not had to be much concerned with the environmental destruction and pollution that often comes with mining. Now, governments haste to revive mining across the continent – and to fast-track processes that otherwise may take a decade or more.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzw9-1G9Sok

    Investigate Europe reporters have unearthed what lies beneath these “green mining” ambitions. We have broken into a mountain of dilemmas, challenges and questions that come with Europe’s pressing need for minerals.

    To what extent will Europe be practically able to revive a mining industry that it has long abandoned? How can governments secure social acceptance for new mines if they are to fast-track permit processes? What kind of autonomy can come in an industry dominated by global companies?

    https://www.investigate-europe.eu/themes/investigations/critical-raw-materials-mining-europe
    #minières #mines #extractivisme #Europe #Chine #dépendance #indépendance #terres_rares #neutralité_climatique #transition_énergétique #importation #lithium #bismuth #magnésium #green_mining #industrie_minière #autonomie

    disponible en plusieurs langues, français notamment :
    https://www.investigate-europe.eu/fr/themes/investigations/critical-raw-materials-mining-europe

    • Écocides et #paradis_fiscaux : révélations sur les dérives du soutien européen à l’industrie minière

      Pour développer l’industrie des #batteries_électriques ou des éoliennes, l’Union européenne finance des entreprises minières au travers du programme #Horizon. Une partie de ces fonds soutient des sociétés impliquées dans des catastrophes environnementales, voire, pour l’une d’entre elles, domiciliée dans un paradis fiscal.

      C’est une immense tâche blanche, un entrelacs de tuyaux et de cuves, au milieu d’un écrin vert-bleu, à l’embouchure du fleuve Amazone, au #Brésil. Ici, l’usine de la société minière française #Imerys a laissé un souvenir amer aux communautés autochtones. En 2007, plusieurs dizaines de familles ont été contraintes à l’exil lorsque le leader mondial de la production de minéraux industriels a déversé 200 000 m3 de #déchets_toxiques dans les rivières alentour. #Cadmium, #baryum et autres #métaux_lourds cancérigènes se sont déposés au fond des cours d’eau dans lesquels puisent les populations, aux confins de la plus grande forêt pluviale du monde.

      De l’autre côté du globe, dans le #désert_de_Gobi, en #Mongolie, #Orano, (ex-#Areva), exploite des gisements d’#uranium. Cette fois, le géant français du combustible nucléaire est suspecté d’avoir injecté dans le sol « d’énormes quantités d’#acide_sulfurique », contaminant les #eaux_souterraines au #strontium — mortel à très haute dose — et à l’#arsenic, selon une enquête judiciaire mongole. « Moutons, chèvres, chevaux qui naissent handicapés, eau souterraine polluée, femmes qui font des fausses couches… » : l’association locale #Eviin_huch_eh_nutgiin_toloo, interrogée récemment par Reporterre, énumère les conséquences sanitaires potentiellement désastreuses de l’exploitation d’Orano.

      Plus loin au sud, près de l’équateur, l’île d’#Halmahera, en #Indonésie, fait face aux effets dévastateurs de l’exploitation récente de #nickel, à #Weda_Bay, en partie détenue par le groupe métallurgique et minier français, #Eramet. Là aussi, les terres sont détruites, et les populations autochtones déplacées. Sa filiale calédonienne, la société #Le_Nickel, est à l’origine d’une importante #pollution au #fuel constatée en avril 2023. Environ 6 000 litres de combustible se seraient échappés d’une conduite percée.

      Ces trois sociétés françaises n’ont pas pour seul point commun d’être impliquées dans des scandales environnementaux : elles bénéficient des largesses du programme européen Horizon. D’après notre enquête, la société française Eramet a touché 1,9 million d’euros, entre 2019 et 2022. Quant à Orano et Imerys, elles ont reçu respectivement 2,3 millions d’euros et 312 637 euros du programme européen. Parmi les prérequis indispensables à l’obtention de ces #subventions, figurait celui de « ne pas nuire à l’un des six objectifs environnementaux » présent au cœur du “#green_deal” européen, le #pacte_vert, en français. À commencer par la prévention contre les #risques_de_pollution ou la protection des écosystèmes. Sollicitée, la Commission européenne se contente de déclarer qu’elle accorde « une attention approfondie » aux enjeux environnementaux.

