SQUATTERS ACCUSE MAYOR OF RETREATING FROM COLLABORATION AGREEMENT FOLLOWING GAZA PROTESTS ~ Cristina Sykes ~ The Askatasuna social centre in Turin, Italy was evicted early this morning, bringing to an end nearly 30 years of occupation. The operation involved the DIGOS political police and armoured vehicles, with several streets sealed off. Police entered the four-storey former municipal building building early in the morning to carry out searches and then sealed the premises. According to activists, six people were inside the building at the time of the raid. The homes of around ten activists linked to the centre and to student collectives were raided at the same time, in connection with recent Palestine solidarity protests including an action at the headquarters of arms manufacturer Leonardo.  During the day police used a water cannon to disperse a growing crowd of supporters who had gathered outside the building, while traffic in the area was blocked and at least one nearby tram line suspended. Two schools in the surrounding area were reportedly closed on the orders of the prefecture. The mayor of Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, said the city had withdrawn from a “collaboration pact” with Askatasuna that had been in place since early 2024, when the municipal council formally recognised the occupied building as a “common good” and began a process towards shared management. The mayor’s office stated that inspections by public security authorities had found violations of the conditions of the agreement. Activists and solidarity groups dispute this account, arguing that the police operation and the withdrawal of the pact unfolded on parallel tracks and that pressure from the national government played a decisive role — similarly to the eviction of Milan’s Leoncavallo social centre earlier this year. Several statements described the eviction as a politically motivated act aimed at weakening social movements, in particular those involved in organising protests against the war in Gaza and Italy’s role in international military alliances. Askatasuna, whose name means “freedom” in Basque, has been a central reference point for the city’s autonomous and radical left since 1996. Over the years it hosted political assemblies, cultural events, concerts and community services, including housing advice, children’s activities and mutual aid projects. The centre was also closely involved in major protest cycles in Turin, from the No TAV movement in the Susa Valley to anti-war and anti-fascist mobilisations. Within hours of the eviction, dozens of organisations across Italy issued statements of solidarity, including trade unions, student groups and networks of social centres. Many framed the operation as part of a broader tightening of public order policies under the far-right-led government of Giorgia Meloni. A joint statement from social centres in north-eastern Italy described the Turin operation as an “exemplary act” designed to intimidate and warned that autonomous spaces were increasingly being treated as targets of repression. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine-assisted edit. Photos: GlobalProject, Radio Onda d’Urto The post Turin: Askatasuna social centre evicted appeared first on Freedom News.

FAR-RIGHT NATIONAL GOVERNMENT PUSHED FOR THE SURPRISE EVICTION DESPITE ONGOING TALKS WITH MUNICIPALITY ~ Cristina Sykes ~ Police in Milan, Italy this morning (21 August) evicted the Leoncavallo occupied social centre, one of the most longstanding spaces of the Italian autonomous left. Hundreds of police officers in riot gear participated in the eviction and entire streets were blocked in the surrounding neighbourhood. The centre—a space for music, art, culture, and political organising and debate—had been located on Via Leoncavallo since 1975, and since 1994 on Via Watteu. “I am saddened”, said local poet Olmo Losca in a Facebook post, describing the centre as “a place that offered many people different moments of coming-together, always open to migrants and vulnerable people, the unemployed, the families destroyed by poverty”. Sources close to the centre attribute the eviction to political antagonism on part of Italy’s far-right government—particularly Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, a civil servant allied with the Northern League, and neo-fascist Senate president Ignacio La Russa, a resident of Milan. Prime Minister Georgia Meloni spoke approvingly of the eviction on national media. Earlier this year, an Italian court ruled that either the social centre or the ministry should pay compensation of 3 million Euro to the owners of the real-estate on which the centre was located. However, activists had been given assurances no action would be taken until 9 September. The early morning, midsummer timing of the eviction is thought to have been chosen due to the expectation of little resistance. The surprise eviction is said to have blindsided the municipality as well as the activists, with the mayor of Milan having offered an alternative location for the centre—albeit on what activists claim is toxic land. “The country’s real problems lie elsewhere, but they prefer to target symbolic spaces and fuel the idea of a single-track mindset”, said activist Alex C. “Because it’s not just the closure of a place: it’s the loss of opportunity, of choice, of awareness that something ‘other’ can exist beyond what TV and the system impose”. Supporters of the centre have called for a public assembly this evening at via Watteu. “We feel pain and rage”, said Marina Boer, spokesperson of the Leoncavallo mothers’ association. “This feeling confirms how good our ideas are. The Leoncavallo can’t end up like this. We will find a way forward, because the city needs cultural spaces. It can’t just be a desert of skyscrapers”. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos: milanoinmovimento on Instagram The post Italy: Eviction of historic Leoncavallo social centre in Milan appeared first on Freedom News.

