The December issue of the Alternative Current journal met in Limoges last December to discuss the effects of the militarization of minds and the technologization of warfare. You will find a summary of this discussion on page 12. We chose this dual theme for debate primarily because of the strengthening of the war-preparation discourse by the French government, even if it is not new. This report will show that the aim is to prepare the whole of society, including young people, healthcare workers, etc.
The second part of our debate focused on the technologization of warfare, hence the particular focus on military drones, which are mentioned several times in connection with Israel and Iran. Some of these military drones are designed and built near you.
You will find details related to our coverage on page 36.
If there is one effect we did not notice-at least during this discussion-it is the impact that the technologization of a state (cameras, facial recognition algorithms) has on its ability to punish revolt after the fact. Iran provides a grim example: facial scans, marked in green (indicating that the person was filmed during the uprisings) or red, have been used to determine the arrest of pedestrians in the streets of Tehran since the bloody suppression of the mid-January uprising. Thus, where the hope of a revolution brought a large part of the population into the streets, without necessarily concealing their participation in the demonstrations, the punishment is fourfold: massacre, ransom for the bodies, theft of memory (corpses counted among the deaths of the Revolutionary Guards if the families do not pay), and arrests after the fact.
Without dwelling on this aspect, which relates to the capacity of modern states to crush uprisings, the text on page 35 returns to the situation in Iran and the reasons for the revolt. It also explains why, despite the repression, the Islamic Republic of Iran is nearing its collapse. While cutting-edge technologies assisted by AI (artificial intelligence) make it easier to strike those designated as enemies, the inherent stupidity of the military can cause damage among its allies: on January 15, the Ethiopian army launched drones at a pro-government militia, killing 40 of its auxiliaries. Another case of repression, not detailed in our monthly publication, must be denounced: the hunt for immigrants and anyone of color carried out by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Minneapolis. This force appears to have recruited the majority of its members from among racist and far-right activists. A testimony will be published on our website. While speaking of fascism or fascization in relation to France today is excessive, what is happening in certain parts of the United States can indeed be compared to the actions of the SA and SS around 1933. Vanina rightly reminds us on page 5 that the role of the police has always been to repress social movements and has always committed unacceptable acts of violence. The "things were better before" mentality is an illusion. And we are indeed talking about repression by the French police. One person who expressed this very well in numerous works was Maurice Rajfus, who tirelessly denounced these abuses. His sister, Jenny Plocki, a resistance fighter and feminist and revolutionary activist who participated in both Socialisme ou Barbarie and the Movement for the Freedom of Abortion and Contraception (MLAC), recently passed away at the age of 100.
On an international level, we can truly use Ponsard's tautological phrase to describe the audacity of certain politicians. The US president feels entitled to do anything: overthrow a foreign head of state and kidnap him, announce to the world that he will seize Venezuela's oil, threaten an allied country with war if it doesn't cede a vast territory and its inhabitants, and much more. He also consistently makes inappropriate remarks about women. Netanyahu expresses the same contempt for international institutions when, in illegally occupied territory (East Jerusalem), he has a UN building demolished. Trump's attitude can be seen as a tacit agreement that other powers (China, Russia, etc.) can do the same in their own spheres of influence.
Fortunately, in all kinds of countries, workers are fighting, ordinary people are protesting and rebelling, resisting despite repression. An interesting example of this is given in this issue with an article on the resurgence of social and solidarity struggles in Italy (p. 29). Let us stand in solidarity with these struggles by demonstrating against repression, but also by fighting against the weapons of death manufactured near us. We must continue to fight the industries that kill and destroy the planet. Finally, let us stand in solidarity with those who are being prosecuted for allegedly attempting to sabotage deadly industrialization (see p. 4).
OCL Limoges, January 23, 2026
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4626
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Link: (en) France, OCL CA #357 - "When the limits are crossed, there are no more limits" - François Ponsard, Honor and Money, 1853 (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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