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nooradeservedbetter · 7 years

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Not to put too fine a point on it, Daniel Swift’s piece, Hanging Out With the Italian Neo-Fascists Who Idolise Ezra Pound, is appalling. It is the careless journalism of someone who, knowing little Italian and even less about Italian politics, has conversed with fascists and regurgitated whatever they told him. The result is a completely distorted representation of what the group is about and how they operate.

The building in which Swift's interview takes place, which CasaPound militant Adriano Scianca's claims they are 'occupying', was in fact bought for them in 2012 by none other than the Mayor of Rome, using €11.8 million of local government money. The Mayor at the time was Gianni Alemanno, a man steeped in the history of Italian fascism: a leading member of the Italian Social Movement (MSI - the postwar reformation of Mussolini’s Fascist Party) and later the far-right National Alliance; even his wife, Isabella Rauti, was the daughter Pino Rauti, ex-leader of the MSI whose name crops up in relation to numerous cases of far-right terrorism, including the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing.

Gianni Alemanno’s son, Manfredi, would follow in his father’s far-right footsteps: in 2011, he put himself forward as a candidate for student elections at his college for Blocco Studentesco, the youth wing of CasaPound. Two years previously, after throwing Roman salutes and getting into a fight at a party, Manfredi was protected from prosecution by police with connections to his dad.

So the idea of these guys as a plucky, if rough-round-the-edges, group of rebels doing their bit for the community against all odds is laughable. They’re a far-right gang with links to both fascist terrorists and the highest echelons of Italian politics.

More interestingly, however, is how Swift depicts the group’s activity: they “arrange conferences” on Ezra Pound, the modernist poet they are named after; they house “20 homeless families”; “they collect used syringes from parks in poor neighborhoods”; “they clean bike paths”. The only mention of violence comes from a “CasaPound supporter” who, in 2011, killed two Senegalese traders in Florence. From this description, the impression is of a group engaged in cultural activities and local volunteering albeit with the odd wayward sympathiser.

And yet, the reality could not be further from the truth. To cite some examples from this year alone: in February, a group of at least 15 CasaPound militants attacked one young man after he posted a meme mocking the group on Facebook. Over the summer, uniformed CasaPound members prowled the Central Italian seaside, harassing migrant beach vendors and forcing them to leave. And even last Tuesday, the very day Swift’s article went on the Lit Hub website, Roberto Spada, related to the Spada crime family thought to control Ostia, on the outskirts of Rome, brutally assaulted a journalist who had been asking him about his support for CasaPound.

So it’s curious that for an organisation for which racism and violence are such frequent features of their activity, that so little mention would be made of that racism and violence. When Swift mentions CasaPound are housing “20 homeless families who have nowhere else to go,” he neglects to mention the proviso on which that charity is based: whites only. The ethno-nationalist underpinnings don’t get a mention and it is (to be charitable) frankly bizarre why this is so.

Even more bizarrely, Swift spends less time talking about the violence and racism of a notoriously violent racist group than he does talking about how much he enjoyed their restaurant.

Quote:

At a corner we meet a couple of other men—beards, clipped hair, grins—and we duck into the shade of an open-fronted restaurant. It looks like any other in Rome—white tablecloths, photos of minor celebrities who have eaten here—except all the waiters have tattoos up their forearms, and except that at the end, after cold antipasti, a heavy tagliatelle all’Amatriciana with fat nuggets of bacon swimming in the sauce, red wine from a carafe, bitter brown digestivo, and coffee, no bill ever came. What we are doing, Seb tells me as we eat, is not connected to money.

Waiters with tattoos, fabulous food, fine wine. And what’s this? No bill? These fascists are generous as well as cultured! Il Duce, you're really spoiling us!

Reading the article, it seems Swift is bending over backwards to sanitise the reputations of as many fascists as he can. Swift discusses Pound's Canto 72, written as the Nazi-backed Republic of Salò was in a state of collapse and where a dead fascist general says "I don't want to go to paradise, I want to continue to fight. I want your body, with which I could still make war". While noting Canto 72 has often been seen as the "smoking gun" of Pound's fascism (with good reason, in my opinion), Swift is "not sure", claiming to see "odd hesitations" in the poem. What these are, he doesn't say. But it's worth highlighting Mark Ford's point that as late as 1956 Pound was still spewing fascist bile, writing that “the fuss about ‘de‑segregation’ in the United States has been started by Jews”. Of course, Swift knows this. What's utterly baffling is why he doesn't point this out in his article.

