There is a massive student/worker rebellion in the Italian education sector. Many schools and universities are occupied. The slogan "we won't pay for your crisis' is at the forefront of the Anomalous Wave movement that opposes initially the Gelmini reforms of education, but more importantly, the creation of a new round of precarious workers in shit jobs joining the other thousands in the same boat. Last Friday 28th was another round of street demos and blockades.
TIMELINE
The Wave has been going on for many weeks. It started when the semester started (October) and it is heading towards the general strike (12 December). Here’s a timeline of some of the important moments of mobilization:
17/10/08 - Generalized general strike by "base unions" (Cub, Cobas ecc.)
30/10/08 - School strike of mainstream unions + autonomous student mobilization
07/11/08 - University protests in cities all over Italy
14/11/08 - Huge national demonstration of the Wave in Rome
15-16/11/08 - National assembly of the Wave at Sapienza, Rome
28/11/08 - University protests in cities all over Italy
NEXT BIG DAY OF ACTION:
12/12/08 - General strike declared by Cgil + autonomous mobilization of the Wave
BACKGROUND:
A 16 page pamphlet going into an analysis of the movement. We highly recommend people to read it, copy it, email it out to encourage solidarity with the Italian Wave but to also inspire people in the UK to act. Here:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/413258.html
WHAT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY THE 28TH
Friday 28 November 2008. This was another day of mobilization of the Wave in Italy. Here’s some info what happened in Rome
Hundreds of Sapienza students went to Aula Magna (in the administration building) and blocked the inauguration ceremony of the academic year. "There’s nothing to inaugurate!" The only thing worth inaugurating is the self-reform of university which the students and precarians are already constructing with the conflict, with self-managed seminars, with campaigns on welfare and income, with self-reductions (autoriduzioni) and many more.
"Today the students occupied the administration building, the barons only had the rain." There was an internal demonstration and after it went through the campus the students managed to enter in Aula Magna shouting "Frati barone sei solo un buffone". It’s an insult towards rector Frati: "You’re just a clown".
Video:
http://anomalia.blogsome.com/2008/12/01/videos-from-the-inauguration-at-sapienza/
The students later took to the streets outside the campus, expressing their anger about the incident of Torino (a student died in school) accusing the politicians who are cutting down school funding. Deadly cuts. During the day there were parades and blockades in various parts of Rome. "After the self-reductions of theatre and cafeteria, the campaign for self-reform continues… towards the generalized strike of 12 December!"
Self-reductions (autoriduzioni) means disobedience, fighting for cheaper services etc. For example, people go together in the university cafeteria and refuse to pay the full price.
ENCOUNTER WITH UNIONS
December 4, 2008
Lately, with the general strike of December 12 coming up, the Wave has been preparing for an encounter with those unions that are taking part in the strike.
The relationship between movements and unions has always been problematic. Now the situation seems new. People in the movement see the general strike as an outcome of the mobilizations of the Wave. The general strike was first called for by FIOM and CGIL of the public sector, then the whole CGIL, and then the base unions (Cobas, SdL, CUB).
In Rome, the Wave is calling for an encounter with these unions. At Sapienza, there will be two round table discussions under the title New welfare, work and knowledge. On Friday 5 December, there will be a discussion at Science Politiche with representatives from CGIL. These include the national secretary of CGIL, Enrico Panini; the national secretary of FLC-CGIL (The Federation of Knowledge Workers), Domenico Pantoleo; the secretary of CGIL-Lazio, Claudio di Berardino.
Another discussion will take place on Thursday 11 December at the faculty of physics. This one will be with representatives of the base unions: the national spokesman of Cobas, Piero Bernocchi; the national secretary of CUB, Antonio Amoroso; the national coordinator of SdL, Fabrizio Tomaselli.
In addition to these meetings, there’s a new open letter written by “Sapienza in mobilization”, directed to the other subjects taking part in the general strike. This text was published at the Uniriot website on 3 December. The text emphasizes the role of the Wave and presents some proposals for creating common demands.
