CHRONOLOGY

(Turin and surroundings)  

April 14. Graffiti and banners appear in Turin in solidarity with immigrants and against detention camps.

April 15. Mobile gathering at Porta Palazzo market (Turin) to inform the inhabitants about the hunger strike undertaken by immigrants imprisoned in Via Corelli camp in Milan.

April 16. EU MP Mario Borghezio of Lega Nord complains about receiving threatening and scornful phone calls in the night. A newspaper publishes a photo picturing a wall of his house where graffiti has been left: ‘Borghezio piciu’d goma’ (Borghezio arsehole). The same newspaper reports that in the hall of the building photos of the MP inviting people to spit in his face are supposed to have been stuck up on the walls.

April 18. A huge banner in solidarity to the struggles in Via Corelli camp is displayed during the marathon in Turin.   

April 22. A few passengers on a bus distribute a leaflet denouncing GTT, the public transit company, and its collaboration with police with regard to the deportation of immigrants. When two ticket collectors arrive, a ‘loud voice’ protest takes place: protesters noisily alert passengers that they have arrived. Some immigrants without tickets succeed in escaping, and the ticket collectors get furious. In this way the campaign ‘Trip ticket collectors up!’ starts. Disruptions against ticket collectors will continue in the following weeks all over the town.

May 1. The prisoners in Corso Brunelleschi camp start a hunger strike, but no one outside knows about it. Since they have no support, the prisoners call the protest off the next day. Despite the continuous raids against immigrants that are carried out in the town, the camp is never completely filled to capacity (70 people) because deportations are quickly carried out against the prisoners of the camp.

May 7. Aosta. Digos officers (Italian political police) stop and identify two anarchists and accuse them of having put up posters against the Italian Red Cross. In the following days the inspector of the Red Cross in the area sues the two anarchists for ‘libel through press’

May 20. At dawn, police storm a gypsy camp in the northern suburb of the town. On the ground that they have to take a census of the inhabitants, they gather about 20 people and move them to the police station. 14 of them will be deported.

In the evening, a boy from Senegal who had just arrived in Italy without papers is chased by the cops during a raid in Valentino park, along the shore of Po river. The boy hides on the shore, but he slides in the water and drowns.

May 11. In the evening, police stop a car with four young men from Senegal on board. One of them runs away, another two get out of the car immediately. As the fourth young man hesitates, a policeman goes close to him, a gunshot is fired and the young man dies shortly after.

May 12. The houses of five comrades are raided in Valle d’Aosta and the Piemonte area, while Operation ‘Nottetempo’ is carried out in Lecce.

May 14. A great number of meetings are quickly held at Porta Palazzo market to inform people about the death of Mamadou and Cheik, the two boys from Senegal killed by the police, and to invite everyone to take part in a gathering organised for the afternoon against police terror, deportations, the arrests in Lecce and GTT transit company.

As Italians and people from Senegal intervene in great number, the gathering turns quickly into a spontaneous march in the streets of Turin. The banner at the front of the march says: ‘Carabinieri and police: killers’. There is no sign of parties or organisations during the march, just a lot of rage shared by everybody. Newspapers, when they do not keep silent, describe the march as a peaceful demo organised by the community from Senegal, disturbed by the ‘usual insurrectionist-anarchists’ who try to incite conflicts. From that moment on, all the dailies in Turin, with very few exceptions, will sing the same song ad nauseam and bordering on the ridiculous: they claim that immigrants have nothing to complain about, it is subversive anarchists who create tension.

May 16. In the afternoon, a street meeting opens a debate on how to defend oneself from the abuses and violence of the police in the areas of the town.

May 18. Graffiti and posters against deportations and police terror appear in San Salvario area. Some of the posters also incite to self-defence against police.

May 19. During the night, the prisoners in the detention camp revolt, set fire to mattresses and destroy everything they find in the building. Many of them inflict wounds on themselves. Police intervene and a hunger strike starts. A prisoner, informed about his imminent deportation, breaks a window and swallows pieces of glass. He will spend the next morning after in the hospital, missing the plane destined to deport him. When he is back in the camp, he is beaten and put in isolation.

