[Nettime-bold] New Global movement as a Subversive Association

[snafu <mdeseriis@tiscali.it>]

dear nettimers,

last night (nov 15th) twenty people part of new global movements in South 
of Italy have been imprisoned with very heavy and fascistic accusations: 
"Subversive association and political conspiracy finalized to disrupt 
Government functions, subversive propaganda and violent subversion of the 
economic order of the State".

Francesco Caruso, leader of the "No Global Network" from Naples and one of 
the main speakers of Italian Disobedients, has been arrested and deported 
to the prison of maximum security of Trani, reserved to Red Brigades 
terrorists. Together with Caruso, Italian Digos (political police) arrested 
Francesco Cirillo and Giuseppe Fonzino, leaders of the movement in Cosenza 
and Taranto. Other 22 people have been searched and investigated within the 
same inquiry coordinated by the special investigative group of the Ros 
(Carabinieri) and the Procura of Cosenza.

According to the PM, Caruso, Cirillo and Fonzino are supposedly the heads 
of a subversive association called "Network of the Rebel South". The 
Network would have organized the riots of Naples in March 2001 (during the 
Global Forum organized by the previous Government) and in Genoa during the 
G8 Summit. In this circumstance the  Network would have organized a "red 
block" to be dislocated behind the black bloc. The inquiry would 
demonstrate clear relationships between the Network and the black bloc.

Beside the detectives speculations (explained in an ordinance of 360 
pages), the arrests and the particular gravity of the accusations (used in 
the 70s to fight terrorism) are clearly an intimidating act after the 
European Social Forum success which gathered last week 700,000 
demonstrators in Florence against global war. The evidence of the movement 
vitality is given by the fact that few hours after the arrests presidium 
and sit-in of solidarity have been organized all over the country. And in 
the next days initiatives are planned in various spots and under various forms.

The signs of a growing economic and social crisis in Italy are everywhere: 
FIAT, the Italian car brand, has announced recently the cut of 8,100 
workplaces and the veiled intention to sell to General Motors within two 
years. Many observers state that the dismantling of the Italian car 
industry will involve about 30,000 workers, including the external small 
factories which fabricate components for FIAT.

The crisis is particularly heavy in Sicily, where the closure of the 
implant of Termini Imerese will dramatically impact the overall 
occupational balance, already under-developed. The workers from Termini 
Imerese are striking since one week, blocking the ports and the airport of 
Palermo and Messina, cutting out the island from the rest of the country. 
The workers are also menacing the Government to increase the form of the 
protests, if Fiat will not present an industrial plan of investments and 
re-launch of the production.

Sicily is also the region where the Government lead by Silvio Berlusconi 
got 61 deputies on 61. Therefore, it is highly symbolic that in the Region 
where the people believed most the Government promises, the hard reality 
ground is breaking them into pieces. Beside this, the CGIL (the largest 
European union, with 5 million members) was massively present at the 
European Social Forum in Florence. The alliance between such a traditional 
organization of the workers and the new global movement (rooted into 
precarious, flexible, cognitive and "atypical"  workers) is powerful and 
potentially winning. The total control on media that Berlusconi is 
exercising is unable to produce new consensus and to break into social 
networks of solidarity and to delegitimate a movement where the 
word-of-mouth and the Internet are powerful tools of organization and 
resistance.

On a more general level, Italy is the EU country with the slowest growth in 
2002 (0,4%). The Euro effect is eroding the buying power of the salary and 
the public debt has started to run again. The level of corruption is 
dramatically increasing. The new laws on "fake in balance" allowed 
Berlusconi to cancel for prescription two of the trials in which he is 
involved as an enterpreneur. The new law on "legitimate suspicion" will 
facilitate enquired people to reject the natural judge and to move the 
process elsewhere (Berlusconi is rejecting his judge in Milan for the 
accusation of "magistrature corruption"). The personal and private use of 
the political power, is unaccetable not only for the new global movement 
but also for vast strata of the middle class, from school teacher to 
drugstore managers, from journalists to little enterpreneurs of the North East.

But Berlusconi has no will to leave the power. By keeping the control on 
secret services (after the nominee of the new Minister of Foreign Affairs) 
he sends a clear message. "I'm not quitting and i will use all the powers 
at my disposal to accomplish the political project of P2" (the subversive 
lobby of which Berlusconi was member): break the independence of the 
magistrature, exercise a complete control over media and turn the Italian 
democracy into a modern oligarchy.  A project that millions of people are 
contrasting day by day, disconnecting themselves by TV propaganda and fear 
circuits and spreading consciousness and democratic participation.

For updates check
http://italy.indymedia.org

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