BLACK ANGER

As always, when History suddenly starts to create something new and strikes the imagination, we are surprised, taken by surprise, lacking in reference points. And, at the same time, with regard to the tremors that have — and are still likely to — hit many countries everywhere and on all continents, we are comforted in the dreams we had and the crazy hopes we had of finally seeing this gigantic wave rise that, in truth, like many others, we did not expect. Still, it happened, provoking astonishment here, indignation and fear there, enthusiasm and approval elsewhere. For us, here at Kairos, it will surprise no one to say that the emergence of these insurrectionary movements are seen as proof that our analyses and perspectives were being realized in the most beautiful and radical way. Of course we are not the only ones to rejoice: all over the world, millions of eyes see in these vast movements of anger, in this violence, even, the proof that, among other demonstrations, the traditional and soporific demonstrations led by workers’ organizations never lead to anything and never risk, either, to make governments and the circles of industry and finance bend.

These vast movements of anger are proof that, among other things, the traditional and soporific demonstrations led by workers’ organizations never lead to anything

REVOLUTION!

What is striking is to see that the measures taken by political leaders, which have caused the unrest here and there, are for the most part accepted, willingly or unwillingly, by the people. The rise in public transport prices here, the rise in fuel prices or the rise in the cost of social network memberships elsewhere, tiny measures if you look at them closely, are the tiny sparks that have caused the same violent fire everywhere, to which the States, their police and their military have responded with equal unanimity with a ferocious repression. But at least one thing is certain: people now know where their enemies are, how they develop their strategies and how they implement them. The poor know that their misery is in no way natural or fatal, that everything is done to make it more and more unbearable and infamous, and that only violent actions, insurrection and riots, are the way to emancipation and deliverance. To put it another way, the word revolution no longer frightens these populations, which have until now been prostrate in the guilty acceptance of their condition. They now know that there are infinite walls to break down and that this requires weapons to match their anger.

But perhaps most importantly, this time, neo-hyper-liberalism, the world it continues to frantically build — with its sell-off of industries, its privatization of essential parts of public services, the sidelining of millions of people through the enactment of laws and decrees, the poverty, the lack of the essentials of at least a decent life — all of this is being defeated only because awareness of the reality of the causes of their condition has come to those millions of people. For a long time, the oligarchic caste believed itself to be safe from any form of contestation; it had — and still has — an important and even majority share of a press at the orders of its owners, its shareholders and its journalist-courtiers. The lies propagated by these people, the grossest manipulations, the submission to the orders of the owners of a power that has become a caricature of the old regime have been seen for what they were: a vast and sordid farce. Moreover, if the dominant caste is thus unmasked — the king is naked — it is also the totality that is now shaken in its foundations. It is a whole project, carried until now by a political-economic caste that reproduces itself through the High Schools and the virtue of inheritances in the upper middle class and banking circles since the beginning of the industrial era. It is this project and the realization of its objectives that must necessarily and absolutely be fought now. These people, presidents, kingpins, all up there in their cosseted offices, bathed in the sweet euphoria of blissful self-satisfaction, these people are now put to the wall. The nonsense, the semantic crudeness, the lies and the backtracking in the spheres of the particracy, all this is now visible everywhere and the people know deep down that this masquerade is over. From then on, this awareness spreads like wildfire and this powder explodes the citadels of power in the four corners of the universe.

Certainly, if, at the time of writing, the fire continues to spread, one can also think — and fear — that by the time you read these lines, everything — and the worst — will perhaps have been implemented to silence the millions of voices that will have been heard during these truly historic days. But whatever the nature of the events and the way in which perhaps, for a time, they will have evolved, what is certain is that this consciousness finally came will not remain there. It is now inscribed in the heads of the multitudes and whatever one can oppose to it, it will remain there. There will be a time to heal the wounds and mourn the dead, and another will come, which will see the crowds, innumerable and even more determined, go to attack the old world.

Jean-Pierre L. Collignon