At the end of the morning, the news reaches Radio Black out. In fact, a friend of some of the Radio Black Out reporters, Tareq, has been held for a few days in the camp. He listens to the radio inside the camp, making his fellow-inmates listen to it too.

Starting at 6pm, about 150 people gather outside the camp. The prisoners inside start beating the bars, supporters outside answer by beating stones on pylons and on road signs. Someone gets up on the fence and displays a big banner. The prisoners start shouting. Meantime Matilde Provera, Rifondazione Comunista MP, goes into the camp and then comes out inviting everybody to quiet down. People inside ignore her, while demonstrators outside declare through a megaphone that the woman does not represent anyone and that there is no reason to keep quiet.

A few demonstrators manage to open a small hole in the wall with the help of sticks. After a moment of hesitation, anti-riot cops attack. It seems that during the fight a Digos officer is hit in the face with a shit. Demonstrators split after a while, and a big group of them march towards the nearest bus garage to make drivers aware of the responsibility of GTT company in the deportation of immigrants. As the gathering ends, a few comrades are stopped by Digos police and one of them, Giovanni, is arrested and accused of provoking ‘serious violence’ and ‘injuries’.

May 20. In the detention camp the hunger strike, undertaken by 68 out of 70 prisoners, is continued, most immigrants are also on thirst strike. A few immigrants who had intentionally wounded themselves the day before and ended up in the hospital are taken back to the camp.

May 21. At dawn, inmates in Corso Brunnelleschi detention camp revolt again in protest against the deportation of one of them; many threaten to commit suicide, some swallow batteries and pieces of glass. An immigrant cut his abdomen so badly that he must be urgently stitched on the spot. Police and Red Cross decide to release him to avoid more serious consequences.

In the afternoon, a gathering in solidarity with the struggles of immigrants and for Giovanni’s release is organised in front of the detention camp. The gathering lasts a few hours, a few immigrants manage to reach the roof and communicate with the protesters. From inside, someone throws out a shoe containing a case file that belongs to a prisoner affected with tuberculosis. Many other stories of prisoners who should be released but who are kept imprisoned by the Red Cross come to the light. Meanwhile, Giovanni is released.

May 23. The detention camp is closely watched by police, and anti-riot cops constantly patrol the entrance. In the afternoon, Matilde Provera pays another visit to the prisoners who call her ‘the one who defend the cops’. When she comes out, she denounces the terrible hygienic conditions in the camp, ignoring the one and only thing the immigrants in struggle ask for: ‘freedom!’.

In the evening, in San Salvario square market a meeting is held in memory of the two boys from Senegal killed by police, and to carry on the discussion about self-defence against police terror. Many people, Italians and foreigners, take part into the debate, in spite of a huge presence of cops surrounding the area.

May 24. Eight Rumanian men held in the camp are deported.

May 25. At dawn, seven Moroccan men are woken up by police who inform them that the plane for their deportation is ready. In a few minutes the news arrives in the houses of a few comrades, immediately followed by Digos cops. Ten houses are searched along with the ‘Porfido’ documentation centre. Among the deported immigrants is Tareq, who manages to get in touch with his friends in Turin once again and to let them know that he was taken to prison and all his money was stolen almost as soon as he reached his country. During the searches, police seize 1500 copies of a leaflet denouncing GTT. The search, however, is officially the beginning of an investigation relating to an explosive device sent to the metropolitan police in the San Salvario area the morning before, an action that is subsequently claimed by FAI (Informal anarchist federation).

In the afternoon, a demo in the centre of the town is moved to the ‘Olympic Store’. Here demonstrators inform people about the relation between the effective management of the Olympic yards and police terror brought about against immigrants in the town. 

Meantime in the northern suburbs of Turin, police surround a building where immigrants live and storm the flats. Eddy, a Nigerian immigrant without papers who had just arrived in Turin to see his girlfriend, takes refuge on the eaves in order to flee from the cops. He falls down and dies. He is the fourth immigrant to die in fifteen days. Two girls, the only witnesses of the accident, are taken to Corso Brunelleschi camp. Determined and furious, Nigerian people of the area fight with police in the square.