And yet, you can’t help but feel Swift's article is based around what he feels is the ‘novelty’ of the situation; but that novelty is actually based on two entirely false premises. First, the idea that fascists are the working class, the downtrodden masses. And second, that the working class lack the culture to read (let alone write) literature.

Both premises are obviously and demonstrably false. Swift says he wasn’t expecting CasaPound’s “high-mindedness”; yet, fascists have always found support among artists and intellectuals. Gabriele D’Annunzio and Luigi Pirandello, two of the most famous Italian writers of the twentieth century, were both fascists from wealthy backgrounds.

Equally, the idea of the working class as some uncultured blob is also false. Working-class people not only appreciate literature but have produced a wealth of it; whether Elio Vittorini, anti-fascist resistance fighter and son of a rail worker, or the Proletarian Literature movement in Britain which produced writers like James Barke, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, James Hanley and George Garrett.

So what we have with Swift’s article is an academic who was pleasantly surprised by the "high-mindedness" of some fascists when he should know that the 'high-minded' (or at least a section of them) have always been drawn to fascism.

And when he imagined their 'low-mindedness', who do you think he was expecting? Not posh students with links to Rome's political elite (a very real element of CasaPound’s demographic). No, he was expecting working-class men with sloping brows and dragging knuckles who could hardly string a sentence together let alone have opinions about poetry.

Ultimately, Swift seems to have really taken to CasaPound. He “warmly” shakes hands with Scianca after their interview and they agree to exchange copies of their books. Later, describing the farewells at end of his meal, he says,

Quote:

As we stand to leave I offer to shake hands with the waiter and he reaches out his right hand, with the tortoise on the forearm, and he grasps my arm just above the wrist, and smiles. We are close, this waiter and I; and for that instant bound in a frozen gesture, and even as it was strange and abrupt, it was also familiar. This is the Roman handshake I had read about.

It’s clear from these quotes that CasaPound’s activists are supposed to be sympathetic characters in Swift’s story; their benevolence has been amplified, their vices turned all the way down. The absolute wanton irresponsibility of an article like this when far-right nationalism is seeing a surge in popularity across Europe and North America is abundantly clear but perhaps some people need it spelt out for them: fascists are in a coalition government in Austria; they have entered German parliament for the first time since the war; they are killing people on trains and at demonstrations and have set up militias in America; their extremism is increasingly turning into the talking points and policies of mainstream politics. Now is not the time to be writing puff pieces about how charming they are and how interesting their take on Ezra Pound is.

At one point Swift declares, “I wanted them to like me.” After his glowing write up, I have absolutely no doubt they will.

#italian things #casapau #long post--

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oselatra · 7 years

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Eye for an eye

How the death penalty should work: The prisoners always complain about the execution.

Eye for an eye

How the death penalty should work: The prisoners always complain about the execution. They complain it is cruel punishment. If the legislature would pass a law that they be executed in the same manner they killed their victims, [then] if by gunshot let them die by gunshot. They could, of course, opt for fatal injection or hanging. The warden should be the one to end their life. He could, of course, let one prisoner take care of the job and take five years off their sentence. The only way to curtail crime is to have swift and certain punishment. At least the governor has the balls to do the job.

Douglas C. Lingo

North Little Rock

From the web

In response to the April 20 cover story, "The Little Rock Millage Question":

This is such a difficult issue. I have two questions. 1) Why the urgency to pass the millage now, when it doesn't expire for many years? We have this money now, correct, and passing the millage is essentially insurance to have it in the future? I welcome anyone who can clarify this for me. 2) I am curious, under state control, what specific changes or improvements were made to assist the schools that were deemed in distress?

Elizabeth Wilson Rogers

@Elizabeth

Not quite. The extension of the debt will allow the district to immediately access $160 million in capital that it doesn't currently have. Think of it as getting a second mortgage on a home that you own. The district can't pay for new construction and improvements without having the cash in hand, and the debt extension will allow it to borrow that cash. (Just as a homeowner might refinance a mortgage or take out a line of credit in order to pay for a home improvement project.) So, the debt extension really is necessary for the district to find the capital necessary to do $160 million worth of construction right away. That's the short answer. Whether the urgency of addressing facilities needs right away trumps the urgency of getting local governance returned ASAP is a matter of opinion. The picture is further complicated by the fact that the 12.4 mills in question do not all go toward debt service, due to the fact that property values appreciate over time. Theoretically, if the district had been putting all of the annual revenue generated from the 12.4 mills into a fund for capital projects, there would be no need for a debt extension. However, that's not practical. I could explain more if you want.

