Violence erupts in Rome after Berlusconi wins vote

[Tifosi]

ROME (Reuters) - Protesters set fire to cars, threw paint and smoke bombs at the Italian parliament and clashed with riot police on Tuesday in Rome's worst violence for years after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi survived a confidence vote.

Via del Corso, the main street stretching through the historic center, near Berlusconi's office and home to some of the capital's smartest shops, was a battle scene of smoke, teargas and bloodied faces.

Smoke rose from the Pincio Hill above the famed Spanish Steps as protesters set fire to private cars, overturned heavy trash bins and prevented fire crews from putting out the flames.

At least 50 people were injured, including several policemen, and more than 40 protesters were detained, police said. The protesters were mostly students but also included workers and immigrants.

Television pictures showed dozens of people throwing stones at police, with officers in riot gear beating the protesters back and chasing them along narrow cobblestoned alleyways.

"While they are doing their little game in parliament, we are heading toward catastrophe. Where is my future? I don't feel represented by this government, I don't feel represented in my own country," said 19-year old Marco, a university student.

The protesters had been hoping that Berlusconi would fall and had wanted to stage a victory demonstration. But he survived the no-confidence motion in parliament by a mere three votes. He would have had to resign if he had lost. [nLDE6BD0DF]

Shops were forced to close as protesters, many of them wearing ski masks, overturned tables of sidewalk restaurants, flower vases and parked motorcycles.

The protesters smashed bank windows, destroyed several cash machines and threw chairs and tables at police vehicles.

In the past several weeks, students have been protesting throughout Italy against austerity measures and university reforms planned by the center-right government, matching similar demonstrations in other countries, including Britain.

Students also blocked Palermo airport in Sicily and briefly occupied the stock market building in Milan.

"They haven't done anything. For universities nothing has been done and we are in a situation which is getting worse every day," said university student Valerio Zampani.

For many Italians the latest political drama adds to the despondency hanging over their country, but others welcomed the outcome of the vote.

"I think it's better like this because otherwise it wouldn't have worked. At this point in time we need a government that can keep our head above water," said Rome resident Giuliano Marroti.

Source (http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BD41V20101214?ca=rdt)

[Magón]

I like the BBC's video of protesters who'd lit a police car and van on fire in the middle of one of those mini-roads. It's pretty fucking cool.

[Tifosi]

http://media.masslive.com/republican/photo/9122286-standard.jpg

http://media.masslive.com/republican/photo/9122282-standard.jpg

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More pictures here (http://photos.masslive.com/4502/gallery/violent_riots_in_rome_following_berlusconi_vote/index.html):thumbup1:

[Antifa94]

I am in love

[Red Commissar]

Oh wow, I forgot about the vote of no-confidence! Was there any demonstrations elsewhere besides Rome?

[Robocommie]

So what's the political composition of the rioters, out of curiosity?

[Tifosi]

Oh wow, I forgot about the vote of no-confidence! Was
there any demonstrations elsewhere besides Rome?

This (http://momento24.com/en/2010/12/14/protests-in-italy-against-berlusconi’s-continuity/) report says there were protest's in Milan, Turin, Palermo, Catania, Cagliari and Bari. Although it doesn't say anything about numbers or if there was rioting.

[Tifosi]

More pictures of rioting in Rome here (http://libcom.org/gallery/photo-gallery-student-protests-rome-14th-december-2010).


So what's the political composition of the rioters, out of curiosity?

From this (http://italycalling.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/14122010-the-battle-of-rome/) blog post on Italy Calling (http://italycalling.wordpress.com/).

"Demonstrations started in the morning and went on till late afternoon. In Rome at least 100,000 protesters have been estimated, from all sorts of groups: students, precarious workers, factory workers, social centres, migrant groups, groups of residents from L’Aquila."

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Composition of the rioters?

From what I'm seeing I'd guess the party's over once the tough working class football fans from the suburbs of Rome get political. These are the guys for whom descending on the center of Rome is a big symbolic deal - what's truly shocking (to the bourgies) about these actions isn't that they happened, but that they happened in the luxury areas, around the Piazza di Spagna and the Corso. Next time I imagine the metal shutters won't help the rows upon rows of Armani/Prada/etc. boutiques.

