An already familiar experience of struggle in the city after 9 months of occupation of the first Taksim student house last year, an action carried out back then in the context of the national campaign against the Housing Plan, Lupi and Renzi’s article 5** and in general in support of the right to housing and against the private interests of real estate speculators.

A campaign against the Housing Plan that is even stronger this year, that was also at the core of Taksim’s comeback in the city – with the watchwords of re-appropriation and reclamation, that were embodied in a building previously left to blight, rats and heroin for more than 20 years.

On October 1st, at dawn, tens of students that were dwelling in the occupied building were encircled by a massive number of police agents, that after several hours of resistance carried out the eviction, without sparing a number of violent actions against the occupiers, beaten with truncheons and kicked as they were resisting the police operation.

Still, meanwhile, a large solidal picket gathered outside the building, gradually beefing up its numbers and determined to not let the eviction take place. It blocked traffic on via Irnerio and then on the nearby Via de Rolandis, and obligated the police agents to make two consecutive charges as they come in turn under siege while carrying out the eviction; these charges, even after wounding several people, did not scare those who sided with Taksim at all.

Once every occupier left the building, a march immediately ensued to tell what happened to the city and to the students attending their early lessons. The numbers of the march gradually soared, as barricades were set along it and the unavailability of Taksim of giving up the battle for study and housing rights was made clear and loud.

Particularly significant were the slogans and the statements in front of the real estate agency Gestim in Strada Maggiore – a notorious company for its swindles at the expense of many students, which were defrauded of hundreds of euros of deposits for specious reasons. Also in order to make this kind of situation take a different turn, the Taksim experience was born; and the events of last wednesday cannot but make evident again its dangerous character for whoever defends the interests of the few at the expense of those of the many.

The spontaneous march then reached the Strike Point – the permanent picket that in the same evening of October 1st was set by the Bolognese burgeoning students in the central Piazza Verdi; a picket that will be operating as a continuing infopoint and center of political initiatives in the process towards the Social Strike of October 16, already envisaging the blockade of the city’s university working routine on that day.

From there the occupiers relaunched the initiatives and the process of Taksim, that will be coming back to lead its battle really soon!

*Palazzinari = Colloquial for housing market and construction entrepreneurs involved in real estate speculation

**Article 5 = the infamous provision of Matteo Renzi (prime minister) and Maurizio Lupi (infrastructure and housing minister) Housing Plan, which prevents connection to services and taking residence in an occupied building