A-Infos (en) Italy, Umanita Nova: Under a concrete collapse (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Numbers. The city of Florence, they say, was perhaps not used to these 
numbers. What is certain is that he soon metabolised these numbers and 
did not stop his activities. Newspapers, television and social media 
promptly buried us under a mass of numbers: numbers of victims, age of 
the victims, how many kilometers they were away from home, number of 
contracted companies, subcontracted companies, linear metres, meters 
cubic, of tons, of hours that passed, of vehicles used, of children who 
were not there, of delivery times, of irregularities, of rules not 
respected, of how much immigrants are comfortable with. And every issue 
must strike, impress, move, sell. And thanks also to the syndemic called 
covid, the neologism "doomscrolling" forcefully entered Italian 
dictionaries three years ago.

However, Florence is a city that allows, against all logic, common sense 
and shared decision-making, to build a supermarket where there is 
already one 150m away, another 400m away, yet another 600m away (all of 
which are competitors) as well as two others from the same chain 
responsible for the disaster within a kilometer radius. The one under 
construction, despite the protests of many people in the neighborhood 
and environmentalist associations, would also have burdened the already 
problematic car traffic by involving one of the main access routes to 
the emergency room of the Careggi hospital.

Once again we witness the economic, civil and social division of the 
city and its division: in the historic centre, small - but rather 
expensive - supermarkets of some chains are rampant and are 
systematically replacing the old neighborhood shops. In the suburbs, 
however, where supermarkets and large shopping centers and parking can 
be built, the war between the two main large-scale retail giants is 
taking place. And if Unicoop Firenze firmly maintains its lead in terms 
of convenience and quality/price ratio, Esselunga has long used an 
aggressive advertising campaign and the procurement of concessions and 
licenses to steal territory and turnover from its opponent. The 
deceptive mirage-argument of greater convenience, of "savings", is 
therefore reserved for those who over the years have had to move to 
cheaper and less valuable neighborhoods in the real estate market. 
Likewise, it is in the suburbs that, for the separate collection of 
waste, bins are introduced which require a key to open and are supplied 
only to "residents and members of the Tari". An unthinkable operation in 
the historic center now populated only by "people passing through". The 
results in terms of effective increase in waste sorting or abandonment 
as and where it happens will not be long in coming.

Other city realities have already commented on the numbing of 
consciences, on the need for different approaches to work, to goods, to 
life itself. The demonstrations in front of the prefecture saw the 
participation of 300-400 people, on the Friday of the disaster, with the 
confederal unions (but not only) and of around 150-200 on Monday morning 
with an all-day strike in the private sector called by the unions basic 
(left a little alone, to be honest).

On a side note, but ultimately, it is precisely this same city, 
ineffable and with a short memory, that is the instigator of its own 
ruin and this massacre of workers: since long before the invention of 
Google, the news sees Esselunga at the center of countless incidents of 
anti-union conduct, mistreatment of workers, construction site 
accidents, dubious financial maneuvers.

Countless. At least remember it.

Anrainbow

https://umanitanova.org/sotto-una-crollata-di-cemento/
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