Addressing the reality of Taranto is not easy. It means analyzing what
can be considered a laboratory of capitalist and military oppression,
where the seeds of a conflict are still struggling to explode. To
decipher the low level of conflict that has characterized Taranto for
years, it is necessary to dismantle the myth of its "industrial
vocation" and try to understand the stratification that has developed
over time and how the chains of imposed development have been constructed.
Let's start with military and industrial control. Since the early
twentieth century, with the Arsenale, then with the coup of the 1960s
(Italsider, Eni, Cementir), strongly supported by unions and government
and opposition parties, the state has forged a district functional to
its military and production strategy. This axis has been consolidated
with the presence of the Navy and a crucial NATO base, which, together
with Brindisi, forms a cornerstone of Atlantic projection into the
Mediterranean. The NATO base and military companies (e.g., Leonardo)
currently make Taranto a strategic hub for wars in the Mediterranean.
The construction of this military and industrial identity was
accompanied by systematic sabotage of education. The failure to
establish a university in the 1970s and 1980s was not a coincidence, but
a deliberate political choice. The aim was to avoid the dangerous mix of
student and worker struggles, keeping conflict low and facilitating
social control.
Over time, the city has also been a neoliberal laboratory: Taranto was a
testing ground for populist (under the fascist mayor Cito) and
neoliberal policies. Under the Di Bello administration, the Buoni
Ordinari Comunali (BOC) were tested, speculative financial instruments
that led the city to bankruptcy, with the costs shifted to services and
the proletariat. At the same time, a parasitic class has emerged, a
local petty bourgeoisie, parasitic on the glories of a now extinct
working-class aristocracy, incapable of imagining a different future.
The result is a region with skyrocketing unemployment, forced migration,
and a massively precarious proletariat. In this context, the emerging
struggles are fragments of a single resistance against an ecocidal
system in which the former Ilva plays a central role.
The numbers of the depredation speak for themselves. The former Ilva
produces less than 10% of Italy's steel, is constantly losing money, and
requires constant state bailouts. Furthermore, it withdraws 12.5 million
cubic meters per year from the Tara River, a resource sufficient to
supply the entire Taranto region with drinking water, and an immense
quantity of water from the Mar Piccolo.
The former Ilva dispute: between the territory considered a sacrifice
zone and the farce of green steel.
The decades-long agony of the former Ilva is the clearest illustration
of the inaction and bad faith of those in power. The changes in
ownership (from Italsider to Riva, then to ArcelorMittal) have only
prolonged the suffering of an obsolete and uncompetitive plant. Added to
this is the nonsense of the transition: Minister Urso talks about "green
steel," electric furnaces (DRI), and decarbonization. In reality, the
latest Program Agreement postponed the coal phaseout by 12 years,
requiring an Integrated Environmental Authorization (AIA) to produce 6
million tons with the same polluting technologies as always, confirming
Taranto as a sacrifice zone, as also stated by UN rapporteur Marcos
Orellana. The confederal and grassroots unions do not go beyond the
sterile slogan of "nationalization." There is no credible plan, nor any
real labor conflict capable of self-determination outside of this logic.
The stubbornness to keep this "walking corpse" alive can only be
explained by the lack of a strategic vision for reconversion (as
occurred in Bilbao) and by the need, in a war economy, to maintain
national steel production quotas, at any cost, human and environmental.
Nor should other aspects be overlooked, such as the fact that the
various local industries, primarily the former Ilva, have, among other
things, a significant impact on the fragile and vital ecosystem of the
Mar Piccolo; this is also affected by illegal fishing, including for
illegal trade. This is a sign of a perverse connection between
impoverishment, crime, and the plundering of living things.
Faced with all this, a coalition of citizens and associations is, at
their own expense, filing an appeal against the new AIA, after the
Municipality refused to do so. This is a sign of resistance, but the
road to a radical and determined conflict is still long.
The Desalination Plant Dispute: Water as a Commodity of Capital
The mobilization against the Tara River desalination plant did not
originate with the "No Dissalatore" coordination group, but is rooted in
a much broader and long-standing commitment to the local community. For
nearly three years, committees, associations, and active citizens have
been building an informed and well-founded opposition, questioning the
merits of the project and its supposed necessity. The battle against the
Tara River desalination plant exposes the hypocrisy of the so-called
"ecological transition." Passed off as a public aqueduct project, it is
actually infrastructure serving the industrial complex, primarily the
former Ilva steelworks.
