Action in Solidarity with Argentina in Rome

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday December 22, 2002 16:06 by hydrarchist - slash.autonomedia.org

new methods of struggle

The following action in Rome yesterday could be of much wider application.

Two actions took place in Rome today to mark the anniversary of the argentinian rebellion, one year old today, and to show solidarity with the striking Fiat workers in Cassino, a small town in Lazio.

At about 4.00 this afternoon a eighty or so ne'er do wells entered the shopping centre 'Auchan' in Casal Albertone. Pro-Palestinian activists were campaigning outside for a boycott Israeli products, but we went inside, closely shadowed by the cops. The Agnelli family have historically controlled Fiat but are immersed in innumerable other ventures including operation of the 'Auchan' franchise in Italy - they are the country's most important dynasty.

Shopping trolleys were filled with merchandise, particularly toys, gigantic cheeses and enormous sides of ham. Some of those present had megaphones and the motivation behind the action was explained to all the shoppers. The management reacted with a mixture, predictably, of consternation and horror. Scores of security guards milled about, anguished, 'assistant managers' normally busy with inventory were inducted into crisis management. Staff gazed away, diffident and somewhat baffled, but not upset or outraged.

Invoking Argentina, people seized frying pans and started an improvided carcelerazo whilst placing stickers stating 'free gift from Agnelli'. Police trampled around the shopping centre, half of them fresh-faced 18 year olds probably doing their military service, wearing helmets and riot shields. And this is the Saturday before Christmas, for fucks sake! It was chaos! The security staff and state agents had no idea what to do.Obviously truncheoning people in the middle of the supermarket wasn't a realistic option, the risk of thrashing an innocent victim of consumer oblivion was obviously too risky.

Eventually a negotiation was conducted over megaphone with representatives from the shopping centre. They offered us some crappy cakes, we demanded the bacon. They prevaricated, we stood firm! Eventually they agreed to 'contribute' the goods to the Fiat workers, and we agreed to leave. In order so as not to provide them with the pretext to arrest us, members of staff had to take the goods out of the shop, so that no-one could be targeted and charged with theft should they decide to renege on the deal. Not one person was arrested in the course of the day.

The location and timing of the action obviously gave it a lot of public exposure and the shopperss reaction was unanimously positive. Scores gathered around the check-out area that constituted the nerve centre of the conflict, laughing and chatting, but also crucially providing us with an area of sympathy that constrained Auchan's response to our action.

Afterwards we made a triumphant procession to Strike SpA (Spazio Publico Autogestito), squatted during the general strike on October 18th, had a celebratory drink and dispatched a couple of cars down to Cassino with the loot.

Simultaneous with the action at Auchan there was a small but boisterously festive demonstration outside the Argentinian embassy. Effigies were battoned, music boomed, the popular dances of the barrios stamped.

Pictures will come later.

[los leyes son sus limpias balas
los balas son sus sucios leyes]
[laws are their clean bullets
bullets are their dirty laws]
http://december20.cjb.net/
http://italy.indymedia.org/features/roma/#374

The following essay describes another tactic used in the 1970s in Italy that might also be of use elsewhere:
The Working-Class Struggle Against the Crisis:
Self-Reduction Of Prices in Italy
Bruno Ramirez
http://slash.autonomedia.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/18/1529207&mode=nested