Italian COUNTERINFO #11 (3 May 1995)

Our feature for this issue is an article written by Hobo (of the Padua ECN) 
for the left daily *il manifesto*:

1) 'I guerriglieri della rete', *il manifesto* 26 April 1995

GUERRILLAS ON THE NET

It's a lucid analysis that David Ronfeldt offers in his report on the 
Internet's influence upon the current conflict in Chiapas, a recognition 
of the abilities and political intelligence of those working to broadcast 
information and to coordinate support work for the Zapatistas. Something to 
stur some pride amongst the participants of the 'chiapas-l' and 'chiapas95' 
discussion lists who, from the beginning of the conflict, have used the 
Internet to build links with the EZLN and the indigenous populations in 
struggle by disseminating comuniques and breaking the isolation imposed by the 
traditional media.

For example, thanks to the Internet and to the work of those who, around 
the world, collaborate on these newslists, the 'Roett Report' - in which 
the Chase Manhattan Bank called upon the Mexican government to intervene 
militarily to eliminate the Zapatistas, as a step towards political stability 
and the guarantee of future investments - was made public and widely deplored.

But Ronfeldt's report, entitled 'Cyberwar is Coming!', is not a mere 
academic text, nor an unsolicited outpouring of admiration for Internet 
activists. Indeed, Mr Ronfeldt is not an independent researcher; in fact, he 
has often worked with the US military and the CIA. His latest report was 
commissioned by the RAND Corporation, a think tank for the Pentagon, and 
the same organistion from which the 'Pentagon Papers' - which described in 
detail the horrors of the Vietnam War - were leaked in 1971.

The reactions of the Net's 'inhabitants' to this kind of interest has 
centred around a discussion of the concrete ways in which computer 
networks impact upon society as a whole. For one list participant, 
Ronfeldt's arguments were inconsistent; rather than being a significant 
political movment, as the Rand Corporation document claimed, Net 
activists were simply a group of middle class people prepared to sacrifice at 
most a little of their free time. The majority of respondents disagreed, 
however: conscious of the impact that the new communication technologies 
exercise upon the political sphere, they were also fearful of the 
eventual repression this could provoke.

The warning signals of such repression can already be detected in recent 
police operations against some small anarchist computer networks, leading 
to the arrest of a member of the 'Terminal Boredom' BBS in Scotaland, and 
the charge of 'subversive association' against the 'BITS Against the 
Empire' BBS in Trento. 'Anarchists and Zapatistas are only the tip of the 
proverbial iceberg', says Jason Wehlig of the 'active'l' newslist. 'Currently 
there are a myriad of social activist campaigns on the Internet... the 
network system of activism is not only working -- and working well as 
Ronfeldt admits -- but is growing. It is growing rapidly in numbers of 
people involved and growing in political and social effectiveness.'

Harry Cleaver, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, 
Austin, and the facilitator of the 'chiapas95' discussion list, certainly 
has no doubts about the effectiveness of the non-centralised political 
networking which goes on via the Internet. He puts it this way:

'The fabrics we weave today are complex things. They resonate with
some old models --say the direct democracy of some indigenous villages--
but they are also woven within a completely new context: a global
capitalism in which communications makes it increasingly difficult for
the would-be rulers to divide (through ignorance) and conquer (via
repression or cooptation). Now those electronic communications are not
some neutral technology, even though it may seem that way at first
glance, as capitalists continue to maintain their very hierarchical power
structures using the same circuits that we use to undermine them and
construct alternative sets of relationships.  Indeed, the original
network, ARPANET, was created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency to
facilitate the circulation of research for the Defense Department. But
out of that has grown not only the Internet but cyberspace in which
diverse and often conflicting goals are pursued, from commercial ventures
such as America Online or Compuserve to activist networks like PeaceNet
and EcoNet, from the reinforcement of capitalist power to systematic
attempts to undermine it. There is no longer a single "electronic
communication technology" but rather the nets themselves with all their 
structures AND contents constitute alternative technologies being 
elaborated within diverse contexts for diverse purposes. Those of us who 
are using the nets to fight for democracy are constructing the technology 
as we proceed, we are not just "users" as the big companies would have us 
believe. So, we have to be very self-conscious about what we are 
constructing as we go along. What are the politics of what we are 
constructing, both in cyberspace and within the larger space within which 
we live and fight. If it serves no other purpose, perusal of this report 
on RAND research, should stimulate our collective thinking about how what 
we are doing can contribute "in the doing" to the construction of new, 
alternative ways of social being in which "governability" is put behind 
us, permanently.'

2) Prison and Repression

Recently distributed within one of Italy's social centres, this text 
examines the question of new technologies of prison surveillance, against 
the backdrop of restructuring and debates around privatisation. Challenging 
the whole discourse of prison 'reform', the document's authors state that 'As 
anarchists, we are opposed to any disciplining and commodification of the 
individual...'.

3) New OCCUPATION in Rome!!!

