WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY SICILY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, FAS, Sicilia Libertaria #461 - In post-eviction Palermo: Alienation and Invisibility (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 In the dazzling Sicilian capital, now perpetually adorned with ribbons

for out-of-towners to enjoy, the periodic eviction of squatters is one
of the "necessary" steps to maintain decorum and prevent the gallop
toward increasingly reckless gentrification. This is what also happened
in the Kalsa neighborhood, in the historic center, where in 2024, nine
families were evicted. They had been living for about fifteen years in
the spaces of the former convent of Santa Maria della Pietà, located
between Via Alloro and Piazza Kalsa, owned by the FEC (Fondo Edifici di
Culto).

In the phases preceding the evictions, a great movement of groups and
citizens had been seen, who had come together to support the squatters:
an assembly had been formed, convened primarily by the neighborhood's
educational community, which had acted as a shield, only to later be
reduced to a hypocritical and double-crossing mediator. The only
presence, among all the groups involved, capable of taking concrete
action and which would remain constant and radical even in the
subsequent phases was the CUB (Confederazione Unitaria di Base), which
would continue to accompany the squatters in their struggle for the
right to housing.

Meanwhile, the evictions had taken place on time and as planned, with no
problems, not even when the women of those families went to Palermo's
Department of Social Services to express their concerns on March 8,
2023. The City's operational arm, which took the lead first through
Councilor Antonella Tirrito and then Fabrizio Ferrandelli, had ignored
every request, merely stimulated by the moments when, for visibility,
the involved associations had issued vaguely significant statements,
statements whose language even suggested a less than militant stance
(see, among many others, the widespread use of the term "abusive"
peppering social media posts, meeting reports, and interviews). It all
ended with people, including minors, being tossed around the city, and
with the bricking up of the two entrances to the former convent.

Where are these evicted people today? What are those groups that had
gathered in support of them doing? What has changed in the city?

As the next phase of public housing assignments became harrowing, murky,
and essentially handled as a favor, families found themselves divided
and sorted among communities, hosted by distant relatives in tiny homes,
and suddenly moved to a new neighborhood, far too distant from schools,
friendships, social connections, and the usual places to meet their
needs. Frustration grew over the injustice they had suffered and all
those rights, verbalized but in reality shamelessly denied.

Meanwhile, the educational community calmly returned to other matters,
while that assembly movement prepared to become a mockery of all this.
Today it's called APRO, Permanent Assembly of Resistance to Overtourism,
and its radical, militant face promptly melts away like a wax mask
whenever it's unashamed to declare its intention to come to terms with
the municipal institution, reeling off content and slogans centered on
the fight against bed and breakfasts and short-term rentals. The reasons
behind this assembly are all explicitly focused on protecting a decent
standard of living, but in doing so, they completely ignore the fact
that this standard of living isn't the same for everyone. Instead, they
primarily respond to the needs of the bourgeois population, often
foreigners with a medium-high cultural level. These people largely
embody the brazen and dangerous shift from tourism to the residential
experience in an exotic and affordable location where one can work
remotely, get a tan, drink beer, and mimic an elitist and inconsistent
social participation, provided they can guarantee the European living
standards that Palermitans of different social backgrounds have never known.
To date, no initiative has been taken to help other social classes, no
words have been spoken for those who are being denied the right to
housing in a comprehensive sense, effectively denied the certainty of a
home.
The only form of organization we have encountered is spontaneous and
grassroots, rooted in the value of relationships built within the
neighborhood, where one hand washes the other, organizing with those who
have a car to ensure children can get to their usual school, to
undertake exhausting moves, to go shopping as a group, to somehow try to
give continuity to their lives as a healthy need to be protected.
But above all, the desire to respond through clear action toward those
who have taken away and given nothing returns. That predictable form of
reverse reorganization is beginning to shift again, characterized by a
renewed search for homes to occupy, a timeless anger, and the underlying
motivation of "let's get by on our own because we're invisible."

While we are certain that Palermo will see new occupations and
evictions, the nagging question remains unresolved: who, when, and how
will truly decide to address the right to housing without compromise,
while also addressing the associated traumas and concretely addressing
how this way of life affects life in all its aspects.

Désirée Carruba Toscano

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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