A NEW NETWORK IN ITALY IS FIGHTING AGAINST “CPR” MIGRANT DETENTION CENTRES ON THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST ~ thymo nzk & Ibiscus ~ A protest of over 500 people took place on Saturday 28 June in the small touristic coastal town of Diano Marina, where the government is planning a new detention centre for migrants. Marching from the pier along the coast, the demonstration finished just outside the abandoned military compound where the detention centre is to be sited. Slogans included “No borders, no nation, stop deportations” and “Revolt and evasion”. One of the first policy announcements of the neo-fascist Meloni government, elected in 2022, was to extend the deportation system in Italy by ordering the construction of new “centri di permanenza per i rimpatri” (CPR)—the Italian equivalent of immigration removal centres. Inside this repressive structure, basic provisions of the liberal rights-based order are absent. Not only are they run by private companies, they also lack any form of transparency—so all solidarity activists have are detainee accounts of the violence they face. Since 1999 at least 34 people have been killed in the current 10 CPRs in Italy, including the prominent case of Moussa Balde. Abuses reported in detention centres have included forced psychopharmacological consumption. The colonial dimension of this racist apparatus is also evident. Similarly to Trump’s deportation system to El Salvador, the Meloni government has already built and opened a CPR in Albania, managed by Italian authorities. The opposition to the planned CPR expansion in Liguria is diverse. A first protest was called in 2024 by local elected officials and shop keepers, demanding that the CPR is not built in their backyard. Since then, a wider coalition of local solidarity networks, associations and political groups have been coordinating a movement against this and all detention and deportation centres, with the slogan “né qui né altrove” (not here, not anywhere). The post Italy: Protest against planned detention centre appeared first on Freedom News.

FRENCH AND ITALIAN DOCKWORKERS UNITE IN PRACTICAL RESISTANCE TO THE ISRAELI GENOCIDE IN GAZA ~ David TNnzk ~ On Thursday, 5 June, workers at the port of Marseille unionised with CGT and backed by a solidarity presidium, successfully refused three containers full of military equipment which were scheduled to be loaded onto the Contship Era, chartered by Israeli shipping company ZIM.  The shipment included 14 tonnes of machine gun components and spare parts bound for Haifa. The ship was due to make a technical stopover for refuelling at Genoa on Friday 6 June. A protest presidium was called by the Genoa Port Workers’ Collective (CALP) and the USB trade union.  Contingency plans were in place: in the event that the French comrades had failed to sabotage the cargo, the Italian dockworkers were prepared to prevent the shipment proceeding further. However, with the successful action of the Marseille dockworkers, the ship’s departure was delayed.  The solidarity event on the Italian side was therefore postponed Saturday 6 June. Once the ship eventually reached the Genoa port, chants demanding ‘stop genocide!’ were heard as a demonstration of more than 300 people marched into the port crossing.  As requested by their French colleagues, the dockers in Genoa inspected each container to ensure that no military cargo was on the ship. The next stop was scheduled for Sunday 8 in Salerno, Italy, where demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine were expected to continue. In fact, the Contship Era decided to change course, heading for Sicily. This event does not come out of the blue. In 2023, the Genoa Port Workers’ Collective had already launched an international mobilisation against the shipment of arms to war zones under the slogan ‘lower the guns, raise the wages’. Earlier this year, after the Greek national strike that opposed both the conservative government and European austerity policies, the International Coordination of Dockworkers was founded. On that occasion, workers in 54 cities of other countries joined in solidarity with the Greek strike, paving the way for wider collaboration. Today, workers’ organisations from Greece, Turkey, Morocco, France and Italy are currently members. The lever that drove this alliance is the desire to jam the war machine by targeting the ports that keep it moving. Earlier still, in 2019 and 2020, the harbours of Genoa had refused to load war shipments on the Saudi ‘Bahri’ fleet bound for Yemen, inspiring similar blocks in other ports across Europe like: Marseille, Le Havre (Normandy) and Bilbao (Basques). The Genoa Port Workers’ Collective are also trying to put pressure on the institutions by appealing to law 185/90, which prohibits the transit of armaments to theatres of war. Additionally, dockworkers have raised issues regarding non-compliance with safety regulations concerning the docking and mooring of ships loaded with weapons and explosives.  The first major stance against the genocide in Gaza was organised by Moroccan dockers in Casablanca, preventing the loading of F-35 components on a ship headed to Haifa. These partial successes give positive energy and hope in difficult times of war and repression. The logistics sector once again proves to be a focal point for capital; it has itself been developed to supply the armies more effectively. For this movement to be truly effective, all logistics actors must continue to use their structural leverage to enforce a generalised embargo. The post Dockers successfully block arms shipment to Israel appeared first on Freedom News.

Interesting analysis: > Although much attention is given to sophisticated, zero-click spyware > developed by companies like Israel’s NSO Group, the Italian spyware > marketplace has been able to operate relatively under the radar by > specializing in cheaper tools. According to an Italian Ministry of Justice > document, as of December 2022 law enforcement in the country could rent > spyware for €150 a day, regardless of which vendor they used, and without the > large acquisition costs which would normally be prohibitive. > > As a result, thousands of spyware operations have been carried out by Italian > authorities in recent years, according to a ...