In the many rebel and mestizo squares, packed with thousands of men and women that organize themselves in order to resist the crisis, the call “One great work only: house and income for everyone!” was strongly echoed. It is not a slogan but a practice that lives in the anti-eviction pickets, in the defense from evictions [1], in the paths of re-appropriation and opposition to the rentier system that we develop every day.

It is not enough to switch councillors and mayors of the bankrupt municipalities, to use judicial inquiries in order to resign ministers and figures that do not represent some bad apples, but the functioning of the entire system of exploitation of our lives. The only possible way against measures such as the Piano Casa, Sblocca Italia, Jobs Act and Buona Scuola [2] is a radical u-turn on the workplaces, in the schools, universities and territories.

In Rome thousand of people rallied around the call of the Movements for Housing Rights [3], and blocked for hours with their bodies and makeshift barricades the Porta Pia square. The replacement of the now former minister Lupi is not enough, the system of the great works has to be turned upside down and measures such as the Piano Casa have to be abolished, starting from the infamous article 5 – in order to allocate public resources for school, healthcare, conservation of the territory, housing, income and a new welfare. Because of this, the movements decided to set up a makeshift camp beneath the ministry of infrastuctures.

Turin took the streets against the fascist and league-ist supporters of Salvini, against their interested populism, the racist divisions and the disruptions that they would like to produce in the peripheries’ social body. A great march moved its first steps in order to send back to the sender this idea of exploitation and segregation, trying to reach the meager podium of Salvini and harshly clashing against the police agents. 8 comrades were arrested and 7 freed, while the arrest of Daniele was confirmed and he was brought to the Vallette prison. We demand immediate freedom for Daniele and the legitimacy of the practices used against anyone committed to spread xenophobic and racist propaganda. [4]

In Brescia they demonstrated once again, against the sanatoria truffa [5], for residency permits and migrant rights, after several days of struggle in order to take back piazza della Loggia, with police charges and determined resistances. A huge mestizo march of more than 5000 people crossed the city streets, rejecting fascist provocations and showing that neither those nor police intimidations will manage to stop the struggles for dignity and freedom of movement.

In Bologna more than 1000 people participated in the second “March of Dignity” that crossed the northern periphery of the city, starting from the former Telecom building in via Fioravanti 27, an occupation that became a symbol of the city resistence against the former minister Lupi’s Piano Casa, hit by a seizure decree and then under threat of eviction. The march also marked the start of the battle against the effects of the new ISEE assessment that threaten the access to welfare and are an integral part of a general attack against the weakest categories of our society.

Also Palermo took the street for the date launched by Abitare Nella Crisi. After the eviction ten days ago in via Oberdan, some thousands of squatters, students and social centres’ militants walked through the old town centre against the Piano Casa and in solidarity with the activists hit by cautionary measures.

In Florence and Naples new occupations were made after the recent evictions. In Naples the former Belvedere complex was temporarily reoccupied and traffic blockades were made, as well as a discussion with the people of the neighbourhood in order to condemn the scandal of that church-owned building, that was left abandoned once again.

In Florence some ten lodgings were occupied in Via Del Romito 55, in a city that was militarized because of the visit of the Head of State, inside the harsh clash against the Saccardi regional law, which was complying with the Piano Casa by Lupi. After wresting the cancellation of the article that would have prevented anyone occupying even abandoned public or private buildings to access social housing, now there is a relaunch of the struggle in the city, not drawing back from the issue of occupations and reappropriation.

Asti took the street in order to reaffirm the legitimacy of the struggling practices against the attempt to hit who, in a difficult situation, reacts by trying to survive with dignity and with their head high.

In Milan, in the morning, the Abitanti di San Siro committee picketed the market in via Osoppo, where a visit by De Corato [6] was announced. In the afternoon, a march of thousands of people crossed the solidal and antiracist neighbourhood, against evictions and the Piano Casa.

In Parma there was an initiative against the Sblocca Italia decree: some sixty activists positioned themselves in front of the incinerator gates, preventing the trucks from accessing the facility. Around 12 ‘o clock a supervisor of the Reggio Emilia plants met the demonstrators and promised them the re-opening of a negotiating table with the IREN [7] company managers and the reactivation of the phone number that IREN made available, in order to communicate dire cases of morosità incolpevole [8], with the subsequent cut of the services.

In Basilicata in Rionero in Vulture (PZ) and in Calabria in Corigliano Calabro important and most participated popular demonstrations were held against oil drillings and the “Sblocca Italia” decree, even closing on the date of next March 31, when the local administrations will have to express themselves about the environmental impact of these wicked operations, that risk to devastate that territory and others with the only goal to give away to the big transnational corporations operating in the sector resources and immense profits.

These demonstrations showed how, in front of such mess and operations, the local populations are able to take the street gathering together different generations and organizations, connecting with a red string the struggles against cuts to welfare spending, against precarity and for income with the defence and the re-appropriation of every territory.

Everywhere, once again on M28 (that featured people in Paris taking the streets for the right to housing as well, by the way) was emphasized the strong opposition by the territories to the arrogance of the Renzi government and of his policies, that represent and embody the essence of an increasingly feral capitalism, in its own patterns of exploitation and accumulation. Now this opposition must widen itself, by involving even more organizations and people, fostering a widespread process of self-organization and recomposition between different struggles and backgrounds. A social and political process that has to be able, in the conflict, to claim spaces and perspectives of true alternative, that has to entrench itself through new forms of mutualism and by practicing new forms of reappropriation.

The grassroots day of struggle of M28 gives us back the snapshot of an untamed and unpacified country, able to deploy important resistances, struggles, a new practice of the needs. Now it is necessary to relentlessy carry on, not through easy and groundless shortcuts, on the paths of conflict and change, with courage and an experimental attitude.

With this strenghtened experience we lay up for the 1st of May in Milan for the NO EXPO days. Let’s move on, let’s take back what we are entitled to!

 

Abitare nella Crisi

 

 

 

[1] “Eviction” can translate both “sfratto” (the legal act through which the landlord asks a judge to use public force in order to get his property back from an occupier) and “sgombero” (the material operation through which the police clears an occupied building). The first is mostly used in relation to housing occupations and the second to occupied social centres.

 

[2] Piano Casa, Sblocca Italia, Jobs Act and Buona Scuola: four decrees by the Renzi government affecting in a neoliberal way the housing market, public works, labour market and schools

 

[3] “Housing right” can translate both “diritto alla casa” and “diritto all’abitare”

 

[4] Daniele is now under house arrests

 

[5] A process of regularization of the clandestine migrants in Italy, that the latter have to pay a lot of money in order to achieve

 

[6] A former right-⁠winger vice-⁠mayor of Milan

 

[7] A company providing energy services

 

[8] Being in arrears without faults