Corruption, vote swapping... the news is constantly occupied by news of
investigations and the related outcry that from time to time the parties
not involved stage against their adversaries, only to then reverse the
roles as soon as the municipality, province, region, government changes
. ---- Big fish and small fish are caught by the investigators and from
time to time their friends show themselves as guarantors, or when the
(rare) convictions arrive, the magic word of "rotten apples" emerges.
However, the personalization of scandals tends to hide the endemic
nature of the corruption system; and when we talk about endemicity we
mean something simple: the system pushes corruption because power
represents the deepest element of moral and material corruption,
accentuated by the more or less widespread voracity of a good part of
the political class.
The debate in the socialist and internationalist world of 1870 was
animated by this reading of power, and consequently of government, which
then split, with the anarchists remaining isolated in their position of
strong criticism of power and their coherent take on distance. All the
others have more or less ended up managing dictatorships or larcenies
and vaguely democratic patriotisms.
But this is not the time to quibble about history or theory.
One of the elements that characterize corruption is the system of direct
and indirect privileges enjoyed by those in government (on an increasing
scale from local to national or European administration). Privilege
means having goods and money, but also commanding and having the
authority necessary to strengthen one's position and to distribute
benefits to one's political, patronage and family circle. "Cummaning is
better than fucking" remains a philosophically impeccable proverb.
Any power is absolutist in its own way, even the "democratic" one, since
it allows the politician not to have to answer for his actions to those
who voted for him, to be able to change his coat according to his own
convenience, to make laws that deny every promise made during the
electoral campaign without his voters being able to remove him (except
waiting 5 years for new elections). Obviously all done in the name of
the good of the citizens, of the nation, of the workers, of
civilization, of the economy, that is, of presumed general interests
behind which the most abject interests of the caste, of the capitalist
masters and of the technobureaucrats are hidden.
Reinforcing the flawed nature of the democratic electoral system is the
false freedom to vote. Not all voters are on the same level; the masses
experience disadvantaged social conditions, serious survival problems,
and are objectively blackmailable, available to the promises, to the
flattery of the political class supported by the minority of the rich
who secure, with generous financing (hidden, but also legal), the favors
and services of the governments. Therefore, large sectors of the
electorate make their votes available in exchange for favours; the
candidates offer favors in exchange for votes, up to the case - not so
extreme - of the rewards given but only after the results (remember
Achille Lauro's famous shoes in Naples? one date before the elections
and the other only after the victory of candidate).
In short, a well-established system in front of which the arguments of
government and opposition politicians fall apart as they return to
talking about restoring public funding to parties to eliminate the
so-called "swap vote". And they are shocking because tangentopoli
exploded in the midst of a system of legal financing for evidently
insatiable parties. In the wake of indignation, that financing was
canceled with the easy referendum of 1993. But things have not changed
much, if it is true that in 2023 Italy was still in 42nd place (out of
180) among the most corrupt countries , with 56 points (Denmark is first
with 90 points, Finland is second with 87).
In reality, the parties immediately got to work by introducing, in 1999,
instead of public financing, the "electoral reimbursement": 4,000 lire
(2.07 euros) for each vote, for the entire legislature. But then they
thought of lowering the figure to 1 euro per vote but multiplied by 5
(years). But "by vote" does not mean the vote received, but the
potential vote of the 50 million eligible voters (calculated by the
Chamber) and multiplied by 4 elections (municipal, regional, national
and European): the modest figure of 200 million per year and 1 billion
over 5 years, spread across all parties that have exceeded the 1%
threshold. Not happy, since 2006 they have decided that the disbursement
will last 5 years even if the legislature ends first, overlapping with
that of the new legislature. Only in 2010 and 2011 did this mechanism
suffer a reduction of 10% per year: what remained was a nest egg of 140
million per year: a trough, rather than electoral reimbursement. Also
because each party spends around 20% of the sums received.
It goes without saying that if the "refund" were given based on the
number of votes received, it would be much lower: a solution averted by
the puritans of money-grabbing politics.