“With the slogan “We won’t pay the crisis” the students have launched a sign for other social subjects (…). The “we” of the slogan doesn’t speak about students only: “we” are all those who haven’t caused the crisis and therefore will not pay for it. It must be paid by enterprises and banks, this is the content of the slogan.”
“The power of the Wave has been capable to speak to the entire society and to transform both the general strike of the base unions of 17 October and the general strike of school of 30 October into something extraordinary. The autonomy of the student movement has enabled the extension of the mobilizations and a great radicality in the contents and the practices of struggle. 14 November was one of the biggest demonstrations organized autonomously by university and secondary school students.”
“To establish a strong social alliance, it’s not enough that we take to the piazza the same day. We must find convergence on some decisive contents, on which we absolutely want to win. Maintaining our specifities, differences and platforms of struggle, but making some common demands starting from four fundamental themes: school, university, precarity, and defence of territories and commons.”
Sapienza in mobilization presents its views about these topics: - against the law 133, the law 169, and the decree law 180 which is on the way for its approval - self-reform of the university - against the laws which have conceded the process of precarization of labor, from the Treu package to the law 30 - struggle for a new welfare: direct and indirect income (housing, services, culture, right to study) for all - intercategorial minimum salary for all the workers - refusal of the privatizations of knowledge and research - refusal of the devastation of environment and territories - struggle to defend the commons - more funding for the university and school, not military spending and “grandi opere”
Regarding the day of general strike, the proposal is to create a parade that connects with the unions, enabling the Wave to speak with workers. The idea is also to continue to paralyze the traffic in the city, as usual.
The relationship between the wave and the unions, and between “students” and “workers”, was discussed recently also in the article "How to generalize the Wave?: (below)
GENERALIZE THE STRIKE? GENERALIZE THE WAVE!
There’s an interesting article titled "How to generalize the Wave?". It takes up the urgent questions of the Wave, which is preparing for the general strike of 12 Decembre: how to generalize the strike? Or: would it be better to talk about generalizing the Wave, instead? The article is written by Gigi Roggero and published on the Uniriot website 30 November 2008. This is a brief summary of the arguments of the article:
There was an assembly at the university of Bologna in preparation for the the national demonstration of 14 November 2008. There was a student from Torino who was asked to tell about their experience of giving out flyers at the gates of Mirafiori, the legendary car factory of Torino. His reply surprised everyone: "Look, the extraordinary element is exactly the opposite: the workers are the ones who are coming to the gates of the university, looking for ways to organize themselves like the wave".
The classical slogan "unity of students and workers" has been overcome. This does not mean to trace a linearity between the factory and the university. This means that today, this unity does not constitute itself in the solidarity from outside, but it lives inside the new composition of labor. Not only: often it goes through singular biographies, because the worker is also student, and vice versa.
The student between the education market and the labor market is immediately a worker. The point is to become a class of students through a movement. The wave is a class movement.
However, the problem how to relate to workers (or rather: other subjects of the composition of labor in which students are included completely) being posed in the assemblies continuously.
The question is, how to generalize the slogan "we won’t pay for the crisis". This slogan has immediately been capable to speak a general language.
We should not forget that it was the power of the anomalous wave that obliged the reluctant CGIL to declare the general strike.
In the last years the movements of the precariat have asked themselves: how to generalize the strikes of trade unions? Now, the strike of 12 December must be a step forwards. On this level of subjectivity, we turn the question upside down: how does the union help the workers, of which the student from Torino was talking, to generalize the anomalous wave, in other words: to become anomalous wave?
If replying to this question, no union can keep its representative function: unrepresentability and autonomy are common features of the entire class composition.
Instead, the union can put its structures in the service of self-organization and political expression of labor. There is no other way: the other alternative is to become an actor subordinate to Partito Democratico, or for some, to become appendixes to the dead Left.