      Quinze sociétés impliquées dans des crimes environnementaux

      Doté d’un budget de 95 milliards d’euros sur sept ans (2021-2027), le programme européen Horizon, initié en 2014, et financé en grande partie sur fonds publics, a pour mission de soutenir la #recherche et l’innovation au sein de l’Union européenne. Avec l’émergence des besoins en batteries électriques, en #éoliennes et autres industries liées au secteur de la #transition_énergétique, ce soutien se dirige en grande partie vers le secteur minier, d’après notre analyse des données mises en ligne par l’UE. Avec une nette accélération ces dernières années : sur les 667 millions d’euros réservés à ce type de projets, entre 2014 et 2023, près de la moitié ont été attribués à partir de 2020.

      Projets financés par le programme de l’UE Horizon, en lien avec la loi sur les #matières_premières_critiques

      Depuis 2014, Horizon a financé 95 projets de ce type. Ceux-ci ont reçu 667 millions d’euros distribués entre 1 043 organisations. Les 67 présentés dans le graphique ont reçu plus de 2 millions d’euros.

      En plus des trois entreprises françaises ayant bénéficié du fonds Horizon malgré leur lien avec des pollutions environnementales, Disclose et Investigate Europe ont identifié douze autres sociétés problématiques. À chaque fois, celles-ci ont été impliquées dans des catastrophes environnementales. Leurs liens avec lesdites catastrophes sont accessibles en quelques clics sur Internet.

      Un exemple : l’entreprise minière suédoise #Boliden. Elle a perçu près de 2,7 millions d’euros dans le cadre de huit appels à projets Horizon. La dernière fois, c’était en novembre 2019. Or, cette société spécialisée dans la production de #zinc et de #cuivre a un lourd passif en matière de dégradation des écosystèmes. En 1998, près de Séville, en Espagne, le barrage d’un bassin de décantation d’une mine de #pyrite lui appartenant s’est rompu, déversant des eaux polluées sur plus de 40 km de terres agricoles. Dans les années 1980, Boliden a également été épinglé pour avoir exporté des milliers de tonnes de #déchets_miniers depuis la Suède vers #Arica, au nord du #Chili. Les #boues_toxiques d’arsenic liées au stockage sont pointées par des locaux pour être vraisemblablement à l’origine de #cancers et #maladies chez des milliers de résidents, lui valant d’être un cas d’étude dans un document du Parlement européen.

      Défaillances en chaîne

      Les données analysées réservent d’autres surprises. Alors que l’Union européenne ne cesse de défendre la nécessité de réduire sa dépendance vis-à-vis de la Chine et de la Russie, surtout depuis la pandémie et le conflit russo-ukrainien, le #programme_Horizon semble souffrir de quelques défaillances. Et pour cause, selon l’examen détaillé des entreprises bénéficiaires, il est arrivé à au moins trois reprises que les fonds versés par l’UE terminent soit sur le compte en banque d’un acteur étatique chinois, soit sur celui d’oligarques russes.

      Dans le premier cas, il s’agit du dossier déposé par la #Soil_Machine_Dynamics, une entreprise britannique leader dans le domaine de la robotique sous-marine. Celle-ci a reçu 3,53 millions d’euros du budget d’Horizon pour un projet baptisé #Vamos. Il visait à développer une technique permettant d’extraire des minéraux à des profondeurs jusque-là inaccessibles. Le projet a démarré le 1er février 2015. Mais, cinq jours plus tard, le fonds d’investissement privé Inflexion a cédé l’entreprise à #Zhuzhou_CSR_Times_Electric, dont l’actionnaire majoritaire est l’État chinois. Le projet Vamos, passé sous pavillon chinois, est resté actif jusqu’au 31 janvier 2019.

      Le second cas fait référence à la société #Aughinish_Alumina. L’entreprise basée en Irlande raffine la #bauxite, la roche dont est extraite l’#alumine utilisée pour produire l’#aluminium. En 2018, elle a reçu 563 500 euros en provenance de l’Union européenne pour sa participation à un projet visant à étudier la réutilisation des résidus de bauxite. Or, cette entreprise minière appartient depuis 2007 à #Rusal, un groupe russe qui domine le secteur et dont l’un des principaux actionnaires n’est autre qu’#Oleg_Deripaska. Réputé proche de Vladimir Poutine, ce dernier figure sur la liste des oligarques russes sanctionnés par le Royaume-Uni et les États-Unis… et l’Europe.

