On July 7, 20, 000 citizens of L'Aquila arrived in Rome to protest against the government programme, to break the silence imposed by the media on popular initiatives in the area devastated by the earthquake, and to demand equality and rights.
The Request:
A law that includes:
- Freezing of payments on mortgages and loans, the suspension of taxes for 5 years followed by an interest free period of 10 years.
- Security for the unemployed and those without stable jobs
- Measures to restart the economy
- A reconstruction plan for the city and villages by way of efficient processes
- All the necessary economic resources, possibly requiring a solidarity tax.
L'Aquila, in the midst of thousands of difficulties, has been able during the past months to show an iron will to not lie down and die, to resist - giving life to numerous forms of protest and proposals, from the experience of citizens committees to the wheelbarrow movement, from participative planning to the citizens assemblies within the Permanent Protest at Piazza Duomo. |
Despite this, a mode of handling the emergency, unheard of in Italy, has excluded the participation of the people from any participation in the definition of their future, imposing choices and cultural models that have redefined the zone, favouring the depopulation and speculation and leaving all the problems unresolved, above all the reconstruction of our city and surrounding villages, that has never been started.
We were among the first to denounce transformation of the Civil Defence, which - in a similar way to the treatment of the garbage issue in Campania - has used a modus operandi made up of large tenders, big events and little or no transparence. Thanks to the network that we have established together with other Italian organisations and movements, we have organised mobilisaions against its transformation into a public limited company.
Article 39 of the finance bill that the government is rushing through is only the latest blow that the Italian establishment has dealt our area.
We are asked to start paying tax and mortgages again, starting on 1st July 2010 and to repay all the contributions that were suspended in a very short time and in a way that has not been made clear.
At present, it is simply impossible for us to comply with this demand, because in our territory there are 16000 who have lost their jobs and ofthese many are now on benefits.
Because nothing has been considered or done by the government or the various commissions to favour the relaunch of the economy, if we exclude the ridiculous contrbution of 800 euro for three months paid to shopkeepers and artisans -which is insufficient to even pay their debts to suppliers.
We are not asking for particular privileges, just for our rights. After the earthquake struck Umbria the affected population were only asked to repay 40% of the suspended taxes 12 years after the earthquake.
We are asking for an integrated law that can set up funds and fixed timelines for reconstruction. In June 2009, when they protested against the Abruyyo decree, the people already knew that the funds that had been set aside were completely insufficient. Now even the local institutions are telling us that even funds for confronting the emergency that hasn't finished have run out (for example, money to pay for hotels where thousands of citizens are still forced to live, and part payments to those who managed to find a place to stay - these have been suspended since January, and the costs of repairing buildings with slight damage).
We want to escape from the continual uncertainty dictated by a system of emergency regullations and last minute postponemnts. We want to rebuild and we believe that this battle concerns others outside our territory.
L’Aquila will not surrender,it will try to resist. More than 20,000 of us marched through the city streets and occupied the motorway for two hours on 16th June. The news was censored by the mainstream media. Unfortunately we are accustomed to information about our territory that favors propaganda and emphasises the shows put on by politicians, systematically ignorign the real conditions in which we are living.
The Response
The demonstration in Rome finally ripped aside the papermache scenary that the Berlusconi government had erected to make Italians believe that that a miracle had been achieved in L'Aquila. We hope that at least this message has been heard.