Inspired in part by the notion of 'thinking globally, acting locally', 
some comrades of the social centres, including people from the 
now-evicted PIRATERIA DI PORTA, have since 25 March occupied a new space at 
CIRCONVALLAZIONE OSTIENSE N.9 (MERCATI GENERALI). In a city where public 
buildings have been left abandoned for the purposes of speculation, the 
occupation and self-management of such spaces 'is the practical and immediate 
example of the possibility of creating culture and politics antagonistic to the 
dominant systems and cultures - to capitalism, fascism, sexism, racism, and 
every type of exploitation and domination.'

4) Boycott the Illy Cafe

On 11 March, efforts to occupy space for a social centre in Trieste were 
blocked by a massive police intervention. Those involved are now calling 
for a boycott of a commercial establishment owned by the city's mayor.

5) Berlusconi's media empire

An anecdotal piece, taken from Peacenet, concerning the links between 
'independent' phone polling and media magnate (and former Prime Minister) 
Silvio Berlusconi's companies.

****

Recently, the newspaper *il manifesto* has run a series of feature 
articles by Francesca Borrelli, focusing on journals and bookshops 
associated with autonomist and libertarian politics in Italy. Here are some 
excerpts from these pieces, which are also available from *Italian COUNTERINFO*:

6) 'Mutanti nel regno della rivolta digitale', *il manifesto* 23 March 1995

An interview with Raf and Gomma, from the cyberpunk journal *Decoder*:

Q. What are the links you see between the question of computer technology 
and the peculiarities of postfordist labour?

RAF: The first link, clearly, lies in the globalisation of communication 
systems, and in the fact that they have become, together with information 
itself, both a key commodity and a structurural component of the production 
process. This in turn has given rise to new forms of 'self-employed' and/or 
servile, de-waged work. One of our criticisms of the traditional left is 
that it has been too prone to talk of 'defending' only traditional forms of 
wage labour, thus abandoning self-employed workers to the right. Not to have 
tapped into a whole world, which is now at the root of Forza Italia and the 
Lega's success, was a grave error...

7) 'Una agora' tra i banchi di libri e riviste', *il manifesto* 28 March 1995

An interview with Primo Moroni, proprietor of the Calusca bookshop in Milan.

Q: When you speak of the necessity of continually generating new 
instruments of information, new technologies, of 'keeping up with the 
times', are you referring to the fact that the universe of postfordist 
labour values as a productive resource the accumulation of competences 
over physical strength?

Moroni: Certainly. Let me give you an example, from my recent trip to 
Switzerland, where - as you know - society is much richer and better 
organised than here. In that country, some social centres have been in a 
certain sense legalised. And this hasn't simply been a paternalistic 
operation on the part of the state: firstly, because it has come about after 
a long conflict, and secondly because this is part of an attempt to transform 
these places into enterprises.
 
Q: A good example of repressive sublimation...

Moroni: It is, it is. But let me ask you a question: might this not 
instead be a process analogous to that of capitalism's passage to 
maturity? Back then, workers created mutual aid societies, and artisans their 
self-managed cooperatives - all of this within the capitalist process, 
but antagonistic to it.

Something similar to the Swiss case, on a much smaller scale, is the 
attempt of Rome's mayor Rutelli to 'regularise' the social centres of 
that city. How should we interpret this: as an attempt at normalisation and 
absorption, or as a new frontier within the processes currently unfolding in 
Italian society?

8) 'La citta' ideale passa di qua', *il manifesto* 28 March 1995

An interview with Sandro Scarso, from the Calusco bookshop in Padua.

Q: What type of relationship is there between the generation of the late 
seventies, and members of the 'new' autonomist movement?

Scarso: The dialogue is hardly an automatic one, but I'd say that we've 
benefitted from the younger people's invitation for us to abandon our 
purely 'resistant' stance: they've taught us not to stay in the trenches, to 
overcome that defensive attitude to which, in spite of ourselves, we'd become 
accustomed.

9) 'Inviati sui luoghi delle catene', *il manifesto* 1 April 1995

An interview with Cosimo Scarinzi, of the libertarian journal 
*Collegamenti/Wobbly*.

Q: If you had to choose the features which most distinguish 
*Collegamenti/Wobbly* from similar journals, what would you emphasise?

Scarinzi: Certainly an empirical bent. We've always paid considerable 
attention to the verification of arguments through application, 
falsification, modification. While we have been very attentive to the rank 
and file organisational forms which workers have carved out in the workplace, 
our objective has been to bring into such environments instruments of 
theoretical reflection which are of more than just immediate utility. So, 
while we're very interested in discussion of the postfordist factory, we 
know that such talk generally alludes more to a model than to a concrete 
activity already in place. We want to move beyond such impressionism....

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Italian COUNTERINFO, a summary of recent postings from Italy's Cybernet 
and European Counter Network, is a cooperative venture between the 
xchange BBS (Melbourne, Australia) and the Padu node of the ECN.

Italian COUNTERINFO is no copyright. Feel free to use the newsletter as 
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Queries concerning the Italian originals can be directed to:

pmargin@xchange.apana.org.au                   hobo@freenet.hut.fi
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