Torino – In the international action days against crisis, welfare cuts and austerity system – the 24, 25, 26 of March- students and temporary workers have decided to take their protest in the places symbol of the financial capitalism and the economy of debt, and responsible for the global economic crisis: the banks. These days were called by the Knowledge Liberation Front, a transnational network created during the meeting held in Paris from 11 to 13 February, which saw the participation of the students movement that, from Russia to France, from Italy to Britain, are fighting against precarity and the Bologna Process. As in many other cities in Italy and worldwide, today the 25 of March 2011, as students of the University of Turin, we decided to hit one of the symbols of the economic and political power in our city: the San Paolo bank. Bringing our protest inside the headquarters of the bank represents for us a meditated choice. Every year we ensure profits for this bank by paying to it tuition fees, which increase year after year, putting into debt our lives and our future. And it is the same bank that, thanks to the Gelmini reform (which is reforming the educatin system in Italy) will have access to the board of directors of our universities imposing his will in teaching and research programs. It’s also impossible to ignore the role that financial institutions always play in supporting military operations and all the profits they are taking from the operation against Libya. For all these reasons we have decided to symbolically occupy one of his head offices in the center ot the city, confirming once again our unwillingness to pay the costs of the crisis! The management of the bank tried immediately to block the initiative, although the people who were inside the building were showing us their solidarity. Shortly afterwards they called the police who cleared the demonstrators out and also tried to stop the leafleting that took place outside the building, surrounding and threatening us saying they wanted to take us to the police station for identification. So an other protest took place and, also thanks to the solidarity of the people in the square, we kept on with it. The reaction of the police shows us how San Paolo is today one of the strongest powers in our city and an institution that no one can afford to challenge. The initiatives planned for these three days will continue in many other cities in Europe.

We know that only our struggle will permit us to build a different future, taking into account our real needs!

Klf- Turin