4 july 2011
After a crowded torchlight march on the night between June 26th and 27th, the Free Republic of the Maddalena in Piedmont was brutally assaulted by a full-scale military operation performed by around 2000 forces that turned the place into a battle site : teargas thrown at eye level, bulldozers and heavy vehicles used to evict the camp, water jets against protesters, beatings, tents and equipment smashed up. In the nearby town of Venaria, a riot police vehicle on its way to the site ran over and killed “by mistake” an elderly woman. Demonstrations, pickets and several other initiatives were organised all over Italy to show solidarity with the NO TAV movement that for years has been fighting against the construction of a high speed train line between Turin and Lyon in France. A national demo was called out for today 3rd July, and it’s still going on as I’m writing this. It’s about 8.40pm and it’s difficult to have a clear idea of what’s been happening at the Maddalena today, but what is clear is that there have been hundreds of people injured on both sides (but it’s only one side that I care about). Police have been using rubber bullets and at least one young man is seriously injured after being shot in the face. Protesters have compared the military operation to the repression in Palestine…check out some of the videos to make your mind up : video 1, video 2,video 3 (and more on the same website).
The Val di Susa (Susa Valley) has been one of the most important political campaigns of the last few years, organising resistance and fighting to protect the local territory and the locals’ health, that governments and companies would like to sacrifice once more in the name of profit. The TAV project (where TAV stands for High Speed Train) is basically a transfer of public money to a group of private companies united under the name Impregilo – multimillionaire companies such as FIAT, Benetton and others. After construction, these companies would be allowed to set up and run their own private rail service in competition with the State Railways (just in case they didn’t make enough money already). Despite not being finished yet, the business enterprise has already earned its contractors (all of which are millionaire businessmen) a very high income.
Sources for this article : Indymedia Piedmont and the new Italy Indymedia site. Cool postcard images also found on Indymedia sites – thank you unknown artists !
https://madrid.indymedia.org/node/17884
http://italycalling.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/brief-history-of-the-no-tav-movement/
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NO TAV press conference – “This is the people’s resistance”
In the midst of the riot porn that can be found on the internet about the NO TAV protests of Sunday 3 July – and that I’m not going to post here because a) you can find it anywhere and b) you can have too much of it – I’ve found a story that I think is much more important. On the Monday after the protests, the NO TAV network held a press conference in Chiomonte. So what?, you might ask. Well, it could’ve been a disaster. In 2001, after the ferocious state violence of the G8 summit in Genoa, the Genoa Social Forum made the big mistake of retreating: instead of staying united, some groups left the alliance, others stayed but distanced themselves from the “bad protesters” (namely the Black Block) and blamed them for the violent reaction of the police. The State, the police and the media had won their war: they had wanted to tear the movement apart and they succeeded. So, you can imagine what a joy it was for me to read the NO TAV network statements:
“It wasn’t the Black Block, it was just people, and the majority of them locals. We came prepared with helmets and masks after what happened on the 27th June (see my previous article), but we came with bare hands. After the police started attacking us with teargas, stones and water jets, we defended ourselves in any way we could. We couldn’t do anything else”, declared Maurizio Piccione, who opened the conference. Another representative said “Popular resistance is our way of doing things. The only accusation we will agree with is that we resisted against a situation that wasn’t created by us. The Black Block is being used as a scapegoat, because people can’t accept the fact that a whole valley wants to resist. We must thank the Valsusa residents for resisting, and we’re proud of this”.
The people's Resistance in the Susa Valley
Despite it being a press conference, the marquee was crowded with about 50 people, not just representatives and delegates of the different groups, but also people who wanted to tell their version of the story. When a journalist of the right wing paper Secolo XIX asked about the Black Block, a person just replied “I was there and I’m not the Black Block”. The journalist was challenged and finally left the conference. Other journalists left “in solidarity” with their colleague. Gone forever are those times when journalists in Italy (or any other country) would literally risk their lives to speak The Truth. Now they just mouth the words of those who stuff their mouths with gold.
The Catholic groups in the No TAV alliance criticised Susa’s local bishop for closing down the cathedral and obeying the prefect’s order of keeping the priests under him quiet. A local wine farmer described his by-now daily experience of having to travel into the militarised territory to get to his vines. Everyone was united in their rage and outrage at the lies perpetrated by the media, and expressed solidarity and sympathy with the protesters injured and arrested. At the moment there are 4 people still in prison – they were going to know today if their arrests would be confirmed or not, but the meeting has been postponed, so they’re still in. To send them cards and letters:
Marta Bifani / Roberto Nadalini / Salvatore Soru / Giancarlo Ferrari
Casa Circondariale Lorusso Cutugno
Via Pianezza 300
10151 Torino
Italy
Looks like there’ll be a protest camp at the end of July and an international one in August, so…stay tuned!
Article based on this text – if you understand Italian you can watch some videos of the press conference. This is a good website in general, and it’s got a page with English translations, so take a look!