Coordinamento Migranti statement after the general demonstration of Migrants held in Bologna on March 23.
I also attach some links to videos and pictures of the demo.
Best
Paola
More than 3000 people, the vast majority of whom were migrants, demonstrated in Bologna on March 23rd. Under continuous rain, the anger of migrants was evident in the compactness of the march: “better that it rains – some said – so that they see that we are strong”. Anger and strength that was very visible and forceful. A migrant worker who had participated to the previous days strike of logistics workers said: “Today celebration must have its conclusion. Yesterday we started our celebration. And today we conclude it here”. This is the truth of the general demonstration of March 23rd 2013 in Bologna.
It was a new and different kind of demonstration, strengthened by the worker and migrant insubordination that the day before produced the strike of logistics workers. This is true first of all because many of the same migrants who organized the strike organized the demonstration. The political centrality conquered by these migrant workers opened a space of action such that in Bologna thousands of other migrants from various Italian cities demanded the abolition of the connection between residency papers and work contract, the closing of all detention centres, a citizenship law that does not ignore their children, the recognition of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. It was a truly transnational space, that united, not only ideally, Bologna with other European cities like Amsterdam and Berlin, and with the rest of the world: from Senegal to Pakistan, from Bangladesh to Morocco, from France to Albania, where through social networks the voices, photos and videos of the Bologna March are already circulating.
The demonstration thus assumed a general political significance. March 22nd and 23rd migrants raised their heads and showed the way forward to other workers. From the many nodes of logistics, from the peripheries and the warehouses they seized the centre of the city bringing into the streets their force, their anger, their lives and their unconditional demand for a future. This demand is that of the migrant women who participated in the march to say that they are not only here to serve. It is the demand of migrant youth who do not want to be educated only to add greater numbers to a work force willing to work at any condition. And the demand of those who live under the sign of precarity and who see, in the struggle and determination of migrants, the force and the possibility of raising their own heads. There were italian workers from a few local factories who for years have supported the struggles of migrants. But there were not that many Italians present, because when migrants move as migrants, when they call to struggle, perhaps its easier to adhere to the march formally, than do something else. But the political liberation from the condition imposed on migrants and the struggle against exploitation are two things that can no longer be kept separate.
The 22nd and 23rd of March migrants forcefully showed that this is the moment! From Bologna, from this anger and force expressed in the streets, from all the situations that supported us and from all the cities in Italy that observed the march from a distance, a strong and clear political message was sent: it is time to abolish the Bossi-Fini law. It is time to end the institutional racism that imposes hierarchies between workers, in Italy and in Europe. It is time to end work conditions of exploitation that from migrant labor have expanded to become the condition of all labor. It is time to end the precarization of labor and life. It is time for organization and struggle.
They said we were a danger to the public interest and we dance, they painted us as victims and we struggle. It is time for the struggle that liberates and that thus is a celebration. It is time, period.
Coordinamento Migranti Bologna
http://coordinamentomigranti.org/2013/03/29/ora-e-il-momento-nuovo-video-facciamo-partire-una-nuova-stagione-per-dire-bastya-sfruttamento-bastabossifini/
http://coordinamentomigranti.org/2013/03/24/23-marzo-bastabossifini-migliaia-in-corteo-a-bologna-video-foto/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coordinamentomigranti/tags/bastabossifini/show/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coordinamentomigranti/tags/lucia/show/