Here we’ll see who are allies of the Wave, who are subjects capable to generalize the slogan ("we won’t pay for the crisis") which is immediately a political program, or rather: a program of the class.
http://www.uniriot.org/
http://www.edu-factory.org/
Chronology of The Wave (In Italian). Lots of pics and videos too!
http://www.uniriot.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=457&Itemid=127
The Wave has been going on for many weeks. It started when the semester started (October) and it is heading towards the general strike (12 December). Here’s a timeline of some of the important moments of mobilization:
17/10/08 - Generalized general strike by "base unions" (Cub, Cobas ecc.)
30/10/08 - School strike of mainstream unions + autonomous student mobilization
07/11/08 - University protests in cities all over Italy
14/11/08 - Huge national demonstration of the Wave in Rome
15-16/11/08 - National assembly of the Wave at Sapienza, Rome
28/11/08 - University protests in cities all over Italy
NEXT BIG DAY OF ACTION:
12/12/08 - General strike declared by Cgil + autonomous mobilization of the Wave
BACKGROUND:
A 16 page pamphlet going into an analysis of the movement. We highly recommend people to read it, copy it, email it out to encourage solidarity with the Italian Wave but to also inspire people in the UK to act. Here:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/413258.html WHAT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY THE 28TH
Friday 28 November 2008. This was another day of mobilization of the Wave in Italy. Here’s some info what happened in Rome
Hundreds of Sapienza students went to Aula Magna (in the administration building) and blocked the inauguration ceremony of the academic year. "There’s nothing to inaugurate!" The only thing worth inaugurating is the self-reform of university which the students and precarians are already constructing with the conflict, with self-managed seminars, with campaigns on welfare and income, with self-reductions (autoriduzioni) and many more.
"Today the students occupied the administration building, the barons only had the rain." There was an internal demonstration and after it went through the campus the students managed to enter in Aula Magna shouting "Frati barone sei solo un buffone". It’s an insult towards rector Frati: "You’re just a clown".
Video:
http://anomalia.blogsome.com/2008/12/01/videos-from-the-inauguration-at-sapienza/ The students later took to the streets outside the campus, expressing their anger about the incident of Torino (a student died in school) accusing the politicians who are cutting down school funding. Deadly cuts. During the day there were parades and blockades in various parts of Rome. "After the self-reductions of theatre and cafeteria, the campaign for self-reform continues… towards the generalized strike of 12 December!"
Self-reductions (autoriduzioni) means disobedience, fighting for cheaper services etc. For example, people go together in the university cafeteria and refuse to pay the full price.
ENCOUNTER WITH UNIONS
December 4, 2008
Lately, with the general strike of December 12 coming up, the Wave has been preparing for an encounter with those unions that are taking part in the strike.
The relationship between movements and unions has always been problematic. Now the situation seems new. People in the movement see the general strike as an outcome of the mobilizations of the Wave. The general strike was first called for by FIOM and CGIL of the public sector, then the whole CGIL, and then the base unions (Cobas, SdL, CUB).
In Rome, the Wave is calling for an encounter with these unions. At Sapienza, there will be two round table discussions under the title New welfare, work and knowledge. On Friday 5 December, there will be a discussion at Science Politiche with representatives from CGIL. These include the national secretary of CGIL, Enrico Panini; the national secretary of FLC-CGIL (The Federation of Knowledge Workers), Domenico Pantoleo; the secretary of CGIL-Lazio, Claudio di Berardino.
Another discussion will take place on Thursday 11 December at the faculty of physics. This one will be with representatives of the base unions: the national spokesman of Cobas, Piero Bernocchi; the national secretary of CUB, Antonio Amoroso; the national coordinator of SdL, Fabrizio Tomaselli.
In addition to these meetings, there’s a new open letter written by “Sapienza in mobilization”, directed to the other subjects taking part in the general strike. This text was published at the Uniriot website on 3 December. The text emphasizes the role of the Wave and presents some proposals for creating common demands.
“With the slogan “We won’t pay the crisis” the students have launched a sign for other social subjects (…). The “we” of the slogan doesn’t speak about students only: “we” are all those who haven’t caused the crisis and therefore will not pay for it. It must be paid by enterprises and banks, this is the content of the slogan.”