The No Dissalatore coordination group disputes the following points: 1)
controlled inefficiency: in Puglia, over 50% of the water released into
the network is lost. The problem is not a shortage, but rather
plundering and mismanagement; 2) Polluting and expensive solution: this
EUR130 million project will produce water at three times the cost of
reusing wastewater, resulting in a huge CO2 footprint; 3) Environmental
damage: the project will alter the ecosystem of one of the area's
natural rivers; 4) Faulty model: a linear model (withdrawal,
transformation, discharge) is preferred to a relational and regenerative
model based on waste reduction, reuse, and community management of the
resource.
We are faced with a project costing EUR130 million (EUR27 million from
the PNRR), using reverse osmosis technology, when the 2011 AIA already
required the former Ilva steelworks to use the city's treated wastewater
(from the Gennarini and Bellavista plants). This project was never
realized because it is more convenient to make the community pay for new
projects.
The New Paolo VI Landfill: Daily Ecocide
The Taranto area is already a European hotspot for landfills
(Grottaglie, Lizzano, Statte). Now, using a bureaucratic loophole, they
intend to impose a new inert waste facility (a landfill) 800 meters from
the homes in the Paolo VI neighborhood, already among the most affected
by pollution from the former Ilva steelworks.
Despite repeated negative opinions from ARPA and regulatory bodies, the
Province is relying on the silent consent of an inert Municipality whose
councilors, three years after the proposal, admit they "still haven't
read the documents." The No Paolo VI Landfill Committee is waging a
two-pronged fight: directly opposing the project and raising awareness
for rational and community-based waste management, against the interests
of unscrupulous entrepreneurs and eco-mafias.
Taranto for Palestine: The Common Thread of Complicity
Internationalist solidarity in Taranto is not an abstract theme, but
rather the awareness of a tangible connection between territorial
exploitation and global wars. The Taranto for Palestine coordination
group, born from libertarian, antagonistic, and self-organized
movements, grassroots and student unions, has organized protests,
demonstrations, and cultural initiatives. Some Palestinian activists
have successfully weaved a common thread between apartheid in Gaza and
the "low-intensity genocide" in Taranto, Italy's cancer capital, and
have renamed their militant artistic piece "Tell Me About Gaza and Taranto."
The connections are obvious. Taranto is a strategic hub for war.
Leonardo in Grottaglie produces drones, and Eni supplies crude oil to
the Israeli Air Force. This same Eni has significant interests in the
extraction and exploitation of gas off the coast of Gaza.
On September 24, the Taranto Coordination for Palestine and grassroots
unions (Cobas, USB) attempted to block the refueling of the Seasalvia
tanker, loaded with 30,000 tons of crude oil for Israel. Eni and the
Port Authority initially declared that the ship would not refuel, a move
that was later confirmed. On September 27, immediately following the
Puglia regional demonstration against the Leonardo di Grottaglie
shipyard, approximately 200 activists attempted to block the Seasalvia's
refueling at Eni's crossing. Without the support of the port workers,
the action remained symbolic, but it raised the level of conflict.
Law 185 of 1990 prohibits the export of weapons to countries at war or
committing human rights violations. The government and port authorities
systematically violate it, thus becoming complicit in the genocide.
Faced with a wall of silence from the Municipality and Prefecture, which
deny their own responsibility and violate Law 185, the coordination team
has intensified counter-information and protests, preparing a regional
demonstration against Eni, the date of which is yet to be determined.
Meanwhile, initiatives have continued, including: the reception and
support of the Freedom Flotilla vessel "Gasshan Kanafani" at the
Sant'Eligio pier in Taranto; monitoring of the Seasalvia ship ready to
load another 30,000 tons of crude oil destined for Israel; public
meetings of the No Discarica Paolo VI committee and the No Desalination
Coordination; and initiatives in solidarity with Palestine and against
the complicity of local companies. Of particular importance is the
"L'ora di Taranto" demonstration, scheduled for November 23rd, with all
associations and protest movements participating, to say no to the
bailout of the former Ilva steelworks and demand the economic
reconversion of the area.
Toward a systemic struggle
The Taranto disputes are not separate islands. They are pieces of a
single capitalist attack rooted in: ecocidal exploitation for profit
(former Ilva steelworks, desalination plant, landfills); military
control of the territory (NATO bases, Leonardo); Complicity in the
imperialist war (Eni, supplies to Israel); Sabotage of the capacity for
rebellion (lack of universities, precarious employment, complicit unions
and institutional political forces).
The challenge for the opposing movements is precisely this: to connect
the threads and demonstrate the connections between the various issues.
Only a conflict that unites environmental demands with social and
internationalist ones, practicing self-organization and direct action,
can break the siege and open a space for liberation, which could in the
near future materialize in a social strike and blockade of the city.
