A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #14-26 - No cages or borders. No CPR! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

There are geographical areas located on the margins of the centers of 
production and capital accumulation. Sometimes these areas are 
designated (without the consent of their inhabitants) as "sacrifice 
zones," where harmful substances are concentrated or where structures 
are located that must be kept out of sight... and out of mind. Thus, in 
recent weeks, the Lunigiana region, and specifically the Aulla (MS) 
area, has seen the concentration of various interests: those of external 
war, with MBDA, a European consortium that produces death in the form of 
"complex weapons systems" and which wants to locate a missile production 
hub there; but the interests of internal war against the poor, migrants, 
and marginalized groups are also very present. The municipality of Aulla 
has, in fact, been designated as the site for a new CPR.
The choice of location
Let's proceed in order. In January 2025, after years of legal 
proceedings, the process for the remediation of the area where the 
Ministry of the Interior wants to build the CPR began. This is the 
former Pallerone powder magazine, a storage site for military explosives 
for 60 years, later an open-air landfill for tons of hazardous waste, 
such as asbestos.
The sites chosen for these prisons are located in isolated and 
inaccessible areas, both because they are easier to monitor and because 
distancing them from inhabited areas is part of the dehumanization 
process of the people locked up there.
The dehumanization of "different" is spread through racist propaganda, 
based on fear and the sense of emergency, and is accompanied by the 
infantilization of the "foreigner" (from the colonial and missionary 
myth of the "white savior" who brings civilization to the "savages"). We 
are encouraged to feel no empathy for those who come from beyond the 
border, or to see them as individuals incapable of self-determination: 
these are two sides of the same discriminatory coin. It should also be 
remembered that the boundaries of skin color are fluid, because the 
definition of whiteness does not depend on skin color, but on one's 
privileges, geographic location, and historical period.
Distancing oneself from the gaze makes it more difficult to show 
solidarity and connect with inmates, and grants those who do not wish to 
see the option of not seeing. In other words, it makes it more difficult 
to recognize those behind the walls, facilitating the division of the 
population (divide and conquer) based on racial, gender, and class 
privileges.
It is at the intersection of all these economic, political, and cultural 
mechanisms that the idea of a CPR becomes normalized.
The CPR System
The CPR (Center for Repatriation) is an internal border system, an 
administrative detention prison (a repressive instrument imported from 
Israel) for people without valid residence documents. From the CPR, 
these people should then be deported to their countries of origin or, 
according to the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum that will come into 
force in June, to so-called "safe third countries."
It's important to remember what this document blackmail entails. A 
residence permit in Italy is conditional on the fulfillment of two 
requirements: an employment contract and a certified place of residence. 
This system makes people who wish to obtain a residence permit easily 
subject to blackmail, from a labor perspective, and thus reveals the 
purpose of the document system: it is a method of racially 
discriminating workers, where the greatest exploitation falls on those 
most vulnerable to blackmail. This is not surprising, given that 
capitalism has always been based on the exploitation of labor (on the 
basis of race, gender, and species), guaranteed by law and the monopoly 
of state violence.
The news of the intention to open a new CPR in Aulla comes as riots 
continue in existing CPRs. In recent weeks alone, reports leaking from 
those locked up (in almost all CPRs, cell phones are prohibited) point 
to daily violence and a complete lack of self-determination. The food is 
inedible, often spoiled and laced with tranquilizers and psychotropic 
drugs, but even refusing to eat it, out of self-defense or simple 
disgust, can expose one to the risk of further punishment. It should be 
remembered that, with the April 2025 security decree, even those who 
engage in passive resistance are punishable for "rioting in prison." 
There are several cases of people with serious physical and mental 
health problems locked up; In some CPRs, cameras are also positioned 
inside the cells, and anyone who tries to cover them, to obtain a 
minimum of privacy, is punished with beatings and solitary confinement: 
these are, after all, the two responses that the CPR management bodies - 
that is, those third sector organizations that profit from a 
concentration camp - and the police give to anyone who tries to rebel 
against this situation. There are several cases of self-harm or suicide 
attempts, both due to desperate conditions and in an attempt to be 
released for unsuitability (as if there are people fit for prison). But 
the doors of CPRs are increasingly being opened even to those who cause 
serious physical harm to themselves, perhaps by jumping from a roof or 
swallowing sharp objects: the justification is sadistic, and is to "not 
encourage" these forms of struggle.

Revolts, however, have always occurred, and they give us hope: it should 
always be remembered that CPRs have been closed in the past only thanks 
to internal revolts, such as the Turin CPR, which was set on fire and 
closed in 2023 and reopened in 2025.

Regional mobilizations
Returning to recent news, the idea of "a CPR for each region" dates back 
to the Minniti-Orlando decree, which sanctioned the birth of this new 
form of confinement. Aulla is an area where the RETESAI (formerly SPRAR) 
reception system is widespread. While still committed to state 
paternalism and integration/inclusion (a colonial concept that 
presupposes an us/them border), it offers accommodation to asylum 
seekers and persons with international protection. Aulla is close to 
Marina di Carrara, where several NGO ships carrying out sea rescue 
operations are diverted; it is also close to La Spezia, home to the 
Italian Navy, and to the highway that provides quick access to the 
airports of Genoa, Parma, and Pisa: we know that many deportations take 
place on scheduled or charter flights.
In May 2025, several Lunigiana associations-from Arci Agogo of Aulla to 
the ANPI intercommunale, but also CGIL, Accademia apuana per la pace, 
Emergency, and other local associations-as well as individuals met again 
for an afternoon of self-education, following the previous 
demonstrations in 2023. The meeting was designed to explore with 
citizens what a CPR is and how to take action in other areas to oppose 
its existence. Also present was the mayor of Aulla, who had previously 
promoted several resolutions against the opening of a CPR in Aulla and 
who was recently elected president of the province of Massa-Cararra, 
partly with the support of the right-wing party.

It appears that this plan to open a CPR has also left several local 
right-wing figures dissatisfied. But while the only point of contention 
within the political parties remains the location of a CPR, the reality 
of the local situation has been clear from the start: no to a CPR, 
neither in Aulla nor anywhere else. Because the goal is not only to 
prevent the opening of existing CPRs, but also to close them.
Local organizations have already reactivated: a meeting was held on 
April 23rd to prepare the materials needed for the demonstration called 
on April 27th during the extraordinary city council meeting. The next 
meeting, also promoted by Arci Agogo, will be on May 7th: training for 
"anti-CPR volunteers." But the network transcends regional borders, 
because CPRs should not be opened here or elsewhere, and efforts are 
underway to coordinate with the NO CPR networks in Trento and Bologna, 
two other cities that face the prospect of opening a CPR (in Trento, in 
particular, one is expected to be completed by 2026).
In the coming months, we will see if Aulla, this marginalized area, can 
transform itself, in the words of bell hooks, into "a radical place of 
possibility[...]capable of offering us the conditions for a radical 
perspective from which to create and imagine alternatives and new worlds."
For a world without cages or borders.

Badabing

https://umanitanova.org/senza-gabbie-ne-confini-no-cpr/
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