      Des fonds publics européens atterrissent dans un paradis fiscal

      Un autre cas intrigue, celui de la société #Lancaster_Exploration_Limited, spécialisée dans l’exploration de terres rares. L’entreprise a participé à un projet Horizon qui promettait de développer de nouveaux « modèles d’exploration pour les provinces alcalines et de carbonatite » destinés à l’industrie européenne de haute technologie. Pour ce projet, elle a perçu plus de 168 000 euros de la part de l’Europe, alors que son siège social est situé dans les #îles_Vierges britanniques, paradis fiscal notoirement connu. Interrogé sur ce cas précis, un porte-parole de la Commission européenne explique que l’institution peut mettre fin à un contrat la liant avec une société qui se serait rendue coupable d’infractions avec ses « obligations fiscales » ou qui aurait été « créé sous une juridiction différente, avec l’intention de contourner les obligations fiscales, sociales ou autres obligations légales dans le pays d’origine. »

      Reste à savoir si l’Union européenne prendra des mesures contre des sociétés ne respectant manifestement pas leurs obligations. D’autant plus que l’acquisition d’une souveraineté dans le secteur des #matières_premières critiques et des terres rares est l’une des priorités affichées par l’exécutif européen. La Commission a d’ailleurs présenté, en mars dernier, le #Critical_Raw_Materials_Act, consistant à relancer l’activité minière sur le continent. Grâce, notamment, aux centaines de millions d’euros que le programme Horizon destine aux professionnels du secteur.

      https://www.investigate-europe.eu/fr/posts/eu-horizon-scheme-millions-funding-mining-companies-environmental
      #paradis_fiscal #fisc #évasion_fiscale #écocide

  • The invisible price of water

    During communism, extensive irrigation systems turned the regions along the Romanian Plain into major producers of fruit and vegetables. But when the irrigation infrastructure collapsed, so did the ecosystems built around it. Today, farmers are digging wells to deal with desertification: a risky strategy.

    From the 1970s until 2000, the Sadova-Corabia irrigation system watered over 70,000 hectares of land in Romania’s Dolj and Olt counties. A set of pipelines that brought water from the Danube, the system turned the area from a sandy region predominantly used for vineyards into a fruit and vegetable paradise. Little by little, however, the system was abandoned; now only segments of it are still working.

    Agriculture in the area has changed, as has the environment. Today the Sadova-Corabia region is known not just as the homeland of Romania’s famous Dăbuleni watermelons, but also as the ‘Romanian Sahara’. Together with the south of Moldavia, Dobrogea and the Danubian Plain, it is one of the regions in Romania most affected by desertification.

    Anthropologist Bogdan Iancu has been researching the irrigation system in southern Romania for several years. Scena9 sat down with him to talk about drought, Romania’s communist-era irrigation systems, and the local reconstruction of agriculture after their decline. The interview has been edited for clarity.

    Oana Filip: How did your interest in drought arise?

    Bogdan Iancu: Rather by accident. Around seven years ago I was in the Danube port of Corabia for another research project, and at one point I heard a student talking at a table with a local, who was telling him about the 2005 floods and the irrigation systems in the area. The man also wanted to talk to me and show me the systems. It was an extremely hot summer and I thought it was very interesting to talk about irrigation and drought.

    I myself come from the area of Corabia-Dăbuleni. My grandparents lived in a village a bit north of the Danube floodplains, where there was an irrigation system with canals. This was where I learned to swim. The encounter somehow reactivated a personal story about the frequent droughts of that time and the summers I spent there. A lot of people in the area told us that the emergence of irrigation systems in the ’60s and ’70s led to more employment in agriculture. For them it was a kind of local miracle. As I realized that droughts were becoming more frequent and widespread, I became certain that this could be a research topic.

    The following year I started my own project. In the first two or three years, I was more interested in the infrastructure and its decline, the meanings it held for the locals and the people employed in the irrigation system, and how this involved their perceptions of changes in the local microclimate. Later, I became interested in the fact that people began to migrate out of the area because of the dismantling and privatization of the former collective or state-owned farms.

    I then started looking at how seasonal workers who had left for Italy, Spain, Germany or Great Britain had begun to come back to work in agriculture and start their own small vegetable farms. I was interested in how they started to develop the area, this time thanks to a few wells that have been drilled deep into the ground. So, somehow, the formerly horizontal water supply has now become vertical. This could have some rather unfortunate environmental implications in the future, because too many drilled wells that are not systematically planned can cause substances used in agriculture to spill into the ground water.

    How has the locals’ relationship with water changed with the disappearance of the irrigation system and the increasing frequency of droughts?

    The irrigation system had a hydro-social dimension. Water was primarily linked to agriculture and the planned socialist system. For a long time, the locals saw the system as the reason for the appearance and cultivation of fruits and vegetables they had never known before. For ten years after 1990, the irrigation network still worked and helped people farm on small plots of land, in subsistence agriculture, so that they could still sell vegetables in nearby towns. But after 2000 the state increased the price of water and cut subsidies. When the system collapsed, the ecosystem built around it collapsed along with it.

