While the mayor Renzi attends all "well" living rooms in Florence and surrounding areas, other salons and other living situations are found with the constant pressure of forced evictions, are living "warm " and human and loving and full of history, with sofas recycled with hundreds of guests passing through. Tourism is not that interesting to those who only want to beat box, who will never bring a single vote to the "right" candidate. And so, a whole buildingin via die Conciatori in Santa Croce area, sold off at auction went for a paltry € 1,150 per sq m to a (unknown) Limited Liability Company, the ToscoTre. A trifle, for the historical center of Florence. But the town has always been very sensitive to the policies of building speculators, he prefers to get rid of the cheap of his guests, a hundred (even in co-housing) among them also the anarchist Fiorentino circle. The Tanner Project supported by the Movement of Struggle for the House, by the Communist PRC and many other reality, you can visit http://progettoconciatori.noblogs.org/ despite all the events of recent months, is so likely to break up, together with the 'last chance to make social, political and cultural in a historic center, increasingly fed to non-Florentine (those wealthy, of course).
And yet, in this beautiful city, there are still many situations, the same anarchists, many citizens' committees, "Fuori Binario", the CPA Firenze Sud with the mythical Film Workshops, the Next Emerson, and everyone does "human resistance" to the degradation and steady erosion of space, depletion of culture, land, environmental pollution and theft (they say privatization?) of the resources.
January 2011. One Sunday afternoon we go to Cecco Rivolta, in Dazzi Montalve area, Castle, to talk to girls and boys of their occupation. Our intention was to do a simple interview, but we are pleasantly overwhelmed by a flood.
How did the occupation of Cecco Rivolta start? And why did you decide to occupy?
It was born June 24, 2000, we were all college students away from home ... for reasons not directly related to economic need, but to create a fun alternative to the usual student and precarious situations ... in reality, the economic justification there was in Florence as in other cities, the suppression of a fair rent has meant a rise in rents and this affects mostly the weaker sections in particular speculation on students and workers, while in Europe they talked about "guaranteed minimum income", this income we have taken it by eliminating the rent from our own expense, for the chance to spend time and money on what we liked to do. For 10 years we have dinner together with things purchased through our kitty, we have hosted over half the world, have stayed here also Israeli draft dodgers ... our house is open and we share what we have. We do not belong to a single ideology, we have some similarities, but each took different paths political and existential, and they all made their contribution, and this has been a strength for us.
Tell me about occupation at the beginning ...
Well, there was a sense of euphoria, which lasted a year, then we 'limped' a bit, but we have always pursued our thing we did at the beginning of the action situations around Florence, we told ourselves "It's like sticking labels on the water" (laughter) and then there were other occupations ... well before Cecco there were several occupations here (it's a university area) and elsewhere, several people have decided later to move to the country, speculators should thank us because we found that the houses were abandoned and in a state of degradation , we have brought to life, then they arrived with their orders for eviction ... Cecco was on a farm owned by the University, they did not bother to send her to hell and if they have noticed when we arrived ... did not even want us to start the connection to water, and we are out in force (there were many) in front of the Rector's in our robe threatening to take a shower there ... Florence had arisen! Our right to education was not just a dispute, but a direct action, and in this we were the only ones in Italy.
What were the projects that you have brought and will bring forward?
Eh, a lot! We have been the engine of OMME, which was a movement for home, one of the first things we did was the distribution of land to the inhabitants of the district, for the creation of "social gardens"on the basis of sharing and free ... in essence, those who decide to grow it must do for themselves and not for profit. Here was born a lot 'of media activism, the "Batcave" are invented parties, Indymedia Tuscany and many other initiatives. Since 2004, every year we organize a football tournament to benefit the process called "Kicks from below. " The most recent projects are the buying group "La grande abbuffata" which was a bit too your fault Praline (you had founded the Gastroribelli), the market for organic producers and artisans, the dogs area... we are moving on the discourse of eco-sustainability, let's recall what the markets throw away (Freegan), we are much more present, on "the territory", in the district, we have also distributed a questionnaire to the inhabitants of the area here and this fact (be atypical of a squat) at the University of discomfort, in fact, hours after the criminal case there are a civilian who is even worse!
* refer to the reading of the eyelet, by Gire, from his blog
In the last month (November 2010) the quiet everyday life of Cecco Rivolta was rocked by two major innovations, both determined by the slamming of two years to start a process of participation in the Castello quarter, in an attempt to trigger a virtuous mechanism that gave us an active role and centrality in the eyes of the people and public administration. The first very nice news, we were announced that The University (current owner of the area), following the prescription of the criminal trial that saw us involved as squatters, had despatched a second trial, this time civil to be remunerated for the "loss" produced to its properties. The damages in question are the construction of the social gardens, the creation of a free dog area and the renovations that we have done to the house. While putting up a defensive strategy with our team of lawyers, we were invited for the same reasons, to attend an international meeting in Brussels on non-monetary economies, leaving room for easy ironies about the obvious differences of interpretation that our little project created.
The meeting was organized by a group called City Mine(d) with whom collaborated also a dear friend, researcher, at this moment busy to care for her firstborn. Thanks to her, Cecco Rivolta, was one of a hundred projects from all over Europe went to animate this three days in Brussels, with the aim of creating an international network that was capable of exporting practical alternatives to the goods life now vogue at the global level. ... from the blog http://vlad.noblogs.org/post/2010/11/26/greetings-form-bruxelles.
We end here though there would still be much to say ...
We always read "A Review anarchist" who for 10 years we will be sent free of charge, is in our newspaper, this is a beautiful sharing.
anno
41 n. 360
Pralina Diamante e Andrea Trerè