The geopolitics of carnage

By Frédéric Neyrat (of the collective Contre-Ciel), published in lundi matin #425 (22/04/2024)

That we can no longer say “free Palestine” without being qualified as terrorists, that the signifier Palestine is now banned, is often interpreted as a “fascist” or “totalitarian” drift of power. This interpretation perhaps misses something essential: the ban on the signifier Palestine as an effect of the ongoing geopolitical reconfiguration.

This reconfiguration is part of the history of the 20th century, the history of (anti)colonial conflicts and the divisions between capitalist “democracies” and socialist “democracies”, but once these divisions have been emptied of their meaning. Today there is no longer any geopolitics based on horizons of liberation. Only the arid ghosts of these divisions remain once the American Empire collapses; no longer Imperialism (mechanically implied by those who continue to use this term, “American imperialism”), but the compelling appetites of a post-global era; eco-nationalist impulses, driven by Russia, China, India, the United States of America, Turkey, and all the contenders. These appetites are polarized between on one side a devitalised simulacrum of the West, the USA-Israel-France-Germany-England-Japan, etc., and on the other, an alliance of China-Russia-Niger-Iran-North Korea, etc. . None of these camps carries any emancipatory ideal.

Within this logic, saying “Palestine” means siding with one camp. In the camp of the “West”, to say “Free Palestine” is therefore to occupy the position of the enemy. The fundamental question is therefore not that of fascism or totalitarianism, but that of war.

What can we do ? Reject the geopolitics of carnage. Today there is no geopolitical support to be expected, from any country, from any bloc. All that remains for us to do is to find within ourselves a philosophical, spiritual, ethical and political resource in a situation of war – we will help ourselvesin this by reading Tolstoy, Gandhi, Rosa Luxemburg, Jean Jaurès and Judith Butler. This resource could take the form of pacifism, antimilitarism, citizen self-defense, a new post-national horizon (planetary, terrestrial). Once discovered, this fulcrum must be shared as quickly and as widely as possible. Because without this, we will be unable to deactivate the physical and symbolic violence of States. Caught in war, States will repress without restraint because they will be incapable of doing otherwise, obeying the logic of “either me, or the other”. They will then finance all the carnage, all the genocides, and will devastate the Earth.

Each and everyone must therefore learn today how to deactivate war.