Since capitalism took on liberalism as an ideology, we see that, as Rêber APO says, very sophisticated tools of soft power have been progressively developed. These tools make it possible to control society in a much deeper and subtler way than with explicit forms of power. In other words, we are talking about an implicit control that is organised under a false mask of democracy. To understand this fully it is necessary to mention how 'unconventional warfare,’ also known as 'special warfare,’ is carried out. But this is not the subject we want to focus on in this article. We will mainly talk about how fascism, among others, is used as a method of counter-insurgency, as a shock force, when this soft power is not enough to control the population. We will give some actual and historical examples to help detect its presence and to conclude we will focus on the questions of organisation and essential self-defence as forms of resistance against these methods.
Before going into the subject, it is important to say that capitalism is not simply an economic system but a system of domination based on the monopoly of capital and the accumulation of power. With this definition we do not fall into an absurd reduction that can have fatal consequences, especially in its practical expression. By defining the capitalist system in this way we realise that its aim is not simply economic. That is to say, it does not occupy territories only to exploit and extract resources (which is also the case), but with the aim of strengthening and developing its accumulated power, to monopolise power throughout the globe - the only way it can satisfy its incessant need for growth.
In this way, the capitalist system, with its vanguard as the United States of America and a large part of its ideological and material strength also based in Europe and the United Kingdom, uses every method at its disposal to satisfy this need.
The methods it uses go from television and digital media, such as Instagram or TikTok, to the Universities, used as temples of monopoly of knowledge and spaces for the production of "Truths" in line with the system.
Historically, counter-insurgency is one of the guarantees of the US in its imposition as the vanguard of Capitalist Modernity. That is to say, this method developed above all in parallel with the global leadership of the US after World War II, closely related to the creation of NATO in 1949. Since that time the strategy of the United States in its global expansion has focused on the elimination of resistance movements in those places it wanted to control, including its own national territory and also allied countries (for example, today's European Union), in order to deepen and secure its control. The counter-insurgency in Latin American countries is well known, with the use of paramilitary groups armed and trained by the US, as well as the development of cartels to terrorise the population and control, with brute force, territories that the state cannot reach. Obviously, all this is linked to drug trafficking on all scales, as well as trafficking of people, human organs etc. - methods used to produce terror in the population and to show the state as the only alternative to savagery. There is not so much difference on a practical level between these organisations and others such as the Islamic State, an organisation used for the same purpose in the Middle East.
If we look at the situation in Colombia, Venezuela or the Central African Republic of Congo we do not see much difference in how armed organisations engaged in unethical business work to satisfy the interests of the US, European multinationals and the Global North. In the Middle East, however, we will see much more clearly that the central issue, beyond economic resources, is power. If it were a question of economic resources, it would not be worthwhile for Turkey - a NATO-controlled puppet with Russian interventions - to spend the millions it has already spent on its war against the PKK and the Rojava revolution. Instead of that, the Islamic State has been used as a shock force to commit the most serious crimes against humanity with impunity, to put fear in the hearts of the population so that - they thought from the offices in Brussels - the revolutionary option would no longer be a possible way in the heads of the peoples of the Middle East. Seeing that this strategy was giving the opposite results because of the fierce defence of Kobane, Shengal and other areas by the Kurds, a big change in the strategy had to be planned. Today we are still in the process of strategic re-organisation of US foreign policy, especially its Middle East policy.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as the allowance of power vacuums to be filled by Russia and China, are nothing more than the effects of a new US strategy. The supposed multi-polarity of the world is a controlled consequence of US strategy. And, very cleverly, it is being used to deceive the peoples of the world. It is in the name of creating a multi-polar world that Venezuela and Cuba collaborate with Iran and Turkey. In other words, the USA has achieved what 40 years of cold war failed to achieve: to create a homogenised opposition, which goes from right to left, an anti-ideological opposition. The ideological foundations laid out by Lenin in his book "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" are no longer respected by the alleged Marxists or " Socialists of the 21st century,” who ally themselves with the most authoritarian regimes in the Middle East just to oppose a common enemy. The effects of counter-insurgency are clearly visible on the geopolitical map.
This is the great victory of Capitalist Modernity: to make people believe that there is a strong opposition that does, in fact, fall within the calculations and limits set by the capitalist system.
But looking at other parts of the world, such as Europe, we see this form of social control developing much more implicitly. In theory, Europe has overcome wars (Ukraine is no exception, it is still not Germany or France). In theory, Europe has overcome fascism (although if we look at Eastern Europe, we find clearly fascist regimes). But since the leaden years, the 70s and 80s, we can see how Europe has never got rid of its "deep state" or "state within the state" structures. Obviously after the pacification, which reached its climax with ETA's definitive ceasefire in 2008, modern, 21st century Europe has never dismantled these structures. Partly because they do not depend on states, not even on the EU - we are talking here about the GLADIO forces, i.e. NATO. Partly because they have given these counter-insurgency structures other forms and kept them on stand-by until they were needed. The development of fascist governments in the heart of Europe and the absolute growth of radical right-wing movements are not spontaneous or casual. They show the years of preparation, show the mutation of those Spanish GAL (Grupo Armado de Liberación, a fascist armed force dedicated to the kidnapping and assassination of leading figures of the Revolutionary Left, especially in the Basque Country) or other armed organisations of the extreme right, so active in Italy, Spain, France and so present today in Germany and the UK.
Giorgia Meloni, President of Italy, did not seize power from nowhere. Neither did Boris Johnson or Donald Trump in their time. Neither the riots in the Capitol in 2021 were the result of the spontaneous rage of the American people, nor was its replica just a few months ago in Brazil.