May 26. In the afternoon, various Turin leftist organisations gather outside the Palace of Prefecture in protest against the violence of police. Nigerian people are very angry, but in the end a delegation is sent inside the building to talk to the Prefect.

In the evening a debate, ‘Cities and concentration camps’ is held to discuss the struggle against deportations in Turin, Lecce and Milan.

May 27. In the morning, a demo in front of the Moroccan embassy, which is responsible - together with the Italian State - for deportations of Moroccan immigrants, is held. After a few hours, demonstrators move to the place where, on November 2004, Latifa Saidi, a Moroccan girl, died falling from a roof in the San Salvario area while attempting to escape from a metropolitan police check.

In the afternoon, a ceremony in memory of Eddy is held, and some comrades take part in it. The tension is high, the nearby road is blocked and there is the concrete risk of a fight with police.

In various areas of the town, leaflets are distributed against the violence of police and to call for a demo the next day.

May 28. 3pm: the first demonstrators gather at Porta Palazzo. Apart from the flags of an anti-racist association, no other flags of parties and organisation can be found. A massive deployment of cops is there, but they do not let themselves be seen. As the march is about to start, there are already 1000 people of every colour. Eddy’s friends lead the march, his brother speaks with the megaphone. At a certain point, a few metropolitan policemen are spotted and tension grows high. No one can stand the sight of uniforms this afternoon. The march joins a demo of COBAS (independent unions) for a while, then demonstrators go on their own. Some messages arrive from the detention camp: the prisoners inside would like the march to reach the camp as an incentive to the struggle. Eddy’s friends, on the contrary, would like their rage to be taken to the police station. In the surroundings, anti-riot police block the road and try to prevent the march from continuing. The immigrants are furious, especially the women, most of whom would like to attack the cops with bare hands. So the cops go back, leaving the way free to the nearby railway station and blocking the way to the police station. The tension is high. The militants of the anti-racist organisation are worried and call for non-violence. Since no one listens to them, they go away taking their banner and flags with them, and publicly dissociate themselves from the demo. 

After a few moments of hesitation, the march goes towards Porta Susa station, where the rail tracks are blocked. Black and white people together explain the reason for the railway blockade to the travellers: ‘No one should travel in a town where people are killed!’. Some damage occurs inside the station, in particular against a cash machine of San Paolo bank. After half an hour, the march reaches Porta Palazzo and ends without incidents.

June 1. Prisoners in Corso Brunelleschi camp claim that they are once again on hunger strike. During the week, the camp is almost empty, only twenty immigrants are inside. As deportations keeps on going, in fact, raids in the town are suspended. 

June 2. A group of Italian people bring their support to the immigrants in the camp. They shout, make noise and greet the immigrants.

June 5. Raids and imprisonment of immigrants start again. Police also storm the buses and capture immigrants with the help of ticket collectors.

June 8. A group of comrades enters the town hall where the mayor and a few councillors are trying to convince the inhabitants of a western Turin area about the usefulness of some projects concerning that area. A banner and some leaflets remind people about the immigrants killed by police, while protesters shout out how some of the councillors who are there are also responsible for the murders. Then the comrades quickly leave the place shouting ‘Killers and slavers!’. A bit earlier, it had been a group of laid-off workers who had railed at the mayor; a bit later, it will be a group of furious inhabitants protesting against the proposals of councillor Viano.

A ‘difficult evening for the administrators of the town’ will be the comment of the local press.

June 9. At the market of the Vanchiglia area, a group of comrades protests at the stall of ‘Torino Cronaca’ (a local paper). With the help of a megaphone, demonstrators explain the responsibility of the paper for the spreading of racism and the hunting down of immigrants in Turin in the last months to people. A banner is displayed and leaflets are distributed.

In the afternoon, some comrades take part in a gathering outside the detention camp. The prisoners are greeted with megaphones, but they are soon locked up in cages so that they cannot answer. Anti-riot police and carabinieri are lined up in front of the camp, while the surrounding streets have already been cleared of parked cars. In the evening, a large number of threatening carabinieri vans patrol San Salvario area.

June 16. Unknown people block up the GTT parking metres and spread a fake note in which the company announces a day of free parking for everybody.