March 1st, 2012 —Day of NO TAV actions across Italy (and beyond)

NO TAV —Highway under evacuation (second round)

1-3/2012
00.42 GMT+1 The assembly ended. The next meeting was scheduled for 18.00pm in Bussoleno.

00.40 News came in the assembly about a NO TAV activist admitted to hospital with a broken leg.

00.27 According to eye-witnesses’ reports in the assembly, cars of NO TAV activists were damaged by Carabinieri.

00.09 Intervention of Nicoletta Dosio in the assembly, who had just been released by police. There were other detainees transferred to Turin police headquarters at the time.

29-2/2012
23.47 Cops raided a bar in Chianocco, blocking NO TAV protesters inside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akakIPUV4G0

23.41 ‘Let’s block everything’ – BLOCCHIAMO TUTTO is the NO TAV watchword.

23.25 There have been numerous reports about police raids inside bars and pizzerias along the national roads.

23.07 Always from the assembly in Polivalente theatre in Bussoleno: ‘Tomorrow the watchword will be: block everything everywhere.’ The general call is for coordinated blockades across Italy from 18.00pm on March 1st.

23.01 NO TAV assembly: ‘For tonight we have given all that we could; let’s meet tomorrow in Vernetto and start over again.’

23.00 By that time, there were reports about a hundred injured NO TAV protesters.

22.53 Radio Blackout transmitted live from the assembly at Polivalente in Bussoleno.

22.22 NO TAV people gathered in Mercato square of Bussoleno to hold an assembly, but later the assembly moved into the Polivalente theatre.

21.54 With police standing on the national road after arresting several protesters, ambulances arrived to pick the wounded demonstrators up, especially elderly people.

21.41 The occupation forces continue to launch attacks against the NO TAV up until Bussoleno.

21.33 Constant firing of tear gas directly at people’s heads.

21.21 NO TAV resisters built barricades on the national road, amid another police attempt to evacuate the junction; more thick tear gas.

21.17 Police charged at protesters on the highway junction; massive use of tear gas and urticant water with the cannons against resisters.

20.47 A solidarity message from the poet Erri De Luca: ‘I’m with the Val di Susa, where the entire community has rejected the enslavement of its own soil.’

20.20 A new video circulated from the NO TAV movement:

20.16 Police shoved the NO TAV people on the junction.

20.03 Demonstrators continued to resist on the highway junction.

19.30 Video contribution from the highway resistance:

19.09 NO TAV people that had been identified and detained by law enforcement scum were released little by little.

18.59 Mrs. Piera, NO TAV resister on the highway, was seized with illness, so an ambulance arrived at the blockade.

18.42 Good news from the hospital in Turin: Luca Abbà no longer receives dialysis and responds well to the treatment. FORZA LUCA!

18.28 Police assaulted the NO TAV protesters sitting on the roadway —> audio

18.25 Water cannons still operated against the NO TAV resisters.

18.14 A cameraman working for La Repubblica had been shot by the water cannon.

17.51 While the NO TAV were still sitting on the highway surrounded by repressive forces, they were singing and chanting ‘Luca, Luca’ and ‘Val di Susa got no fear!’

17.40 Live radio broadcast in pure NO TAV style, with laughter and protest chants despite police repression.

17.21 Bulldozers began to remove the barricades. Many resisters remained on the highway —among them the syndicalist Cremaschi of the federation of metal workers (FIOM trade union).

17.15 Moments of respite; excavators and men in uniform halted while the Valley resisted. Both sides’ ranks grew bigger by the minute.

17.10 Francesca from Radio Blackout at the barricades.

16.57 One hundred NO TAV protesters remained seated on the road surface, surrounded by occupation forces. Bulldozers broke through the first barricades; use of tear gas and attempt to extinguish the flaming barricades with water cannons.

16.47 The occupation forces arrived at the highway blockade. Barricades were immediately set on fire, to delay and ultimately block the advance of the excavators. The people prepared to resist by all means.

From 16.15 (GMT+1) a large number of law enforcement forces, coming from two directions simultaneously, Susa Valley and Turin, advanced towards the protesters with bulldozers, officers and chemical weapons in order to evacuate the highway, after nearly 48 hours of continuous blockade. About fifty demonstrators resisted sitting on the ground while assassins in uniform were approaching.

Luca Abbà, NO TAV activist and farmer in Susa Valley, remains hospitalized for resisting during the struggle against the high-speed railway line Turin–Lyon, a long-standing social war in Italy and beyond. Now is the time to carry out direct actions on ‘Italian’ and capitalist targets across the world, thus proving that solidarity is our weapon!