In the early hours of the morning police surrounded the Spazio Popolare Neruda, the building that was occupied a couple of weeks ago by about thirty families under eviction, in order to proceed with the eviction.

About thirty people, among which ten little children or so, were inside the building – a former school that the municipality gave to the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti [TN – a joint-stock company under public control] in 2013. Some comrades are resisting on the roof, by waving the “Stop Sfratti” flag, hindrancing the operation and demanding a guarantee for all families under eviction to obtain a real and fair solution. Outside the Neruda building, a group of comrades and solidals are supporting the occupiers and blocking the road in order to prevent the arrival of the firemen with the ladder truck.

The menace of an eviction was already envisioned in the previous days by the Police Department and Prefecture, which were once again sent ahead by a city council unable to cope with a rampant housing emergency. Only three days ago the families occupying the building took the streets of the Pozzo Strada neighbourhood, in a march to oppose the possibility of the eviction and declaring themselves ready to resist. A woman felt bad during the eviction and the intervention of an ambulance was necessary. 

1.20 pm: The resistance on the building roof continues, in spite of relentless pressure by the police, that a few minutes ago prevented the supporters in picket to provide some water to the comrades. Negotiations which were started in order to find an immediate housing solution for the occupiers go on, but it looks like the city council seems ready to postpone the decision to a meeting with the councilman for welfare, anyway, not before thursday. The possible solution would affect only the family units, leaving without shelter the individuals which found a home in the Spazio Popolare Neruda. Still many people which ran at the picket beneath the housing occupation renews the call to reach it at the via Marsigli and corso Peschiera intersection. 

3.30 pm: the four comrades came down from the roof at the end of the “negotiations”, accompanied by the evicted families among the applauses of the solidals that rushed to the place. The quotation marks are due because even today, during the discussions with the social workers called up in an hurry, petty blackmail abounded in order to make the occupiers accepting bogus provisional solutions (moms and children sent away with a pat on their back and the address of some charity…). Actually few family units accepted the city council’s offers, as they well knew what it was interested to achieve, being it more interested to sweep the dust under the carpet than in finding dignified and stable solutions. On the other hand, the remaining families will be accomodated  in other occupied buildings in Turin, because the struggle does not leave anyone behind. Housing for everyone, evictions for nobody! Till next time!