La Coordinadora and the Zapatista coffee

The Zapatista Coffee Durito distributed in Italy by the Coordinadora (meeting place libertarian to support the Zapatista struggle) is cultivated and processed by producer cooperatives (belonging to the Zapatista movement) in resistance in Chiapas. Currently participating in the project three coffee producer cooperatives: cooperative SSIT Lequile Lum (the North), referring to the Caracol of Roberto Barrios, the cooperative Yachil (Caracol of Morelia-area Selva) and the cooperative Yachin (Central area of Caracol Oventic). These three cooperatives, as well as having begun an internal market without intermediaries and export their coffee in Europe at a price stable and united with the facts that support the Zapatista struggle.
The objectives and modalities of work of cooperatives can be summarized as follows: establish direct contact with buyers in solidarity, to not continue to enrich the coyotes (intermediaries who sell the coffee speculative corporations and cooperatives to buy it according to the price of the Stock Exchange New York), to establish a political relationship based on trust and solidarity with buyers by ensuring a high quality product, maintain ancestral traditions which provide a close relationship between work activities and respect for Mother Earth. Thanks to this coffee that is produced is healthy, clean, free of chemicals. There are intensive plantations, the plants are grown in the shade of mixed forests (medicinal plants, fruit trees, trees for wood ....). The work of the cooperatives, is part of a larger project aimed at strengthening the autonomy, the integral growth of all the municipalities and to the goals of the Zapatista indigenous movement (home, land, health, education, nutrition). The Coordinadora buys and sells about 2 tons of coffee per year for several years and refers to the Cooperative Libertad, Hamburg, which organized the importation of Chiapas in Europe.
In 2011 he then opened the possibility of realizing the import and processing of green coffee (roasting, grinding and packaging) in Italy, thanks to the project of a group of fellow Lecco who is trying to forge a working reality collective and self-managed (already started on an experimental basis), in collaboration with the union the USI-AIT Arts & Crafts.
(For contact Jacopo: cell 340-5367035, caffemalatesta@autistici.org). Also states that the Italian headquarters of Trade Unions (USI / AIT), where you can buy the Zapatista coffee is no longer being Bligny (as written in the box on pg. 45 of the last issue) but in Via Torricelli 19.

Coordinadora
info@coordinadora.it

Pisa/ The monument moved

The mayor of the city of Pisa Marco Filippeschi
The Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa Prof. Fabio Beltram
Alderman for public works of the Municipality of Pisa Andrea Serfogli
and surface level the local press
I read with concern the news on the project of restructuring the piazza San Silvestro and displacement of the monument to Franco Serantini to make way for a new sculpture.
I agree with the considerations that some citizens have expressed about the environmental damage caused by the felling of the square, using 'social' in the square and the hoped-for redevelopment of a first who prefers living and socialization needs of population.
Piero Pierotti considerations already a few months ago he wrote a public letter with competence and sense of proportion.
Italy is the land of squares. Squares that are scenario architecture that the world envies, but also and perhaps above all, an ideal setting where you are told daily the construction of our civil society. Place where they are represented by the Unit on, the rites of a civil and secular tradition often marked by conflict between the discourse of power and the institutional representation on the one hand and those, antagonists, popular representations of the other. That's why the streets have become "agora memory" and the monuments they hosted "altars" secular, on which they formed a whole generation of citizens.
Compared to the draft presented by the Normal wrote about in the newspapers, do not share the idea that to make room for an artwork should be clear and / or ignore the recent history of a place like San Silvestro. All the more so, to justify this project, it is claimed a single concept, that of enhancing the splendor of the former palace Thouar - now home to the scientific center of the Normal - and with it the role of the same Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. See also the interpretation given by the author Theimer to the artwork that has won the international competition organized by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Pisa. We are all grateful to the Normal School for the effort to recover the ex Thouar, but I wonder: is it possible that by now all the historical center of this city must surely identify with its fate with that of its Schools of Excellence and the ' University? You can not think of a different use of the places that are safer for the history of our city's community? We are all aware of the important function of the SNS as the University, but in recent decades, urban development has affected both not just the city that has suffered passively.
The question of the proposed redevelopment of Piazza S. Sylvester goes well beyond the urban and architectural appearance and invests directly the difficult balance between the city and its memory.
Now, without going into details on the motivations and responsibilities of neglect of the square in recent years has increased and the need for redevelopment, it can not ignore the recent history that this place evokes.
The monument to Franco Serantini that is at the center of the square was donated to the city of Pisa from a people's committee, made up of friends of Franco, the citizens of Pisa and Carrara Libertarian, and inaugurated May 7, 1982, ten years after tragic death of the young anarchist. The memorial sculpture was flanked ideally the plaque for "will of the proletariat", as stated at the bottom of the marble that is still visible at the entrance of the former Thouar, May 13, 1972, six days after the disappearance of Serantini .
The site chosen for the two memories stone is not random, as we all know the people of Pisa, Piazza as the Palace were the areas frequented daily by Franco Serantini in the last years of his life and the Palace, before the restructuring, at least in a part, had a function not so much "deserving" as a "reformatory" in which Frank was in fact obliged to live.
Now the story of this guy is an integral part of the memory of this city and its memory is surely shared, for better or worse, than the generation of Pisa, and elsewhere, who witnessed his tragic end. I believe therefore that any attempt to remove the monument from its position is an insult to the memory of Serantini and all those who have grown, often in silence, his memory, including even those who work with a tribute memorial wanted to set permanently in the history of this city the wound opened by the tragic death of Franco. A citizen, I remember, whose death was caused by a violent and brutal "abuse of power" that no one was ever held accountable, blatant injustice that weighs a ton on the civic consciousness of everyone.
Corrado Stajano, which has collected in a book well-known story of Serantini - a text that did brave the school (The subversive. Life and death of the anarchist Serantini) -, called the story of a young anarchist emblematic case of Italy 'era of justice that does justice.
In conclusion, I ask: is the paving of the square well systems, create a wider pedestrian area, from installing new benches, but does not change the centrality of the monument to Franco Serantini. To change the placement of the monument in the square Serantini, even a few tens of meters, seems to suggest the idea of marginalizing somehow the memory of Franco and that is not acceptable. The city reacts to oblivion of its own memory, the social and political forces will make interpretation of an act of courage and seize this occasion to propose to the City Council and the Board to name the square, which as has been noted several times all Pisa already called "Piazza Serantini," the young anarchist and Scuola Normale Superiore take a step back and rethink his plan.

