MONDAY 3M

Modena – The social desk “La rage” opens up at the Ex Deposito Carcerario 51 self-managed space in the city downtown. It will be a mutual aid antagonist space, tackling the issues of housing and high costs of public services and livelihood from an autonomous point of view.

Val Susa – The judiciary witchunt against the No Tav movement goes on. Nine militants are condemned to 4 up to 9 months in prison plus legal expenses for violating the seals put by the police to the Clarea Hut, the iconic bulwark set up by the movement in the middle of the construction yard area.  Other ten defendants are lifted from all their charges.

Turin – A march of janitors, teachers, parents and children took the streets in protest over school salaries cuts (from 33% up to 70% of their income) and decaying school building conditions, blocking traffic for a while in the city downtown. Thanks to the mobilization (some janitors even chained themselves last week) cuts were delayed till the end of the month, and a public assembly was called by demonstration for the next week.

The Turinese section of the FIOM metalworkers trade union (affiliated to the mainstream CGIL and now increasingly close to its positions, albeit having been critical of it and having taken more progressive stances in the past) rejects a solidarity internal motion with the NO TAV militants being detained under charges of terrorism for damaging construction yard equipment.

TUESDAY 4M

Val Susa – Outrage sparked against a media slandering campaign, as they contemptuously depicted a newborn child being covered by a NO TAV bib in her cradle in order to attack her parents and the movement; considered that at the same time those media patronized president of ministers’ council Matteo Renzi in his weekly visit to schoolchildren, previously instructed by the teachers to sing his name and cheer him.

Naples – After preventing for a week the opening of a Mc Donald’s store in Piazza Municipio with their picket, the fired workers from the company left for its central headquarters in Rome, in order to protest its policies. As few blacklegs tried in the meantime to get the Neapolitan store opened, the fired workers quickly returned to Naples and foiled the attempt.

Rome – The Order of Doctors headquarters were occupied by the #iodecido city women network, to denounce the takeover of many public consultori (women health advice centers) by objector doctors and the threats to the women rights of choice and safety. A complex framework of party power balances, blackmails and careers advancements (in addition to traditional deference towards Catholic church), secures and multiplies the presence of objector doctors in these centers – in the Lazio region of Rome they are close to the 90%.   

Milan – Anonymous Italia brought down the website of Hacking Team, an Italian firm involved in the manufacturing and international commerce of spyware and surveillance software for repressive governments all around the world. The company, which got a 1,5€ billionaire funding from public money Lombardia region, was denounced by Privacy International NGO and social centres activists as well that, during a day of action last autumn, occupied its headquarters.

WEDNESDAY 5M

Parma – After 10 months, the housing occupation of Via Casa Bianca was evicted by the 5-star movement local administration, under pressure of the wealthy owners of the building. The same movement – when at the opposition in other cities – has been symphatetic at times with the claims of the homeless and housing struggle committees; but in the Emilian town it is uneasy with those of the Diritti In Casa network, that demands a halt to all the evictions and the requisition of vacant houses.

Rome – A hundred people demonstration to call attention on the conditions of Turkish activist Bahar Kimyongur – an opponent of Recep Tayyip Erdogan – was called by his solidarity network beneath the Ministry of Justice. In spite of charges by the Interpol against him being withdrawn, Bahar has been having mandatory residence in Italy for more than 100 days.

 

THURSDAY 6M

Bologna – 12 residence ban advices were issued against as many militants from the city social centers militants and rank-and-file tenants unions activists. Lavinia, Sara, Angelo, Cecco, Luca, Forgio, Stefano and Vincenzo, Giorgio, Domenico, Edoardo and Giuliano cannot reside in Bologna, because of their opposition to police provocations in Piazza Verdi on May 23 and 27 2013.

An old building in the mestizo Bolognina neighbourhood, left vacant by the owners fueling real estate speculation, was occupied by needy families and militants from the Social Log social mutual aid desk. As denounced with the temporary occupation of a labour exchange last week, in Bologna there are about 7000 empty houses, 400 assignments each year, 600 families awaiting for social housing and 40000 others experiencing housing hardships. The occupiers immediately began to restore the building and make it habitable, and thwarted attempts by police agents and owners to block and evict it.

Italy – New Torture Law draft approved by Italian senate. In Italy there is no torture law; still, the attempt is basically flawed: it qualifies “torture” as a series of act or threats and does not link its employment specifically to State officers, as it happens in many other countries all around the world upon recommendation from international/UN law.

