Diary of an Escape
Page 35
Folio 135
So it is true, I am expecting a child. It is good to grasp, in a real event, the reconstruction of hope in life. Love runs ahead and anticipates the realization of hope. We move within being, and these fruits of being can be determined by us. When we reconquer the capacity of giving life, only then have we returned to life … I wanted a child, a new child, a hope which grows – which increases and builds – and which can destroy my unease. A child for a new time, a child for the absence of memory. I was never satisfied by vitalistic and brutally realistic oneness – but rather by the complexity of the signs which can accumulate on this determination of existence. The threshold of life on which new hope can be built is narrow – prison teaches you this ruthlessly. However, from desperation there can emerge an animal in revolt, which is the sole antidote to dispersion of the spirit and to the trap of suicide. That’s why I wanted a child; to me this seemed to be projecting forward a century. In prison I so much wanted to have a child … She was afraid that saying no would mean losing our friendship. I was afraid, too, that my pressing would have the same effect. Things got blocked there. Then there’s the additional problem – the problem of my security, not only in the legal sense that I am in a foreign country; but, given the curious new habits of the secret services, also from a physical point of view. This is a powerful shadow to hang over hope. And yet my tension within myself is healthy: I think, I write, I have arrived at a new tenderness in my relationship with my intelligence. This business of the child can be a resurrection … Today she left, to try to solve some of these unresolvable problems. The child, her work, the relationship with me, and with her family. I also don’t know if these pages of my diary will stop here, on this particular arc of my life which seems to be coming to a conclusion. Perhaps that would be good. I have done many things during these months, at the juridical, political and scientific level. That concrete revolt against injustice, which the start of the trial and the fact of getting my head out of the tomb of imprisonment had allowed me, is now composed on a horizon of new and general possibilities. Hope seems to be shaping itself afresh into life. Today she left, just as she entered my existence, on tiptoe. Will she come back? My mother used to tell me that only children stop the inexorable Time of death. Children and revolution. These very clear and simple things, which we need in order to confirm an ethical meaning for life. These years of imprisonment and escape, of struggles and study, have shown me the need to relate our hopes to natural rationality. To this second or third nature which the process of liberation has constructed for humanity. We have to rebel in order to reconquer nature, to carry forward the process of liberation. There is no difference between nature and liberty – there is a continuity of struggle and of continuous building, of the one and the other. The flaccidity of this desperate world which surrounds us – the solitude of man in the overbearing massification of life – this huge prison which embraces all of us and stands over us – just a few magic words of love, and the odd act of hopeful abandon can liberate us from all that. And strength, a collective strength, so necessary to the transformation of the world and to the process of liberation, nourishes itself on these fundamental acts. There is no artful or fierce alternative that can break the determinacy of this dialectic. The force we need to build in order to destroy hatred and repression, to found communism and peace, lives on justice – and justice lives and reproduces itself as an impulse towards life, in the dimension of nature and freedom. The strength to undertake a new cycle of revolution is a strength that we shall find by merging with the strength which the human collectivity puts forth every day in reproducing its own life, with love and with desire … What strength there is in the birth of a child. (Paris – 30 November)
Appendix
Quotations and translated phrases
Adelante con juicio!
Advance with great prudence!
(Alessandro Manzoni, I promessi sposi, Ch. 12)
Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante
Trita solo. Iuvat integros accedere fontis
Atque haurire, iuvat novos decerpere flores.
I wander through the solitary places of the Muses, where no one
Has ever set foot before; I love to find unspoilt springs
And to drink eagerly; I love to pick up fresh new flowers.
(Lucretius, De rerum natura, Book IV, lines 1–3)
Ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Les aristocrates à la lanterne!
It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine
The aristocrats to the lamp-post!
(Refrain from a popular song of the French Revolution, original version Ladré 1790)
Experientia sive praxis.
Experience or praxis.
(Title of section in Negri’s book on Spinoza, The Savage Anomaly, English translation 1981)
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
Rhodes is here, here is where you jump!
(Hegel, Preface to the Philosophy of Right, (mis)quoting the punchline from one of the fables attributed to Aesop)
Libertas philosophandi.
Freedom to philosophize [= free enquiry].