Franco Bertolucci
direttore della Biblioteca F. Serantini
(Pisa, 13 febbraio 2011)

Biblioteca Franco Serantini
Largo C. Marchesi, s.n. civ. 56124 Pisa
e-mail.: biblioteca@bfs.it
tel. +39 050 570995

Art and anarchy / knock ...,

The argument put forward by Arturo Schwarz (Art and Anarchy, “A” 358 2010/gennaio December 2011, pp. 32-33) that "the artist is the archetype of the anarchist" and "artist and 'anarchic' are interchangeable terms, "appear at first sight true and reasonable.
We all know stories and anecdotes of artists who complain about the "bourgeois values" of the societies in which they lived and the bohemian streets led by artists who populated the various arrondissements of Paris seems to confirm the allegations made by Arturo. The artist could be more like more like anarchy anarchist artist, but I fear there are many contradictions to be resolved first.
The artist suffers from the lack of freedom mainly due to personal and even selfish, while the anarchist struggle for freedom not only for himself but mostly for others. The artist for its part has the unique ability to look, observe and express themselves without moralizing nor judge. I'm tempted to say that the artist was born without "original sin".
Stanley Spencer, English artist of the twentieth century, he served as military nurses in Macedonia during the War of 1914-18 and later, wanting to emulate Giotto painted his impressions on the walls of the Sandham Memorial Chapel in the county of Hampshire, England. The striking thing about this masterpiece is the lack of conviction (or "Judgement") and instead we see both healthy and sick soldiers preparing tea, spread jam on bread performing a variety of daily chores of normal life of a soldier. in the field or in hospital. Poets such as Siegfried Sassoon have accustomed us (rightly) to denounce this horrible mother of all modern wars. but Spencer remembers him with frankness and objectivity and do not analyze or judge. What is striking is that Spencer has lived his entire life in this state of "innocence" primordial.
Moving our attention towards the giant figure of Pablo Picasso, an artist are far more politically engaged. His "Guernica" is a condemnation not only of the bombing of that city, but a condemnation of all wars. His membership in the Communist Party is known. But the Marxist critic John Berger's book devotes a whole in the Sixties (Success and Failure of Picasso) Picasso in which he condemned as a failed artist. According to Berger, Picasso was not engaged properly. Perilous seemed that Picasso did not belong to today's world of class struggle, but had fallen in the modern world from a world primeval, primitive, and that instead of an artist "valid" and therefore be useful to the interests of the proletariat, he was a kind of shaman . Not much was wrong.
The anarchist is not a Marxist, and even Picasso would dream of condemning non-compliance to the Marxist dialectic.
But the case reminds us that Picasso, the artist and the politician rarely go together. The reason for this is simple - Art + Politics = Propaganda! And in the same way art influenced by political opinion immediately becomes dated and therefore can not be of interest to the artist who always seeks the eternal, mindful of the primordial state from which it comes.
Marc Chagall enthusiastically supported the Russian revolution, also becoming a cultural commissioner, but that the political pitfalls for both mania by its employees to make manifest "revolutionary" that imposed even more stringent limits to creativity, the atmosphere was forced to seek Liberation of Paris, until the Nazi advance forced him to go to America. because as a jew would end in Auschwitz.
 The Situationists, and with them many anarchists and libertarians, had only disdain for the "art world" - an incorrigibly bourgeois world, full of elite galleries, auctions with astronomical figures, etc. .. In '68, the French movement needed propagandists, not artists. The slogans painted on walls, "stencils, posters and '68 had a graphic and artistic value. but it was neither claimed to be art and the same supporters would be offended in branded as "bourgeois artists."
 When the artist complains about the "bourgeois values" do so only because they limit his freedom of expression and therefore tries to overfly to find spaces where it is free from the limitations that "bourgeois values" impose on him.