    At that time, something else was going on as well. The system was being fragmented through a form of – let’s say partial – privatization of the water pumping stations. The irrigators’ associations received loans via the World Bank. These associations did not work very well, especially since the people there had just emerged from the collective farming system, and political elites deliberately caused all forms of collective action to lose credibility after the ’90s.

    Because the irrigation system was no longer being used, or being used at much lower parameters than before, it no longer seemed functional. Bereft of resources, the local population saw the remaining infrastructure as a resource and sold it for scrap. It became even more difficult to use the irrigation system. This caused people to migrate abroad. The first waves of ‘strawberry pickers’ have only recently started coming back, perhaps in the past six or seven years, bringing in the money they have made in Italy or Spain.

    People have to be empowered in relation to the water they need. So these seasonal workers began digging their own wells. They have lost all hope that the state can still provide this water for them. They saw that in the Romanian Danubian Plain, thousands, tens of thousands of hectares of land were sold off cheaply to foreign companies that receive water for free, because they take it from the drainage canals. This caused even greater frustration for the locals, who not only look down on the new technologies that these companies use, but also resent their privilege of receiving free water from the Romanian state.

    How do you see the future of the area?

    It’s difficult to say. In the short term, I think the area will partially develop. But, at the same time, I think problems could arise from too many exploitations.

    The number of private wells will probably increase. Some very large companies in Romania are lobbying Brussels to accept the inclusion of wells drilled into underground aquifers (geological formations that store groundwater) into the irrigation strategy being developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. This would mean ten years of semi-subsistence, or slightly above semi-subsistence agriculture, where the former ‘strawberry pickers’ turn into successful small farmers. We’ve already seen this in the villages on the Sadova-Corabia system. But we have no way of knowing how long this will last, and how much pressure these aquifers would be subjected to. There is a risk that they might get contaminated, because they function like pores, and the water resulting from agricultural activities, which contains nitrites and nitrates, could get in there and cause problems.

    In Spain, for instance, they are very cautious about drilling wells. Arrests have been made. It’s a political issue that contributed to the defeat of Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist party in the last elections. Many farmers in Spain privileged to have access to water could dig a well wherever they wanted, but now found themselves faced with this rather drastic law. And the People’s Party promised them that they would be able to continue digging wells.

    At the Dăbuleni Agricultural Research Station, for example, they are experimenting with exotic crops better adapted to desertification, such as dates, kiwis and a certain type of banana. Do you think people could adopt new cultures in Sadova-Corabia too?

    This already happened decades ago. With the advent of the irrigation system, people were forced to be open to cultivating vegetables and fruits they had never seen before. Someone told me how, when they ate the first eggplants, they didn’t know what to do with them, they seemed bitter. Even tomatoes, which to us seem always to have been eaten there, were only introduced in the ’60s. One person told me that when he first tried a tomato he thought it tasted like soap. But if their grandparents or parents could adapt, so will people today. Besides, most have worked in agriculture abroad with this kind of fruit.

    Have you seen any irrigation best practices that you think would be suitable for the situation in the Sadova-Corabia area?

    I think one such example is micro-agriculture, which is employed on smaller plots in Italy, for instance. There are also micro farms in Sadova-Corabia that produce organic, ecological, sustainable products and so on. And there are a few cooperatives that work quite well, some of them supply tomatoes for the Belgian-owned supermarket chain Mega Image, for example.

    Spain, on the other hand, is not a best practice model. Spain is a devourer of water resources in an absolutely unsustainable way. We’re already seeing that the Tagus (the longest river in the Iberian peninsula and an important source for irrigation) is endangered by large-scale agriculture. In the 1990s, there was small and medium-sized farming there, and I think there should be a return to that. Obviously, the economists say it’s not profitable, but it’s time to think about a decrease and not an increase, which is always cannibalistic. This kind of farming, on a medium or small scale, should also bring this irrigation system back into focus.

    Unfortunately, it’s unclear for how much longer the Sadova-Corabia system will be able to function. It has an outlet in the Danube, which dries up in the summer and is not permanently supplied with water, as it was during the socialist period. Last year, for example, irrigation electricians and mechanics working on the Danube encountered problems, because the main canal poured water into the Danube, instead of collecting from it. If the Danube is no longer a sustainable source for irrigation canals (and not just in Romania), the alternative lies in the different management of water resources.

