WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, Umanita Nova: The Violence of Shields. Repression and Social Control (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On Friday, January 17, 2025, as a Mikhail Bakunin group from Rome and

Lazio, we decided to go down to Piazza Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome
to participate in a demonstration called by the "No DdL Sicurezza - a
pieno regime" Network. Although the initiative was called by
organizations and associations close to institutional parties, we made
this choice as an immediate response and in opposition to the rhetoric
of a unanimous defense of the executive power by the entire
parliamentary spectrum. The serious events that have occurred in recent
months have accentuated the explicit position of the State to grant
immunity and guarantee impunity to the so-called forces of law and order.

We have seen from the various videos that have circulated on social
media and the media how on November 24, 2024, in the streets of Milan,
the life of nineteen-year-old Ramy Elgaml was cut short during a chase
by the Carabinieri and how his scooter was rammed several times at high
speed. In this way, in fact, a death sentence without a trial. Yet, for
the Milan Prosecutor's Office, there was no violation in the methods of
intervention. A case that adds to too many others, where the executive
power acts with impunity and without transparency, under the aegis of an
institutional dome that erases all responsibility and increasingly
undermines individual and collective freedoms in the name of order and
security. But can we really remain silent in the face of these blatantly
false narratives told by the mass media controlled by the State? Ramy's
death is not an isolated episode: it is part of a system that represses,
persecutes and silences.

In fact, just as people were demonstrating for what happened to the boy,
another disturbing event took place in Brescia: some Extinction
Rebellion activists, stopped after a demonstration under the Leonardo,
were forced to undress at the police station, even take off their
panties and do squats in front of the officers. The police station
declared that it had acted "in compliance with the procedures", but the
humiliation inflicted on these women is evident. Yet, their male
companions have not been subjected to such practices. It is not just a
question of gender: it is the sign of a system of control and
intimidation that strikes anyone who dares to raise their head against
their interests.

And while the police are granting themselves more and more room for
action, the government is speeding up to approve a new security package
that gives them a criminal shield. Ministers like Maurizio Gasparri are
pushing to bypass the parliamentary debate and approve bill 1236
(formerly 1660) directly in the chamber, without any mediation or
debate. A bill that, among other things, with article 31, gives the
police and the state apparatus the power to create terrorist groups and
commit crimes, as long as the head of government is informed. A law
that, in fact, sanctions the legalization of arbitrariness, granting
almost unlimited power to the repressive apparatus of the state.

Even the confederal unions, symbols of a now watered-down bargaining,
are subjected to direct attacks by the ministers of the State... and the
consequences are visible. On the grassroots union front, the pickets of
logistics workers, often migrants, are the target of squad attacks and
threats, as has happened on numerous occasions in which workers have
been attacked and intimidated for having fought against inhumane
conditions of exploitation. In the meantime, the institutions of the
State, without shame, openly refer to fascism and even to the theory of
ethnic substitution, an idea that has its roots in Nazi propaganda.

The government is stepping up the construction of new detention centers
for migrants, often outside national borders, fueling the
externalization of borders, which is nothing more than a disguised
deportation.

The European agreements reinforce systematic rejection, building an
arbitrary list of "safe" countries essentially based not on geopolitical
checks, but on the need to reject the greatest number of people. This
repressive escalation is part of a broader plan and fuels increasingly
explicit and aggressive racism on the part of the media and
neo-fascists: isn't it perhaps a leap back in time, towards early
fascism or the strategy of tension?

It is certainly fertile ground for an authoritarian project that wants
to break every form of resistance. It is essential to recognize that
these policies do not only affect migrants, activists or workers: they
are a direct attack on the freedom and dignity of all. The
militarization of the streets, the repression of dissent, the systematic
control and impunity granted to the police forces draw a scenario that
is increasingly close to being identifiable with a police regime.  In
the face of this, we cannot remain silent. History teaches us that
freedom and emancipation have never been granted by the authorities and
we cannot afford to take them for granted: they have always been
conquered through collective struggle. Organizing, opposing, building
paths of solidarity and resistance is now more than ever a necessity.
The road to freedom is long and difficult, but it is the only way to
escape the grip of a system that wants us in slavery, divided and afraid.

Let's not let them take away our hope for a new humanity: the struggle
is the only way, now and always resistance!

Mikhail Bakunin Anarchist Group - FAI Roma&Lazio

https://umanitanova.org/la-violenza-degli-scudi-repressione-e-controllo-sociale/
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