[Lunatic Concept]

Brilliant how it seems a whole generation of students can suddenly become concious all over the world in just two months :D gives us all hope dosent it?

[Amphictyonis]

Brilliant how it seems a whole generation of students can suddenly become concious all over the world in just two months :D gives us all hope dosent it?

What was it that made this happen?

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

what was it that made this happen?
society!

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

What was it that made this happen?
It's been a long time coming, with a long way to go. The kids in Italy have been feeling trapped for a while, training for work that doesn't exist anyhow, graduating with advanced degrees and getting lucky if they get drudge work somewhere on a temp basis, realizing it doesn't make a damn difference what you do, who gets the job's been decided by "gli amici," those who have friends. Truly interesting that a number of marches happened in Sicily...

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

In answer to Amphictyonis: The current financial crisis, the wide-ranging cuts, the bale-out of the banks, the massive bonuses they still receive and the blatant ripping off of workers worldwide.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

It's been a long time coming, with a long way to go. The kids in Italy have been feeling trapped for a while, training for work that doesn't exist anyhow, graduating with advanced degrees and getting lucky if they get drudge work somewhere on a temp basis, realizing it doesn't make a damn difference what you do, who gets the job's been decided by "gli amici," those who have friends. Truly interesting that a number of marches happened in Sicily...


In answer to Amphictyonis: The current financial crisis, the wide-ranging cuts, the bale-out of the banks, the massive bonuses they still receive and the blatant ripping off of workers worldwide.

Society!

[Andropov]

Brilliant how it seems a whole generation of students can suddenly become concious all over the world in just two months :D gives us all hope dosent it?
Who needs the working class when you have students.
Fuck sake.

[RadioRaheem84]

Was there voter manipulation? How the hell did Italy elect Berlusconi again?

[Red Commissar]

Was there voter manipulation? How the hell did Italy elect Berlusconi again?

I wasn't an election, it was a vote of confidence. He went past it in the Senate fine enough (meaning the senate voted in favor of Berlusconi), but the Chamber of Deputies was a close one- 314-311. This happened after two deputies switched their votes unexpectedly to vote in favor of Berlusconi and another two abstaining.

Had it gone the way the opposition hoped, it would have resulted in them attempting to form a government or more likely to call for early elections.

[Tifosi]

Reflections on the widespread, violent demonstrations on 14 December 2010 in Italy, mostly of young people protesting new education reforms - Source (http://libcom.org/news/rage-only-future-we-have-thoughts-14th-december-protests-italy-20122010)

In the last few days I've read, listened to and watched a lot of stuff about the student protests in Italy, and especially the huge demonstrations of 14th December, when Rome was set on fire by thousands of beautiful, angry youth. With few exceptions, the Italian media have been doing what they do best: Attacking, twisting, distorting, diminishing, LYING. No surprise there.

I can't see a reason why the Videocrat and his court would like to have angry people on the streets, unless it was the new generation of Black Shirts they've been breeding during the last few years. There have been attacks from other sides too, unfortunately. Roberto Saviano, the writer of the bestseller "Gomorrah" (you'll have heard of the movie!), wrote a letter to the "left wing" newspaper La Repubblica, in which he attacked the students using the same old refrain we already know: The police' violence was horrible, but it was the violent protesters' fault. A few black sheep ruined the whole peaceful movement, and so on...

Over here, I've also read a lot of stuff. Some appalling, some good. I've been thinking though: All this brilliant analysis...where does it come from? Where is the students' voice? Cos this is their moment, their protest, their revolution. With all due respect to the good ones out there, but I don't really want a journalist or an "intellectual" (do they even exist anymore?) to tell me what's going on. I want the people who are doing the revolution to tell me what's going on; I want to hear what they've got to say about themselves and what they're doing.

So...of all the brilliant stuff I found, I decided to translate this article published by the Red Net (Network of Self-managed Universities). There was lots of stuff to choose from, but this one struck a chord with me. I felt these were the voices that I wanted to give space to. No big words, no pretence, no intellectualism. These are the voices of the streets.

