Posts on Politics, Culture, and Travels
See you this afternoon in Turin at Valentino Park for a day against rearmament.
There will be a packed program with stalls, music, and a round table discussion with other comrades where we will talk about the military-industrial complex and how to eradicate war and its logics from our territories.
The program is listed below, along with some images from the day.
In recent weeks, numerous cases have emerged of police officers infiltrating the structures of Potere al Popolo, an Italian genuine left political party (https://www.fanpage.it/politica/abbiamo-scoperto-almeno-cinque-poliziotti-infiltrati-in-potere-al-popolo-i-documenti-che-lo-provano/). It has now been revealed that the police have also infiltrated student organizations, in particular Cambiare Rotta – an organization of young communists (CR) and the Collettivo Autorganizzato Universitario (CAU) in several Italian cities (https://www.infoaut.org/divise-e-potere/potere-al-popolo-scoperti-altri-3-poliziotti-infiltrati-nelle-nostre-organizzazioni-giovanili).
These are acts of intimidation. They must be denounced and opposed. CR and CAU have launched a petition to demand light be shed on these serious events (Piantedosi, the interior minister, promised to report to Parliament, but never did).
I invite you to read, circulate, and sign their appeal, which we must make our own: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsa89UQhiSLc0DJAMnl3oi2hGV2bTqBf2EfTTdyDGmnS9itQ/viewform
Here is the list of the first signatories: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qa35xB-uHA7NufbnZGR7YFWlrm6qj5QasvAcIxr0KLk/edit?tab=t.0
A side note. I participated in a CAU event in Naples in May. I was approached by a guy from the collective who, like others, asked me a lot of questions. A few weeks later, it was revealed that this individual was an undercover anti-terrorism cop. This bothered me. But what disturbs me more is something else. Now that I am back in Naples, I have been talking to some CAU comrades about how the youngest among them might be feeling. They are often first-year university students who have never participated in a street protest before. What the State Police have deployed against them is a textbook strategy of terror. Intimidate them before any action becomes not only possible, but even thinkable. What all these kids have done is denounce the genocide of the Palestinian people when no one else did, fight to defend university spaces from the military, and continue to ask uncomfortable questions.
Now we must show them real, direct solidarity. Because the space they are fighting for is also ours. Please sign and support this petition.
A few days ago, a boycott campaign against the forthcoming ISA conference in Rabat, Morocco, was launched by the Moroccan Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel as well as by The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). I was planning to attend the conference, having organised a panel with AbdouMaliq Simone, so the call caught my attention, and that of many other social scientists across the globe.
In the call for boycott, these comrades are urging the ISA to take action regarding the participation of Israeli institutions in the conference, as well as denouncing specific contributions that advance colonial and negationist narratives in relation to the current genocide in Palestine (e.g., https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/forum2025/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/155086). The original full statement of the PACBI can be found here: https://bdsmovement.net/news/pacbi-isa-exclude-israel
A few days after the initial statements, on June 28th, the Global Sociologists for Palestine (GS4P) joined the call for a boycott (https://bdsmovement.net/news/global-sociologists-palestine-join-palestinian-calls-boycott-isa-5th-forum-over-ties-complicit). The GS4P document clarifies the reasons for the boycott and, importantly, opens up venues to connect with local scholars and participate in local actions.
After these important interventions, the ISA’s board responded (https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/forum/rabat-2025/isa-response-boycott-5th-forum). In my view, that response did not address the core problem. Following what liberal western institutions have been long doing, in that statement, ISA speaks of solidarity with Palestine, without engaging in the concrete actions a boycott demands. In the specific, it does nothing about the Zionist content that has been accepted into the conference, nor about the question of giving visibility to Israeli institutions (which are by default part of the Israeli military-industrial complex) at the event.
A further point of contention highlighted by the GSP4 in their text was related to the Israeli Sociological Society (ISS), a member of ISA. As explained by the GSP4, ISS has never “condemn, or even acknowledge, the genocide unfolding in real time” in Palestine. On this latter point, on June 29th, ISA has decided to take action. They released a new statement (https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/about-isa/isa-human-rights-committee/ec-decision-israeli-sociological-society) in which they announced the suspension of the collective membership of the ISS in the ISA.