Other solutions to gorge on are "legal" financing, invoiced, which, as
the Genoa case is demonstrating, hide an exchange of votes and favors
that has remained intact: the bosses pay, the politicians reciprocate
with contracts and favors, they buy votes from the mafia in exchange for
subservience to its legal and illegal interests, and the wheel of
democracy turns. And the profits of the big bourgeoisie also turn
around: no taxes on the extra profits of energy multinationals or banks;
abolition of tenders for 98% of contracts ("Salvini code"), i.e.
discretion in the awarding of a contract for amounts that go from the
previous 40,000 to 140,000 euros; up to the joke of the "income meter",
announced then suspended in view of the European elections, a measure of
pure propaganda, which has proven unused over the years, yet it too is
there to show us the vampiric nature of the government.
From this perspective, all centralist urges must be considered, those
interventions aimed at strengthening the power of the executive, i.e.
its freedom of action and maximum control over the system.
Differentiated autonomy is also part of this effort to concentrate
powers in the hands of increasingly strong regional governments (a sort
of mini states) where corruption becomes the art of governing, of
favoring the entrepreneurial and financial bourgeoisie. The secret
services are the maximum expression of the corruption system, as are the
armaments industries, the large public or semi-public companies such as
Leonardo and ENI which maintain their freedom to trade and traffic by
paying parties and corrupting customers and opponents.
For us, fighting against the corruption of institutional systems is the
same as fighting against governments and power, because "there are no
good powers", not even in the cases of less corrupt states such as the
aforementioned Denmark and Finland.
Not voting is one way among many to escape electoral blackmail, the
democratic trap: no exchange between vote and promises; but not voting
risks becoming a ritual devoid of meaning if it is not accompanied by
consequent actions that go against the interests of power, lobbies and
political-economic castes. You also vote when you go shopping and make
coherent anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist, environmentalist choices;
you vote when you are on social media and you prostitute consent to the
criminal gangs that control the data of billions of people. You vote
every day, when you choose between passivity and revolt, without having
to go and deposit the illusory ballot paper in the ballot box.
Pippo Gurrieri
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
investigations and the related outcry that from time to time the parties
not involved stage against their adversaries, only to then reverse the
roles as soon as the municipality, province, region, government changes
. ---- Big fish and small fish are caught by the investigators and from
time to time their friends show themselves as guarantors, or when the
(rare) convictions arrive, the magic word of "rotten apples" emerges.
However, the personalization of scandals tends to hide the endemic
nature of the corruption system; and when we talk about endemicity we
mean something simple: the system pushes corruption because power
represents the deepest element of moral and material corruption,
accentuated by the more or less widespread voracity of a good part of
the political class.
The debate in the socialist and internationalist world of 1870 was
animated by this reading of power, and consequently of government, which
then split, with the anarchists remaining isolated in their position of
strong criticism of power and their coherent take on distance. All the
others have more or less ended up managing dictatorships or larcenies
and vaguely democratic patriotisms.
But this is not the time to quibble about history or theory.
One of the elements that characterize corruption is the system of direct
and indirect privileges enjoyed by those in government (on an increasing
scale from local to national or European administration). Privilege
means having goods and money, but also commanding and having the
authority necessary to strengthen one's position and to distribute
benefits to one's political, patronage and family circle. "Cummaning is
better than fucking" remains a philosophically impeccable proverb.
Any power is absolutist in its own way, even the "democratic" one, since
it allows the politician not to have to answer for his actions to those
who voted for him, to be able to change his coat according to his own
convenience, to make laws that deny every promise made during the
electoral campaign without his voters being able to remove him (except
waiting 5 years for new elections). Obviously all done in the name of
the good of the citizens, of the nation, of the workers, of
civilization, of the economy, that is, of presumed general interests
behind which the most abject interests of the caste, of the capitalist
masters and of the technobureaucrats are hidden.
