TRANSLATOR'S
INTRODUCTION
The Undesirables was originally
a one-shot paper published in Italian and French with a Spanish translation
planned by the originally publishers. I felt that its analyses of the changes
in the tools and methods of exploitation and domination that have happened in
recent years were significant and decided to translate it into English as a pamphlet. The refusal
of those who wrote these brief pieces to accept the simplistic non-analysis of
those who cry perpetually over "globalization", their insistence on
recognizing the unity of exploitation throughout the world--i.e., that the
exploited of the so-called first world are not privileged but simply
experiencing a somewhat different intensity of exploitation-and their
insistence on the recognition of the very real and significant power of the
state in the functioning of exploitation and domination has allowed them to
present an analysis that remains truly revolutionary--a useful tool for those
who seek a rupture with the present social order. Particularly important in
light of recent debates in anarchist circles is the authors' insistence that a
critique of technology that does not include class analysis is a partial
critique and that class analysis without a critique of technology is equally
insufficient.
I find their analyses of the
particular effects of post-industrial technology quite significant, but feel
that in the course of making these analyses, they underplay the importance of
social control in the original development of the factory system itself-from
the beginning. of the industrial era, I would argue, the idea of a liberatory
use of industrial technology was an illusion-so just as the dream of going back
to a "nicer" form of capitalism is delusional, so also is that of
going back to a "nicer" form of industrialism. I suspect the authors
of these pieces would agree, but it is a question that they left unclear.
Ultimately, I see these
texts as a tool for discussion and the development of analyses among those who
want to create projects aimed at the destruction of the present society with
its basis in exploitation and domination, those who dream of real
self-determination-of lives and relationships built on desires freed from the
domination of the market and control by the state. In other words, it is a tool
for those- who are beginning to create the new lucid and revolutionary luddism
that the dream of free life demands in this world.
W. L.