We published a document from Crash Laboratory! and Bologna for Climate Justice that politically frames the solidarity actions in the flooded areas that have been activated from below in recent days and relaunches a meeting on Saturday, May 27 in Piazza del Nettuno in Bologna, at 4:00 p.m.
We talked about it with Niccolo’ from the Crash Laboratory and our editorial team from Emilia-Romagna listen or download
Converge against environmental and social devastation, for the care of the territory. We will do it again?
How are you? How are we? These questions came to us from across the Apennines last year. These days, they are for us.
Time stops again, like at the beginning of the confinements. You don’t have to leave home. This time it’s flood. Or you have to run away from home, because the water rises.
We are in the Valley of engines and big data, of the aerospace industry, but like a century ago, the rain destroys the banks, floods the urban streets, causes the collapse of the roads in the Apennines, devours the land, kills people. Because nothing is ever done to take care of the territory. Concrete only.
Deaths, destruction, billions of damages… But unfortunately we are sure that this time too, if something doesn’t change, the autopilot of business as usual will prevail again. It will be rebuilt as before, more than before, worse than before. The umpteenth crisis, which will weigh on our shoulders, which will unload care work mainly on women, on the poor, on the last with the usual violence. The umpteenth crisis that will strengthen gender roles, so loved by those who are comfortable with the isolation of the home and the daily and material eagerness of it. Another crisis in which there will be those who benefit. A crisis that takes place while the Russian regime announces the capture of Bakhmut and the G7 responds with jets: a new twist in the crazy escalation of warfare. War and the climate crisis are the frames of the continuous emergency we are experiencing. Is the flood in Emilia-Romagna just the umpteenth crisis to be followed by a thousand more, to which we must adapt, against which nothing can be done?
These days we are trying to do what needs to be done. Organize ourselves into solidarity groups, go and support the most affected areas and people. But no, we’re not fucking mud angels. Because, yes, we put on our boots, we try to recover some shovels, we put energy and passion into it, we try to do it with a smile. But we’re also terribly pissed off. Because in the era narrated as digital and “green economy”, these things continue to happen more and worse than before!
This happens because those who make billions don’t give a shit what they leave behind. This happens because for decades policies have been building territory only for automobile circuits, large industries, logistics hubs, large works, cement, infrastructure for the movement of goods… And they do not address the issue of caring for the territory and of people. They do not think about the thousands of small and extensive interventions that would be necessary. Nobody wants to deal with hydrogeological instability. This is the only great work that our territory needs! This is the science and investment we need. This is happening because we are in a climate crisis. This happens because there are responsibilities. These responsibilities must be clearly established. Because these things can no longer happen!
These days we sweep the mud off the houses and streets, but in the near future we want to sweep away those who have political responsibility for what happened, along with the mud. That is why we relaunched the popular assembly on Saturday May 27 in Piazza del Nettuno in Bologna, at 4 pm To organize the suggestion of a popular march that, a month after the flood, could go to the Emilia Region. Romagna.
To conclude… We have a year of important struggles behind us. But the problem is always the same: either we manage to reverse the general balance of power in society, or the normality of crises will hit us with more and more violence. On October 22, tens of thousands crossed Bologna, against the umpteenth massacre in the territory. Convergence, it was called. Converge… Get up. Isn’t it time to do it again? We have a prevailing policy, flood and territorial devastation. And the need to respond. Here our “for this”, our here and now. But as we explained on October 22, in addition to “for this”, there is a “for more” and a “for everything”! There is an urgency that, once again, environmental and worker, transfeminist and anti-war, union and queer struggles, reproductive work, mutualism, migratory, logistical, peasant struggles, for housing, for a beautiful life… Let’s get back in tune, let’s vibrate . together, building new assemblies. To sink this deadly and decadent society. We don’t know if, collectively and from our many difficulties and differences, we will be able to do it. But it’s time for us to rise again!
Why not, we are not angels. And yes, we are very angry and feel like turning the tables!
Crash Lab!
Bologna for Climate Justice
