One of the most recurrent selling stories of the year in Slovenia which was also spread by the Slovenian Parliament on the eve of the re-ratification of the Lisbon Treaty is the story that Slovenia holding the presidency of the EU and being part of the Schengen area proves the importance and privileged position of Slovenia in the EU. The story tells how success, pride, democracy and freedom have been achieved by Slovenia in the last 17 years. In fact, this is not at all the case. In Slovenia, there are allegedly 200,000 people living on the poverty line. We are facing privatization of schools driven by the interests of the Roman Catholic Church, which aims not only to implement ideological hegemony but also to create and further reinforce the chosen Slovenian elite. The already weakened lower class is thus deprived of the possibility of development and of one of the most essential rights, while the privileged higher class is again given the exclusive right to education, with which it will be able to further empower the already strong monopolist structures. The same processes can be identified in other areas where through open calls and public procurements state funds are allocated to specific groups and subjects through which control of individual areas is then carried out. Such control is clearly being exercised in the context of the recently accepted draft resolution on the National Programme for Culture 2008-2011 (NPK 2008-2011) which drastically exacerbates and aggravates the already precarious situation in the cultural field. As argued by Marina Gržinić, the NPK 2008-2011 is a “strategy of promoting some cultural and artistic practices on the one hand and a strategy of prohibiting some cultural and artistic practices on the other. It is bare politics that outwardly presents itself as cultural values” (Gržinić, 2008).

The second mistake from the series of Slovenian “stories of success” is the belief held by the Slovenian government that Slovenia can actually rise to the top of the EU and become one of the states forming the core of EU power, i.e. the family of great colonizers seen as such within the context of European history. What is omitted from such comparisons is the fact that to enter European colonial history, to become one of the old colonial powers that also formed the old EU core is impossible; analyses testify that the colonialism of old states of the old Europe actually never ended, rather it is being continued through different channels. In his text “Live and let die: colonial sovereignties and the death worlds of necrocapitalism,” Bobby Banerjee argues that the continuities of European colonialism involve giving up traditional mechanisms of expanding frontiers and territorial control and maintaining elements of political, economic and cultural control (Banerjee, 2006). The process of accumulation of capital, creation of monopolist structures and exploitation, typical of the 18^th century Dutch East India Company and the sword of commerce by way of which colonialist hegemony was created and maintained, are today taken over by global multicorporations and power systems behind the expansion of the American and European Empire. Through privatized military forces (e.g. in Iraq) the Empire implements (neo)colonialist hegemony by subjugating life to the power of death, which is defined by Bobby Banerjee as the logic of necrocapitalism (Banerjee, 2006). In short, the sword of commerce is today being implemented through processes of conquering, demolition and restoration of occupied territories, establishment of states of exception and maintaining of economic, cultural and social dependence. It is a fact that behind the EU process too there is the imperialistic logic of conquering new territories although with a significant difference – the conquering of new territories is based on the acquisition of the general social consensus by the EU applicant states. Conquering is also carried out through mechanisms of propaganda; upon joining the EU, each new member state is given a packet of instructions on how to implement freedom and democracy. It is therefore no surprise that in order to obtain the neoliberal notion of freedom and democracy, processes of misrepresentation of historic facts are being carried out; these processes are taking place through different stories about the days when crossing borders was difficult and the former dictatorial regime told us what to do, who to vote and how to think. In short, the current government is trying to persuade us that in contrast to the past, our land of democracy and freedom today is not being told what, where and why we shall or shall not act in this or that way by the USA and the EU.