(Slogan first used in the full title of Spinoza’s Theologico-Politicus Tractatus, 1670)
Metus versus [ad] superstitionem.
Fear turned into superstition.
Peu de gens devineront combien il a fallu être triste pour ressusciter Carthage.
Few people will guess how sad one must have been to bring Carthage back to life.
(Gustave Flaubert)
Sine ira et studio.
Without anger and partis-pris.
(Cornelius Tacitus, Annales, i.1)
Vox in deserto clamans.
A voice crying in wilderness.
(Allusion to the Book of Isaiah first picked up in John Gower’s fourteenth-century poem Vox clamantis)
Index
Abbatangelo, Massimo, 118
Abbate, assistant judge, 4, 24, 28, 49, 52, 53, 76
Aeneas, a defendant, 144
Agamben, Giorgio, 26
Agostino, a friend, 131
Alain, a friend, 221
Alberto, 7 April defendant, 66, 169, 170
Alberto A., a friend, 148
Albiac, Gabriel, 216
Alessandrini, Emilio, 175
Alexandre M., a friend, 202
Alfabeta journal, 162
Almirante, Giorgio, 118, 136
Alternative journal, 2
Amato, Francesco, 216
Amendola, Giovanni, 37
Amnesty International, 179
Anaximander, 242
Andò, Salvatore,159
Andreotti, Giulio, 198
Arbasino, Alberto, 11, 186, 187
Area Cooperativa Scrittori, 162
Aristotle, 6
Arpino, Giovanni, 10
Arrigo, 7 April defendant, 24, 54, 65, 97
Asor Rosa, Alberto, 44
Augustine, St, Confessions, 6
Augusto, 7 April defendant, 98, 126
autonomia operaia, 175, 180, 183
Balbo, Lula Laura, 119, 157
Balestrini, Nanni, 162, 190, 224, 225
Barbone, pentito, 62, 63, 65, 76, 77, 190, 208, 226, 229, 240, 241, 242
Barra, Pasquale, 181
Battisti, Lucio, 10
Benjamin, a friend, 212
Benvenuti, Feliciano, 160–1
Berardi, Franco ‘Bifo’, 169
Berkeley, George, 61
Bettini, pentito, 50
Biagi, Enzo, 167, 198–9, 217
Binni, Walter, 26
Bishop, Maurice, 220
Blade Runner, 209
Bobbio, Norberto, 32
Bocca, Giorgio, 121, 146
Bogart, Humphrey, 53
Borromeo, pentito, 28–9, 30
Bottai, Giuseppe, 205
Brandt, Willy, 220
Braudel, Fernand, 13
Brecht, Bertolt, 147
Brigate Rosse (BR - Red Brigades), 38, 39
, 46, 49, 54, 76, 81, 82, 84, 86, 174, 175
Buñuel, Luis, 21, 128
Cacciari, Massimo, 4, 161–2
Calogero, Pietro, xi, 22, 55, 94, 98, 103, 118, 119, 126, 149, 156, 209
Calvi, Roberto, 218
Campanile, Alceste, 100, 151, 208, 229
Capanna, Mario, 118
Cardinale, Claudia, 112
Carpignano, Paolo, 228
Casirati, Carlo, 76, 226
Castellano, Lucio, 35
Castoriadis, Cornelius, 238
Cavallari, Alberto, 145, 155
Cavallina, Arrigo, 35
Cavour, Camillo Benso di, 146
Cecco, 7 April defendant, 23
Censis reports, 136–7, 153
Ceronetti, Guido, 13
Change International, 223
Châtelet, François, 213–14, 238
Chicco, 7 April defendant, 24, 56–7, 65, 97
Christian, a friend, 185
Clair, René, 217
Classe Operaia, 232
Collège International de Philosophie, 199, 205, 212, 237
Communist Youth Federation, 39
Coniglio, pentito, 50, 167, 190
Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura (CSM – Upper Council of the Magistracy), 17
Corrado, 7 April defendant, 61, 62
