Rome: Anarchist comrades arrested. Operation Bialystok, part of a strategy

A new repressive chapter of the Carabinieri from the Ros (political police) in Italy against anarchists, leads to the arrest of seven anarchists who are linked to various insurrectionary attacks… and in solidarity with the imprisoned in the operation “Pánico”.
On this occasion, the version of the anarchist “triangle” going from Greece, Italy to Spain, is transformed into a pentagon, adding Chile and Germany.
The arrested comrades are Claudio Zaccone, 33 years old from Messina, Roberto Cropo, 34 years old from Turin (arrested in France with a European arrest warrant issued by the Rome prosecutor), Flavia Di Giannantonio, 39 years old from Rome, Nico Aurigemma, 30 years from Rome and Francesca Cerrone, 31 years from Trentino (arrested in Spain with a European arrest warrant issued by the Rome prosecutor), on suspicion of forming an anarchic “cell” of the FAI-FRI, based in the “Bencivenga Occupato” social centre in Rome. They are accused of association for terrorist purposes, subversion of the democratic order, attacks against the state and a whole repertoire of acts of sabotage with the alleged aim of reorganising the insurrectionary anarchist movement. The arrests were made with the collaboration of the French central police and the Spanish national police.
The investigation was initiated following the attack with explosives on the carabinieri station of San Giovanni in Rome in 2017, an act claimed by the IAF-FRI, and in which one of the arrested comrades is suspected of having participated.
Five of them are already in prison. When the addresses are made public, we will disseminate them.
We recall that in Bologna seven more anarchists were arrested in the operation Ritrovo. [Read More]

Bologna (Italy): former Sani barracks squatted by XM24

Give in to those who would like us to be extinct, exiled or forgotten: we may have little sense, but our imagination is infinite! Today XM24 reopens a place closed and abandoned for decades. What was once the Sani barracks begins a new life as a place of self-management, solidarity and aggregation. We are opposed to the abandonment of public spaces, regaining possession of the spaces we need to live and breathe.
For 17 years XM24 has produced sociality and self-managed culture in Via Fioravanti 24. A Self-managed public space that has also been the starting point of social struggles that have crossed Bologna and the entire country. A place where many activities have been able to escape the logic of profit, a place of human and political experimentation. [Read More]

Bologna (Italy): The bulldozers of the Partito Democratico against XM24

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. [Read More]

Bologna (Italy): social center XM24 supporters face down national agenda to close self-organized spaces

The autonomous public space XM24 in Bologna is one of the latest organizations to come under pressure from Italian authorities aiming to evict and disperse them. National politicians such as Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, a leader of the far-right Northern League (Lega Nord) and collaborationist municipal governments have cracked down on multi-purpose, autonomous social spaces across Italy.

Bologna has a long history as a “red city” with substantial leftist and anti-authoritarian organizing, with the oldest university in Europe dating to 1088 and continuing political influence by communist and socialist parties. Partisan fighters (partigiani) carried out guerrilla warfare against Mussolini’s fascist forces during World War II in the surrounding region. A popular armed uprising aimed at social revolution finally liberated the city on April 21, 1945, a day now commemorated every year.

From World War II to the present day, antifascist groups maintain a strong presence in Bologna. The cover photo above is from an April 25, 2019 antifascist demonstration that passed by XM24, marking a national day of liberation from fascism. The yellow banner says “Against all fascisms. Against racism, sexism and exploitation.” [Read More]

Bologna (Italy): Police brutality during double eviction

Police injured more than a dozen people, two seriously, on a day where two social centres were violently evicted in Bologna. [Read More]

Athens: Solidarity statement from the squat Rosa de Foc to XM24 squat

As international collective, self-organized and based on anarchist and anti-authoritarian principles we believe that the international solidarity represents the strongest weapon that the movement has. We are all aware that this weapon can be used at different levels, from words to direct actions.

As living squat and self-educational center Rosa de Foc of Exarchia, we believe that is essential to express our solidarity to all the squats and battlegrounds that are under attack from state apparatus of repression. Especially, for affinity in ideas and practices, we want to assert our vicinity to the squat XM24 of Bologna. A squat that resists to the power’s oppression for 15 years, in constant struggle to create a concrete alternative to the dominant lifestyle that repress and humiliate an increasing number of individuals. We feel close to XM24, a place where, thanks to the many collectives acting inside it, during the years it were built a big number of projects, alive and active, which have made a shelter against the gentrification and the monetization of our neighborhoods. At the same time it isn’t just a provider of ‘alternative services’ but it has maintained alive his fighting and rebel soul that doesn’t surrender to the current situation. [Read More]

Bologna: Let’s open the housing struggle doors! 68 Families occupy today

20151207_Bologna_via_Agucchi_173_occupataUPDATE 8.45 In via Agucchi everyone decided to resist to the end against the barbarity of the institutions and the police against the homeless! Tomorrow at 8 am a resisting breakfast will take place, followed by a social lunch at 1 pm, and a metropolitan assembly of the housing struggle at 4 pm! The housing struggle movement will resist one minute more than them!
UPDATE 7.30 With great perseverance we keep resisting on the roof, while the picket of the supporters managed to outflank the blockade of the oppressors in uniform: children, families and occupiers have warm nourishment for dinner on the roof as well! It is a day featuring joy and resistance! Thanks to Eat the Rich and Campi Aperti, thanks to who resists on the roofs, on the vehicles and in the streets, thanks to who builds everyday a beautiful and solidal Bologna! [Read More]

Bologna: Police comes to evict the Ex-Telecom building, resistance ensues both inside and outside it!

20151020_Bologna_eviction_Ex_Telecom_buildingUpdate 7.30 pm
The solidal picket beneath the Ex-Telecom building keeps growing in numbers, reaffirming that no one will leave without a satisfying solutions for all the occupiers.

Update 6.05 pm
After an assembly on the roof the occupiers deemed acceptable the proposal made by the social workers, that promise housing for everyone. They swore to debate as soon as they get down the roof in order to assess whether the proposal can be deemed satisfactory enough. Meanwhile the supporting picket that was called in front of the Ministry of Infrastructures in Porta Pia was charged. Water cannons were used in order to disperse the crowd. A youngster that fell ill was carried away in an ambulance, another one is at the hospital. The use of water cannons even destroyed some traffic lights. There were charges also against the supporting picket in Alessandria, in a day of struggle for housing rights that is getting recognized all over the country. [Read More]