Walterego
Cosimo Cassetta
https://umanitanova.org/fronti-di-lotta-da-ricongiungere-taranto-dalla-fabbrica-al-territorio/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
can be considered a laboratory of capitalist and military oppression,
where the seeds of a conflict are still struggling to explode. To
decipher the low level of conflict that has characterized Taranto for
years, it is necessary to dismantle the myth of its "industrial
vocation" and try to understand the stratification that has developed
over time and how the chains of imposed development have been constructed.
Let's start with military and industrial control. Since the early
twentieth century, with the Arsenale, then with the coup of the 1960s
(Italsider, Eni, Cementir), strongly supported by unions and government
and opposition parties, the state has forged a district functional to
its military and production strategy. This axis has been consolidated
with the presence of the Navy and a crucial NATO base, which, together
with Brindisi, forms a cornerstone of Atlantic projection into the
Mediterranean. The NATO base and military companies (e.g., Leonardo)
currently make Taranto a strategic hub for wars in the Mediterranean.
The construction of this military and industrial identity was
accompanied by systematic sabotage of education. The failure to
establish a university in the 1970s and 1980s was not a coincidence, but
a deliberate political choice. The aim was to avoid the dangerous mix of
student and worker struggles, keeping conflict low and facilitating
social control.
Over time, the city has also been a neoliberal laboratory: Taranto was a
testing ground for populist (under the fascist mayor Cito) and
neoliberal policies. Under the Di Bello administration, the Buoni
Ordinari Comunali (BOC) were tested, speculative financial instruments
that led the city to bankruptcy, with the costs shifted to services and
the proletariat. At the same time, a parasitic class has emerged, a
local petty bourgeoisie, parasitic on the glories of a now extinct
working-class aristocracy, incapable of imagining a different future.
The result is a region with skyrocketing unemployment, forced migration,
and a massively precarious proletariat. In this context, the emerging
struggles are fragments of a single resistance against an ecocidal
system in which the former Ilva plays a central role.
The numbers of the depredation speak for themselves. The former Ilva
produces less than 10% of Italy's steel, is constantly losing money, and
requires constant state bailouts. Furthermore, it withdraws 12.5 million
cubic meters per year from the Tara River, a resource sufficient to
supply the entire Taranto region with drinking water, and an immense
quantity of water from the Mar Piccolo.
The former Ilva dispute: between the territory considered a sacrifice
zone and the farce of green steel.
The decades-long agony of the former Ilva is the clearest illustration
of the inaction and bad faith of those in power. The changes in
ownership (from Italsider to Riva, then to ArcelorMittal) have only
prolonged the suffering of an obsolete and uncompetitive plant. Added to
this is the nonsense of the transition: Minister Urso talks about "green
steel," electric furnaces (DRI), and decarbonization. In reality, the
latest Program Agreement postponed the coal phaseout by 12 years,
requiring an Integrated Environmental Authorization (AIA) to produce 6
million tons with the same polluting technologies as always, confirming
Taranto as a sacrifice zone, as also stated by UN rapporteur Marcos
Orellana. The confederal and grassroots unions do not go beyond the
sterile slogan of "nationalization." There is no credible plan, nor any
real labor conflict capable of self-determination outside of this logic.
The stubbornness to keep this "walking corpse" alive can only be
explained by the lack of a strategic vision for reconversion (as
occurred in Bilbao) and by the need, in a war economy, to maintain
national steel production quotas, at any cost, human and environmental.
Nor should other aspects be overlooked, such as the fact that the
various local industries, primarily the former Ilva, have, among other
things, a significant impact on the fragile and vital ecosystem of the
Mar Piccolo; this is also affected by illegal fishing, including for
illegal trade. This is a sign of a perverse connection between
impoverishment, crime, and the plundering of living things.
Faced with all this, a coalition of citizens and associations is, at
their own expense, filing an appeal against the new AIA, after the
Municipality refused to do so. This is a sign of resistance, but the
road to a radical and determined conflict is still long.
The Desalination Plant Dispute: Water as a Commodity of Capital
The mobilization against the Tara River desalination plant did not
originate with the "No Dissalatore" coordination group, but is rooted in
a much broader and long-standing commitment to the local community. For
nearly three years, committees, associations, and active citizens have
been building an informed and well-founded opposition, questioning the
merits of the project and its supposed necessity. The battle against the
Tara River desalination plant exposes the hypocrisy of the so-called
"ecological transition." Passed off as a public aqueduct project, it is
actually infrastructure serving the industrial complex, primarily the
former Ilva steelworks.