Corriere della Sera, ix, 13, 163, 205, 226
Il Corrierone, 202
Cortiana, Giustino, 35
Coyaud, Sylvie, 19, 112, 141, 163
Craxi, Bettino, 142, 218
Croce, Benedetto, 19, 52
Curcio, Renato, 71
Custrà, Antonio, 208
D’Urso, Giovanni, 81, 83
Dalla, Lucio, 10
Dalmaviva, Mario, 35
De Luca, Vincenzo, 175
Del Mercato, Beniamino, 15
Deleuze, Gilles, 214–15
Mille Plateaux, 220
Democrazia Cristiana (DC – Christian Democracy), 87, 93, 118, 140, 157, 183
Democrazia Proletaria (DP – Proletarian Democracy), 118, 155, 164, 193
Derrida, Jacques, 213–14
Di Rita, Giuseppe, 137
Diderot, Denis, 118
Donat-Cattin, Marco, 226
Doni, a friend, 112
Einaudi, Giulio, 116
Emilio, 7 April defendant, 24, 62–3, 64, 97, 108, 229
Emma, a friend, 194
Enea, 7 April defendant, 5
Engels, Friedrich, 132
Epicurus, 201
Erasmus, 3, 25
L’Espresso, 11
Ettore, 7 April defendant, 126
Facta, Luigi, 146
Faye, Jean-Pierre, 213
Felisetti, Dino, 183
Feltrinelli, Giangiacomo, 71
Ferrajoli, Luigi, 203
Ferrara, Gianni, 119, 158, 183
Ferrari Bravo, Luciano, 35, 179
Ferruccio, a friend, 227
FIAT, 142, 155
Fiora, a defendant, 124, 144
Fioroni, pentito, 21, 65, 76, 191, 226, 242
Firpo, Luigi, 186, 187
Flora, Achille, 98, 126
Francesca R., a friend, 227
Franco, 7 April defendant, 24, 29
Francone, 7 April defendant, 97, 197
Freud, Sigmund, 207
Funaro, Chicco, 35
Gabriel A., a friend, 215, 216
al-Gaddafi, Muammar, 208
Gallo, Ettore, 147
Gallo, Marcello, 138–9
Gallucci, Achille, 17, 94
Garcian, Baltazar, 187
Gelli, Licio, 145
Genova, Captain, 167
Gianni S., 7 April defendant, 61
Gibbon, Edward, 206
Ginzburg, Carlo, 236
Il Giornale, 10
Il Giornale nuovo, 20
Il Giorno, 11
Giovanna, a friend, 141
Giovinetti, Giangi, 18, 143
Girard, René, 8
Gisela, a friend, 77
Giuliano S., a friend, 185
Gobbini, Mauro, 115
La Gola journal, 163
Green Party (Germany), 224
Grosz, George, 128
Gruppo di Azione Partigiana (GAP – Partisan Action Group), 38, 39
Guarini, Ruggero, 11, 12
Guattari, Félix, 77, 212, 219, 232
Hegel, G.W.F., 79, 210, 237
Jena Philosophy of Nature, 222
Phenomenology of Spirit, 222
Heidegger, Martin, 11, 190
Historic Compromise, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 53, 58, 72, 136, 140, 142, 158, 196, 235, 236
Hobbes, Thomas, 12, 145
Hölderlin, Friedrich, 11, 210
Hume, David, 61
Jaro, 7 April defendant, 66, 168
Jean-Paul, a friend, 213, 232
Jean Pierre F., a friend, 194
Johnson, Linton Kwesi, 5, 8–9
Jotti, Nilde, 119
Kafka, Franz, 154
Kelsen, Hans, 32, 139
King, Martin Luther, 171
Kojève, Alexandre, 238
Kundera, Milan, xii
Lauso, 7 April defendant, 164
Lenin, V. I., 17, 232
‘What Is to Be Done?’ 243
Leopardi, Giacomo, 3, 25–6, 142, 207, 210, 232
Lerner, Gad, 153
Libera, pentito, 108
Liberal Party, 135
Libero, 7 April defendant, 126
Ligabue, Antonio, 151
Loda, Francesco, 140, 183
Lotta Continua (LC – Continuous Struggle), 153, 159
Luciano, 7 April defendant, 17, 21, 49, 50, 58–60, 65, 97, 105
Lucio, 7 April defendant, 54, 55, 97
