Anti-fascist demonstration in Italy

This video from Italy says about itself:

9 December 2017

Over 10,000 anti-fascist demonstrators descended on the northern town of Como on Saturday, after an increase in anti-immigration action by far-right groups in Italy.

Demonstrators were joined by leaders from the governing centre-left Democratic Party (PD), including former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and ex-Spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Laura Boldrini.

Daniele Piervincenzi, Rai journalist and victim of a far-right attack, used a speech first given by former Italian President Sandro Pertini to address the crowd. “Freedom is a human need. It is not a function of political ideas, origin or religion. Social justice completes and strengthens freedom. Love for your country is not a folly, it is not imperialism, colonialism or nationalism. Love for your country should inspire love for other countries”, he said.

The anti-fascist demo was called for after Veneto Fronte Skinheads interrupted an aid meeting in the lakeside town of Como last week. Days later, another group, Forza Nuova, attacked the offices of liberal newspapers La Repubblica and L’Espresso in Rome.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

10,000 rally against fascism in Italy

Monday 11th December 2017

OVER 10,000 anti-fascists rallied in Como, Italy, on Saturday “against all fascism and intolerance.”

The demonstration was called in response to a growing number of violent incidents staged by far-right organisations.

Though the demo was organised by the governing Democratic Party (DP), it saw a huge turnout from across the Italian left, with banners from trade unions and the Communist Refoundation party as well as the National Association of Italian Partisans (Anpi), an organisation representing members of the second world war resistance that brought down Benito Mussolini’s fascist tyranny.

It featured an address by DP leader and former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi — but “the crowds were not for him,” Alessandro Pirovano of the communist Manifesto newspaper reported.

Placards of the CGIL trade union federation carried attacks on Interior Minister Marco Minniti, a fellow DP member, and Como Without Borders spokeswoman Annamaria Fracescato demanded a “radical change in the politics of the Italian government and the European Union regarding migration.”

Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the … 5-Star movement both declined to support the rally.

Chamber of Deputies president Laura Boldrini noted that there were elements in Italy who “always wanted to be lenient towards fascism, talking about a good fascism and a bad nazism.”

CGIL secretary-general Susanna Camusso warned of “widespread intimidation” now practised by fascist gangs in the country.

One incident involved members of the neonazi Veneto Skinhead Front bursting into a meeting on migrant housing on November 28 and declared resistance to the “invasion” of Italy by foreigners.

The group may also have been responsible for an attack on a centre for asylum-seekers in Como last Friday.

In another ugly episode, a dozen masked members of the far-right Forza Nuova launched an attack with flares on the headquarters of the Repubblica newspaper last Wednesday, denounced by the Communist Refoundation party as a “threat to press freedom.

“Although we do not feel represented by a newspaper that ignores us as a political force we express our utmost solidarity with its journalists. As far as we are concerned, fascism and racism are not opinions but crimes,” the party stated.

Is the Italian left waking up? ROSA GILBERT takes a look at the foundation of Potere al Popolo, a party seeking to challenge both the neoliberals in Rome and the far-right marching on it: here.

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