Koiné Diàlektos weekly broadcast here

 

MONDAY 24M

Turin – Local press and administration try to jump on the bandwagon and stretch their hand, as a grassroots 10.000 people demonstration and concert last sunday reclaimed the riverside Murazzi venues’ area from the municipality gentrification policies and re-opened the Self-Managed Murazzi Social Centre as well.

Val Susa (Turin) – While 300 police office are closed or merged with border posts nationwide due to the annual spending review, police presence doubles in the Bardonecchia municipality in Val Susa (bringing the total to 72 policemen on 3000 residents), while 240 agents and soldiers are daily on duty at the Chiomonte TAV construction yard site.

Viareggio (Lucca) – Public outcry of the Committee of the relatives of the 32 Viareggio station disaster victims against the scandalous statements of Mauro Moretti Trenitalia national railway company administrator, still under trial for the event. The manager, a former CGIL trade union boss, claimed to be ready to look for another job abroad, in case his 873.000€ yearly wage was to be cut by the government. In spite of him ordering layoffs of workers which denounced the state of Italian railways, and of a terrifying workers’ fatal accident rate on that network, he is expected as one of the main guests at the national mainstream FILT-CGIL trade union congress in Florence next April along with ministers Poletti and Lupi.

Rome – 25 students under trial with heavy charges for the 2010 December 14 uprising in Rome, when one hundred thousands people revolted against the outcome of the parliamentary confidence vote on Berlusconi government, marred by corruption and political hubris.

 

TUESDAY 25M

Cagliari – After having been waiting for over three months poverty aid from the municipality, 50 people from the San Michele neighbourhood first besieged the office of welfare councilor Minerba and then ten women moved to two LD and Auchan supermarkets where they packed their carts with goods and moved out without paying declaring “we do not have money to feed our own families!” – in a revival of the celebrated “spesa proletaria” re-appropriation practice of the seventies. Strong condemnation and notification of criminal charges from local police commissioner Dispenza followed.

Viareggio (Lucca) – The former state land administration building squatters received an injunction to vacate the building in two weeks, whereas the local city council did not take any action to face the dire housing emergency in the area.

Calvi Risorta (Caserta) – A banner was lowered from the municipality building to denounce 16 years of negligence of the local administration towards an illegal landfill, and to launch the next saturday march in nearby Sparanise to demand an immediate seizure of the plot, its people-supervised reclamation, a withdraw of public funding for the construction of a biomasses’ power plant and the implementation of alternative measures in its place, like resorting to the San Tammaro composting site.

Vicenza – 15 local prison guards – inspectors, supervisors and a deputy commissioner – were charged of abuses (turning off jail cells’ heating, beatings, racist insults) against some detainees in a period ranging from summer 2012 to the start of 2013 after the case was raised by the courage of five of the latter.

Turin – No TAV defendants partly managed to read at their trial a statement in solidarity with their fellow Zeno Rocca – that was savagely beaten by the police and kept in their custody in Padua a couple of weeks ago. On next May 14 the trial against the No TAV activists accused of terrorism is scheduled, as a big people’s demonstration for May 10.

Italy – New evidence on the mainstream La Repubblica daily website on a military operation against migrants ordered by the Letta government last November 9, after 368 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. The Aliseo ship of the Italian navy noticed, pursued, shot and boarded in international waters a fishing boat with 16 Egyptian migrants on board. The latter were arrested, while their damaged boat sank.

 

WEDNESDAY 26M

Brescia – Activists from local committees, student collectives and the Magazzino 47 social centre occupied the notarial office for executive procedures, in order to call an halt to house foreclosures (a total of 4915 in the city during 2013). Picket were announced to block assessments of the houses’ value and auctions.

Turin – During the week of decentralized action for housing rights launched by the Abitare Nella Crisi network squatters, migrants and activists from the housing struggle movement occupied the via Nizza skyscraper on construction, and lowered a banner from it: “Against evictions and speculations, let’s bring the housing plan down” – in a reference to the government housing plan.

Naples – 34 layoffs procedures were withdrawn by Mc Donald’s, yet by imposing heavier working conditions, such as more weekend working hours, additional special tasks to be performed and more frequent shift patterns. Palermo – 200 people from the “Unemployed’s Coordination” movement born one month ago took the streets and staged a march with roadblocks and sit-in that ended under the prefecture. Traditional trade unions were absent, and the prefect himself did not replied to the proposals of the movement, giving a list of unemployed people willing to start working cooperatives for basic public utility services.

