From the proliferation of rebellious 'young barbarians' to humanity's relapse into (real) barbarism!...
by Yorgos Mitralias
Obviously, the material, environmental, human and other damage currently caused by imperialist wars (e.g. in Ukraine) or civil wars (e.g. in Sudan) is incomparably greater than that caused during the recent popular 'riots' in France or those in London in 2011 or in the United States three years ago. In the 21st century, as in the 20th century and its two world wars, barbarity has always had a face, that of capitalism in all its forms, variations and manifestations.
That doesn't stop all these popular 'riots', which tend to spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world, from being characterized by their - often indiscriminate - violence, which means that reactionaries on all sides, including governments, the far right and the cops, can accuse them of... barbarism. This is how the young rebels in the suburbs are blithely portrayed as "young barbarians", which moreover "justifies" the calls for murder from the far right and other police unions who do not hesitate to describe these young people as "harmful" who should be exterminated!
Firstly, it has to be said that the description of these young rebels from the neglected suburbs of our metropolises as "barbarians" strikes a chord and is adopted by a more than appreciable proportion of the population. And secondly, that this part of the population of our countries includes a significant proportion of the exploited, poor, oppressed and racialised people who live alongside the "young barbarians", who are their neighbors and even their parents! Conclusion: the problem exists and urgently requires clear and convincing answers.
But if we're dealing with "barbarians", the next logical question is how we ended up with such a catastrophe. And who is responsible? The answer is obvious: the proliferation of these 'riots' almost everywhere in the world, their tendency to spread beyond the disadvantaged suburbs, their ever-increasing frequency, and above all the ever-growing participation of the masses of the population, all mean that we are not dealing with explosions of rage due to the (self)destructive impulses of their perpetrators, nor with isolated revolts linked to the particularities of this or that country, or to the ethnic origin and religion of their participants. In reality, we are dealing with a truly pervasive mass phenomenon, typical of our increasingly unequal and violent societies in the age of neoliberal policies, police states and nightmarish tomorrows!
So if it's an international mass phenomenon, everything changes. And as a result, those whom the Right describes as "young barbarians" can no longer be seen as a fleeting or ephemeral accident of history, but as a phenomenon that has come not only to stay, but to develop to the point of seriously influencing our daily lives. In short, if they are consistent with themselves, the detractors of these 'young barbarians' should draw the conclusion that the greatest threat to our societies and our world is the... barbarism embodied by these 'young barbarians'!
Such a vision of our future is not entirely impressionistic and devoid of truth. Our societies, transformed into jungles where chaos reigns and everyone fights everyone else in an atmosphere of extreme generalised violence, is not just a Mad Max-style science fiction scenario. They could very well happen if the current crisis continues to worsen. That is, if the 'young barbarians' continue to be not only fiercely policed and repressed, but also increasingly shot. And if their living conditions continue to deteriorate, if the increasingly authoritarian capitalist state - of the frightened bourgeoisie - which has been treating them as second-class citizens for so long, decides to declare war on them, as the Holy Alliance of the police, the far right and a growing section of the traditional right is already demanding.
So if there is such a thing as "barbarism", it is the reigning bourgeoisie, its rulers and their capitalist policies that have not only invented it but also, and above all, created it. And it has to be said that the "young barbarians" are not only the automatic product of their neoliberal policies, which marginalize whole sections of the population of our societies, but also the desired result of policies designed to exclude and lumpenize those who are the "dangerous classes" of our times, i.e. a certain youth in the suburbs, whom the bourgeois state fears and wants to "neutralize" at all costs!
However, the success of the operation to "neutralize" these young people from the suburbs seems more than mixed. Yes, these young people are ghettoized, and therefore isolated from the rest of the population. Yes, they are cut off from the left and the unions, and so lack support, alliances and political expression for their rage. Yes, they are confused in their ideas and muddled in their actions, they are depoliticized and lack organization. But does that mean they are harmless to those who have done everything to make them... harmless?
Obviously not. The concern, if not the fear, that the "riots" by these young people provoke in them is obvious, as shown by the extraordinary measures and other states of exception that they adopt to suppress them. In short, our bourgeoisie and their executors now find themselves caught in the trap of their own Machiavellianism: like good...Dr. Frankenstein, they see their creature radicalizing, becoming increasingly uncontrollable and even potentially dangerous to their interests!
But be warned: these young rebels from the suburbs are, for the moment, only "potentially dangerous" to those above them. But why? Because, more than racist discrimination, more than the worst poverty and more than the most ferocious repression, it is the lack of a unifying project with clear and precise objectives, and also the absence of mass political support, that is driving these young rebels to the despair of blind and even self-destructive violence!
In other words, what these radicalized young people lack in order to become truly dangerous to those from above is not their responsibility. It's the responsibility of the political forces, trade unions and associations on the left, in short all those who are not content with this monstrous world. So it goes without saying that these left-wing forces must catch up as quickly as possible and commit themselves body and soul to the work of active solidarity with those in revolt in the suburbs, in order to forge stable organic and militant links with them. The progress will be tremendous for both sides…
However, we must admit the obvious: the danger of our societies gradually turning into "jungles where chaos reigns and everyone fights everyone else in an atmosphere of extreme generalized violence" is very real. And the threat of our societies, and humanity as a whole, relapsing into - this time real - barbarism will inevitably become greater and more direct as long as we don't have a new humanist and communist messianic project and message capable of inspiring and mobilizing the masses, young people from the suburbs included, everywhere in our world. And to put it bluntly, the specter of widespread barbarism will continue to hang over humanity until the (eco)socialism or barbarism dilemma is resolved once and for all in favour of ecosocialism. No more, no less...