The bulldozers of the PD of Bologna against XM24, the historic social center of Via Fioravanti, active for 17 years. After years of threats, at dawn on Tuesday August 6, bulldozers, armored vehicles and dozens and dozens of uniforms showed up to clear the XM24. The declared objective of the mayor PD Merola’s junta is to gentrify the area, between students for money and other real estate operations, cloaked in the usual rhetoric of “decorum”. Inside and outside XM24 there are hundreds of solidarity workers, to defend the experience of self-management of the social space.
5 p.m. – The activists who have been resisting the eviction of the XM24 since dawn this morning are still on the roof. Gradually, the other people who were inside the building went out and joined the garrison that is still in progress in the parking lot near the social center. In the meantime, the workers continue to work quickly to demolish most of the structures inside the building and take away the material. The destruction of the garden also began a short while ago. It began shortly after 15.30, after the meeting at the police headquarters between a delegation of the XM24, the city councilor for culture, Matteo Lepore and Valerio Montalto, general manager of the municipality.
Below, the editorial published by Zic.it, which is following the clearance:
“Thank you, thank you and thank you again to those who thought of having an excavator in via Fioravanti, together with the cavalry. Let’s call it a bulldozer, which is done first. That’s right. Thank you, really, because that bulldozer is not only used to overcome a barricade and so hope to be able to wipe out the history, the present and the future of XM24. That bulldozer, first of all, sweeps away a huge pile of lies, hypocrisies, duplicates, crocodile tears and good chatter for some press statements and some deadly session of the city council. The democratic bulldozer is the same as Salvini’s bulldozer. It crushes, demolishes, passes over, shreds what is in front of it. “Everything will go well. In the best Bolognese tradition”, declared the mayor Merola less than a week ago. And how to blame him today? The best Bolognese tradition is there for all to see: this city, this administration, signs yet another eviction with the punctual result of impoverishing the social and cultural fabric, fueling loneliness and speculation. This is it, the taste does not improve even if you drown it in the sauce.
Ruspaaa! (bulldozers!) is the echo that resonates in the streets of Bologna.
In recent months there have been rumors that the hypothesis of an eviction of XM24 was becoming more and more concrete because the PD in Bologna, seeing what was happening in other cities, did not want to run the risk of making a shitty figure leaving Salvini the chance of an Augustan intervention against the social center. In short, with the regional elections coming up, in the PD there was a great fear of being overtaken on the right by the League. Here, the roar of the bulldozer started this morning in Via Fioravanti closes the circle. A noise that is confused with the howls of the jackals of every single party of the right that, in record time, already exult unsheathed and sing victory: ‘dear’ strategists of the PD, maybe you should ask yourself some questions.
While in Bolognina the dirty work is being done, we don’t know on which beach the mayor Merola is spending his holidays. But in Papeete, if you’re on the right track, there’s always room.
XM24 reaches agreement: “New space by November 15” (august 6th – 19:13)
An agreement has been signed with the municipality, which undertakes to find an appropriate location for all activities of the social center from the assumptions already proposed by XM24. But “the resistance continues”, make clear the activists. The people who had remained on the roof went down.
Also the last XM24 activists that had remained since this morning on the roof of the social center under eviction have gone down. This is after the meeting in the police headquarters with the municipal administration ended: “The negotiation went quite well,” is announced to the megaphone from the solidarity garrison in the park in front of the building.
They add shortly after the activists who have returned from the Police Headquarters. Today’s day represents “a victory of determination and solidarity”, because “hundreds of people on the streets from 4 in the morning until 7 in the evening, August 6 under the mugginess of Bologna, no one has ever seen them. And what’s more, today’s is “an eviction that ends without any complaint”, they continue. “The comrades who are on the roof come down victorious and this result has been achieved thanks to all and everyone”, screamed the activists, adding: “We respect to the sender the statements of the mayor Merola who equates the bulldozers on XM24 to the hypothetical bulldozers on the fascists of Casa Pound”. The Bolognese Council of the PD “acted with XM24 in a serious way, with the bulldozers, like the current Minister of the Interior and there is no difference in this”.
Coming to the results of the meeting, “what we have managed to achieve thanks to all of us is a serious commitment, signed, with a date for new space that will be given to XM24 to be able to resume all their activities. The activists explain again: “It is the municipality that commits itself to find a new suitable location in which to restart the activities as soon as possible and in any case no later than 15 November 2019. It will not be just any place but will be evaluated starting from the buildings that we have already proposed to the administration last August 1st. Properties that are all in Bolognina”, is the announcement welcomed by applause, smoke, firecrackers, fireworks and the choir “Bolognina paura non ha”. This “does not mean that the fight is over, no, the resistance continues because we do not trust them”, underlines XM24. “We are happy with the paper, but the paper sings when we take it like today”, conclude the activists, pointing out that Thursday will be held the market of Campi Aperti in front of the XM24 to “guard” the property and then Tuesday a meeting.
XM24 will have a new location “adequate to restart its activities as soon as possible and no later than November 15th 2019,” confirms councilor Matteo Lepore at the end of the meeting at the Police Headquarters. Lepore explains that he has signed (representing the municipal administration) a text with XM24 in which the municipality, recognizing “the importance of political, social and cultural planning of the public space XM24” undertakes to find a new location at the social center. The decision on which will be the new headquarters will come from “the evaluation of the buildings already proposed by XM24 from August 1st. The Municipality undertakes “to identify ways of allocation and support on the basis of forms of self-management through a table every fortnight starting from August”. This means that from next week, or at least by August, the XM24 activists and the administration will meet to “identify the new headquarters but also to continue a path of collaboration together,” says Lepore: “We started with the scraper of Salvini and I would like to end with the boat of Bologna that I think is the most important symbol on which we all must stand.
XM24
xm24 [at] ecn [dot] org
https://squ.at/r/5em
http://www.ecn.org/xm24/
Directory of squats in Italy: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/IT/squated/squat
Directory of groups (social centers, collectives, squats) in Italy: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/IT
Events in Italy: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/IT
Radio Onda d’Urto http://www.radiondadurto.org/2019/08/06/bologna-la-ruspa-del-pd-contro-xm24/
https://www.zic.it/lxm24-strappa-accordo-nuovo-spazio-entro-il-15-novembre-audio/
