«Strictly speaking, we cannot have a foreign policy, since we stand, and wish to stand, outside and against the current division of the world into rival states. ---- «For us there are no foreigners . We want all men, whatever their place of birth, whatever the ethnic stock from which they derive, whatever the language they speak, to consider each other as brothers and to group themselves freely and cooperate together for the greater well-being, the greater freedom, the greater civilization of all. ---- «And since this universal brotherhood , this harmonization of all interests, of all aspirations in a vast unity (that of the human race) which respects and favors the free development of all varieties, the full autonomy of all individuals and all groups, are still an ideal in contrast with the harsh reality of today; since men are still divided into the oppressed and the oppressors , and the former live by exploiting the labor of others, and the workers bear the weight of all social burdens and are constrained in their material and moral development and often reduced to the most squalid and brutalizing misery - we stand, whatever our country of origin or residence, for the oppressed against the oppressors, the workers against the parasites, without any regard for the various political groupings, into which historical events and the interests and ambitions of the masters, even if favored by special natural conditions, have divided humanity».[Errico Malatesta, Our foreign policy. War and Peace , «Volontà», year 2, n. 10, 07/03/1914; italics ours.]
These clear words, spoken on the eve of the First Imperialist World War by our comrade Errico Malatesta, are still highly relevant today in a world devastated and bloodied by over fifty conflicts unleashed by the imperialist powers for control of the world market, conflicts that are becoming increasingly widespread, expanding dramatically.
And these are the themes we wish to reiterate on the occasion of April 25th and May 1st, to characterize these anniversaries not from an institutional perspective but as perspectives of anti-fascist and internationalist struggle, harking back to the best periods of the Italian and international proletariat in the troubled but luminous path to its emancipation.
The little theatre of politics
The "No" victory in the constitutional referendum on March 22-23 has undoubtedly weakened the current government, at a time when the war of aggression against Iran by Israel and the United States credibly portends a sustained and uncontrolled increase in energy costs, with potential rationing, rising consumer prices, and rising inflation amid declining GDP and a rising public deficit. This outlook is characterized by a sharp increase in military spending at the expense of key essential services: a very difficult scenario to manage, capable of undermining the electoral consensus of the governing majority. Moreover, the "overtaking" of the so-called "broad field," once its profound internal disagreements have been resolved, could even transcend the status of a hypothesis and become a viable possibility (see the Supermedia Polls data of March 10). The Prime Minister, seeking a way out, could, after the partial and belated cleanup of her own ranks, compounded by the "restructuring" conducted within Forza Italia by Marina Berlusconi, the downward spiral of the League, and the electoral threat of General Vannacci, consider calling early general elections to try to salvage what can be salvaged: this is certainly not a foregone conclusion, but it is nevertheless possible.
We reiterate once again that the "No" victory should be considered positive as it has weakened the government and, above all, the social elements that support it. However, the future appears highly uncertain, and it is by no means certain that in the event of a general election, whether early or not, the vote will be unfavorable to the political formations that comprise this government. The parliamentary opposition forces (and those outside of parliament, the same ones calling for the government's resignation) immediately attempted to fully acquire the referendum results and divert them for a possible electoral deadline. The "primaries" represent the first, and problematic, step toward creating a unified parliamentary perspective and alternative to the current majority: that is, the "broad field," which for now remains only a hypothesis, to be constructed amidst a thousand uncertainties and difficulties. The attempt to squeeze the referendum consensus into a partisan dimension is certainly crude in form and reprehensible in substance, and it is likely to be a failure: after all, the scenario is unprecedented, but that is not the point.
The recent referendum dynamics between omission and deformation
Regarding referendum turnout, this was deemed "high" because it would have represented renewed participation by the electorate, recording a turnout of 55.69%, which was overemphasized as "exceptional," which is only partially true: the last constitutional referendum, held in 2016 and concerning the Renzi-Boschi reform, achieved a turnout of 65.48%, and the 2022 general election recorded a turnout of 63.91%. Parliamentarism tends to superimpose its own expectations on reality, so a significant but numerically low turnout (44.31% abstained) becomes "exceptional" only because it exceeded the most pessimistic expectations. But the interesting aspect concerns youth voter participation, a topic greeted with suspicious emphasis by the "No" camp. Young people voted with increasing turnout, although, for the sake of objectivity, it's worth citing SWG projections, which show that abstention among younger generations for the 18-24 age group stands at 47%, rising to 52% for the 25-34 age group, still higher than that of other age groups that recorded higher voter turnout (Renato Mannheimer, in "Italia Oggi" of 01/04/2026). Let's not think that these considerations are "praising" abstentionism. In this regard, while we, as anarchist communists, do not give in to the electoral call, we believe abstentionism to be a complex and contradictory social phenomenon: a phenomenon that must therefore be scientifically evaluated with extreme objectivity since, due to its very social and class characteristics, it is neither a matter of general indifference to be dismissed outright nor, certainly, a sign of a growing awareness among the exploited masses. We do not attribute any revolutionary significance to referendum deadlines, but at times, certain rights of the less well-off social classes have been defended precisely by pursuing referendum objectives such as, for example, divorce and abortion. Even in the case of the last constitutional referendum, the victory of the "No" vote certainly prevented the current government from continuing its attack on the living conditions of the lower classes within the framework of a truly authoritarian drift.
