A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #18-25 - Breaking the authoritarian cage, building practices of freedom (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In the end, the so-called security decree has been approved. It is time 
to overturn the cage of fear that they have built to try to isolate 
those who fight, to terrorize the exploited and oppressed. Because this 
is the meaning of the umpteenth authoritarian act of the government, to 
tighten the meshes of the legal cage within which it is legitimate to 
protest, so that implementing effective and incisive forms of struggle 
is increasingly difficult. The large mobilization of the last few months 
against the new provision is an important signal that shows how a clear 
opposition to the repressive policies that have been applied in this 
country for 15 years by force of decrees is maturing. It is from this 
basis that we must start to sweep away fear, defend the movements, 
overthrow the authoritarian cloak that the government is imposing on 
society.

In the past few months, several contributions on these pages have 
already examined the government's provision, highlighting its main 
elements. Let's just recall some of the most important ones:

Two new crimes that we can define as crimes of opinion, since they 
concern the possession and dissemination of information materials, are 
provided for in Article 1: «Possession of material for the purpose of 
terrorism», which provides for imprisonment from 2 to 6 years, while the 
dissemination, even online, of instructions for violent acts or sabotage 
is punished from two to four years. Article 9 extends to 10 - until now 
it was 3 - the number of years within which - in the event of a 
conviction for terrorism - acquired citizenship can be revoked. Article 
10 introduces the new crime of «Arbitrary occupation of property 
intended for the domicile of others» punishable by imprisonment from 2 
to 7 years. Penalties also for those who cooperate. Article 11 
establishes a new aggravating circumstance for a wide variety of crimes 
"against life and public and individual safety, against personal freedom 
and against property, or which in any case offend property" which are 
incurred if the crime is committed inside or in the immediate vicinity 
of railway and subway stations. Article 12 defines a new aggravating 
circumstance for the crime of damage, for events that occur during 
demonstrations. Article 14 creates the new category of roadblock which 
transforms an administrative offence into a criminal offence: up to 2 
years in prison if the act is committed by more than one person.

Articles 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28 and 31 introduce new protections for 
military personnel, law enforcement officers and secret service 
personnel: increased penalties for crimes of resistance, violence and 
threats against police personnel; for anyone who causes injury to a 
police officer in the exercise of his duties, a prison sentence of 2 to 
16 years is provided for, depending on the severity. Article 19 also 
provides for a new aggravating circumstance that is incurred if the act 
is committed in order to prevent the construction of a public work or a 
strategic infrastructure. While Articles 28 and 31 respectively provide 
that police officers can carry weapons other than service weapons 
without a license, off duty, and that there are guarantees of impunity 
for undercover secret service agents. Article 24 provides for 
aggravating circumstances for the occupation of "furniture or property 
used for the exercise of public functions, with the aim of damaging the 
honor, prestige or decorum of the institution to which the property 
belongs". New types of crime are provided for by Articles 26 and 27 
which introduce the crime of revolt in prison and that of revolt in 
CPRs; also considered a riot are "conducts of passive resistance 
that[...]prevent the performance of official or service acts necessary 
for the management of order and security". Those who participate in 
riots risk a sentence of 1 to 5 years, the organizers are punishable by 
sentences of 2 to 8 years. But depending on the severity and 
consequences of the riot, the sentence can reach up to 20 years. Article 
26 also provides for an aggravating circumstance of the crime of 
"incitement to disobey the laws" if the act occurs inside the prison or 
through writings or communications addressed to inmates.

This and much more became law with the approval by the Chamber on May 29 
and the Senate on June 4 of Legislative Decree no. 48, approved by the 
government on April 11 to impose the rapid approval of the new rules 
contained in the original bill ex1660, initially presented in January 2024.