The story is being further supported by big words about the feeling of responsibility, gratitude and respect that we should cultivate and pay to the EU and the USA, since they gave us the opportunity to gain independence, brought us democracy and showed the true meaning of the word freedom. The story of the successful civilization of the former communist state presumed to rest on the hypothesis of nonfreedom, where the communist regime was accused of ideological violence and violation of human rights, is merely using facts for neoliberal propaganda about freedom and democracy brought about by the process of EU expansion. It is therefore necessary to ask what Slovenia’s current position in this large family of apparently equal states is, and how influential the Slovenian government’s threats in the recent conflict with Croatia regarding Croatia’s declaration of the ecological and fishing zone (ERC) really were if we consider that Slovenian foreign diplomacy was involved in the settlement of dispute with Croatia by stating that “if ERC is not suspended, we [Slovenia] will not support your [Croatia’s] integration into the EU.” The declaration was suspended by Croatia in March 2008 following EU demands that it does so; the EU declared that only by complying with its demands can Croatia continue with the process of joining the EU. Another question that arises is what was Slovenia’s role in this process? The symbolic role of the sovereign assumed by Slovenia in this case is merely fictitious since not only the real but also the symbolic power to decide on accession processes and enlargement of the EU is a privilege reserved to the big EU rulers. Therefore, Slovenia has to constantly modify its rhetoric and synchronize itself with the system of power behind the expansion of the new European Empire. The promised land of equal rights, brotherhood and unity as well as the co-existence of European nations in a large European Federation, are to be seen just as promotional material with which the contemporary imperialism of the EU core (old member states) is exercising its expansion.

So what is the actual state of the processes creating an EU Empire and what is going on at the external borders of the newly forming Empire? In his text “Alien in Transition as a Reflection of Capitalist Totalitarianism,” Šefik Šeki Tatlić analyses the role of an immigrant, an alien in the First Capitalist World. According to Tatlić, “an alien as a bare life that has not been included, must be recoded, converted into a differential that should serve as a position through which, not only the sovereignty of a state will reaffirm itself, but through which the sovereignty of capital will reconfirm itself as an incessantly hungry matrix in search of new boundaries to be conquered” (Tatlić, 2008: 8). Thus the violence exercised over the immigrant stems from the logic of contempt being continuously maintained by the First Capitalist World. The logic of contempt rests on the same stereotypes as xenophobia, fascism, racism. In short, it rests upon the same matrix as all the other forms of intolerance towards those who are different and are therefore aliens. Grasping the logic of contempt is the key to grasping the processes on which the idea of the EU and the strategy of its enlargement is based. All the more incomprehensible is the question why contempt towards the stranger/alien/Other is rising as the very opposite should be the case, since the process of enlargement presupposes the inclusion of new member states in the large European family. The only clear explanation for this is that behind the expansion of the new large Empire lies a clerofascist ideology, which praises the white race and culture over the others, giving it a privileged position and the role of a sovereign who can decide about life and death. Of course the whole story of the expansion of the clerofascist Empire is just the continuation of what is defined by Mignolo as the four co-existing moments; namely, Christianity, civilisation mission, development and global market we have been witnessing for the last 500 years of the modern world system (Mignolo, 2000: 279).

The function of the logic of contempt can also be traced in the film Import-Export by director Ulrich Seidl. The film tells two parallel stories; the story of an Austrian security officer Paul who, in search of a new job, moves from Austria to the East, and the story of the Ukrainian nurse Olga who immigrates to Austria. Olga is disdained by the model and socially acceptable EU citizens because she is a blonde Easterner to which the image of an alien is immediately attached, and in the case of a Ukrainian, even the image of a prostitute. The stigmatisation and dehumanisation that follow are an unavoidable consequence of the hegemonic relation of the First Capitalist World with respect to the alien, the immigrant and the refugee. The foreigner is therefore given the opportunity to live in the EU, but only as a second-class citizen, the one who came from the east and for whom, according to European social norms, different rules of freedom and democracy apply. The story about Olga is all the more topical with respect to the recent enlargement of the Schengen border which is supposed to bring the definitive real democracy and freedom of movement within Europe also to Slovenians. Nevertheless, the real border that is still there and which no law, draft or treaty will ever manage to abrogate, is the border that is being continuously maintained and implemented by the First Capitalist World and upon which rests the logic of contempt. This is the symbolic border between first- and second-class EU citizens. Due to this border, the Easterner will always be perceived as something sinister, evil-minded and inferior. This symbolic border enables the materialization of the logic of contempt also in relation to the refugee trying to enter the EU illegally. If they are not part of an elite or are needed because of various (production or economic) reasons by the First Capitalist World, these refugees are denied entry to the EU.

