On January 25th [2006], in Trento, Italy, four anarchists from Rovereto were in court over the grabbing of the Olympic torch from its relay runner on Monday, January 23rd. The charges were theft, causing injury, violence, and resistance. Juan and Mike were found guilty of violence and sentenced to three and four months respectively in prison (substituted by fines of 3,500 and 5,000 euros). The other two companions were aquitted. Contrary to the newspaper and television reports, the companion who grabbed the torch was able to run almost 60 meters with it before it was recaptured. As an added note, some anarchists from Trento and Rovereto pointed out that a call for a boycott of the Olympic games has come from the Susa Valley. There were many who said "Goodbye Olympics" during the mass occupation of the TAV (high speed rail) construction site in the Susa Valley on December 8th. Also, the students of the valley have refused to participate as volunteers for the holding of the games in February.
Here's the text of Massimo's statement to the court:
"Monday, in the evening, we were located between the patrols, agents, and carriers of the torch, with the purpose of preventing the passage of the Olympic flame and unmasking in this way its true nature, a point which I will return to. We had a megaphone, flyers, one banner, and flags against the TAV. As was foreseeable, the agents responded by trying to push us away. In that moment of confusion, a companion made the spontaneous, athletic, and audacious gesture of seizing the torch and running. There was no violence. I, who until that moment was speaking through a megaphone, took part when I saw that the agents were going after three companions. Then I was arrested.
The gesture has been described as 'dishonorable' and 'unqualifiable'. Unqualifiable for me is the hypocrisy that defines these Olympic Games as a peace event and as brotherhood between peoples. In ancient Greece, during the Olympic games the wars were suspended. Now, not only is the Italian government, in the name of the Italian people, at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but one of sponsors of the Olympic Games is the Finmeccanica company, one of the great world-wide tycoons of the production of weapons. But that is not all. For these games they have been building, spending million of euros, gigantic structures of devastating environmental impact. And as far as the talk about the 'Olympic spirit', go ask the Chinese workers about their jobs in the construction yards of the Susa Valley, at two thousand meters, for five euros a day. Or ask the inhabitants of the valley who defend their territory from progress, from money and from the profits that would be made from the destruction of the valley with the project of the high speed train.
I vindicate the action of Monday with head held high."
- Massimo
Direct Action in Italy Against the Olympics and the High-Speed Railway
by anonymous (with editorial additions)
Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005
An occupation camp in Italy's northern Susa Valley (Val di Susa) which was preventing the construction of a high-speed railway line [called the TAV] between Italy and France was violently evicted by paramilitary police Tuesday. 20 people were reportedly hospitalized after clashes, including five police officers. Earlier in the day, residents had blockaded the major highway that runs through Val di Susa and barricaded streets in the valley town of Bussoleno. Workers also went on strike in the nearby city of Turin in solidarity with the struggle.
Residents of the valley have been demonstrating, blocking roads, and launching strikes against the railway project for weeks [although the "No TAV" movement began in the late 1990s], opposing the environmental destruction the rail line could cause. Graffiti messages against the railway line and the police occupation of Val di Susa have proliferated throughout the area.
Val di Susa links Turin, host city of the 2006 Winter Olympics, to the Alps, where many Olympic events are to be held in February. The valley is already cut up by a major highway and railway, and the proposed high-speed line will plow through a mountain which contains asbestos and uranium.
Residents of the valley were not dissuaded by Tuesday's police assault and continued to block the highway today.
During a solidarity demonstration in Turin yesterday, a railway depot was blockaded, and anarchists attacked the car of the President of the Piemonte region, two police cars, and an Olympics store. In addition, a bank was smashed-up, a bonfire was set in the streets, and graffiti messages were left on walls denouncing the Olympics and declaring solidarity with the resistance in Val di Susa. One cop was injured when he was hit in the head with a bottle.
"Extreme left-wing groups, from antagonistic and anarchic-insurrectionist wings are trying to extend the unrest from Val di Susa to Turin, Rome, Milan, and various other cities," said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
[Update: A mass demonstration in Val di Susa was held Thursday, December 8th, including blockades, a battle with the cops, and the sabotage of equipment at the TAV development site. Mayors from the region attempted to stop anarchists and autonomous anti-capitalists from charging a police line, but failed.]