14th December: you can only rely on the streets...

After climbing up scaffolding and cranes, monuments and rooftops, in a desperate, but intelligent and instinctive attempt to find visibility in the media in a country whose eyes are fixed on only one screen giving one opinion - that of the corridors of power - the opposition movements in Italy have returned to the streets, town squares, universities and factories in order to get their message across: NO to the expulsions of immigrants, NO to job losses and casualization, NO to the university reforms, NO to Marchionne's plans for FIAT, NO to privatized water, NO to nuclear power... [Italiano]

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14th December: you can only rely on the streets...

After climbing up scaffolding and cranes, monuments and rooftops, in a desperate, but intelligent and instinctive attempt to find visibility in the media in a country whose eyes are fixed on only one screen giving one opinion - that of the corridors of power - the opposition movements in Italy have returned to the streets, town squares, universities and factories in order to get their message across: NO to the expulsions of immigrants, NO to job losses and casualization, NO to the university reforms, NO to Marchionne's plans for FIAT, NO to privatized water, NO to nuclear power...

The movements bear witness to the inadequacy of democracy in Italy, especially when the other side - be it the bosses or the government - resorts only to threats and criminalization in order to impose its wishes unconditionally.

They are movements that are reclaiming their right to represent the people and are demanding that the combative trade unions and grassroots political and social forces - those who are not after a place in the palaces of power - stand up and give their disinterested support for policies of solidarity that can contirbute to the struggles and for a GENERAL STRIKE.

They are movements that have become aware of the devastation wreaked by the crisis that began in 2008 and by the instrumental use that government and bosses alike are making of it in order to impose laws, regulations and conditions that consign Italy and indeed the whole of Europe into the hands of State abuse and capitalist institutions, with the sole aim of protecting the interests of minorities that are already fabulously wealthy, even if it means blood and tears, misery and the pillage of rights and protections for the population of wage slaves and the unemployed.

These movements, united against the crisis, now have their first occasion to express together their autonomy and put their ability to interpret the unease and hopes of millions of students and workers to the test.

The occasion is the vote of confidence that the government is seeking from parliament, a government that in two years has consciously carried out a fierce policy of destruction of rights and liberties, of civil cohabitation and social participation. What it has given us is frenzied competition and individualism, it has protected the banks, it has taken our pensions, our retirement bonuses, our wage increases, the money for our schools and universities, hospitals and transport, culture and sport, the environment and our communities...

Little does it matter if Berlusconi manages to win the vote of confidence or lose it by a couple of votes either way. What is important is that this crisis within the right-wing government coalition does not remain merely a TV spectacle, but becomes the focus for action on the streets, with a return of the grassroots to playing a leading role in the demands for change from below, the determination to safeguard our common goods, the dignity of those who struggle for renewed democracy and participation, for the most widespread solidarity possible, for an increase in self-organization and self-management, wherever our freedom is at stake, wherever our struggle for social justice is at stake, wherever our goal of an egalitarian society is at stake.

Let's not stop at 14th December!

National Secretariat
FEDERAZIONE DEI COMUNISTI ANARCHICI

12 December 2010