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“Sometimes you are more free behind walls than in a desert of indifference”

For Mattia

from your mother I came to know about your difficult moment. I don’t know you. But I have been old as you are, and I revolted, I felt angry and I knew, even for a short while, military imprisonment. I have no lessons to give you, except for this one: when I was pent up in the barracks, I red, talked with my comrades, I wrote. Everything to prevent my time to be wasted, to do not give up to who took away my freedom from me. And I made it. I don’t know your story, I imagine it to be that of many youths that live in this apparently soulless and hopeless country. My son has chosen to work abroad, to deal with humanitarian emergencies. You have chosen to fight for the things you believe in. Until there will be young people like you, even if different in their ideas and in the forms of struggle I cannot but think that this country has still a piece of soul and a breath of hope. Sometimes you are more free behind walls than in a desert of indifference. Hang in there.

Stefano Benni

 

MONDAY 10M

Italy – Anonymous Italia released a 260MB leak of confidential material from Italian navy, took from the private mailbox of admiral Giuseppe Ilacqua. Under the #operationgreenrights flag, the organization expressed its solidarity to all the people living in areas under easement for military purposes (such as the MUOS and TAV construction yards and the Quirra shooting range in Sardinia) in front of the environmental hazards and constraints they have to face.

Lucca – A motion in support of Riccardo Antonini, a railwayman member of the CGIL trade union, is rejected by the provincial congress of the same union. The worker helped the association of the relatives of the victims of the Viareggio train disaster – when on 29 June 2009 32 people lost their lives, and many others were injured or left homeless – against shortcomings in the national railway company’s security policies. The same company was (and is) headed by Mario Moretti, a former CGIL boss also proposed for heading the Labour Ministry in the new Renzi government.

Florence – Beginning of the trial against 86 comrades belonging to the “post-wave” (onda) 2010-2011 movement – for which 32 precautionary measures were already issued in 2011. Most remarkably, it is held in a high security courtroom previously reserved for mafia trials, and features a “criminal conspiracy” charge for 7 of the defendants that further criminalizes political dissent by applying means used against organized crime to it.

Paris – Gian Battista Marongiu, a comrade and former spokesman for the Potere Operaio workers’ struggle organization in the seventies passed away at a clinic in the French capitol.

 

TUESDAY 11M

Bologna – A great day of antagonist action in remembrance of student martyr Francesco Lorusso, killed on this very day in March 1977. At that time, university collectives protested over a meeting of the nascent Christian fundamentalist lobby Comunione e Liberazione (CL) at the institute of Human Anatomy; CL members barricaded themselves in and, as the University dean called the police, the collectives’ militants had to face armed carabinieri death squads. Clashes erupted all over the university area and Francesco, who belonged to the Lotta Continua leftist formation, was fatally shot and murdered by a carabiniere. An 8000 people demonstration later in the day assaulted and razed CL and Christian Democrats’ party sections and ravaged the city centre, ending in a huge memorial assembly at the Odeon Cinema. Back to 2014, in the morning protests erupted against institutional presence at the annual ceremony in Via Mascarella, where Francesco was killed. In the evening an one thousand people march, participated by all the present days struggles in Bologna, took the streets; it ended in the university area’s Piazza Verdi, with an impressive murale of Francesco being drawn on a wall by the Vokzwriterz collective.

Teramo – Davide Rosci – a comrade and political prisoner indicted under pillaging and devastation charges for the October 15 2011 Indignados’ demonstration in Rome – now under house arrests after having been detained for one year in prison is prevented to see some of his relatives. An absurd ban in comparison to his detention time – in which they were admitted to visit him. Plus, Davide has not been proved to be guilty yet (he must go through the third degree of judgment).

La Spezia – Three trucks containing dangerous radioactive waste moved through the city under heavy police escort in order to bring the hazardous material to the city military port and ship it. This came after years of generalized popular resistance against “radioactive waste trains” that ran through densely populated areas, and with mafia organizations engaging in the business of waste disposal even in northern Italy.

Turin – The No Tav defense at the trial for the 27 June 2011 clashes in the “Free Republic of Maddalena” (the self-managed commune that opposed for roughly a month the settlement of the TAV construction yard in Chiomonte) presents a video that clearly shows a policeman being the first to attack, firing on the crowd with a CS grenade launcher.

Brescia – Extradition denied by the local court for Bahar Kimyongur, the Turkish comrade charged for terrorism in his home country by the Erdogan government; he can return to Belgium, where he lives.

 

WEDNESDAY 12M

Padova – Zeno Rocca, a 22-years old activist under weekly compulsory sign-in after being involved in the inquiry against No Tav movement, was menaced and savagely assaulted in midday and right in the city centre by a police patrol. After the beating, he was imprisoned for seven hours without being able to see a lawyer. He was then released and reported having a broken rib and multiple bruises by first aid doctors .

Turin – Psychology students in protest against access quotas to their faculty picketed and interrupted a Department meeting that was discussing and voting on the issue, managing to postpone the decision to an undefined future time.