“The power of the Wave has been capable to speak to the entire society and to transform both the general strike of the base unions of 17 October and the general strike of school of 30 October into something extraordinary. The autonomy of the student movement has enabled the extension of the mobilizations and a great radicality in the contents and the practices of struggle. 14 November was one of the biggest demonstrations organized autonomously by university and secondary school students.”
“To establish a strong social alliance, it’s not enough that we take to the piazza the same day. We must find convergence on some decisive contents, on which we absolutely want to win. Maintaining our specifities, differences and platforms of struggle, but making some common demands starting from four fundamental themes: school, university, precarity, and defence of territories and commons.”
Sapienza in mobilization presents its views about these topics: - against the law 133, the law 169, and the decree law 180 which is on the way for its approval - self-reform of the university - against the laws which have conceded the process of precarization of labor, from the Treu package to the law 30 - struggle for a new welfare: direct and indirect income (housing, services, culture, right to study) for all - intercategorial minimum salary for all the workers - refusal of the privatizations of knowledge and research - refusal of the devastation of environment and territories - struggle to defend the commons - more funding for the university and school, not military spending and “grandi opere”
Regarding the day of general strike, the proposal is to create a parade that connects with the unions, enabling the Wave to speak with workers. The idea is also to continue to paralyze the traffic in the city, as usual.
The relationship between the wave and the unions, and between “students” and “workers”, was discussed recently also in the article "How to generalize the Wave?: (below)
GENERALIZE THE STRIKE? GENERALIZE THE WAVE!
There’s an interesting article titled "How to generalize the Wave?". It takes up the urgent questions of the Wave, which is preparing for the general strike of 12 Decembre: how to generalize the strike? Or: would it be better to talk about generalizing the Wave, instead? The article is written by Gigi Roggero and published on the Uniriot website 30 November 2008. This is a brief summary of the arguments of the article:
There was an assembly at the university of Bologna in preparation for the the national demonstration of 14 November 2008. There was a student from Torino who was asked to tell about their experience of giving out flyers at the gates of Mirafiori, the legendary car factory of Torino. His reply surprised everyone: "Look, the extraordinary element is exactly the opposite: the workers are the ones who are coming to the gates of the university, looking for ways to organize themselves like the wave".
The classical slogan "unity of students and workers" has been overcome. This does not mean to trace a linearity between the factory and the university. This means that today, this unity does not constitute itself in the solidarity from outside, but it lives inside the new composition of labor. Not only: often it goes through singular biographies, because the worker is also student, and vice versa.
The student between the education market and the labor market is immediately a worker. The point is to become a class of students through a movement. The wave is a class movement.
However, the problem how to relate to workers (or rather: other subjects of the composition of labor in which students are included completely) being posed in the assemblies continuously.
The question is, how to generalize the slogan "we won’t pay for the crisis". This slogan has immediately been capable to speak a general language.
We should not forget that it was the power of the anomalous wave that obliged the reluctant CGIL to declare the general strike.
In the last years the movements of the precariat have asked themselves: how to generalize the strikes of trade unions? Now, the strike of 12 December must be a step forwards. On this level of subjectivity, we turn the question upside down: how does the union help the workers, of which the student from Torino was talking, to generalize the anomalous wave, in other words: to become anomalous wave?
If replying to this question, no union can keep its representative function: unrepresentability and autonomy are common features of the entire class composition.
Instead, the union can put its structures in the service of self-organization and political expression of labor. There is no other way: the other alternative is to become an actor subordinate to Partito Democratico, or for some, to become appendixes to the dead Left.
Here we’ll see who are allies of the Wave, who are subjects capable to generalize the slogan ("we won’t pay for the crisis") which is immediately a political program, or rather: a program of the class.
http://www.uniriot.org/ http://www.edu-factory.org/ Chronology of The Wave (In Italian). Lots of pics and videos too!
http://www.uniriot.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=457&Itemid=127 
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