Novi Ligure (Alessandria) – As workers of the COCIV consortium came in the morning to lay fences to delimit the local TAV construction yard area, members of the No TAV Third Cross committees rushed to the spot and tore them down, in spite of the working day and the short advice. After similar actions occurred in Arquata, Pozzolo and Valverde municipalities, a demonstration by the movement is scheduled for April 5 in Arquata Scrivia.

Rende (Cosenza) – Celebrity-seeking former public prosecutor Giancarlo Caselli, which was holding a conference at the University of Calabria in the Cosenza suburb was met by the strong reaction of local students, that denounced his role (and that of his fellow and heir prosecutors Padalino and Rinaudo) in repressing the No TAV movement. “From Calabria to Val Susa, we are all No TAV” and “Guilty of Resisting. Not a terrorist” banners were exposed.

Varese – After six years, the trial for the murder of Giuseppe Uva, a man tortured and killed by the police in 2008 seem to come at a turning point: two biased public prosecutors were removed from the hearings and compulsory charges for the responsible six policemen and two carabinieri were decided. Still in June, due to limitation terms, the accusations for many charges will be dismissed and the police forces many once again get away with it.

Rome – Players from the All Reds grassroots rugby team release a statement in which they explain their position about the last sunday match against the Corsari, where they refused to play against the rival team – as the latter featured a notorious fascist provocateur among them and could have exploited the public dimension of the competition for uncalled self-advertising and hate propaganda.

 

THURSDAY 27M

Milan – After more than five years from the Onda Anomala movement of 2008-2009 against the Gelmini reform of education (Berlusconi government) 19 students were charged with Devastation and Pillaging accuses for the occupation of the Statale university, with alleged theft of food supplies, graffiti writing and other damages. These charges, that may spell 15 years in prison for the students, were previously applied only for such demonstrations as the Genoa G8 or the 2011 October 15, in order to generally criminalize forms of protest and social conflict.

Turin – One year of Ex-Moi migrant occupation, three buildings left abandoned for 7 years after the 2006 Turin winter olympics extravagance. By then, 200 refugees from Northern Africa, left out in the streets with no job, housing nor other opportunities for already one year and half, self-organized to overcome bureaucracy, convenience and patronization by charities and NGO and start a path of autonomy and self-management. On January 17 this year, another church-owned vacant building in via Madonna delle Salette was occupied as well.

Sicily – The Antagonist Sicilian Student Network staged several actions with the occupations of Regional Body for the Right to Study (ERSU) offices in Palermo, and Catania and the interruption of academic senate meeting in Messina against a 4 million euros-worth cut to regional education funds.

Scalea (Cosenza) – The weekly visit of President of Ministers’ Council Matteo Renzi to a random Italian high school was met with the indignation of the local institute administrative, technical and ausiliary (ATA) personnel and parents, concerned about layoffs and cuts due to the annual spending review and the dilapidated conditions of school buildings. Renzi quickly entered the school for another show off while the building was cordoned off by the police.

Palermo – Under a heavy rain, 300 PrendoCasa Palermo activists and occupiers of the via Alloro, via Oberdan, piazzetta Parlatorio and Sacro Cuore building, plus the July 12 housing struggle committee along with Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants took the streets, carrying out roadblocks and pickets from Piazza Verdi till the Prefecture building. Meanwhile, the Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) postponed once again its verdict on the legality of the US Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) radar to November (in which regard lawsuits were filed by the NO MUOS movement on the illegality of environmental authorizations); the motivation was the need of further assessment, in spite of the many scientific studies on the harmfulness of the great work already provided to the court by the movement’s lawyers.

Bologna – Occupiers of the Social Condominium Bolognina (the recently squatted building in Via Mario de Maria) and the Taksim Student House invaded and picketed for more than a hour the Registry Office of the Navile neighbourhood, claiming and achieving the start of the procedure for collectively taking residence there.

Modena – In the night the PrendoCasa Modena housing rights collective staged a communication action by putting up banners and posters on the prefecture and municipality buildings, and unveiled lots of vacant buildings in the city as well.

