Notes from the Police State of Italy

By Barry Sweeney, RebelSeptember 26, 2024

Writing from Catania, Sicily, Barry Sweeney shows how in Meloni’s Italy the criminalization of dissent has become normal.

Italy, like all other countries, faces multiple problems related to climate chaos, workplace deaths, inadequate public services, pandemics, a weak healthcare system, poor worker protection, rampant exploitation, crumbling bridges and infrastructure, racist institutions and questionable military alliances. name a few controversial issues. But according to the Italian government, these conflicts do not exist and have no right to exist. Nothing to see here folks. Keep the peace. Move on, now.

On Thursday, September 19, the new security package DDL 1606 was passed into law in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Italian government) and is now being quickly sent through the Senate (the upper house) in “a channel of absolute urgency,” according to Matteo Salvini, the far-right senior member of Meloni’s government.

The bill, called the Anti-Gandhi Security Bill, (re)establishes the police state in Italy. As DDL 1660 Security gallops toward final approval, one thing is very clear: civilians are the real enemy of this government.

The bill contains several new crimes that seriously hinder the public’s ability to participate in public life, which is the core of democracy. Where activists once dreamed of a horizon of transformation, they now face a horizon of repression. The threats that Meloni’s government sees are not climate catastrophes, genocidal wars, rising poverty rates or the continued brain drain from Italy’s coasts. They reject any green response to climate change; they pride themselves on burying every green proposal, despite rivers drying up, temperatures rising and glaciers melting; they proudly stand side by side with war criminals live streaming a genocide. The real danger they see are those who demand a better world to live in. They criminalize those who oppose disaster and immorality.

Anti-Gandhi Laws

To get an idea of ​​how these new repressive laws might be used in real life and to illustrate how activism now carries real risk, we look at some current cases. Let’s take the genocide of the Palestinian people. It is a shame that Italy is the third largest supplier of weapons to the racist Israeli apartheid regime. We all know how these weapons are used, as the Israeli army live streams their murders and massacres daily in some sort of sick snuff videos.

Leonardo SpA (a major Italian arms company) is a major arms supplier to the Israeli army. These sales and economic connections are covered in blood and disputed by many. The Luigi Spera case is an illustration of the erosion of civil liberties in Italy. Spera, a local firefighter and longtime peace activist, took part in a protest in front of Leonardo SpA’s headquarters in Palermo, Sicily.

The Green Left Alliance (Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, AVS), a merger between two parties, the Italian Left (SI) and Green Europe (EV), supported Spera. They pointed out that the Leonardo arms company, with the support of the Italian government, sells “instruments of death and destruction, the same weapons that produce the horror that offends our conscience every day.” As the AVS statement read: “Luigi is a father, a firefighter, he has not used violence against anyone and has not caused any material damage to his community. War kills women, men, boys and girls and steals our precious resources to defend our environment, our health, our right to real work and our freedom.” Luigi nevertheless ended up in San Michele prison in Alessandria, in the closely guarded section reserved for prisoners convicted of subversive crimes or involved in organized crime, while he awaited trial. He has not even been convicted of any crime, and yet he has lost all freedom.

Another activist facing subversive accusations is Giacomo Baggio Zilio. Giacomo, an environmental activist, disrupted a tennis match in May this year by throwing confetti onto the tennis court. The Questura of Rome (the police headquarters) has demanded the application of an anti-mafia measure against Giacomo. With which he will undergo severe restrictions on his freedom for two years: a ban on leaving his place of residence, a night curfew from 8 p.m. to 7 p.m., an obligation to report daily and not being able to attend any event. to attend, religious procession, sports competitions and concert.

Chilling activism

To try to understand the effects of the anti-Gandhi laws on those demanding action on a particular issue, we can imagine a few situations. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a young working-class woman who is forced to spend ‘five days of reflection’ before having an abortion and doesn’t want others to experience what she had to go through. Or a citizen who faces drought and desertification in Sicily, or floods and landslides in Emilia-Romagna and sees only passivity from the bureaucratic ruling class. Or an exploited worker who gets paid a pittance for collecting the food we eat. Or an environmentally conscious teenager who wants more money to be invested in sustainable agriculture than in weapons of war.

