A-Infos (en) Italy, Umanita Nova #28-25 - The Awakening of the Squares. Practicing Solidarity (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

From the Flotilla to solidarity with Palestine: in Italy's squares, a 
collective voice is being reborn, a voice that those in power are trying 
to silence. But when society moves from the bottom up, anarchism returns 
to live practice. ---- There's a new air wafting through the squares, 
schools, workplaces, and even the smallest towns. For weeks, we've seen 
a surge in marches, demonstrations, and assemblies. These aren't the 
usual ritual demonstrations or party parades: they're living spaces, 
where people look each other in the eye, where they discuss, argue, and 
build together. It's the return of a word that for too long seemed 
buried under the rubble of resignation: self-organization.

The "Flottilla," with its courage and determination, had the merit of 
breaking the silence and rekindling consciences. It pushed millions of 
people to take a stand, to not remain neutral in the face of injustice, 
to choose a side. You don't have to call yourself an anarchist to feel 
that, when a besieged population is bombed and starved, those who reach 
out are performing an act of humanity and rebellion. But for those who 
experience anarchism every day, this wave of participation is an 
important signal: direct action is once again perceived as natural, 
necessary, and just.

Solidarity with Palestine has become the rallying point for a broader 
awareness. In the streets, one senses that the war in Gaza is not just a 
distant tragedy, but a mirror of our own oppressions: control, 
censorship, disinformation, police repression. When assemblies are 
banned in universities, when protesters are registered, when symbols of 
solidarity are criminalized, freedom is not being defended: it is being 
trampled upon. And yet, despite everything, the streets are filling up.

It's not a romantic return to the past, but something profoundly new. 
The new generations no longer wait for mediators; they no longer trust 
parties or leaders. They take to the streets because they feel it's the 
only place where their voice truly matters. And alongside them return 
faces they haven't seen for years: those who work, those who study, 
those seeking a future, those who have always resisted. It's a meeting 
of diverse experiences, a fusion that generates collective strength and 
intelligence.

This awakening doesn't come from nowhere. It's the product of years of 
precariousness, growing inequality, a political system that has emptied 
the word "democracy" of meaning. But when the measure is full, something 
breaks. Fear breaks. The myth of delegation breaks. We rediscover that 
power can and must be challenged from below, directly, without 
intermediaries.

In the popular assemblies that have multiplied in recent weeks, the 
practice of listening, consensus, and collective construction is being 
rediscovered. There is no single word, no center that decides: there is 
a need to reclaim the word. And within this collective word, anarchism 
finds space and meaning again. Not as an imposed ideology, but as 
concrete practice: solidarity, mutualism, self-management.

Solidarity isn't demanded: it's practiced. It's demonstrated, built, 
lived. And when thousands of people move together, without waiting for 
anyone's permission, that is direct action. It's the common thread that 
ties the Flotilla to those on strike, those who occupy, those who open 
social spaces or defend a neighborhood. It's the awareness that no 
authority will ever give back what's ours: we must take it together, 
with intelligence and determination.

Today, in Italy, there's something akin to hope again. Not naive, not 
messianic, but human and concrete. It's the desire for justice that 
comes from below and can no longer be ignored. If we can cultivate it, 
if we can intertwine our struggles, perhaps this time the wind will not 
blow in vain.

Totò Caggese

https://umanitanova.org/il-risveglio-delle-piazze-praticare-solidarieta/
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