Social Repression. --- The various security decrees have now almost all been blissfully approved and have become part of the state's punitive arsenal: more evictions of social centers and housing occupations, a general criminalization of banal behaviors, where the legal right protected is unclear, increased repression of conflictual labor union struggle, etc. --- The shift of repression to the administrative level entails fewer procedural safeguards and exorbitant fines, with the effect of dissuading, especially those without resources, from fighting: young people and those driven by necessity, perhaps outside of organized movements.
In recent months, much of the movement's attention has been absorbed by the protests against these new regulations, but how does this resurgence of repression relate to the broader social landscape? I believe this isn't just an attack on dissent, and the goal isn't simply to silence dissident voices: the authorities' attack goes far beyond the realm of ideas and activism.While in Italy the security decrees were being approved, in the United States there was a violent surge in anti-immigrant patrols by the ICE agency (Immigration and Customs Enforcement ,(See UN 20/2025 and 1/2026). These patrols have led to the deportation of thousands of people who have since disappeared, and the detention in inhumane conditions of just as many, including children, as well as the summary execution of two people who were resisting the patrols. This intense anti-immigrant activity, justified with the usual excuse of "legality" and "security," and thinly disguised as ethnic "cleansing," actually has a class aspect that should not be overlooked. The kidnappings often occur in workplaces where immigrant, and therefore undocumented, workers are likely to be found, such as construction sites and restaurants, but also factories and logistics centers. Therefore, regardless of the government's presentation of it, this operation seems more like yet another piece of the war on the poor and the working class. Immigrant workers, already extremely vulnerable, now find themselves even more at the mercy of the whims of those who employ them, who can threaten to unleash "la migra" against them. The ICE squads (composed of far-right thugs, handsomely paid by the government, who bear an eerie resemblance to the fascist squads tasked with breaking strikes and destroying workers' organizations in the post-World War I era) ultimately act as the armed wing of corporations and so-called "employers," or rather, who would more accurately be called "employers." By radically making the lives of an entire and vast category of people precarious, they create a "reserve army" of potential exploiters, willing to accept any conditions just to earn a starvation wage. The open war on immigrants doesn't actually win back jobs for the white working class-a great electoral promise of the right-but it makes competition among workers increasingly ruthless, who are now expendable, along with their workplaces, useless in an increasingly financialized economy.
The repression against migrants (in the USA and elsewhere) and the escalation of the various "security decrees" are examples of the illegality of being (punish the thief not the theft), of which the final beneficiaries and instigators are the masters, the takers of jobs, time, life, resources, public money... We look at the finger of the security decrees, but beyond these there is the moon of power relations within society.
Economic pressure.
With the demise of the two-bloc policy, social democratic welfare states have been systematically dismantled, including through union "concertation." Today, as a result of this process, there are no more small bonuses to be given to the various categories; the system is increasingly unlivable. The state has no role in social mediation, but society must be made obedient and disciplined, by any means: truncheons in the streets, division and personalized control in the workplace.
The unions' adversarial activity is at a standstill, criminalized, hampered by a thousand restrictions on the right to strike, unpopular among the public, dispersed in electoral pursuits, and above all, eclipsed by the state unions that administer the power granted to them by the employers through the government over the heads of their members, in an irreversible sell-off of rights. Even the hope of fighting for better jobs is fading; let alone talk of self-management or models of a different society. The only proposals for innovation seem to come from technocratic pulpits and focus on personal well-being, work-life balance, etc.
Workplaces under capitalism have always been total places, controlling not only the human body but also the mind. But in recent years, this process has been violently accelerated, with the uberization of work, the self-exploitation of young workers who have no idea of their basic rights and are forced to compete with each other, the concentration of businesses, the digitalization and virtualization of everything. We are witnessing the loss, not just of class solidarity (let alone internationalist solidarity?), but of basic solidarity within the workplace. There is a constant feeling of not being needed, that the job could be outsourced, stolen by technology or immigrants, that degrees are increasingly worthless and cost more... It is no coincidence that a military career can be presented as a highly advantageous option, something that would have been unthinkable until a few years ago. Just think of the famous "German model," which offers highly attractive benefits to recruits. Yet in the United States, the military, one of the largest employers, has always been the only way for many to afford education, healthcare, or simply a salary. Moreover, the rhetoric of permanent crisis, useful for justifying the diversion of billions to war cliques and for widespread recruitment, creates a caste extremely loyal to the government, a new feudalism that, in the event of a violent crisis, will be extremely useful for reactionary purposes and to support the status quo .
Toeing the
Line. Caught between repression, welfare cuts, and a "sick" world of work, we are increasingly vulnerable and dependent on paid labor. Imagining alternatives to the dominant model of production and consumption is further from the realm of possibility than ever. It's extremely difficult even to start micro-businesses in a scenario dominated by large-scale concentrations and "standard" production. A beautiful hypocrisy, given the status of secular saints attributed to entrepreneurs...
We are therefore forced to accept work, and accepting work means accepting hierarchy, confirming current working conditions, "collaborating," accepting that one's lifespan is assigned a monetary value, and accepting the value of money itself.
The strategy of demanding new jobs and defending existing ones, while obviously justified by the material situation, presents us with the paradox of relying even more on the very system that is crushing us. Defending jobs now often also involves defending policies that force us to pay to work, for our training, for PPE, and for the tools needed for the job. And on the other hand, we must also be very careful that emotional labor or other "intangible" aspects of work don't end up on the bargaining table: when it's said that emotional labor is unpaid, a smart entrepreneur might as well put a price tag on it. Requests for more jobs, or better conditions, or better wages, even if legitimate, are not based on a logic of exploitation. Can we imagine striving for a goal that goes beyond this production/reproduction model? I recall, for example, the path taken by the sex workers' collective "Ombre Rosse," which calls for the recognition of sex work as a starting point for advancement, but not from a labor perspective, recognizing that exploitation exists in every job.
The Work I Want:
Work, labor, labor . The critique of waged, capitalist labor, with its burden of alienation and useless and harmful products, gives way to a reflection on action: even in a society freed from waged labor, there will be work to do; indeed, there will be even more to do! "Bullshit jobs," as David Graeber calls them, will disappear, and engaging in common activity will be something that happens naturally and with motivation. Let's try to imagine a form of action that is useful, self-managed (but not self-exploitative), non-hierarchical, exciting, communal, voluntary, and generative. Liberation from work also involves the overthrow of consumerism: until people stop spending, they will not stop working. A society freed from trade and surplus goods will see a radical reduction in consumption, collective care and sharing of most things, reuse, recycling, and repair.
When Luciano Bianciardi described precarious employment, social competition, and the alienation of modern work, he certainly did so from a position of relative privilege and from the perspective of the industrialized "West." But his words still seem very fitting to me.
" People must learn not to move, not to collaborate, not to produce, not to create new needs, and indeed to renounce the ones they already have." (Luciano Bianciardi, La vita agra.)
Julissa
https://umanitanova.org/la-luna-e-il-dito-repressione-e-lavoro-precario-un-punto-di-vista-antilavorista/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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