The opposition in parliament cried scandal over the government's 
decision to pass as a decree a measure for which the path of the bill 
had been chosen. Of course, the government's initiative forced the 
normal procedures to arrive at the rapid approval of a highly repressive 
measure. Government officials have arrogantly claimed this choice, 
stating that continuing the parliamentary debate was useless since the 
decree already took on, in their opinion, some of the opposition's 
concerns. In reality, very little has been smoothed out. Compared to the 
initial version of the bill, presented two years ago, the structure has 
remained substantially intact. But those parliamentary parties that are 
criticizing the government today are the same ones that have not only 
always used legislation by decree like the current government, but have 
also issued repressive measures that are also the basis of the new rules 
issued by the government, just think of the institution of the CPRs.

The current security decree is only the latest stage in a series of 
measures that have restricted political freedom and the margins for 
practicing forms of resistance in society in recent years.

How narrow the gap between those in government and those in opposition 
in parliament has become on these issues, at least in its basic 
approach, is clear from the fact that the criticism of the institutional 
opposition is generally never directed against the general approach of 
the government's measures. The criticism has focused on a few individual 
issues, such as the roadblock, passive resistance, the imprisonment of 
mothers. But in general the opposition has used a rhetoric that is now 
trite and hackneyed, which often finds an echo even in sectors that 
should be more radical, which presents the repressive measures as 
extemporaneous, botched, like election spots. However, however much they 
may be used in the election campaign, these cannot be reduced to 
propaganda initiatives, they have concrete effects on people's lives and 
on the viability of movements.

A clear example was given on the occasion of the demonstrations in 
solidarity with Palestine on October 5 in Rome and on April 12 in Milan. 
And it is clear that in a context of preparation for war, this provision 
- which specifically punishes acts of sabotage, passive resistance, 
riots in detention centers, infrastructure blockades - serves to allow 
the implementation of a sort of martial law against the "cowards" who 
want to stop the war machine. In a state of undeclared war, the boundary 
between internal and external war has now almost completely vanished. 
This is why the Quirinale supported the issuing of the decree.

The decree redefines the boundaries of legal protest, and increases the 
penalties for crimes that political and trade union activists and those 
who generally participate in social struggles and movements commonly 
incur. This can have a series of consequences. It will certainly lead to 
rethinking some practices, but also to redefining balances and 
relationships between different groups and organizations that may have 
different approaches to the new situation. But we must not give in to 
fear, to giving up, to resignation.

There has never been such a broad movement on these issues in recent 
years. There were Maroni's "security packages" of 2008 and 2009, the 
security decrees of 2017 signed by the PD, and which bear the names of 
Minniti and Orlando, the decrees signed by Salvini in 2018 and 2019 
during the Lega-M5S government. On none of these occasions had a broad 
social opposition to the repressive measures been created. After last 
summer, however, to oppose what was the DDL 1660, a variety of 
initiatives and campaigns of national and local scope were born, driven 
by some sectors of grassroots unionism, with a general involvement of 
networks and organizations of the radical left, social centers, 
anarchist groups. Not without limits and contradictions and certainly 
with a huge delay, this varied campaign has become a movement, whose 
demands have found space in society, managing to catalyze discontent 
against the government also on this ground.

Repression has thus become, at least in part, a mass issue. It is clear 
to a part of society that the new rules are unjust, it is time to bring 
this awareness into daily practices, into social struggles, to ensure 
that the new rules cannot be applied. The widespread opposition to the 
decree must transform into mass violation of the new rules. Only mass 
movements can open spaces of freedom for all by forcing repressive laws. 
Closing ourselves now within the legal margins or thinking of an 
avant-garde thrust, as in the perspective of the worse the better, are 
two attitudes that can still allow the new legislation to consolidate.

Transforming opposition to the decree into a practice of disruption is 
not easy. The important thing is to make this possible, bringing the 
anarchist method and direct action into the movements, committing 
ourselves so that the practices in the streets are not managed 
exclusively by organized groups, so that the conflict does not become an 
end or, worse, a representation, so that an open, horizontal discussion 
develops, based on awareness of the risks and the sharing of different 
practices, in a perspective that allows the creation of forms of mutual 
support. The spaces of freedom, the ability to move must be built and 
defended day after day in the streets and squares with determination.

D.A.

https://umanitanova.org/spezzare-la-gabbia-autoritaria-costruire-partiche-di-liberta/
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