Lucretius, 24
Luigi F., a friend, 112
Luporini, Cesare, 26
Lyotard, Jean-François, 223
Machiavelli, Niccolò,187
Mancini, Giacomo, 4, 119, 183
Mancini, Tommaso, 15, 112, 184
Il Manifesto, 31, 34, 35, 74, 81, 136, 140, 157, 203, 217, 229
Marco, a friend, 4
Marini, Antonio, 24, 52, 54, 108
Marione, 7 April defendant, 25, 55, 65, 97
Marocco, pentito, 50, 108, 226
Marrano, French, 63
Martinazzoli, Fermo, 139, 217
Martinet, Gilles, 200
Marx, Karl, 18, 67, 132, 148, 149
Maryse, a friend, 185
Marzio, 7 April defendant, 126
Massimo, a friend, 67, 140
McNamara, Robert, 226
Mellini, Mauro, 139, 157, 158
Merzagora, Cesare, 205, 226
Il Messaggero, 12
Minelli, Liza, 121
Le Monde, 207–8
Monfe, defendant, 65, 97
Montanelli, Indro, 10, 20, 121, 145, 203
Morandi, pentito, 240
Morgan see Balestrini, Nanni Moro, Aldo, 45–6, 47, 52, 59, 69, 76, 174, 175
Moroni, Giorgio, 143
Moroni, Primo, 163
Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), 140
Mussolini, Benito, 146, 242
Negri, Aldina Malvezzi, 116, 133, 150, 151
Negri, Anna, 112, 117, 234
Negri, Antonio
L’anomalia selvaggia, 26, 213
Il comunismo e la guerra, 26, 213
Il dominio e il sabotaggio, 186
La forma stato, 186
Macchina-tempo, 26, 213
Pipeline, 10, 11, 12, 26
Negri, Francesco, 112, 116, 117
Negri, Paola, 3, 17, 30–1, 112, 116, 131, 133, 134, 135, 138, 140, 149, 185, 203, 229, 233–5
Don Nicola, 94–6
Les Nouvelles, 194
O, an alleged organization, 75–6, 77, 175
Occhetto, Achille, 183
Opocher, Enrico, 29, 208
Oreste, 7 April defendant, 24
Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la
Repressione dell’Antifascismo (OVRA), 78, 121, 203, 23
9
organizzazioni comuniste combattenti (OCC), 82, 83, 84, 86
P2 lodge, 155
Padovani, Marcelle, 200
Pannella, Marco, 60–1, 66, 73, 112, 115, 138, 157, 158, 166–8, 171, 190, 191–2, 193–4, 196, 197–8, 199, 203, 204, 226, 230
Paolo P., 7 April defendant, 24, 97
Partito Comunista d’Italia (PCI – Italian Communist Party), 21, 37, 39, 40, 44, 74, 76, 93, 110, 140, 157, 158, 183, 184, 191–2, 196, 241
Partito di Unità Proletaria (PdUP), 193
Partito Radicale (Radical Party), 17, 66, 74, 157, 173
Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI – Italian Socialist Party), 58, 87, 93, 159
Pasolini, Pier Paolo, 44
Patrick, a friend, 232
Peci, pentito, 242
pentiti and pentitismo, 28–9, 29–30, 50, 54, 55, 61, 65, 83, 84, 93, 108, 110, 129, 163, 165, 167, 179, 181, 190, 198, 209, 217, 224, 225, 226, 229, 241
Pertini, Sandro, 209, 210
Pier Giorgio, a friend, 165
Pietro, 7 April defendant, 3, 5
Pilenga, pentito, 229
Piperno, Franco, 119, 183
Pisano, Alberto, 18
Pletho, Gemisthius, 25
Pollice, Guido, 118
Potere Operaio (PO - Workers’ Power), 23, 153, 174, 220
Pozzi, Paolo, 35, 196
Prima Linea (PL – Front Line), 212
Ramsay, a friend, 194
Reagan, Ronald, 17, 33, 220
Red Brigades see Brigate Rosse
La Repubblica, 186
Ricciardi, pentito, 226, 240
Ricoeur, Paul, 6
Rivière, Philippe, 204
Rodotà, Stefano, 183