2023-12-05 15:39:08
Por: Daniele Cofani
On November 16, the Council of Ministers of the far-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni approved three bills introducing new rules on public security that, in effect, further tighten previous security decrees (Salvini) , approved and then converted into law during the Conte and Conte bis governments. As we well know, even in this case, many other purposes are hidden behind the rhetoric of public security, such as the suffocation of social struggles and the green light for repression through liberticidal norms that we will try to analyze throughout this article.
Law enforcement: impunity, money and weapons
While in Italy “twenty-seven perpetrators of voluntary homicides – including alleged perpetrators, confessed criminals, convicted in the first degree of the process, or suicides – were in uniform between January 2020 and June 1, 2023, all men and considered responsible for the death of 28 people” (1) the Meloni Government, like its predecessors, instead of intervening to put an end to this State massacre, lavishes impunity, money and weapons on the forces of order (police).
Of the 5 million planned for the renewal of contracts of the entire public sector (3 million workers), 30% (1.5 million) will be allocated only to the Armed Forces, which together represent only 16% of the entire public sector . Another rule introduced, much more serious and dangerous, is the one that will allow the police to have, off duty, “a lighter weapon instead of the standard one, which is usually much heavier.” Finally, among other measures to “protect” the police forces, the bill provides for a more severe punishment for those who commit crimes such as violence, threats, resistance and injuries (from 2 to 5 years) or very serious injuries (up to 16 years). . ) against agents, and increased punishment also for those who “dirty or deface” movable and immovable property “used for the exercise of public functions”; At the same time, the possibility of exclusion from punishment is expanded to agents who make “use of weapons, force or other means of physical coercion” or “computer tools.” A deadly mixture that winks at the arms industry and rewards, arms and leaves unpunished the forces of repression that the bourgeois State uses to defend private property and the profits of capitalists, police forces that will be able to continue repressing harshly and with new tools all forms of struggle of workers and social movements.
Another repression, new crimes against those who fight
Apparently, the repressive rules already introduced by the Salvini and Salvini bis decrees are not enough for the Meloni government, against which the “left” and the M5 [Movimiento 5 Estrellas] in the government they did nothing more than confirm the repression through Minister Lamorgese (2); However, the campaign for its abolition organized by the No Austerity Struggle Front was very important (3).
With these new bills, the crime of blocking roads would be toughened [calles], going from an administrative offense to a crime when committed by several people, with a penalty of 6 months to 2 years in prison, also extendable to blocking railway lines. In fact, a historic technique of non-violent protest, recently widely used by Next Generation environmentalists to raise awareness among civil society against pollution and environmental devastation, is under attack, but it will hit anyone who is forced to use it to defend their own rights.
In this sense we also condemn the recent attacks on the right to strike by the Minister of Transport Salvini who, with misleading and instrumental motivations and pitting workers against users (who are always workers), issued various instructions that have reduced to a few hours the strikes in the airline sector and in local public transport, for salaries and safety, strikes called by both the grassroots unionism and by the CGIL and the UIL on the occasion of the national strike on November 17.
Among other things, a bill has also reached Parliament that would severely limit the right to strike in local public transport, leaving the possibility of calling a strike only to organizations that have signed the Single Text (Tur) and the contracts of national work, effectively muzzling any form of combative opposition.
As for new crimes, the crime of rioting in penitentiary centers or migrant centers has been established, with new penalties also being provided for those who instigate riots outside the structures; This happens while our country is sadly among the top three in Europe for prison overcrowding (4) and with a very high suicide rate among male and female inmates that reached its negative record in 2022 with 74 people who committed suicide (5). Not to mention the Hotspots and the permanence and expulsion centers (CPE) where immigrants who arrive in Italy without having committed any crime other than fleeing wars are unjustly locked up – now for up to 18 months (6) – and in inhumane conditions, famine and hunger
In fact, they are cutting all types of rights and funds to manage and finance useful alternative measures to confront the problem of overcrowding in prisons and the reception and integration of immigrants, and as the only solution they only encourage the club and repression.
New repressive measures also against those who do not have the possibility of having a house to live in, thus forcing them to occupy a space to be able to live: prison sentences of 2 to 7 years and a “lightning procedure” for the release of properties by part of the police forces, while in Italy only 6% of accommodation is for popular housing, compared to 18% in the EU.
The “possession of material for terrorist purposes” also becomes a crime, which punishes those who obtain, possess or disseminate material intended to prepare acts of terrorism, but at the same time, infiltrated secret agents who participate in the preparation of terrorist acts will be protected. attacks, taking us back a few decades to what was experienced during the tension strategy. Finally, the Daspo is introduced against the “pickpocket” practice in train, subway and bus stations.
Let’s unite the fights against a reactionary government
It is clear that we did not expect any difference from a far-right government, nor do we expect any type of serious opposition from the M5S, the Democratic Party (PD) and the entire reformist and parliamentary left, also because they are directly responsible for the establishment of the Meloni government due to the anti-worker, racist and xenophobic policies that they have put into practice during their mandates, also through the approval of laws that were nothing more than the prelude to these new bills: Turco-Napolitano, Minniti, Salvini 1 , Salvini bis and Lamorgese.
Although these new bills are an integral part of the Meloni government’s repressive propaganda, it must also be said that, in this phase in which there is no rise in workers’ struggles, they are functional to hide the attacking economic and social policies. to the working class, retirees, women, immigrants, the LGBT+ community.
Against this economic agenda written and imposed by the capitalist system on each government of any color, all that remains is to unite the union, student, social and movement struggles to change the relationship of force in our favor against the bosses, against the governments and against the entire socioeconomic system. We can only start from the great mobilizations in support of the heroic Palestinian resistance, against violence against women and against the government’s economic policies, mobilizations that in recent days have seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets led by many young immigrants, but also by students and workers. We also support the unity of the struggles promoted by the No Austerity Struggle Front, which on November 18 organized a national conference in Florence in which important union and social struggle groups participated: after an intense debate, a political document was approved that puts at the center of the next phase the need to unite and extend struggles independently of governments and union bureaucracies, in an attempt to overthrow this rotten system, capitalism (7).
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Article published in www.partitodialternatoivacomunista.org28/11/2023.-
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
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