A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #462 - The Bridge Criminals (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

But what bridge are we talking about, or rather, are they talking about? 
The recurring narrative revolves around a pseudo-infrastructure crossing 
the Strait of Messina, as grandiose as it is uncertain. The only 
certainty is the officially declared 14 billion €, which will continue 
to grow, and which sharp jaws have long been ready to swallow. Because 
this bridge doesn't interest anyone; what they do care about is crowding 
the two areas of the strait with endless construction sites in space and 
time. A scientifically planned construction site aimed at extracting 
profits without regard for the consequences for the populations, the 
territories, and the fragile balances that characterize the strait. A 
criminal project that could be implemented within a few years if 
popular, social, and political opposition doesn't drastically block it.

This is the most serious class attack that the ruling classes are about 
to unleash on Sicily, in the wake of that historic colonialism that has 
massacred lives, societies, economies, cultures, and aspirations. 
Minister Salvini, a serial aggressor of hatred against Southerners, has 
shamelessly stated: entrepreneurs from Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia, and 
Lazio will manage the construction sites. We've always known it: the 
Northern business bourgeoisie continues and intensifies its assault on 
the South, with the complicity of the Sicilian-Calabrian bourgeoisie, 
expropriating enormous resources from the population not only of the 
Strait of Messina but of the entire South. Partly to allow all this to 
unfold as smoothly as possible, the government has declared the bridge a 
project of strategic interest for the nation; this will lead to heavy 
militarization of the area, the repression of protests, and widespread 
lawlessness in the plundering of the territories.

We know the real problems of Sicily and Calabria; the greatest are the 
lack of jobs and emigration, water scarcity, hydrogeological 
instability, seismic activity, backward road systems, and absolutely 
inadequate healthcare. All these issues are addressed by Operation 
Ponte, which contributes nothing significant; on the contrary, they are 
irreparably exacerbated. Because the idea of progress embodied by this 
colossal state fraud is precisely the recipe applied throughout 170 
years of dynamic underdevelopment in the South.
These issues, however, represent the core of the Southern Italy's 
redemption, and on both sides of the Strait, they can and must become 
the objectives around which to build prospects for real change: full 
employment stemming from the fulfillment of basic needs such as public 
water for all, efficient roads and railways, healthcare that embodies 
dignity, cities and towns subjected to extensive anti-seismic 
interventions, and territories protected from hydrogeological risk.

We speak two different languages because we support different and 
conflicting interests. The fight against the bridge has always responded 
to the ruling bloc with its blackmailing power, its mafia alliances, its 
powerful media, and its police forces by weaving networks of solidarity 
and complicity across the territory. This begins, of course, with those 
identified as targets to be crushed by bulldozers, but extends to all 
movements fighting against the colonization and militarization of the 
island and the South, in close connection with movements long active 
against unnecessary and harmful major construction projects.

The bridge hoax is being dismantled daily to expose the true essence of 
a project with significant impact, devastating, and destructive 
consequences. The lies and falsehoods of the bridge owners crumble with 
each passing day, despite attempts to spread optimism with announcements 
about the imminent start of construction. A profound awareness of the 
true scope of the project has grown in the local communities, and it 
will be no easy task to walk over the very bodies of thousands of people 
determined not to accept the role of sacrificial victims on the altar of 
bourgeois business profit. What is underway is not just resistance but 
also a process of self-determination.

While the enemy's arrogance and strength should not be underestimated, 
we believe the path we have taken is the right one.

Pippo Gurrieri

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/2025/09/09/i-criminali-del-ponte/
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