    In the multimedia exhibition based on the project that you organized last year, there was a notion of how grand socialist projects obfuscated life narratives, and how human stories were lost to anonymity. What life narratives are being lost or hidden now, in this larger discussion of drought and desertification in the area?

    I met a woman who during communism had managed a farm where they grew peaches that were then exported to Germany and Czechoslovakia. She told me that local vegetables were exported to Great Britain; and that this export was even stipulated by the two countries. Over 200 British technicians and experts lived in Sadova-Corabia for about four years. The story of these people, these British experts, not just the Romanian ones, and how they collaborated is completely lost to history.

    In the ’70s, these people were a sort of agricultural vanguard. They were trying to propose a productive model of agriculture, a break from the post-feudal, post-war past. There were people who worked at the pipe factory and built those gigantic pipes through which water was collected from the Danube. Today, there are still people who continue to make enormous efforts to do what needs to be done. The mayor of Urzica, for example, encourages locals to sell or give away plots of land for afforestation, and the town hall is even trying to deploy its own afforestation projects.

    I have seen journalists travel to the area for two days, come back and report that socialism destroyed everything. Obviously, lakes were drained and the environmental toll was very high. At the same time, that era brought unlimited water to many areas where it was previously lacking. Acacia forests were planted. Biologists say they’re no good, as they actually consume water from the soil; but foresters everywhere defend them and say they provide moisture.

    One way or another, all these stories should be told. As should the stories of the people who went abroad for work and are coming back. These so-called ‘strawberry pickers’ or ‘seasonals’, whose lives we know nothing about, because the Romanian state doesn’t believe that five million Romanians who went to work abroad deserve the attention.

    When I went to the Dăbuleni research station, many of the researchers had grown up there and had a personal connection to the area and a notion that they were working for the place where they grew up. How does the connection between the locals and the environment change, when so many choose to work abroad?

    This is where things intersect. These people have parents who tell us that for them the emergence of the irrigation system was similar to what happened in Israel, a country that has problems with its soil and that managed to make it better with the aid of water improvement systems. They saw that desert repopulated, greened, diversified, and they saw a greater complexity in the kinds of crops they can grow. They got predictability, i.e. permanent jobs at state agricultural enterprises, or jobs that allowed them to work at home, at the agricultural production cooperative (CAP).

    One thing I didn’t know before this research was that peasants who met their agricultural production quota were given 22 acres of land that they could work within the CAPs, with fertilizer from the CAPs, and irrigated with water from CAPs. One person I talked to even drove a truck contracted by the state and sold watermelons in Cluj, Sibiu, Râmnicu Vâlcea, and Bucharest in the 1980s and 1990s. And he wasn’t the only one.

    For them, the irrigation system was not only associated with farms, but also the related industries – pipeline factories, factories making tiles that lined the irrigation channels. It was a flourishing new ecosystem. But once this system collapsed, they also came to associate it with the degradation of the environment. I spoke to a local who said that when the system worked, he didn’t feel the summer heat, even though the temperatures were just as high, because of the water in the canal network.

    The absence of water is like the absence of blood – without it, an organism can no longer metabolize. And then, naturally, the young people decided to leave. But this was not a permanent departure. They went to Spain, for example, they saw vertical water there, and they said, ‘Look, we can make our own wells, we don’t need to wait around for horizontal water.’

    Why, as a state, have we failed to come up with an irrigation project today as ambitious as Sadova-Corabia in its time?

    There’s more to it than just this one system. There are about a hundred or so chain irrigation systems that start in this area, from south of Resita all the way to Dobrogea. The problem is that these irrigation systems were in full boom before the 1990s. Now, don’t think I believe that only irrigation systems can ensure good crops. I think they should be seen as part of a mixed bag of solutions. The problem is not that no more irrigation systems have been built, but that the old ones have not been preserved, optimized or modernized. Private interests were prioritized, especially those of a very large class of landowners, and land-grabbing was prioritized to the detriment of working on smaller plots of land. And so, such infrastructures were abandoned, because the big players can afford super-performant extractive technologies.

    How do you see urban dwellers relate to droughts and irrigation?

    I have seen many of them ridiculing people in the countryside and finding it unacceptable that they use municipal water handed to them for irrigation; but, at the same time, none of them disclose the amount of water they use on their lawns, which are worthless grass. Obviously, it’s easier to laugh from inside an office and to think that people are being irrational than to understand that they’re selling tomatoes that they would have otherwise been unable to grow.

    As climate change intensifies, droughts will become more frequent. Will we see better cooperation in the face of this new reality, or more division?