I am pleased to see that, thanks to the efforts of PACBI, GSP4, and the Moroccan comrades, some significant results have been achieved. These include raising awareness and creating solidarity across many of us globally, as well as pushing ISA to “suspend” the ISS.
However, I believe what ISA has done is not enough and that more profound action is needed. There are at least three levels, which, by the way, I think should apply to all disciplinary associations engaged in the business of global conferencing (in my field, Geography, this includes the AAG or the RGS-IBG, to cite just two).
First. It is not enough to “suspend” the membership of ISS in ISA. That membership should be revoked, plain and simple. A new application to rejoin could be consider if and when ISS will denounce and take actions upon: i) the settler colonial project of Israel in Palestine; ii) the genocidal war of the State of Israel against Palestinian people, land and history; iii) the academic-military-industrial complex in which every Israeli University is emeshed. Till then, a “suspension” is not enough to satisfy the demands of a boycott within the BDS framework.
Second. ISA needs to expel all Zionist abstracts from the conference program. This means removing the abstracts and their authors from the conference altogether. If there is no mechanism in place to do this, then a problem exists. Allowing this kind of content into a global sociological forum cannot be defended under the banner of “free speech”. Racist and colonial content must not be allowed.
Third. ISA needs to cancel all interventions from scholars presenting under the banners of institutions complicit with the genocide. It is true that in doing the latter, Palestinian scholars working in Israeli institutions will also be affected. Yet, in my view, boycotting those institutions bears prime importance. In BDS the point is never about individuals – being Israeli or Palestinian scholars – but about institutions. Therefore, if I welcome ISA’s point on the ISS as a first partial step, I believe a stronger stance is needed: one that calls for no Israeli institutions at the conference, in any form, even if that form is just an affiliation. The epistemic validation that occurs when accepting such affiliations normalizes the related institutions at a time when they should not be normalized, but rather fully boycotted. Such an action would be coherent with a BDS framework, and was already present in the first call for boycott released by PACBI.
[UPDATE = after publishing this post, I came across PACBI’s latest statement, which is essentially along the same lines as what I have written above: https://bdsmovement.net/news/pacbi-welcomes-isa-suspension-reiterates-palestinian-demands)]
Given all of this, as of today (June 30th), I have decided to fully boycott the ISA event, cancel my registration, and refrain from traveling to Rabat. I do this in full support of PACBI and the Moroccan scholars for Palestine who have initiated the call, whom I thank deeply.
I believe going to Rabat and sustaining the activities of these comrades locally is also an option, as they suggest. If you are considering this, the GS4P website provides a link to a mailing list where you can join to stay informed.
In solidarity.
I am very happy to participate in this important debate organized by fellow Neapolitan comrades from the Banchi Nuovi Movement (historically one of the most important workers’ movements in and beyond Naples).
See you on Wednesday, July 2, at 5 p.m. to discuss militarization, universities, and Palestine. Special thanks to my dear friend and comrade Rosaria Cordone for organizing this event.
A new reportage by +972 mag, on the war crimes committed by the genocidal State of Israel, this time pertaining to “humanitarian” action.
“Starving civilians gather in massive crowds, waiting for permission to approach. In many instances, Israeli troops have opened fire on the masses — and even during distribution itself — killing dozens as they try to collect a few kilos of flour or canned goods to bring home in what Palestinians have dubbed “The Hunger Games.”
Since May 27, well over 400 Palestinians have been killed and over 3,000 wounded while waiting for aid, according to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basel.”
Read the full article: https://www.972mag.com/hunger-games-israel-gaza-food-aid/
Today, the Italian daily newspaper Il Manifesto came out with a 28-page issue entirely dedicated to Gaza. This is to demarcate a political terrain. In a moment in which the liberal left starts to call out for ‘peace’ and to stop Netanyahu, we continue to ask for an end to the genocide, an end to settler colonialism, an end to the brutal Zionist project in Palestine.
Luciana Cimino interviewed me about the work done with students over the last two and a half years, from the relations of our universities with the military to the direct actions to denounce the genocide in Palestine. It is necessary, important work – against the militarization of our lives, against coloniality, for a differential and liberatory way of inhabiting the world. Both inside and outside the university.
