It has been for years now that the popular Valsusian movement places itself, through its conflictual action, at the centre of every political and social debate occurring in our country, becoming today one of the most advanced points of social opposition to the government of the country.

 

Certainly, the movement is born from a specific and particular local struggle, but today the No Tav flag embodies the symbol of who doesn’t surrender, of who makes choices and follows them through with obstinacy. Coming out strengthened from the phases through which it has passed in these years, today even in the face of repression the movement is able to respond by pushing ahead, not succumbing to petty sensationalism, not giving up the fight, identifying the gaol as another field of battle.

 

On one side the No Tav activists and on the other side the powers that be, this is what the fences, the walls and the barbed wire seem to symbolise in this historic episode.

 

The movement, the struggle, the community is a contrast to the individualism of this world, to the power of the political caste, to the poverty of institutional politics. The mountains of the Susa valley are not the Monti [Italian prime minister] of Montecitorio [the Italian chamber of deputies] from which stirs only the wind of the crisis of austerity. The wind that blows from the valley is a healthy social force, bringer of change and capable of never surrendering.

 

This is what the Susa valley teaches us through its experiences, its forms of participation, its determination and its Free Republics. It is here that this struggle is born and it is here, on this territory, that its primary battle ground lays. But its enemy is everywhere, and hidden behind the thousand different facades of power.

 

An enemy that hides not only inside the ‘non-construction zone’ of Chiomonte, behind its fences and armed toy-soldiers, but rises over a whole country and necessitates the continuation of that extraordinary tradition of No Tav in every city and every corner of Italy.

 

The Susa valley cannot win without the rest of Italy; Italy cannot win without the Susa valley. To reinforce even more today this wager cannot but transform it into a collective and communal challenge, to be filled with enthusiasm and passion, to continue along the road propelled by a thirst for liberation and social transformation that finds in the No Tav all of the power of a rebellious community in struggle that doesn’t give up, that doesn’t stop.

 

On the 25th of February once again the Valley will be on the march to reassert its claims, compact behind its banners, from local administrators to the people in movement, proudly showing its face to the mass media.

 

From Bussoleno to Susa we will march to demonstrate that the No Tav movement is in better shape than ever, that hand-cuffs and police batons, international treaties and fake construction sites are not enough to discourage it, because, WE ARE NO TAV AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP US.

 

Turin Antagonist Network

Csoa Askatasuna – Csa Murazzi

Universitary autonomous collective – Self-organized students’ kollective