    In the next five to six years I think we will see more competition for water and the criminalization of our fellow water-users. But I think that this is where the role of the media comes in. It should abandon the logic of only showing us the big, scary monster called climate change. Rather, it should detail how these climate changes are occurring at the grassroots level. I think both the press and the state should work on research and popularization, on disseminating information that talks about these effects.

    I don’t think that anything can be done without pedagogies. Yes, during the socialist period these pedagogies were abused, sometimes enforced with actual machine guns, and that was tragic. But today we don’t see any kind of pedagogy, any kind of relating. None of the measures that need to be implemented are socialized. People are not being called to their village cultural center to be told: ‘Here’s what we want to do.’ The cultural center is now only used for weddings. Some radical forms of pedagogy should be devised and disseminated locally, so that people understand the invisible price of water.

    https://www.eurozine.com/the-invisible-price-of-water
    #eau #histoire #communisme #Roumanie #irrigation #infrastructure #agriculture #puits #Dolj #Olt #acqueduc #Danube #maraîchage #vignobles #fruits #Sadova-Corabia #melons #Dăbuleni #désert #désertification #sécheresse #privatisation #banque_mondiale #émigration #saisonniers #fraises #micro-agriculture #Urzica #Bogdan_Iancu
    via @freakonometrics

  • Lecture d’un extrait du livre « La dernière place » de Négar Djavadi, paru aux Éditions Stock, en 2023.

    https://liminaire.fr/radio-marelle/article/la-derniere-place-de-negar-djavadi

    Le vol PS752 reliant Téhéran à Kiev s’écrase quelques minutes après son décollage, le 8 janvier 2020. La dernière place, c’est celle qu’a prise, en dernière minute, repoussant son départ initial, la cousine de l’autrice. Négar Djavadi propose une plongée lucide et saisissante dans la dictature iranienne, retraçant méticuleusement les événements à l’origine de ce drame : les tensions entre l’Iran et les États-Unis, les risques de représailles et d’escalade, puis les mensonges du gouvernement pour tenter de dissimuler la responsabilité iranienne d’un tir de missile.

    (...) #Radio_Marelle, #Écriture, #Langage, #Essai, #Livre, #Lecture, #En_lisant_en_écrivant, #Podcast, #Famille, #Mémoire, #Biographie, #Iran, #Ukraine, #Politique, #Aviation, #Littérature (...)

    https://liminaire.fr/IMG/mp4/en_lisant_la_dernie_re_place_ne_gar_djavadi.mp4

    https://www.editions-stock.fr/livres/la-derniere-place-9782234093942

  • Les #Agences_de_l’eau en mode essorage

    Indépendantes de l’État, ces structures décisives dans la gestion de la ressource sont pourtant l’objet de multiples #pressions pour financer le #lobby agricole.

    Depuis quelques jours, les grands acteurs des guerres de l’eau en France jouent aux chaises musicales. On a ainsi vu mercredi dernier, le 6 décembre, #Arnaud_Rousseau, le président de la #FNSEA (#Fédération_nationale_des_syndicats_d’exploitants_agricoles), annoncer lui-même depuis le perron de Matignon que le gouvernement renonçait d’une part à taxer les agriculteurs qui polluent les sols et les eaux en utilisant des #pesticides et d’autre part à augmenter la #redevance de ceux qui irriguent tant et plus. La Première ministre, Élisabeth Borne, s’est contentée d’observer sagement la scène. Ce mardi, à Rennes, d’autres agriculteurs ont exprimé leur colère. Ils ont manifesté et même occupé des bâtiments de l’État pour demander, entre autres, l’arrêt du glyphosate et la taxation des pesticides. Évidemment, ils étaient pour la plupart affiliés à la Confédération paysanne. Ils revendiquaient surtout le paiement de plusieurs dizaines de millions d’euros de subventions qui leur ont été promis et qui doivent financer des mesures agro-écologiques dans leurs fermes. Le grand perdant de ce jeu de chaises musicales, où chacun semble prendre une place inattendue ? Le ministre de la Transition écologique, Christophe Béchu, qui n’a visiblement aucune assise. Il laisse la parole à la FNSEA, et il laisse – vous le verrez, c’est un document que se sont procuré Les Jours – son homologue chargé de l’Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, lui remonter les bretelles sur un dossier qui concerne pourtant de très près l’environnement et des établissements publics dont il a la charge, les Agences de l’eau.

