Trump's attacks on the left: This means all of us

As I write this text, my blog “annalist” disappears from the internet. 19 years of texts, comments, event information, archive: My blog was my “digital home”, I don’t have a separate website.

It doesn't disappear because I think it's enough for now. Who reads blogs anymore? He is disappearing because the US government announced at the end of August that it had declared the tech collective Autistici/Inventati (A/I), whose blog platform noblogs.org hosts my blog, global terrorists. They are extremist and operate digital infrastructure for violent Antifa cells and other radical leftists around the world. The result: Her bank closed her account, her internet address autistici.org was no longer accessible shortly afterwards, and all US citizens who continue to interact with A/I are threatened with high penalties.

The collective has existed for 25 years and the condition of using their free technical services is that their principles are shared. This includes the rejection of fascism, racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia and militarism. They reject the accusation of supporting terrorism.

I have known some of the collective for 25 years, ever since we filled the ticker with information together in the media center during the protests against the G8 summit in Genoa. We watched together in horror as the Italian police used the most brutal violence against Diaz school. Having experienced that connects you. We are friends to this day. I was happy that I had found a platform for my blog where I could be sure that neither the platform nor the data would be sold to anyone.

The reason for the blog was an accusation of terrorism against my friend, who was arrested because of it in July 2007. The proceedings were discontinued a few years later without any results and he was released from custody after a few weeks. In October 2007 I started writing down what we experienced afterwards, almost exactly 19 years ago. This involved a lot of surveillance. There is a very special irony in the fact that my blog started with terrorism and is now being ended because of another terror allegation. Because A/I announced on September 6th that out of concern for the many people associated with them and their project, they had no choice but to stop completely and discontinue all their services.

That's the end of 20,000 blogs, 20,000 email addresses, 5,000 mailing lists and 1,500 websites. The destruction of very, very much of the communication infrastructure of progressive social movements. An Instagram account can sometimes be blocked, everyone (hopefully) knows that. But left-wing infrastructure is being lost here and that is new.

As for me, I can move the content and blog somewhere else, no question. Many links to my texts are lost, which is annoying.

But the overall significance goes much further and is still underestimated, I think. The Trump administration is making many small and large needle pricks: against the International Criminal Court, against HateAid, Red Aid and now against an Italian technology collective. All organizations that do not violate any laws and do not fall under the jurisdiction of the USA. Affected by measures against which they cannot defend themselves because it is not even possible to appeal. The accusation is not even that they are terrorists themselves, but that they support them. Sometimes “the Antifa”, sometimes those affected by hate on the internet, sometimes legal proceedings against Netanyahu: ultimately always those who identify Trump and his team on their crusade as political opponents.

It takes effort to stand on the side of those affected in the face of allegations of terrorism. I know that. The “chilling effects”, i.e. the silence and withdrawal of the many others who think carefully about whether they continue to express themselves visibly critically, is one target of such accusations against politically dissidents. It is obvious who Trump means: leftists, anti-fascists, LGBTIQ, feminists and many others. It's easy to see through, and the only thing that helps against it is solidarity with those it affects, because that means all of us. It's still far too quiet.