The No Dissalatore coordination group disputes the following points: 1)
controlled inefficiency: in Puglia, over 50% of the water released into
the network is lost. The problem is not a shortage, but rather
plundering and mismanagement; 2) Polluting and expensive solution: this
EUR130 million project will produce water at three times the cost of
reusing wastewater, resulting in a huge CO2 footprint; 3) Environmental
damage: the project will alter the ecosystem of one of the area's
natural rivers; 4) Faulty model: a linear model (withdrawal,
transformation, discharge) is preferred to a relational and regenerative
model based on waste reduction, reuse, and community management of the
resource.
We are faced with a project costing EUR130 million (EUR27 million from
the PNRR), using reverse osmosis technology, when the 2011 AIA already
required the former Ilva steelworks to use the city's treated wastewater
(from the Gennarini and Bellavista plants). This project was never
realized because it is more convenient to make the community pay for new
projects.
The New Paolo VI Landfill: Daily Ecocide
The Taranto area is already a European hotspot for landfills
(Grottaglie, Lizzano, Statte). Now, using a bureaucratic loophole, they
intend to impose a new inert waste facility (a landfill) 800 meters from
the homes in the Paolo VI neighborhood, already among the most affected
by pollution from the former Ilva steelworks.
Despite repeated negative opinions from ARPA and regulatory bodies, the
Province is relying on the silent consent of an inert Municipality whose
councilors, three years after the proposal, admit they "still haven't
read the documents." The No Paolo VI Landfill Committee is waging a
two-pronged fight: directly opposing the project and raising awareness
for rational and community-based waste management, against the interests
of unscrupulous entrepreneurs and eco-mafias.
Taranto for Palestine: The Common Thread of Complicity
Internationalist solidarity in Taranto is not an abstract theme, but
rather the awareness of a tangible connection between territorial
exploitation and global wars. The Taranto for Palestine coordination
group, born from libertarian, antagonistic, and self-organized
movements, grassroots and student unions, has organized protests,
demonstrations, and cultural initiatives. Some Palestinian activists
have successfully weaved a common thread between apartheid in Gaza and
the "low-intensity genocide" in Taranto, Italy's cancer capital, and
have renamed their militant artistic piece "Tell Me About Gaza and Taranto."
The connections are obvious. Taranto is a strategic hub for war.
Leonardo in Grottaglie produces drones, and Eni supplies crude oil to
the Israeli Air Force. This same Eni has significant interests in the
extraction and exploitation of gas off the coast of Gaza.
On September 24, the Taranto Coordination for Palestine and grassroots
unions (Cobas, USB) attempted to block the refueling of the Seasalvia
tanker, loaded with 30,000 tons of crude oil for Israel. Eni and the
Port Authority initially declared that the ship would not refuel, a move
that was later confirmed. On September 27, immediately following the
Puglia regional demonstration against the Leonardo di Grottaglie
shipyard, approximately 200 activists attempted to block the Seasalvia's
refueling at Eni's crossing. Without the support of the port workers,
the action remained symbolic, but it raised the level of conflict.
Law 185 of 1990 prohibits the export of weapons to countries at war or
committing human rights violations. The government and port authorities
systematically violate it, thus becoming complicit in the genocide.
Faced with a wall of silence from the Municipality and Prefecture, which
deny their own responsibility and violate Law 185, the coordination team
has intensified counter-information and protests, preparing a regional
demonstration against Eni, the date of which is yet to be determined.
Meanwhile, initiatives have continued, including: the reception and
support of the Freedom Flotilla vessel "Gasshan Kanafani" at the
Sant'Eligio pier in Taranto; monitoring of the Seasalvia ship ready to
load another 30,000 tons of crude oil destined for Israel; public
meetings of the No Discarica Paolo VI committee and the No Desalination
Coordination; and initiatives in solidarity with Palestine and against
the complicity of local companies. Of particular importance is the
"L'ora di Taranto" demonstration, scheduled for November 23rd, with all
associations and protest movements participating, to say no to the
bailout of the former Ilva steelworks and demand the economic
reconversion of the area.
Toward a systemic struggle
The Taranto disputes are not separate islands. They are pieces of a
single capitalist attack rooted in: ecocidal exploitation for profit
(former Ilva steelworks, desalination plant, landfills); military
control of the territory (NATO bases, Leonardo); Complicity in the
imperialist war (Eni, supplies to Israel); Sabotage of the capacity for
rebellion (lack of universities, precarious employment, complicit unions
and institutional political forces).
The challenge for the opposing movements is precisely this: to connect
the threads and demonstrate the connections between the various issues.
Only a conflict that unites environmental demands with social and
internationalist ones, practicing self-organization and direct action,
can break the siege and open a space for liberation, which could in the
near future materialize in a social strike and blockade of the city.
Walterego
Cosimo Cassetta
https://umanitanova.org/fronti-di-lotta-da-ricongiungere-taranto-dalla-fabbrica-al-territorio/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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