    Pour comprendre cette situation, il faut vous présenter un peu plus ces mastodontes aussi importants que méconnus. La France compte six Agences de l’eau, dont les territoires sont délimités en fonction de l’écoulement des eaux : chacune règne sur un grand bassin hydrographique. Les personnes qui connaissent bien ces assemblées – et elles sont plutôt rares – en sont fières et les surnomment les « parlements de l’eau ». Car, en théorie, ces agences dotées d’un budget conséquent – plus de 12 milliards d’euros sur la période 2019-2024 – sont indépendantes de l’État et gérées par des collèges représentants tous les utilisateurs de la ressource : consommateurs, collectivités, industriels, agriculteurs, pêcheurs… Chacun de ces acteurs finance le budget des Agences via des taxes appelées « redevances » et, ensemble, ils doivent parvenir à concilier trois objectifs de plus en plus difficiles à atteindre : que chacun dispose de suffisamment d’eau, que les cours d’eau et les êtres qui y vivent soient en bonne santé, mais aussi que l’eau soit suffisamment peu polluée pour pouvoir être bue par tous.

    Depuis au moins une décennie, ces belles intentions sont largement mises à mal. En 2015, un rapport de la Cour des comptes dénonçait déjà le noyautage des Agences de l’eau par ceux qui la polluent – les industriels, notamment –, ainsi que par ceux qui en usent tant qu’ils en sont les plus grands consommateurs du pays : les agriculteurs… qui parfois polluent aussi. Le rapport pointait notamment le poids de plus en plus important pris par la FNSEA dans les décisions concernant la ressource. La situation ne s’est pas améliorée depuis. Un autre rapport de la même Cour des comptes, publié en juillet dernier et consacré à la gestion de l’eau face au changement climatique, regrettait, lui, que les redevances soient réparties de façon extrêmement inégale. Les consommateurs paient plus de 70 % des taxes via leur facture d’eau, quand les agriculteurs irrigants ne payent que 6 % de ces redevances et les agriculteurs consommateurs de pesticides à peine 4 %. Une situation d’autant plus injuste que l’impact de l’agriculture sur le coût de l’eau est de plus en plus grand : peu à peu, on se rend compte que l’eau potable est ainsi très largement contaminée par les résidus de pesticides, et que la dépollution va coûter une fortune aux collectivités.

    En prime, beaucoup d’agents et responsables des Agences de l’eau ont l’impression qu’on tape dans leurs caisses. Car depuis les années 2010, l’État a régulièrement décidé de ponctionner leur budget pour financer des mesures censées être favorables à l’environnement. Avec des conséquences lourdes sur les moyens de ces établissement mais aussi sur la taille des couleuvres à avaler : en 2018 a par exemple été instaurée une « contribution financière des Agences de l’eau à l’Agence française pour la biodiversité et à l’Office national de la chasse et de la faune sauvage » d’un montant de 20 millions d’euros. Une somme qui permettait de compenser la perte de budget de ce dernier Office due à la promesse présidentielle – celle-là même qui avait poussé Nicolas Hulot à la démission – de diviser par deux le prix des permis de chasse. C’est ainsi que l’argent des parlements de l’eau a depuis été utilisé pour faciliter la pratique du fusil en milieu rural.

    En avril dernier, le même Emmanuel Macron a annoncé du côté du lac de Serre-Ponçon, dans les Hautes-Alpes, son « plan eau », censé porter des objectifs de sobriété. Cette feuille de route, que Les Jours décrivaient comme très favorable aux agriculteurs (lire l’épisode 2, « Tu cherches un plan eau près de chez toi ? »), devait en partie être financée via les deux taxes auxquelles le gouvernement vient donc de renoncer. Une annulation vécue comme une injustice de trop pour le président du comité de bassin de l’Agence de l’eau Loire-Bretagne, Thierry Burlot (pourtant ex-candidat macroniste aux régionales). Il se dit « abasourdi » : « On a construit ce plan eau pendant des mois. On s’était mis d’accord sur le financement, de façon collective. On a imaginé une taxe sur les pesticides qui, au regard du coût de la pollution, est franchement minime. Et on découvre que la FNSEA est allée négocier seule à Paris, dans le dos de tout le monde. On découvre qu’ils ne veulent même pas payer pour financer un plan dont ils sont de très loin les plus grands bénéficiaires. C’est trop, cette décision va générer beaucoup de tension. »

    À Rennes, l’élu PS et vice-président d’Eau du bassin rennais Ludovic Brossard tance : « On n’est même plus face à du renoncement, on est face à un choix idéologique du gouvernement de soutenir le fonctionnement actuel de l’économie agricole plutôt que de donner une réponse aux enjeux environnementaux. » Du côté des agents de ces Agences, la déception est tout aussi grande. Élue au Syndicat national de l’environnement (SNE-FSU), Delphine Jacono déplore qu’« une fois de plus, on constate un arbitrage au profit des intérêts agricoles et au détriment de l’intérêt général. Ces taxes sont prévues pour abonder des budgets, mais doivent aussi faire changer les pratiques. Y renoncer est dommageable pour tout le monde ».