Quote:
"The 14th December has been an historical day. After years of passivity and resignation thousands of young people decided to take their future back and get out on the streets to vote no confidence - against this government and all the governments that during the years have contributed to a methodical destruction of social rights. For us students, to get out on the streets that day was an obvious choice. Protests against the Gelmini reform without awareness of the bigger picture would have led us to make the same mistakes we made during the Wave of 2008. It is only the extension of the struggle beyond the single reform that can bring real change.
There were more than 100,000 people at the demo. Despite the criticism of politicians and self-proclaimed intellectuals (Saviano's article is a significant example), we know that the reality is very different. We were there. We were behind the shields. We were there with our helmets, demanding the future that they're taking from us day after day. And we clearly remember that, every time we charged the police vans in Via del Corso, and every time the vans had to draw back, the whole Piazza del Popolo applauded. People who weren't on the front line, people up on the Pincio watching what was going on, people on the obelisk: They were applauding, they were all feeling that moment was theirs too.

We're not "experts of the revolt" or "ultras of chaos" as we've been defined. We're not naive kids in the hands of bad teachers either. We simply are thousands of precarious workers that work in restaurants and call centres for nothing; we are factory workers in redundancy; we are students who pay more fees everyday and are losing access to the right to study; we are unemployed graduates doing endless unpaid placements described as "formation opportunities" but which are nothing else than exploitation. If you want to give us all the label "Black Bloc", allright then. We were all Black Bloc. They dismissed the riots as outbursts of unjustified violence, but this is not the case. That rage came from the realisation that despite protests and mobilisations our requests were still being ignored; that the streets, the only true expression of our needs, were being militarised, blocked up, repressed.

During that day many people were stopped and arrested. Today 22 of the arrested are free and 1 is under house arrest. Despite the magistrates' decision of releasing the arrested and fixing the initial hearings for February, the MP Maroni declared he didn't agree with the decision. According to him, those arrested should have been kept locked up until the Parliament's final decision on the Gelmini reform, to prevent them from committing the same crimes again. We'd like to remind Maroni and everyone else that before 14th December there had already been a widespread and radical mobilisation, and that against 23 people arrested, there still would have been thousands outside who haven't exhausted their energy and rage in Piazza del Popolo.

We have stopped being spectators, we demand to be protagonists!

This is only the beginning!

Rights are not given, they are TAKEN!"

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

These are the voices of the streets.

Quote:
that the streets, the only true expression of our needs, were being militarised, blocked up, repressed.



Great response, thanks Tifosi. Ma io voglio sapere una cosa ancora: Is there much consciousness that "the streets" are being gradually restricted and controlled, especially nel centro di Roma? Mille grazie!

[Tifosi]

Great response, thanks Tifosi. Ma io voglio sapere una cosa ancora: Is there much consciousness that "the streets" are being gradually restricted and controlled, especially nel centro di Roma? Mille grazie!

I don't know if there is a major feeling among people in Rome and the rest of Italy that the streets are being "restricted and controlled". I'll have a better look later:cool:

What has been talked about, mainly by members of the opposition Democratic Party, is that the poilce are returning to the "stragery of tension" of the 1970's.

Quote:
"Photographs taken during the disturbances have prompted not only
suspicions but bitter memories of the 1970s when rogue members of the police and intelligence services lent themselves to a so-called "strategy of tension" aimed at raising the level of violence to the point at which it could be used to justify draconian repression or even a coup d'état."

Source (http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/15/italy-rome-riots-police?cat=world&type=article)

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

I don't know if there is a major feeling among people in Rome and the rest of Italy that the streets are being "restricted and controlled".
In any case, in Italy most of the day-to-day policing falls under local authority, correct? As opposed to France, for instance, where the CRS are under the direct control of the Minister of the Interior and are constantly stirring up hatred in the 'hood. Same in LA, New York, etc. So this particular event was in Rome, and presumably because it was a State and not a local issue it was handled by the Carabinieri?

Something to think about. Thanks!