Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

ITALIAN ARRESTS UPDATE

Guy Taylor | 21.11.2002 17:34

Update on the state of ply with COBAS / Disobedients held under Mussolini's 'anti-terror' laws

The two women who were arrested and imprisoned last
Friday have now been put under house arrest. The rest are
in solitary confinement in high security jails. Apparently
they are all in good spirits. Under Italian law, they can
be held for ten days (until next Monday) before they have
to be committed for trial and a judge is called upon to
decide whether they can be released or not.
Last Friday there were several spontaneous
protests throughout Italy, and on Saturday there were demos
in about 30 cities, with 30,000 in Rome and 20,000 in
Naples - the main slogan being "Siamo tutti sovversivi"
(we're all subversives) - as they have been accused under a
fascist law of "subversion against State authority".
Tomorrow (Friday) there will be a "southern Social Forum"
in Cosenza, and on Saturday a national demonstration -
again in Cosenza.
The level of mobilisation has been remarkable. At a
meeting of the Genoa city council seven councillors
suddenly stood up, with their wrists handcuffed, shouting
"Siamo tutti sovversivi". Four of them were Rifondazione,
two were from the DS (Blairites), and one was Green Party.
Such is the strength of the movement that Pietro Folena
(roughly Robin Cook), went to visit those in jail.
The popularity of the movement has been revealed in
a recent opinion poll - which also explains why the
authorities are so desperate. In 2001 66% of Italians
thought the movement was a "positive" development.
Immediately after Florence this has risen to 70%, and what
is worrying for the government is that 58% of people who
vote for the centre-right coalition parties define it as
"very or quite positive".
No part of the movement has drawn back from
supporting those arrested. Even the Archibishop of Cosenza
has defined the accusations as "exaggerated". The Mayor of
Cosenza has said that she will set aside council buildings
for free, to enable demonstrators to sleep overnight.
The main focus is on the best known leader,
Francesco Caruso, so the last word to him - who manages to
smuggle out statements via the relatives, MPs and radical
priets who are allowed to visit him. There have been some
CGIL flags seen at some of the pickets held outside the
jails, and Caruso has been very strong in his support for
FIAT workers fighting to keep their factory open in Termini
Imerese.
One of the accusations they face is of having been
responsible for organised violence in Genoa. Caruso
answers: "They're reading things back to front, so in
Genoa the attacks were launched by demonstrators
against the police? So maybe in New York the Twin Towers
smashed into two airplanes? Perhaps it was us who tortured
policemen in the barracks, naturally after we had arrested
them? And it is the poor around the world who provoke hunger
in rich people, and it is the sea which pollutes petrol, and
children who kill Bush's Marines."
As regards the future, he says: "We've got to move
forward - you can't stop a rising tide - hopes and dreams
will defeat injustice and the arrogance of the system. They
can arrest us, but our ideas are spreading, growing and
moving. There is a famous poem by a Chilean poet Pablo
Neruda which says 'they can rip up all the flowers, but
they can't stop the Spring'... I might be locked up inside,
but in my heart I'm with the workers of Termini Imerese and
their families, and with my disobedient comrades. And I'll
be with them throughout this Saturday's demonstration in
Cosenza. Keep fighting: and together we'll keep racing
towards freedom."

Guy Taylor
- e-mail: office@resist.org.uk
- Homepage: www.resist.org.uk

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech