WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #7-25: A New Environmental Movement? (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 Emilia-Romagna has always been at the forefront of environmental

movements. ---- In Emilia, at the end of the 1970s, lively anti-nuclear
struggles developed with reference to the Caorso (PC) power plant and,
subsequently, to the Brasimone (BO) power plant. In Romagna, groups were
very active in that period, together with others (especially Venetians),
which gave life, at a national level, to the experience of the Green
Archipelago, which soon degenerated into the Green Party. In this
context, pioneering struggles were carried out throughout the region to
induce municipal administrations to practice recycling of solid urban waste.

In the following years, the dominant corporate mentality, together with
the disappointing institutional activity of the Greens, slowed down the
movement, which nevertheless continued to exist and fight, even
achieving some significant victories, albeit without the drive that had
characterized it initially.

The environmentalist flag was waved again, about fifteen years ago, by
Beppe Grillo's 5 Star Movement, on whose developments we draw a veil of
pity, and later, in 2018, by the followers of Greta Thunberg, a singular
character who rose to the honors of the world chronicles for having
skipped school on a weekly basis (something that many others do in
Italy, without being received by the Pope or heard by the UN assembly).

For three years now, right in Emilia-Romagna, people of all ages,
veterans of the experiences listed above, are giving life to something
new, or so it seems. A small initiative has had a great deal of
importance in this process: the march against useless works which, in
September 2022, saw about forty activists, calling themselves "Earth
Lifts", walk non-stop for ten days. Starting from the plain, and more
precisely from Ponticelli di Malalbergo (where an important dispute
against the creation of a logistics hub had been won) they arrived in
the mountains, at Corno alle Scale (where the construction of a useless
ski lift is planned). The synergies developed during the march then
contributed to reviving the pre-existing fight against the "Passante di
mezzo", a large useless project consisting of bringing the motorway to
18 lanes in some points, located near Bologna.

The next march, in September 2023, put the opposition to the Passante at
the center of attention and, again, that to the new ski lifts,
concluding in Cutigliano, in Tuscany, and also involving local
environmentalists. A few months later, completely unexpectedly, the
fight for the defense of the Besta schools, which the Municipality
intended to demolish, and the adjacent Don Bosco park, much loved by the
inhabitants of the San Donato neighborhood, grew in Bologna. It all
started with a signature collection aimed at saving the park. The
Municipality tried to proceed anyway. The environmentalists set up a
garrison, reinforced by young people camping in the trees. The dispute
continued, with ups and downs, until the (partial) victory: the park is
now safe; the school is still standing. The Besta Committee wants it to
be restored and returned to its function.

The entire affair has had great resonance in the mass media and, in
recent months, similar struggles have developed throughout Italy, aimed
at safeguarding green areas threatened by building speculation.

In the last week of August 2024, the third edition of the march against
useless works was held. This time the marchers started from Tuscany, to
protest the construction of yet another ski lift; they then moved to the
vicinity of the Brasimone nuclear power plant that someone, in the
government and beyond, would like to put into operation; they ended the
demonstration inside the municipality of Bologna, walking from the Don
Bosco park, to arrive in the Bertalia-Lazzaretto area, near the airport,
where further cementing interventions are underway.

All this, obviously, as important as it is, has no significant effect on
climate change (much more would be needed!) and, in the meantime,
Emilia-Romagna has been affected by long periods of drought,
interspersed with disastrous floods. The latest, in chronological order,
involved the city of Bologna, and occurred just a few days before the
environmentalist demonstration called by an unusual company formed by
the Besta Committee, Legambiente, Parents For Future, the Climate and
Environmental Emergency Network, Another Apennines is Possible, the
Committee Against Every Differentiated Autonomy, Confederazione Cobas
and, obviously, USI-CIT.

This company, which has intrigued the environmentalist world because of
its strangeness, and constituted a call for many struggle committees
that took part in the demonstration, then called a regional assembly,
fully successful, for January 25, 2025.

Despite the evident diversity of the members, it continues on its path.

It will be able to consolidate that alliance between generations that
characterized the experience of the marches and proved successful in
that of the Besta Committee.

Luciano Nicolini

https://umanitanova.org/un-nuovo-movimento-ambientalista/
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