Pavia – Ettore Filippi, a former deputy mayor of the city and police officer, famous for having spearheaded State repression against leftist armed struggle in the seventies, was arrested under charges of corruption and criminal association with mafia organizations.

Italy – The Renzi government issues its first measure against the housing struggle movements. Through an article in the “piano casa” decree proposed by Infrastructures Minister Maurizio Lupi (a centre-right politician and member of the powerful Christian fundamentalist lobby Comunione e Liberazione), it disposes the retroactive prohibition of taking up residency and connection to home utility services in a squatted building. A hard line directly addressed against all the occupied spaces in Italy and the mass movements standing up against a bank-friendly and contractor-friendly government, that may introduce a period of generalized evictions.

 

THURSDAY 13M

Cagliari – Organizers of the local Israeli Apartheid Week – a global event poised to raise awareness about the segregationist policies of that state in the Palestinian Territories – are denied the use of a conference hall by the Regional Body for University Studies (ERSU). The same public body last year opened up the local university on high days especially to host a meeting with David Grossmann, a prominent Israeli intellectual and supporter of the IDF warmongering policies.

Palermo – PrendoCasa housing struggle activists along with local squatters and Etiopian and Eritrean refugees seized a vacant building in the central Zisa neighbourhood, previously owned by the Catholic Church (who owns many similar buildings in the city). Plagued by a most high unemployment and parlous housing conditions, Palermo has always experienced mass illegal squatting as a spontaneous underclass practice. Since the beginning of the year more than one thousand eviction requests were issued.

 

FRIDAY 14M

Turin – Paolo and Forgi, two No Tav militants imprisoned (first in jail, then under house arrests) since last August 30 for driving a car packed with defensive and disturbance gear – gas masks and the like, in order to hindrance the activities of the construction yard – were sentenced by a first-degree court to two years and two months in jail, and to pay a 5000€ fine. As they remain under house arrests, the trial goes on.

Genoa – More than a hundred university students met at Palazzo Ducale to barge in the Edward Munch exhibition without paying the hefty 11€ entrance fee. In spite of the heavy police presence the effort succeeded and a free theatre play was set up outside the exhibition palace after the visit.

Pignataro Maggiore (Caserta) – Local residents besieged once again after the last week the city council, that was being held at the faraway Polo Imposimato facility to prevent mass participation. The administration, that refused any public debate and questioning about the infamous TARES garbage tax at first, had to back off from that, and an open city council was scheduled to take place on the next March 20.

Val Susa – According to data collected by LTF (Lyon-Turin Ferroviaire, the company responsible for the TAV railway project), during 2013 in the construction yard area radioactive particulate pollution exceeded five-fold the maximum allowed, while their mean value was of 53,3μg/cubic meter in front of a 40μg/cubic meter maximum allowed.

 

SATURDAY 15M

Rome – 5000 people march towards the Ministry of Justice, to raise awareness over the persecution and criminalization of social struggles in Italy and support political prisoners. On the previous day a national assembly was held at La Sapienza University in Rome with the participation of many law offices connected with the movements, to assess the current state of repressive policies and advocate and generalize a legality (of State power and laws) versus legitimacy (of the struggles and their practices) divide. Four open-air roundtables took place on saturday morning in the city on jail, migration, environmental and precarity issues.

Lombardia – Four events in the Milan and Monza area in order to remember militant Davide Cesare “Dax” murdered by a family of fascists on March 16 eleven years ago. This year, antifascist martyrs Clement Meric and Pavlos Fyssas were celebrated as well. In Milan, a meeting between the Casa Pound organization and the Greek Golden Dawn was picketed; in Monza, after another conference by Forza Nuova had to move from its original hotel location to a new one (thanks to the comrades’ determination) the antifascists chased them to the new location, keeping a presence in the city centre at the same time; in Novate Milanese the municipality was picketed in protest over the entrance in the city council of a Casa Pound-affiliated councilor; in Rozzano, a memorial concert featuring antifascist bands and also supporting two antifascists stabbed in the previous days in the seaside town of Bellaria, was held.

Pisa – In an intense week of housing struggle in the city, new eviction attempts are foiled by the PrendoCasa activists in Cisanello and Cascina; meanwhile, seven charges are issued against them, with an inquiry against other participants in the anti-eviction pickets underway.

Bergamo – The rightist local administration sells off to a realtor a new building in the city downtown that could have provided 12 housing projects for 12 needy families. Meanwhile, other housing projects in the city keep being left in dilapidated conditions.

 

SUNDAY 16M

Pisa – Local PrendoCasa housing struggle activists and homeless families set up a temporary occupation in Via Marsala. The squatted building – owned by real estate speculator Pampana, and that had already been occupied for two months in 2010 during a seminal housing rights campaign – will host a city assembly to propose an extraordinary grassroots plan in order to face the looming housing emergency and to revamp the struggle in the city.