There are geographical areas located on the margins of the centers of production and capital accumulation. Sometimes these areas are designated (without the consent of their inhabitants) as "sacrifice zones," where harmful substances are concentrated or where structures are located that must be kept out of sight... and out of mind. Thus, in recent weeks, the Lunigiana region, and specifically the Aulla (MS) area, has seen the concentration of various interests: those of external war, with MBDA, a European consortium that produces death in the form of "complex weapons systems" and which wants to locate a missile production hub there; but the interests of internal war against the poor, migrants, and marginalized groups are also very present. The municipality of Aulla has, in fact, been designated as the site for a new CPR.
The choice of locationLet's proceed in order. In January 2025, after years of legal proceedings, the process for the remediation of the area where the Ministry of the Interior wants to build the CPR began. This is the former Pallerone powder magazine, a storage site for military explosives for 60 years, later an open-air landfill for tons of hazardous waste, such as asbestos.
The sites chosen for these prisons are located in isolated and inaccessible areas, both because they are easier to monitor and because distancing them from inhabited areas is part of the dehumanization process of the people locked up there.
The dehumanization of "different" is spread through racist propaganda, based on fear and the sense of emergency, and is accompanied by the infantilization of the "foreigner" (from the colonial and missionary myth of the "white savior" who brings civilization to the "savages"). We are encouraged to feel no empathy for those who come from beyond the border, or to see them as individuals incapable of self-determination: these are two sides of the same discriminatory coin. It should also be remembered that the boundaries of skin color are fluid, because the definition of whiteness does not depend on skin color, but on one's privileges, geographic location, and historical period.
Distancing oneself from the gaze makes it more difficult to show solidarity and connect with inmates, and grants those who do not wish to see the option of not seeing. In other words, it makes it more difficult to recognize those behind the walls, facilitating the division of the population (divide and conquer) based on racial, gender, and class privileges.
It is at the intersection of all these economic, political, and cultural mechanisms that the idea of a CPR becomes normalized.
The CPR System
The CPR (Center for Repatriation) is an internal border system, an administrative detention prison (a repressive instrument imported from Israel) for people without valid residence documents. From the CPR, these people should then be deported to their countries of origin or, according to the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum that will come into force in June, to so-called "safe third countries."
It's important to remember what this document blackmail entails. A residence permit in Italy is conditional on the fulfillment of two requirements: an employment contract and a certified place of residence. This system makes people who wish to obtain a residence permit easily subject to blackmail, from a labor perspective, and thus reveals the purpose of the document system: it is a method of racially discriminating workers, where the greatest exploitation falls on those most vulnerable to blackmail. This is not surprising, given that capitalism has always been based on the exploitation of labor (on the basis of race, gender, and species), guaranteed by law and the monopoly of state violence.
The news of the intention to open a new CPR in Aulla comes as riots continue in existing CPRs. In recent weeks alone, reports leaking from those locked up (in almost all CPRs, cell phones are prohibited) point to daily violence and a complete lack of self-determination. The food is inedible, often spoiled and laced with tranquilizers and psychotropic drugs, but even refusing to eat it, out of self-defense or simple disgust, can expose one to the risk of further punishment. It should be remembered that, with the April 2025 security decree, even those who engage in passive resistance are punishable for "rioting in prison." There are several cases of people with serious physical and mental health problems locked up; In some CPRs, cameras are also positioned inside the cells, and anyone who tries to cover them, to obtain a minimum of privacy, is punished with beatings and solitary confinement: these are, after all, the two responses that the CPR management bodies - that is, those third sector organizations that profit from a concentration camp - and the police give to anyone who tries to rebel against this situation. There are several cases of self-harm or suicide attempts, both due to desperate conditions and in an attempt to be released for unsuitability (as if there are people fit for prison). But the doors of CPRs are increasingly being opened even to those who cause serious physical harm to themselves, perhaps by jumping from a roof or swallowing sharp objects: the justification is sadistic, and is to "not encourage" these forms of struggle.
Revolts, however, have always occurred, and they give us hope: it should always be remembered that CPRs have been closed in the past only thanks to internal revolts, such as the Turin CPR, which was set on fire and closed in 2023 and reopened in 2025.
Regional mobilizations
Returning to recent news, the idea of "a CPR for each region" dates back to the Minniti-Orlando decree, which sanctioned the birth of this new form of confinement. Aulla is an area where the RETESAI (formerly SPRAR) reception system is widespread. While still committed to state paternalism and integration/inclusion (a colonial concept that presupposes an us/them border), it offers accommodation to asylum seekers and persons with international protection. Aulla is close to Marina di Carrara, where several NGO ships carrying out sea rescue operations are diverted; it is also close to La Spezia, home to the Italian Navy, and to the highway that provides quick access to the airports of Genoa, Parma, and Pisa: we know that many deportations take place on scheduled or charter flights.
In May 2025, several Lunigiana associations-from Arci Agogo of Aulla to the ANPI intercommunale, but also CGIL, Accademia apuana per la pace, Emergency, and other local associations-as well as individuals met again for an afternoon of self-education, following the previous demonstrations in 2023. The meeting was designed to explore with citizens what a CPR is and how to take action in other areas to oppose its existence. Also present was the mayor of Aulla, who had previously promoted several resolutions against the opening of a CPR in Aulla and who was recently elected president of the province of Massa-Cararra, partly with the support of the right-wing party.
It appears that this plan to open a CPR has also left several local right-wing figures dissatisfied. But while the only point of contention within the political parties remains the location of a CPR, the reality of the local situation has been clear from the start: no to a CPR, neither in Aulla nor anywhere else. Because the goal is not only to prevent the opening of existing CPRs, but also to close them.
Local organizations have already reactivated: a meeting was held on April 23rd to prepare the materials needed for the demonstration called on April 27th during the extraordinary city council meeting. The next meeting, also promoted by Arci Agogo, will be on May 7th: training for "anti-CPR volunteers." But the network transcends regional borders, because CPRs should not be opened here or elsewhere, and efforts are underway to coordinate with the NO CPR networks in Trento and Bologna, two other cities that face the prospect of opening a CPR (in Trento, in particular, one is expected to be completed by 2026).
In the coming months, we will see if Aulla, this marginalized area, can transform itself, in the words of bell hooks, into "a radical place of possibility[...]capable of offering us the conditions for a radical perspective from which to create and imagine alternatives and new worlds."
For a world without cages or borders.
Badabing
https://umanitanova.org/senza-gabbie-ne-confini-no-cpr/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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