Milan – During the week of decentralized action for housing rights launched by the Abitare Nella Crisi network the Infrastrutture Lombarde SPA (a regional public company now involved in an inquiry on a series of fixed tenders and frauds worth 8 billions euros) headquarters were occupied. Banners and signs were exposed in there: “Enough with speculation, false solutions, precarity, RESOURCES ARE OUT THERE, only one great work, housing, knowledge and income for everyone APRIL 12 EVERYONE LET’S GO TO ROME”. “Northern League: they fuel a battle of have-nots for distracting us from their dirty business League-CL (a Christian fundamentalist business lobby) = thieves.” A march towards the regional administration building ensued: only in the first half of 2013 there were over 20000 eviction requests, 23000 families in lists of assignment of social housing, 330 houses never assigned to people in dire emergency and now homeless.

Florence – 50 activists of the local Movimento di Lotta per la Casa housing struggle movement occupied the municipality’s registry offices in Piazza Della Libertà.

Rovato (Brescia) – The Cogeme (a municipal company managing water and gas services in the area) offices were occupied by the Provincial Committee against evictions and the Diritti per Tutti association, in order to put an halt to the disconnection of needy families from the services.

 

FRIDAY 28M

Pisa – Two pickets during the week manage to postpone house evictions, while housing rights committees ask the city council to implement the motion on housing emergency provisions issued last March 20 after weeks of struggle.

Rome – 5000 people marched from San Paolo till the regional administration building and staged a sit-in beneath it, during an important meeting on public spending. At the same time, some five hundred activists of the housing rights movements symbolically occupied the so-called “Bidet” in the Garbatella neighbourhood, an hideous real estate speculation project by the big construction and finance shark Francesco Caltagirone.

Cosenza – PrendoCasa Cosenza housing rights activists and needy families occupy a church-owned vacant building in an upscale neighbourhood in the city and once again provide a grassroots answer to the Renzi government housing plan decree.

 

SATURDAY 29M

Italy – According to Stockholm-based SIPRI institute, Italy rose in 2012 at the tenth place in global military expenses per country, with an annual 26 billions euros – 70 millions per day, among army, weapons and overseas military missions costs, plus additional expenses for NATO engagement and F-35 military planes.

Turin – Regional demonstration for housing rights: more than 6.600 eviction orders were issued in Piedmont in 2012 and 3.700 ones in the first half of 2013, mainly in Turin. The march started from the San Salvario neighbourhood, heavily affected by gentrification processes with soaring housing prices and evictions. More than one thousand people crossed the city centre, hitting a real estate agency and standing beneath the house in which once lived Antonio Gramsci, soon to be rebuilt as a luxury hotel. As the police cordoned off the historical Piazza San Carlo, where the headquarters of the Intesa San Paolo bank (owner of the city debt and once managed by the former centre-left mayor Chiamparino) are located, the demonstrators hit an ATM counter of the same bank ahead on their way. As pro-housing rights posters and writings filled the walls, the march reached a seat of the regional council, recounting the Cota administration responsibilities in real estate speculation policies and pelting the building with eggs and paint.

Pisa – Crisis among the city institutions. The Prefect (which represent the Italian state in the city) does not answer to the city council and the territorial commission on evictions’ requests, in order to not legitimize the halt of evictions conquered by the housing rights’ activists’ grassroots struggle.

Sparanise (Caserta) – Hundreds of people rushed to the Ex Pozzi area where the construction of a biomasses power plant was scheduled and symbolically sealed it, also putting banners outside the Turbogas area to denounce the connection between representative politics and organized crime.

Brescia – Because of a ten thousand-euros debt, the multiutility company A2A disconnected water from a condominium in Via Milano and put seals on the buildings’s water counters. After the seals were destroyed by the tenants, the company removed the counters altogether and sealed the pipes. Therefore, the tenants along with the Diritti per Tutti association and the Self-Managed Magazzino 47 Social Centre took the streets and blocked the entire city western area, until the restoration of water services in every apartment of the building.

Leghorn – One thousand people regional demonstration in support of social struggles. After a massive people’s party in Piazza San Marco, bucketfuls of dung were thrown at the provincial administration building, to sanction their endorsement of the hazardous Limoncino landfill. The demonstrators expressed solidarity to 40 refugees hosted at the Hotel Giappone and then moved to occupy a score of housing projects in the Fiorentina neighbourhood, withstanding the intervention of 8 police wagons.

 

SUNDAY 30M

Bergamo – Spontaneous demonstration against a Casa Pound conference hosted at the seat of Circoscrizione 2, granted by the Tentorio administration. Both the main access to the building and the secondary one in via Spino were cordoned off by the police, and the fascist initiative was held in complete isolation. Banners and wall writings against Casa Pound and the local administration appeared on the previous night around the city.