photo AFP/Borgia

Is there anyone of sane mind that believes that yesterday’s demo in Rome could have ended differently? It went off exactly as forecast, with the devastation, the urban warfare, the injured and the clashes with the Police. The result of demonising the movements by the parties of the Majority and of the Opposition succeeded perfectly well. Now everyone can add energy to the trumpets condemning the violence. “Indignados”, “Pirates” from various continents and why not, by osmosis even the 5 Star MoVement. If you want, call them the Black Bloc. But during the disorder where was the one who had blown on the flames for weeks? Yesterday with a massive and festive crowd he should in fact have been celebrating the fall of the government, of the tyrant, a Roman triumph, it was all prearranged. But last Friday the legal number was reached, the government did not fall and the frustrations of the participants got transformed into violence in the streets as it was logical to expect.
Once upon a time there were the Wicked Teachers like Toni Negri and Piperno. Today, much more modestly, there are the Wicked Ham-fisted ones who send things forward and instigate the young people to then badmouth them and hide away. Why did the newspaper directors and the party secretaries not go and get beaten up, placing themselves between the security forces and the violent ones? It’s best to stay behind your desks and inside your smart blue limousines after having shored up this government with countless absences and countless confidence votes or talking about Bunga Bunga or about the “pilu” of the latest “escort” to the point of exhaustion. Or also, as is by now the norm, gifting to the Government parliamentarians on parliamentarians, from Calearo to Scilipoti, in a continuous transhumance.
I’m sorry for the young men and women who were present yesterday in Rome. They were used, exploited. Treated like butcher’s meat by the parties and by some newspapers. I don’t believe in a second G8 with infiltrated agents (even though everything is possible), but rather in the anger of a generation with no longer any reference points used as bridgehead by newspapers and parties to get the government to fall.
Bersani condemned the violent people: “The provocateurs attack the heart of a movement that throughout the whole world, wants to freely express discomfort and criticism of the current world economic order. At this point it is indispensable to have a chorus of undoubted condemnation of every act of violence and a rigorous isolation of the movements from those who made themselves protagonists of these unacceptable actions. It’ll be necessary to understand how it’s possible that a band of a hundred delinquents was able to cause devastation, to attack, set on fire and keep control of the centre of Rome for hours.” Vendola spoke of “Minorities of thugs, of “black bloc” in action to take the stage away from the “indignant ones”, to take the word away from them, and they were talking about burning cars and smashing TV cameras.” Pontius Pilate had more dignity.

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