The protection of freedom and democracy bears a price, which is, however, not being paid by first-class EU citizens but by all those who try to enter the EU illegally. If we take the example of the EU External Borders Agency – Frontex, which was founded in 2005, we can conclude that behind the story of success and life there is a diametrically opposed reality about death, ruin and iron fences through which the European Union prevents the illicit crossing of borders. Ever since Frontex was established, the number of people that drowned and died on the way is reported to have increased drastically as they are forced to travel longer distances in order to avoid the control executed by Frontex. Frontex presents itself as an organ assuring freedom, security and justice (libertas, securitas, justitia), whereas in fact it is nothing but an institutionalized preventive control agency with the same function as a watchdog except that Frontex is not located inside the fence (save its symbolic headquarter) from where it protects its property, but it carries out control and security from outside – on the other side of the fence. The situation is no different on the Spain-Morocco border (Ceuta and Melilla) where the EU has erected an iron fence intended to secure the border against illegal crossing. As described by Corinna Milborn, in Ceuta and Melilla there is a six-metre high iron fence made of steel and barbed wire, every 40 metres there is a watchtower, directional microphones, spotlights, a teargas system. The area is protected by more than 1,200 border guards whose role it is to prevent refugees from entering the EU. The problems of such border control and protection are far more complex if we consider that on the outer border of the EU we are witnesses to the state of exception which can be compared to the state of exception in Baghdad, as described by Bobby Banerjee. Namely, the so called Green zone is a state of exception within a state of exception. In this area of American Baghdad, life goes on as if war in Iraq never really happened. People living there are free to move inside the zone, they enjoy all the comforts offered by the contemporary neoliberal capitalist system. As a result, the fairy tale about freedom and democracy is reserved only for the first-class citizens of the First Capitalist World, and in the world of neoliberal necrocapitalism, freedom is a privilege reserved for those who execute necrocapitalism.

We are thus facing an interesting situation where states and their inhabitants within the EU enjoy the fairy tale about freedom and democracy, while just outside this area the complete opposite is the case. Not everyone is permitted to enter this heaven of freedom and democracy, rather, it is better to let some of the refugees drown, as is the case with Frontex. What really counts is to preserve life within the fence, and maintain the myth and dream of freedom and democracy which are being constantly imported and exported by the neoliberal capitalist regime.

References:
Marina Gržinić, “Procesi getoizacije,” / “Processes of Ghetoization” from the text M. Gržinić, S. Kleindienst, S. Leban, Sodobna umetnost in kultura na Slovenskem: procesi geotizacije, pavperizacije in apolitičnosti, / Contemporary Slovenian Art and Culture: Processes of Ghetoization, Pauperization and the Apolitical, published in Slovenian at www.reartikulacija.org, 2008

Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee, “Live and Let Die: Colonial Sovereignties and the Death World of Necrocapitalism,” in Borderlands ejournal 2006, volume 5, no.1, 2006

Šefik Šeki Tatlić, “Alien in Transition as a Reflection of Capitalist Totalitarianism,” in Reartikulacija, no. 3, Ljubljana 2008.

Walter D. Mignolo, “Globalization, Mundialization: Civilizing Processes and the Relocation of Languages and Knowledges,” in Local Histories/Global Designs Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking, Princeton University Press, New Jersey 2000.

http://www.goethe.de/ges/pok/prj/mig/mgr/en2358674.htm

http://no-racism.net/article/2207/http://no-racism.net/article/2401/

http://www.frontex.europa.eu/structure

Sebastjan Leban is an artist and a theoretician. He is a postgraduate student at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana.

Translated from Slovenian by Tanja Passoni.

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