Thanks to the few colleagues who believed in this struggle and took real action. Thanks to the students for continuing to fight with so much determination.
My interview can be found here and below, while the entire issue of the Manifesto on Gaza is available here.
I’ll be in Palermo this Saturday, June 7, at 5 p.m., at the Festival Una Marina di Libri.
I will meet students from the university coordination group in revolt (CUIR) to discuss my book on the relationship between the university and the military (here) and many other related issues. I will also be in conversation with Giuliana Spera and Charlie Barnao.
Thanks to Chira Giubilaro for thinking up and working on all this!
Since I arrived in Italy in spring 2021, I have been participating in, co-organising and supporting student—and comrade-led struggles against the military and for Palestine. From Frontex to the fight against Leonardo and the vast mobilisation in support of our Palestinian brothers and sisters, no month has gone by without a rally, a public speech, an interview or a dozen assemblies.
In the last month only, I had the pleasure of thinking with organised groups such as the Collettivo Autorganizzato Universario in Naples, Cambiare Rotta in Bologna and Turin, Potere al Popolo in Turin, the dock workers of Genoa, the comrades of Radio Onda Rossa in Rome and Radio Blackout, students in various other cities including an event today in Parma, as well as the students of the Intifada in Turin.
I want to thank all these students and comrades. This is the university we fight for and re-construct everyday. A space to occupy with the joy of discovery and the generative anger of political struggle. Avanti!
PS: if interested, the short interview I gave to Radio Onda Rossa for the 25th of April is available online, here.
I have written an article about the new acceleration in the pro-militarist discourse by our universities.
Today on the front page of il Manifesto: https://ilmanifesto.it/luniversita-e-le-sfumature-della-difesa?t=C4HD8jkJgIZ1nUPvKnVIA
Tomorrow night, Monday the 7th at 9 p.m., against European rearmament, we boycott the war. At the Casa del Popolo – Estella.
Info from the organisers:
Caricare, puntare, fuoco!
La corsa agli armamenti sembrava retaggio di un passato lontano, mai ci saremmo aspettati appelli al riarmo, meno ancora in un presente afflitto da conflitti in tutto il globo. Gaza, Ucraina, Yemen, Libano, centinaia di migliaia di vite spezzate che meriterebbero una politica di distensione, disarmo e solidarietà. Il generale Ursula, invece, gioca ai soldatini, coadiuvata dai colonnelli capi di stato, gli stessi che ieri ci chiedevano sacrifici – tagliando servizi essenziali, sanità pubblica, istruzione – ed oggi ipotecano miliardi di euro in pugnali e bombe a mano.
In casa nostra governo e opposizioni si danno al doppio gioco, mentre Giorgia Meloni si batteva per un “rivoluzionario” cambio di nome del piano di riarmo, le voci del centrosinistra parlavano di pace “che intorpidisce” e di “spirito combattivo” dell’Europa. Risultato: tutti d’accordo, alle armi!
A provocare queste guerre non è la pazzia di Trump o di Putin, ma un modello sociale che cerca nella guerra l’uscita dalla crisi irriversibile in cui versa da tempo. Lo sfruttamento normale dei tempi di pace non basta più, la competizione per il controllo delle aree strategiche e delle materie prime, spinge le potenze imperialiste a tentare di estendere il proprio dominio e di rilanciare le proprie economie attraverso le spese militari.
La propaganda di guerra è così pervasiva che non si limita ai grandi media, ma penetra fin dentro alle scuole e alle università. La carriera militare e la guerra come strumento di risoluzione delle controversie vengono costantemente sponsorizzate nelle scuole, mentre nelle università la ricerca è sempre più spesso dominata da collaborazioni con aziende e settori militari.
Non si tratta solo di opporsi al bellicismo, ma anche di iniziare ad immaginare insieme una risposta diversa ad un mondo perennemente in crisi.
Ne parliamo con:
– Matteo Saudino – insegnante e autore di Barbasophia
– Michele Lancione – professore ordinario Politecnico
Lunedì 7 Aprile alla Casa del popolo – Estella