    Et ce n’est pas le seul dossier financier chaud qui divise les Agences de l’eau et le monde agricole. Les agents rennais de la direction régionale de l’alimentation, de l’agriculture et de la forêt l’ont découvert ce mardi en voyant débarquer une centaine d’agriculteurs en colère. L’objet de leur courroux est né de plusieurs échanges épistolaires entre membres de la majorité. Fin octobre, une flopée de parlementaires bretons écrivent au ministre l’Économie Bruno Le Maire et à Marc Fesneau. Ils alertent : des agriculteurs de la région se sont engagés à prendre dans leurs exploitations des « mesures agro-environnementales et climatiques » (Maec) en échange de subventions, et ils attendent leur dû. Victimes de leur succès, ces aides ont explosé les plafonds prévus. Près de 3 000 agriculteurs bretons attendraient aujourd’hui un montant global de 53 millions d’euros. Qui peut les payer ?

    Dans un courrier que « Les Jours » se sont procuré, Marc Fesneau exige de Christophe Béchu que les Agences de l’eau sortent le chéquier. Encore

    Cette missive a été bien reçue et entendue par Marc Fesneau. Selon un document que Les Jours se sont procuré, ce dernier a renvoyé quelques jours plus tard la patate chaude à Christophe Béchu. Son courrier évalue les besoins de financements à 143 millions d’euros à l’échelle nationale et se termine ainsi : « Cette insuffisance de financement provient des Agences de l’eau qui sont sous votre tutelle. » En clair, Marc Fesneau veut encore que lesdites agences sortent le chéquier. Il l’a fait savoir directement à leurs dirigeants, précise Thierry Burlot : « Marc Fesneau a invité les présidents de comité de bassin il y a un mois pour nous le dire. On n’était pas au courant de cet arbitrage, on ne savait pas que c’était à nous de le payer. Je vais être tout à fait clair sur ma position : je suis favorable au financement des Maec. Mais je ne peux pas les payer. On ne peut payer que si on a de l’argent dans la caisse. »

    Sur le terrain, on avance enfin un autre argument, de poids : il faudrait veiller à ne pas subventionner tout et n’importe quoi sous la pression du ministère de l’Agriculture. Un anonyme contrôleur de la Politique agricole commune (PAC), qui a évalué de très nombreux dossiers de Maec, détaille : « Les Maec sont censées inciter à un changement de pratiques et compenser une perte de rendement. Une partie sont très intéressantes, mais dans une majorité de dossiers, on finance des pratiques déjà existantes ou pas forcément pertinentes. » Delphine Jacono, du SNE-FSU, confirme qu’« il y a Maec et Maec, avec des ambitions environnementales très variables ». Elle alerte donc sur le fait que « faire du saupoudrage indifférencié serait une nouvelle atteinte aux objectifs environnementaux et climatiques ».

    Thierry Burlot, qui craint que l’affaire ne décourage les agriculteurs partisans d’un changement de modèle, se veut, lui, beaucoup plus conciliant avec les Maec. Quant à Ludovic Brossard, qui est allé à la rencontre des agriculteurs en colère ce mardi, il assure que la grande majorité de ces exploitants s’engagent dans des mesures vraiment intéressantes pour l’environnement. « Ces agriculteurs se disent qu’il leur manque des millions d’euros et que quelques jours plus tôt la FNSEA a été écoutée en déversant du lisier sur les préfectures. Forcément, ils se disent que les choses marchent comme ça. » Mais n’est pas la FNSEA qui veut : ce mardi soir, les agriculteurs de la Confédération paysanne ont été évacués avec force par la police.

    https://lesjours.fr/obsessions/eau-guerres/ep9-agences-eau-fnsea
    #eau #France #lobbying #agriculture #industrie_agro-alimentaire #indépendance #irrigation #pollution #taxe #glyphosate #Confédération_paysanne #subventions #agro-écologie #Marc_Fesneau #Christophe_Béchu #cour_des_comptes #eau_potable #prix #coût #contamination #dépollution #plan_eau #économie_agricole #mesures_agro-environnementales_et_climatiques (#Maec)

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