How can you fight for your cause when dissent is now criminalized? If you participate in a march, you risk two years in prison. If you organize a demonstration, you risk fifteen years in prison. If you participate in a strike at work or school, you risk two years in prison. If you want to draw attention to the appalling conditions in prison or in a detention center for refugees, you risk twenty years of extra detention. So think carefully before you go on hunger strike or demand more pay for teachers and resources for schools.

Instead, let’s imagine that we are a bit more cautious and reluctant to get involved in street protests. That’s why we are more involved in describing the struggle in detail, or supporting charities. Maybe you’re a blogger, or you help run a social media page highlighting an issue close to your heart.

For example, Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people is now punishable by up to six years in prison, as reporting struggles is now considered “terrorism of the word.”

All this is now law.

Fascist pressure

Fascism doesn’t just stop the public from expressing themselves. It imposes fascist values ​​on the population. Traditional/conservative family structures, anti-choice (abortion), extreme inward-looking nationalism are all in the crosshairs.

Let’s consider abortion first. Abortion has been a right in Italy for 46 years, since it became law. But this freedom is limited. In recent years, attacks on women’s freedom and self-determination have become increasingly common. An example of this was the ‘Initiative for the prevention of abortion, support for motherhood, the defense of life and the protection of the traditional family in the territory of the capital of Rome’ in 2023.

Women are subjected to pressure in regional health centers that amounts to acts of psychological violence. Many women are subjected to “undue interference and pressure from volunteers in the centres”. They are “forced to hear the fetus’s heartbeat or promised economic support (for not aborting) with the precise intention of deterring them from choosing an abortion,” as the political party Power to the People reports.

Many anti-abortion activists have found work in abortion clinics since Meloni’s government came to power. There are many examples of women who seek termination of pregnancy and have experienced a nightmare. One woman tells how she “had an abortion on December 23rd. When we got out, a nurse said: in two days the baby Jesus will be born and here we will kill the children.

“Some of us were crying,” she said, describing her reaction and the reaction of the other eight women there that day. A woman who was forced to hear the fetus’s heartbeat says: ‘I can’t say exactly how long it lasted, but it seemed like a very long moment to me. I remember not having the strength to say anything, I wasn’t expecting it and it was a blow that almost left me breathless. When the visit was over, I left with my eyes full of tears. It took me days to recover psychologically, and I still remember it as the most traumatic and unpleasant part of the entire experience.

When it comes to the promotion of the traditional family, LGBT+ rights are being crushed. Little chance to marry, adopt, or enjoy the protection of the law as a couple. Marriage is a man and a woman. Point.

Regarding nationalism (also called racism): “Italy is for the Italians,” and no one else is welcome. This is embodied in Matteo Salvini, leader of the separatist political party La Lega and Deputy Prime Minister of Italy. In 2019, Salvini, while defense minister, closed all Italian ports to rescue ships in the Mediterranean carrying migrants rescued at sea. He is currently being prosecuted for these actions. Salvini claims he was defending Italy and its borders. Last week he told the court that migrants “ended up in prison after disembarkation,” insinuating, in an oft-repeated message, that refugees are criminals and that Italy is better off without them. By repeating this message, fascist ideology is being imposed on the masses.

Tipping point

Federico Dolce of Diem25, the pan-European political party led by Yanis Varoufakis, has some words of wisdom for those dealing with the rise of the right in their country. “Just like the climate, democracy has a tipping point, after which it is difficult to return to the way things were before. Once your rights are gone, it’s not easy to get them back.”

Federico points out in his optimistic way that “there are signs in Ireland that there is still something alive on a moral level” (due to the strong Palestinian solidarity actions that have been taken in Ireland), “and everything starts at that level… when you love your community loves Love what is best for all of you, keep the conversations in the market, in the pub, keep the conversations healthy on a human level, fight for the common good, what is good for the community is good for you. That’s how you get a community you can trust, and you get a government you can trust. Once you do that, you will see fairer labor laws, you will see a good fight for good laws, and you (as a people) will have your moral compass.

“If I could go back in time 50 years,” Dolce continued, “I would fight for that, without everything falling apart. If you give up the common good of the community, if you give up empathy and trying to understand what other people need, then it’s all over. Just look at us,” he ended poignantly.

Words of warning. Ireland must take note.

Barry Sweeney is a Donegal man living in Catania, Sicily. He is a long-time peace activist with World BEYOND War Ireland.