From the Internet, from the TV, these movements are being boosted.
Today, in countries where post-modernism is more advanced, it doesn't even take an organised mass form to generate instability. Thousands of internet forums, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, Twitter accounts, even without us realising what they are, serve as an anti-propaganda machine, spreading conspiracy theories that legitimise the discourses of the far-right, opening the doors to the radicalisation of a large part of the population. The content is classified according to the age and preferences of the user, with a specific policy for young people, women and middle-aged white men. The level of systematic work in this regard is almost frightening.
Obviously this reality created in the virtual world will be reflected in material reality. Organisations like Hogar Social Madrid and its successors, Bastion Frontal in Spain, Golden Dawn in Greece or Casa Pound in Italy are the fruit of this. And they absolutely serve as a shock force. Highly masculinised and violent organisations that will steal space from the resistance by making "food distributions only for the locals" or directly with physical violence against militants and prominent figures of the left.
In the 1990s in Valencia, Guillem Agulló was assassinated. The person who murdered him, as it was later discovered, was a member of a fascist group in close contact with the Spanish state: a clear example of how far this counter-insurgency can go.
Identifying fascism when it appears requires a correct definition. Fascism is not just Hitler, Franco or Mussolini. Today, world fascism is led by a figure like Erdogan, with a rearguard in the US and another in Russia, regardless of who the president on duty is. Erdogan is today the president of the Republic of Turkey and the re-Islamiser of it (it is not a coincidence that he uses religion just as it is not a coincidence that Jeanine Añez swore with the Bible in Bolivia after the coup d'état). Erdogan has been in power in the Republic of Turkey for more than 20 years, always with one aim: to cleanse Turkey of any organised form of opposition and to deepen the process of converting the Ottoman Empire into a nation state. Obviously, this is NATO's objective, which gives Turkey the role that Israel could not develop in the Middle East: guardian of US interests in the Middle East.
The differences between Turkey and Israel allow us to see how intelligent the vanguard of the capitalist system is, learning something from every step it takes to move forward. Israel due to its religious sectarianism and imposed status in the Middle East failed to legitimise itself among other Middle Eastern states, remaining without allies in the region. Instead, with the re-imposition of Islam in Turkey, Erdogan and his party, the AKP, immediately gained the acceptance of Arab states.
This allows Erdogan to use DAESH (Islamic State), as well as Hezbollah, as shock forces against the Kurdish population and their organisation, the PKK. Already in the 1990s, the JITEM (counter-guerrilla organisation created to fight any form of popular support to the Kurdish guerrilla), with the support of NATO, was engaged in creating armed counter-insurgency forces all over the Kurdish territory, threatening the families in the villages to make them join the counter-guerrilla and burning those villages that did not submit and continued to resist. More than 4,000 villages were burned, resulting in a mass exodus of Kurdish families in all directions, who were then used in Europe and the big Turkish cities as cheap labour in a situation of hyper-exploitation.
Today these strategies continue to develop everywhere.
The reason why nowadays there is no strong resistance movement capable of victory in every part of the world is, among other reasons, a consequence of the lack of knowledge of our enemy. The enemy never left, he was always here.
Another thing that the resistance has lacked is the development of a broad and organised form of "essential self-defence". We are talking not only about the people in arms but also about structures that from the very beginning develop forms of self-defence, either physical or ideological. Just as any living being needs self-defence, any form of social organisation needs self-defence as well. In this sense, a revolutionary organisation, since it will receive more direct and stronger attacks than, for example, a cultural organisation, must always ensure its survival in this environment. That is to say, any organisation that does not think about recognising, preventing and responding to the physical and material attacks of the enemy will be nullified, assimilated or destroyed within a few years. That is why the training of militants, the ideology and the ''regime of truth'' are central issues for any revolutionary process. But not only that. A society that does not accept the state of affairs and struggles to change the existing conditions will obviously be the target of attacks of all kinds. That is why it is important not to delegate self-defence to anyone.
The state gives us responsibilities that only serve its interests while depriving us of those capacities that can give us autonomy.
Self-defence is the clearest example. The creation and systematisation of police, army and other forces of the ''Status-quo'' responds exactly to this: to rob society of its capacity for self-defence by imposing a monopoly of violence.
It is not possible to unmask all the ways the system controls us in short words. We have spoken of shock organisations against the resistance and the need for self-defence, but this is not the only thing.
The war that is being waged today all over the world, with or without bombs, is an ideological war.
A war that has been going on for 5,000 years and that becomes more unequal with each failed resistance, generating hopelessness in society, which at a certain point will see no point in raising its head and fighting for freedom. It creates a society that will be plunged into nihilism and depression. That is the state of affairs they want to create. But if we look around the world, we find resistance movements everywhere, bigger or smaller, more or less successful, but they exist. There is practically an impulse in human beings towards struggle, towards resistance. From Chiapas through Kurdistan all the way to the Philippines, we find organised resistance movements. The victory of all these movements will depend on their development in this ideological war. That is why today the dissemination of the Paradigm of Democratic Modernity must be a central task for anyone who wants to consider themselves a revolutionary.
The best answer to counter-insurgency; the best answer to Fascism is ideological organisation. Not only in our cities, towns, regions or nations, we must organise on a global level.
The development of resistance is and always has been a network, a network that is strengthened when one node is strengthened and weakened when another node is weakened. That is why we have a historical duty. Our duty is to strengthen ourselves ideologically and organisationally in order to be able to develop a practice that truly challenges the system of capitalist modernity.
History is not immutable, in fact, we write it every day. But what we write on that page of history in which we live only depends on our decisions.
- Oriol Antich
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