 Picasso had no problem with the "bourgeois values" of the millionaire Gertrude Stein (his first benefactor and collector), but had it to death with those dealers who wanted to impose those that do not interest him and that often cheated. An anarchist Parisian of the same era definitely had problems with the "bourgeois values" of Stein.
 Historically, artists have found ways to work for kings, popes, cardinals and even interrogators. The artist was more historical "artisan", often doing a job shop and therefore knew his social limits. With the emergence of the bourgeoisie and of bourgeois society, the roles have become more vague and thus became more problematic for the artist to find the space within which could be expressed. The progressive bourgeois society has led to other problems, including the horror of white paper and the sacralization of the secular artistic creativity and began to talk about "what the artist within", etc. ... Especially art led to distancing from the general public. Both the Cardinal, is the art critic, is the old lady with the rosary in hand can appreciate (still in their own way) a fresco by Giotto or a Caravaggio (...)
 But really, as claimed by Arturo Schwarz, the words "artist" and "anarchic" are interchangeable? It is desirable that this takes place both now and in the future?
 It seems that certain developments are moving in that direction for now. But art is art that are as old as humanity - even the days of cave Lescaux - in human history while anarchy is relatively new theory that is as political practice. I remain convinced that also encapsulate the Arts in a jacket as attractive as anarchy is not negl'interessi artist.
 I do not understand for example what is the originality. Art history is full of references and remaking the work of predecessors. When the "modern" have left academia, were not at least have an idea and what were rebelling? Picasso in his late period he developed prints and engravings by basing them on the work of Velasquez and Rembrandt. His versions were definitely "original" but the subjects are part of the world's artistic culture. And the many artists who made history for endless Madonnas and crucifixes?
 "The internal drive demanding" that should motivate me to create the artist is also mysterious and inaferrabile. I suggested that "pain" that takes the artist once he has conceived the work and it must fulfill. But often it is part of the relatively modern conception of the artist - the artist as seen by bourgeois civilization (...)
Finally I would like to apologize to Arturo Schwarz for my impertinence and presumption he wanted to respond to his writing concise, it offers us a wealth of ideas on the relationship between art and anarchy. His experience has enlightened us in many areas throughout the twentieth century. The fact that I had to use so many words is evidence of my great limitations as Arthur, as a great artist who is unable to say all with few words.
 But the impulse to put his finger on the keyboard of my laptop was stronger than me. I'm passionate about art and for many years I refused to practice for reasons of political libertarian, and so this paper by Arturo Schwarz has put his finger on what for me is a deep wound, which now "suffer" with great pleasure and enthusiasm.

Nino Staffa
(Mongrassano – Cs)

Art and anarchy / ... and response

Dear Nino Staffa,
I thank you for the expressions of esteem for me. Overloaded with work telegram to answer some of your notes, because it seems to me that you do not have very clear ideas.
Write "Anarchism is not a Marxist." Obviously, however, any political contribution or scientific philosophy can not do without the contribution of Marx and Engels, as no one can forget the anarchist Proudhon (although sometimes be taken with tweezers), Bakunin, Kropotkin and Our great Malatesta, or even as no physicist could forget Einstein, etc.. etc..
The golden rule, as already stated on several occasions, is fidelity to its own life (if you do not understand what this means, patience), it follows that even art can not be put at the service of an ideology, especially when this political affiliations. At this point the manifesto "For an Independent Revolutionary Art," written by André Breton in collaboration with Leon Trotsky in Coyoacan in 1938 gives us a definitive answer. I invite you to read it again. You can find it reprinted in all the serious books on Surrealism. Lastly in my "Breton and Trotsky. The Story of a Friendship "reissued for the third time (after Savelli, 1974; Multhipla 1980; Erreemme editions 1997). In my little head with "A" I just tried to remember some basic elements of nature.
A fraternal anarchist greeting.

Arturo Schwarz