Pignataro Maggiore (Caserta) – 300 people took the street in the Campanian town in protest over the most high TARES urban waste levy – an outrage in an area already plagued by criminal illegal waste of poisonous and hazardous material with either complicity or passiveness from the State and police officers. The demonstrators requested a meeting with the city mayor and, after it was denied, barged into the city council were the mayor barricaded himself. A new day of mobilization is scheduled for next monday.  

Catania – After the evictions in the previous months of the Ex-Collegio and Liotru social centres, the new CSO Contrasto social center is born, with the occupation of the abandoned Capponi school in the Picanello neighbourhood. Spaces for post-school activities, a people’s gym and a people’s library are some of the projects being announced.

Ravenna – The Selva Student Space occupied three days ago after a big city demonstration was evicted and shut down by police forces. The student movement pledge to continue the occupations until a space for it is found.

Rome – After almost a month of unjustified house arrests, eight comrades of the housing struggle movements charged for robbery of police shields and truncheons in the #31o demonstration were freed with mandatory sign-in, another one was confirmed the sign-in and the remaining nine were lifted from all their restrictions.

Students from the Chemistry faculty of La Sapienza University occupied an abandoned space in the campus in order to set up a study all and other social activities there. They named it “Laboratorio Chimico Autonomo Occupato”.

FRIDAY 7M

Pisa – Another eviction attempt was prevented and delayed for two weeks in Cascina, a city in the Pisan hinterland. As pressure grows on the municipality to make available the whole vacant public housing to needy families, so does the struggle of the homeless and the evicted.

Bologna – High school autonomous students’ demonstration against the high costs of public transport, after the merger of regional bus and train transport companies.

Brescia – Yet another demonstration by high school autonomous students’ called by the StudAut network and addressed against high costs of student books, transport, and dilapidated condition of school estate. After the student set up a roadblock in the city downtown a brief confrontation with police ensued.

Turin – A hundred of No Tav activists besiege a conference held by Gian Carlo Caselli, former Turinese public prosecutor and ever since an enemy of popular movements and struggles in Italy. Facing as many police agents, the activists engaged in the “battitura” (hitting nearby railing to make loud noise, as they did many times against the construction yard’s metal fences) in support of the prisoners Mattia Chiara Claudio and Niccolò

SATURDAY 8M

Italy – Nationwide day of action for the global 8M, and particularly in solidarity with Spanish women against the Gallardon law (with the hashtag #iodecido on twitter) and with Greek ones, whose health and abortion rights are threatened by austerity and cuts. In Turin more than 1000 people were involved in the march promoted by feminist collectives and women’s rights associations, which was opened by the big banner “I decide on my own body!” and followed by the “(Female) Partisans of the land and of the future” banner held by the No Tav women. Similar marches were held in Rome, where previously in the week the women occupied the Order of Doctors, and in Palermo, with yells and slogans against the objectors and their presence in public hospitals, clinics and women health advice centers. In Naples the waitresses and workers of Mc Donald’s continued the picket in front of the Piazza Municipio store, against forbidding shift patterns and layoffs and in spite of massive watchmen and police presence. In Bologna a pharmacy close to the St.Orsola hospital and refusing to sell birth control pills was picketed as well.

Arquata Scrivia (Alessandria) – New people’s march from No Tav Third Cross movement to tackle the arrival of the digger machine at the Radimero construction yard, that may soon start to dig into asbestos-ridden mountainous areas in order to make up for lost time in regard to the works’ progress. Popular opposition managed to inflict repeated delays to the great work, and a company that was intended to stock its scrap materials was recently put under anti-mafia restrictions.

Lecce – First week of occupation (the first one in many years) of Binario 68, a new social space in the San Pio neighbourhood of the southern Italian city.

SUNDAY 9M

Cernusco sul Naviglio (Milan) – A technical school headmaster allowed a fascist nostalgic revisionist meeting to take place in his institute, in spite of opposition from teachers and students of the same school, that launched a counter-event for next April 25.

Catania – The CSO Contrasto, after having been occupied for barely three days, was evicted by police forces. The activists vow to fight back and prevent the administration to continue to waste the neighbourhood, left without community centres, schools and safe playgrounds for children.

Celico (Cosenza) – A popular demonstration blocked scores of hazardous garbage trucks headed to facilities close to the Sila national park. The demonstrators withstood low temperature, rain, hostility from the truck drivers and police charges and managed to prevent the dump of the dangerous material.