New awareness and militant need
The vast movement that led to the No vote in the referendum, although it developed in a climate of widespread mobilizations that unitedly involved broad sectors of the student and youth movements, women's movements, trade unions, and civil society, inevitably suffered from the "electoral truce," partially declining in quantity and quality. Nonetheless, the renewed participation of the younger generations is certainly not entirely attributable to "defense of the Constitution," but rather, primarily, to the united mobilizations against imperialist wars financed at the expense of wages, essential services, and the working and living conditions of the less well-off social classes. This participation was the consequence of a social and class phenomenon that saw widespread mobilizations against all imperialist wars, against massacres, genocides, and devastation from Ukraine to Gaza and Iran, for peace, and against rearmament policies implemented in the exclusive interest of arms producers, distributors, and financial capital. The youth "no" to the referendum grew out of student protests, protesting cuts to education, corporatization policies, and the hierarchization of teaching, driven by an authoritarian, competitive, and meritocratic vision of subjugating education to the war industry and military propaganda. It also opposed any reintroduction of compulsory military service, and the rampant militarism that permeates society as a whole, including schools and universities, precisely as a preparation for war. These protests were held against the authoritarian turn of the Meloni government, which, with its "security decrees," equated social conflict with a mere public order problem to be addressed through repressive police and judicial action. These protests fostered a widespread awareness among a significant minority of young people, which has become a driving force. An anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, and anti-authoritarian awareness, but also solidarity, which has seen support for the widespread blockades of ships and trains carrying weapons to Israel and active participation in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which expressed concrete solidarity with the Palestinian population of Gaza, massacred, dispersed, and starving by the genocidal actions of the Israeli government, with the complicity of the United States and the European Union. It has been the heightened sensitivity to environmental issues, which has seen the government ignore the escalating environmental disasters caused by rampant construction and the failure to protect territories that, conversely, require massive investments that are instead destined for rearmament and thus war.
It is not institutional proclamations, but social and class conflict, articulated around clear, unified, and shared objectives, that determines participation and thus a renewed awareness of the ways and times to build a better world of peace, equality, and freedom. But if social and mass movements are built through concrete mobilizations against capital and its wars, they must inevitably confront the difficulties of the moment, becoming, by their very nature, fluctuating and contradictory. The social awareness that is created can also be reabsorbed and dispersed by the growing ebb. But it is precisely this social awareness that must be preserved to ensure that it becomes organized militant realities, capable of supporting and qualifying mass movements from a class perspective, especially in moments of crisis, when defeat and discouragement take hold, so that new impulses for struggle can expand to broader contexts. From this perspective, the role of teachers appears essential in making a significant contribution not "to state schools" but to the defense of the social characteristics of public schools, in order to produce alternative awareness to the drift and barbarization of capitalist society.
Giving concreteness to internationalism for its generalization
The period we are experiencing is shaping up to be the most dramatic since the Second World War. Proxy wars between the major imperialist powers sow destruction and death. In such a context, which opens up unprecedented scenarios that legitimately raise the possibility of a Third World War, there are no aggressors and the aggressed, but rather a single imperialist dimension in which more or less dominant powers, constantly in conflict, clash, all striving for control of strategic areas for global market dominance. It is a clash between predators, pitting bourgeoisies and states against the civilian populations overwhelmed by the war; a clash of power relations in which siding with one side against the other means being reduced to supporting a more or less dominant imperialist component, which denies and represses all social and class autonomy and opposition. The proletariat of various countries, called into conflict with its brothers and sisters in other countries to defend interests that do not belong to it, is extremely divided when, if united, it would demonstrate such immense strength as to block every conflict, from Ukraine to Iran. The validity of the internationalist perspective is certainly the only viable alternative to the barbarity that capital imposes for its survival, but it cannot be limited to the declaration of our best intentions. A strategy is needed "to return to victory" at the continental level, with unified objectives that begin with the uncompromising defense of the living conditions of the subaltern classes, divided and hostile to the very powers that are fighting each other and that are pitting our class against itself, thus alienating any credible internationalist unity. It is necessary to begin to concretely combine the fight against war and for peace with the concrete defense of the living conditions of the lower classes in Italy and Europe: defending wages and their purchasing power, for the quality and security of jobs, against precarious employment, for the significant development of essential social services especially education, healthcare, transportation, social security, and land and environmental protection thus diverting resources from military spending and rearmament; defending and expanding the gains achieved in recent years by women against violence, the rise of patriarchy, intolerance, and homophobia, against racism, resurgent fascism, and against the oppression of diversity, so that it may have full citizenship in civil society. Defending these objectives jointly, from the bottom up, and with a self-management perspective, against all trade union and party bureaucracy is also the priority of anarchist communist militants, who must strengthen their political organization to counter the ebb by extending the conflict to broader contexts.This constitutes the first practical step towards a continental organization of workers against capital, imperialism and its wars.
In the spirit of May Day, long live the internationalist unity of the proletariat!
https://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/wpAL/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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