Reinforcing the flawed nature of the democratic electoral system is the
false freedom to vote. Not all voters are on the same level; the masses
experience disadvantaged social conditions, serious survival problems,
and are objectively blackmailable, available to the promises, to the
flattery of the political class supported by the minority of the rich
who secure, with generous financing (hidden, but also legal), the favors
and services of the governments. Therefore, large sectors of the
electorate make their votes available in exchange for favours; the
candidates offer favors in exchange for votes, up to the case - not so
extreme - of the rewards given but only after the results (remember
Achille Lauro's famous shoes in Naples? one date before the elections
and the other only after the victory of candidate).
In short, a well-established system in front of which the arguments of
government and opposition politicians fall apart as they return to
talking about restoring public funding to parties to eliminate the
so-called "swap vote". And they are shocking because tangentopoli
exploded in the midst of a system of legal financing for evidently
insatiable parties. In the wake of indignation, that financing was
canceled with the easy referendum of 1993. But things have not changed
much, if it is true that in 2023 Italy was still in 42nd place (out of
180) among the most corrupt countries , with 56 points (Denmark is first
with 90 points, Finland is second with 87).
In reality, the parties immediately got to work by introducing, in 1999,
instead of public financing, the "electoral reimbursement": 4,000 lire
(2.07 euros) for each vote, for the entire legislature. But then they
thought of lowering the figure to 1 euro per vote but multiplied by 5
(years). But "by vote" does not mean the vote received, but the
potential vote of the 50 million eligible voters (calculated by the
Chamber) and multiplied by 4 elections (municipal, regional, national
and European): the modest figure of 200 million per year and 1 billion
over 5 years, spread across all parties that have exceeded the 1%
threshold. Not happy, since 2006 they have decided that the disbursement
will last 5 years even if the legislature ends first, overlapping with
that of the new legislature. Only in 2010 and 2011 did this mechanism
suffer a reduction of 10% per year: what remained was a nest egg of 140
million per year: a trough, rather than electoral reimbursement. Also
because each party spends around 20% of the sums received.
It goes without saying that if the "refund" were given based on the
number of votes received, it would be much lower: a solution averted by
the puritans of money-grabbing politics.
Other solutions to gorge on are "legal" financing, invoiced, which, as
the Genoa case is demonstrating, hide an exchange of votes and favors
that has remained intact: the bosses pay, the politicians reciprocate
with contracts and favors, they buy votes from the mafia in exchange for
subservience to its legal and illegal interests, and the wheel of
democracy turns. And the profits of the big bourgeoisie also turn
around: no taxes on the extra profits of energy multinationals or banks;
abolition of tenders for 98% of contracts ("Salvini code"), i.e.
discretion in the awarding of a contract for amounts that go from the
previous 40,000 to 140,000 euros; up to the joke of the "income meter",
announced then suspended in view of the European elections, a measure of
pure propaganda, which has proven unused over the years, yet it too is
there to show us the vampiric nature of the government.
From this perspective, all centralist urges must be considered, those
interventions aimed at strengthening the power of the executive, i.e.
its freedom of action and maximum control over the system.
Differentiated autonomy is also part of this effort to concentrate
powers in the hands of increasingly strong regional governments (a sort
of mini states) where corruption becomes the art of governing, of
favoring the entrepreneurial and financial bourgeoisie. The secret
services are the maximum expression of the corruption system, as are the
armaments industries, the large public or semi-public companies such as
Leonardo and ENI which maintain their freedom to trade and traffic by
paying parties and corrupting customers and opponents.
For us, fighting against the corruption of institutional systems is the
same as fighting against governments and power, because "there are no
good powers", not even in the cases of less corrupt states such as the
aforementioned Denmark and Finland.
Not voting is one way among many to escape electoral blackmail, the
democratic trap: no exchange between vote and promises; but not voting
risks becoming a ritual devoid of meaning if it is not accompanied by
consequent actions that go against the interests of power, lobbies and
political-economic castes. You also vote when you go shopping and make
coherent anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist, environmentalist choices;
you vote when you are on social media and you prostitute consent to the
criminal gangs that control the data of billions of people. You vote
every day, when you choose between passivity and revolt, without having
to go and deposit the illusory ballot paper in the ballot box.
Pippo Gurrieri
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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