The Rising 2011

The Rising 2011 was an article published on PagliaSite on January 1, 2011.

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''2010 is dead. It expired. It's dead. It was. Tonight, in that second which marks the fulfillment of the conventional measure of time, the people celebrated the event in jubilation and exultation. Another unit was added to the series of years, a small digit replaced in the millennium number: it's 2011. And 2010 is dead. But before we bury and forget it, let us praise it: let's commemorate it. This means commemorating ourselves, since it is us who have created time, a fearful notion that makes us dizzy, that fills the slow passing of days and hours, within the turmoil of our lives. Commemorating 2010 means commemorating ourselves. But before intoning the epicedium, before turning back to collect in a last vision the events that broke away from everyday normality, before reliving a year in the enormous effort of a sudden re-enactment, before doing our examination of conscience and of our moral balance and even, above all, giving out promises for the new year, I want at this hour (anxious and disturbing like any new beginning) express my gratitude to those far or near, known or unknown, that during 2010 have been my companions in fatigue, hopes, defeats and victories.''

''From Afghanistan to Sudan, from Iraq to the Koreas, 2010 certainly didn't lack the customary sound of guns and cannons. Already there is talk of the new wars of 2011 ... the frightening eventuality doesn't seem to disturb the conscience of the peoples, but it certainly cheers the war industrialists: those who convert blood into money and the results of the battles in a stock market speculation. Today as a hundred years ago, before the European conflagration of 1914, capitalism and militarism are confirmed in two ways of the same phenomenon: they condition each other. One is unthinkable without the other. This is why the dominant - so-called democratic - bourgeoisies countries of the West gather together against those who try to oppose this system. This is why the obstructive Obama wins the Nobel Prizes, while the Assanges who promote freedom of the press receive international arrest warrants.''

''2010 was a difficult year, but behind the thick forests of layoffs and batons, the crowds, primarily the workers and students, didn't stand still in their quiet resignation. Many nations of Europe have witnessed formidable class movements. The British, French and Italian news have been occupied by grandiose demonstrations against the attacks that governments and companies have made, and are still trying to make, against education and work. In Rome and London, in the last two months of 2010, the students solemnly expressed their desire for study, work and above all their hopes for the future.''

''Perhaps 2011 will see this conflict intensify even more, this galloping crisis that is sweeping the world. Yet all this cannot last indefinitely. The pace is already too hectic to last. There is too much restlessness, too much discomfort spread throughout the world. The tragic dilemma is perhaps not far away, nor is the hour of great responsibilities very far away. Perhaps with 2011 we are approaching the next world conflict by another year. Sooner or later, a final purge will cross the planet Earth, the question is whether or not we will be the witnesses of the ashes that will remain of this planet.''

Happy New Year.

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