For the climate and against the government without forgetting Palestine. Thousands of students and activists – including Greta Thunberg in Milan, with the keffiyeh on her shoulders – took to the streets to demonstrate from North to South.
So high school and university students filled the Italian squares for the Fridays for Future international strike that coincided with the “No Meloni Day” called the same day by student movements, such as Osa and Cambiare Rotta, to precisely in light of the return to the. streets” for the climate”.
“Today it is necessary to talk about something other than the environmental issue”, explained Elettra de Cambiare Rotta, in Rome. If, in fact, in the capital it was the flag signed by Fridays for Future that opened the march, at the end the student organizations marched for the demonstration against the government that took place – as they recall – “in 20 the city of Italy”, from morning to evening, and joined the climate strike.
“We are at a time when students are suffering from the cost of living, between skyrocketing rents and the rising cost of canteens”, said the student Cambiare Rotta. Starting from Piazzale Ugo la Malfa, in Rome, in front of the Circus Maximus, more than a thousand of them reached the Ministry of Education and Merit, amidst processions, smoke bombs and Palestinian flags. “We reject the reforms of Valditara and Bernini because they reduce social spending and attack public education”, reiterated the young people also on the streets for No Meloni Day, announcing “a hot harvest against the government”. And right on the steps of the dicastery there were some moments of tension between the students of the autonomous collectives and the students of the organized movements. “There are three different groups that decided to demonstrate in the same square for different reasons”, explained some students who took to the streets with Fridays for Future. Meanwhile, in the same hours, Greta Thunberg’s warning came from the Milan demonstration.
“If as a climate activist you are not also fighting for the liberation of Palestine and to end colonialism and oppression in the world, you cannot call yourself a climate activist”, the activist pointed out Swedish. “Silence is complicated – he said – you cannot be neutral in genocide”.
Tuscan environmentalists were also striking for climate justice who showed images in Florence, during a flashmob, of the disasters in the world caused by climate change: fires, floods, droughts and tsunamis. Also demonstrative actions at the Fridays for Future in Turin where some activists covered their mouths with scotch tape after other young people hung a banner against the media “guilty – for the demonstrators – for remaining silent against the climate crisis” . Then some young people laid down on the ground and dropped a banner with the words “Let’s stop Bill 1660”; signed “A free network to fight”, and again: “No to the police state”. A sign of the different themes brought to the streets across Italy on the day of the climate strike: the environment, Palestine and the government.
Flash mob in Turin for the climate
The Turin Fridays For Future march ended in Turin, crossing the streets in the center of the Piedmont capital with around a thousand participants. During the trip, the environmentalists stopped for flash mobs, the first one near the skyscraper Intesa Sanpaolo where, among the trees on the side road, a flag was hung against the media “guilty – according to the protesters – of remaining silent in the face of the climate crisis”. Some of the activists put scotch tape over their mouths. Not far away, on bank branch windows, posters have been placed against “banks that still invest in fossil fuels”. Finally, in front of the Town Hall, the young people laid down on the ground and unpicked a banner with the words: “Let’s stop Bill 1,660”, signed “Rete liberi/e di forza”, which ends with “No. state police”. The procession then ended at the Royal Gardens.