Benji Hardy

(Author of the Times' piece)

In response to Sam Ledbetter's support for the school millage posted on the Arkansas Blog:

Mr. Ledbetter: "State control of the district is temporary ... ." I'll believe it only when a new locally elected school board is actually in place. They've misrepresented and hidden their agenda all along. They took over the district over conditions that would not have triggered take over of other districts, the same conditions that are obviously NOT used to hold charter schools accountable. No local control — no local tax hike. The voters of Little Rock can always vote in a bond issue once local control is re-established.

Perplexed

Arkansas Times, Sam Ledbetter must be a friend of yours, since he continues to get a free pass for the deciding vote, but enough of turning PR flack for him with these continued blog posts. If you want to talk "out of touch," that was Sam Ledbetter as the Walton Family Foundation's "reform movement" was stealing a whole district right under his nose.

Rev Pygsterio

In response to the Arkansas Blog post "The Ledell Lee execution thread":

The problem with this country is that we insist that "killing" is somehow different than "letting die." When an insurance company, in order to increase profits, denies coverage of life-saving treatments, their actions produce the death of people, just as sure as if they had used a gun or machete. We would demand the life of a terrorist who pours poisons into a public water supply, but we willingly accommodate the corporation that, again, in order to increase profits, did their storage of poisonous chemicals on the cheap so that toxins ended up in people's drinking water, as happened in West Virginia a few years back. Governor Hutchinson will demand the life of the man who kills with knife or gun but will wine and dine those who kill through spreadsheets — murder for anger is a sin in his eyes, but God and his angels shine their light upon murder for profit, as does our government. Honestly, I could well support the death penalty if it meant those CEOs also risked their own lives when they destroyed ours, but in its current incarnation, the death penalty is nothing but a war upon the poor. It is class warfare, pure and simple.

treeoftalking

Question for you, plainjim, as a former prosecutor: What's the No. 1 duty of a prosecutor? IMO the answer has to be being as sure as humanly possible that innocent people are not convicted for crimes they did not commit. My observations of prosecutors in general is they often seem to be more interested in getting convictions and clearing case files than in convicting the guilty, no matter what that takes. Your response?

Sound policy

Sound, the number one duty of a prosecutor is to make sure that the police have the right man before he goes forward with the prosecution. I have dismissed cases where I did not think I could prove guilt, as I am sure many other prosecutors have done. There are exceptions, but most prosecutors do not want to convict an innocent person, and in my opinion, this rarely happens. The fact that it happens at all is sad.

plainjim

In response to the Arkansas Blog post about the March for Science on Saturday:

The most drastic increase in temperature by the nth degree just happens to coincide with the industrialization of the planet. If they'd be honest and just admit that they choose profits over a livable environment, I'd have at least some respect for them. But they are cowards just looking to stuff their pockets. And, of course, they are all members of the Regressive party. Those Regressives sure do like their money, don't they? Won't be able to pass it down to their great-grandchildren, however, if the planet is a living hell by then. On current pace, this planet is not going to be a pretty place in 100 years.

Slithey Tove

Listening to the head of OMB discuss why they want to cut NASA earth satellites shows how totally uninformed these losers in Trump's Cabinet are. Someone needs to sit Trump's ass down and make him read about the hurricane destroying Galveston, because back then we didn't have the capability to know about early warnings. Now that we do, anyone who purposely cuts down NASA and NOAA's ability to predict should be indicted for any deaths caused by a hurricane showing up without warnings. The idiot class thinks the weather and climate (which scientists know are NOT the same thing) are jokes, but Mother Nature is a bitch and she always wins. Wait until Trump's little gilded whorehouse in Florida is under water. It is on an island, so it will be attacked from all sides, and it is not the business of government to protect a private, profit-making property. You would have thought that he learned something about that in Scotland and that seawall he wanted to build to protect his property while putting neighboring properties at greater risk.

couldn't be better

Eye for an eye

#Eye for an eye

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