By Dusan Pajovic, CdM columnist
A group of Italian extreme right-wingers from the European Parliament protested against the inscription ‘Tito’ on the hill known as Sabotin, in Slovenia. They say the letters are so big that the inscription is visible even from Italy, and that it’s about a clear provocation towards that country. They further state the inscription is a tribute to “a communist dictator responsible for brutal crimes against humanity”.
It’s true, Tito treated Italian fascists, German Nazis, and their local collaborators brutally. As well as those who forced children to work in factories or peasants to work for 12 hours only to earn the minimum wage. And it’s true, he was a dictator – albeit a smaller one compared to those before and after him. Compared to today’s “democracy”, hot water, some kind of democracy in the workplace, workers’ resorts and financial security represent greater freedom.
I recently had to go again through the transcripts of the talks between Tito and Che Guevara with my delegations. Anyone who hasn’t done it so far – I recommend it.
It’s a real treasure, a mixture of history, theory, intellect and radical engagement.
Tito and Che held talks on anti-imperialism, resistance, freedom and self-government. Che said he looked up to the experiences of the Yugoslav partisans and their revolution, while Tito and Koca didn’t hide their admiration for the Cuban guerrillas. They discussed the agrarian revolution and the process of returning property to society itself, beyond the concept of “private property”.
Politicians who hate politicians, who planned and carried out their revolutions with working people of the countries they were in, took two different paths. One left his ministerial position and went further around the world to spread the socialist revolution, in whose name he later died. The other created a system that functioned according to the principle of workers’ self-management and became, according to the testimony of the first president of Zambia, the only white man who did not take anything – but brought it to Africa. He formed the Non-Aligned Movement, between the authoritarian-capitalist West and the authoritarian-socialist East. Together they went down in history as symbols of the struggle for a fairer society.
The question is: how did we get from people in high positions debating imperialism and the socialization of property, to Jokovic wishing the president of the Veneto region “bongiorno” in his own version of Italian, and Spajic singing in honor of Trump’s election victory, while admiring his attitude towards cryptocurrencies.
Let’s not just talk about politics, but let’s stay at the superficial level.
Can you imagine Spajic and Meloni (Prime Minister of Italy, coming from the fascist party founded in honor of Mussolini) talking on equal terms and having some in-depth theoretical debates? Do they even know the differences between, for example, socialism and communism?
Discussing something other than the market, investment, religion, cryptocurrencies or the deportation of immigrants? Something that’s not repression, surveillance and oppression?
Not only do people live worse now (considering the modern context and the passage of time), but it’s almost impossible to imagine the alternative. Even though we had it, it was within arm’s reach.
The revolution used to be staged in the jungle and cabinets with a vision, today post-politics is being run at the level of money and quiet phrases that have long since become platitudes – regardless whether it’s “European values” or a perverted version of “democracy”. Myths have fallen. Lies, war and famine remained.
Gone are the days when capitalism sold the “European” or “American” dream. When it semi-successfully promoted the myths about progress, balanced and sustainable development suggesting the so-called free market, and when it promoted the end-of-history narratives.
Based on the coordinate system of historical materialism, not only the periphery is condemned to predatory, criminal and wild capitalism to the detriment of the countries of the center; but even in those countries of the center the working class is not bribed by the benefits derived from imperial money flows. Because, simply, it’s not needed anymore.
We’re stuck with Margaret Thatcher’s slogan, stating that capitalism is the only solution.
That’s why – capital is increasingly explicit and openly abusive, and doesn’t need to fake benevolence. Capital doesn’t build – it eats up. Everything it touches turns into a market, into exploitation, into a tourist resource that “ordinary people” do not have access to. Nothing’s spared – neither the rivers, nor the mountains, nor the people, nor the shores, nor the sea.
In that process, the line between capitalism and fascism becomes ever thinner. It’s a way for capital to deal with internal contradictions. In the process of disintegration, capitalism reeks of fascism. To sustain itself, capitalism relies on surveillance, repression, chauvinism and fear. Resistance is pushed to the margins, protests are budgeted, amortized and co-opted, and other options are declared naive or dangerous. A world based on the polymerization of Spajic’s neoliberal crypto evangelism and Meloni’s crypto fascism has been established.
Right now, the progressive left in Europe is on the fringes of the fringe. They are explaining to citizens that a better alternative might emerge in the future. Our tragedy lies in the fact that this “utopia” is in the past, it has already happened.
Remembering the meeting between Tito and Che is not just nostalgia – it’s a reminder that once upon a time, politics was a serious attempt to make the world more just. Although history doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes. Therefore, we have no choice but to switch from Thatcher to the Zapatistas’ slogan, who loudly claimed and showed a different world is possible. It “only” needs to be created.
(The opinions and views of our columnists are not necessarily the opinions or views of the CdM news team)
