“Ettore, Aurora and Silvia they acted «certainly not to satisfy a personal and selfish interest, but for a superior, noble and altruistic purpose: the protection of the environment, put at a concrete and increasingly alarming risk of irreversible compromise by ongoing climate change». Indeed “There is no doubt that the environment, a primary constitutional value and precondition for the exercise of rights, even fundamental ones, of the person and the community, is a reason of very high social value». After such a certification one would expect that Ettore, Aurora and Silvia would have received an award from the President of the Republic. Moreover, in the Quirinale press release of 27 April, on the young people awarded with the Alfiere della Repubblica, which «the cases chosen, however, do not constitute examples of rare actions, but are representative of widespread behaviors, of spontaneous solidarity: actions and feelings to be encouraged to spread among young people those values that can allow them to become builders of a sustainable future, adults aware of the importance of solidarity in a world crossed by conflicts, climate change, environmental crises».
However, the three young people we are talking about did not receive an award. They were indeed sentenced to six months for private violence and interruption of public service in a direct trial for having carried out the road blockade of the Bologna ring road on 2 November last year. They had reconnected to mother earth, in some way, cementing themselves with their hands to the asphalt to support the Government’s request to establish a fund «preventive, permanent and participatory, to repair the damage suffered by citizens due to extreme meteorological events». 5 people had just died in Tuscany due to a bad weather emergency. And, as we well know, another 17 died in Romagna due to the floods of the previous May: 8 in the Ravenna area, 2 in the Bolognese area, 3 in the Forlì area and 4 in the Cesena area.
«The criminal conduct is represented by a form of protest, although criminally illicit, but aimed at raising awareness among public opinion and institutional subjects on the consequences of inertia in the face of climate change and on the unfair threat to future freedoms that weighs on future generations» we read in the reasons for the convictions now made public. Initially there was arrest and then precautionary measures were imposed in view of the opening of the trial: two were banned from staying in Bologna while the third was subjected to the obligation to sign. Last Generation had wondered how it was possible that for a road block, «normally punishable with an administrative fine», the three demonstrators had been «charged with the crime of aggravated private violence». A crime which, according to the provisions of art. 610 of the penal code, is integrated when «anyone who, with violence or threats, forces others to do, tolerate or omit something». Nevertheless «The three demonstrators – the association underlined – with the nonviolence that distinguishes Ultima Generazione, blocked a road using their bodies with the sole purpose of asking the government to protect its citizens».
In 2019, under the pressure of Fridays for Future, many cities in Emilia-Romagna and also the Region decided on the need for a “Declaration of climate emergency”. This was the case in Bologna, the scene of the events we are talking about, but also in Ravenna. De Pascale, after the approval, declared: «The boys and girls of the Fridays for future movement, in Ravenna and around the world, are awakening the consciences of all of us, citizens and administrators, and are making us face our responsibilities and the consequences that will occur if they are not taken to task. serious measures capable of curbing the impact of climate change on the future of our planet as soon as possible. The new awareness that is emerging must make us quickly change pace». It’s still: “The motion to declare a climate emergency, which has just been approved and which, in relation to the competences of the Municipality of Ravenna, contains precise commitments for the implementation of initiatives aimed at combating climate change, becomes the highest priority on the agenda of the municipal administration». Nothing happened. Constant overbuilding, intensive exploitation of fossil fuels and lack of care for the territory continued as before and more than before. Reserving total indifference to those who remembered the commitments made.
Noting that Greta Thunberg was right to predict and condemn the “blah blah blah” void of the institutions, after the disasters that have accumulated in the five years following the climate emergency declarations, non-violent demonstration actions are increasingly spreading to bring attention to the severity of the climate problem. And on the indispensability of political action to avoid accelerating the consequences already evident to the community.
As Ravenna in the Municipality we agreed to support the commitments of the climate emergency declaration. Even then, however, we remembered that it was a question of: «commitments that we will have to make on a daily basis, especially in the small/large choices that we will make in the city council, where we will have to be consistent with what this motion reports. Let us remember that, despite our attempts at destruction, nature always saves itself and repairs itself. The one who risks becoming extinct due to his own actions is man». Indifference was followed by repression. Ravenna in the Municipality denounces repression as a weakness of democracy, also made evident by the continuous denial of spaces where dissent can be communicated from below. Doing activism today (in all its forms) is increasingly difficult and, at the same time, indispensable. Ravenna in Comune therefore expresses solidarity with all those who demonstrate non-violence their dissent towards local (centre-left) and national (centre-right) policies which are making us advance ever more rapidly towards the next widely announced environmental disaster. If, as the judge says in the Bologna case, it constitutes «a very high social value» demonstrate against «the unjust threat to future freedoms” represented “by inertia in the face of climate change», how can the violent repression underway be justified from a democratic point of view?”
Ravenna in the Municipality
