Around a thousand students took to the streets of Turin for the procession which started from Via Cernaia at 10.20am, after days of strikes and occupations in over twenty schools in the city. The demonstration was marked from the first hours by moments of tension: around thirty hooded men at the head of the procession, eggs thrown at the police and stones and sticks thrown at the carabinieri in front of the Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper. About an hour before departure, the procession was blocked in Corso England, near Via Cavalli. Subsequently, parents, teachers, trade unionists and activists formed a cordon between the students and the police, as happened during the protests in France. New tensions with the police dispersing the demonstrators with water cannons in Piazza Castello.
"Ten, one hundred, one thousand occupations" and "Giorgia Meloni you have to leave" are some of the slogans chanted by the demonstrators, who ask for more resources for schools and contest the costs of the war. At the same time, the climate demonstration organized by Fridays For Future and Extinction Rebellion also started from Palazzo Nuovo.
The police advance with water cannons, teachers and parents also get wet
1.04 pm. The police advance again in Piazza Castello, in front of the prefecture, continuing to use water cannons while the protesters respond with throwing objects and firecrackers. The cordon formed by teachers, parents, trade unionists and ATA staff to separate the students from the police was not enough to stop the tension: the adults who had intervened to protect the children also got wet.
The procession starts again and heads towards Piazza Castello
12.30pm. After being blocked in Corso England in a phase of strong tension, the student procession diverted its route and returned towards Piazza XVIII Dicembre, passing through Corso Matteotti. During the movements there were some launches, but without any real scuffles. Meanwhile, at Porta Susa, the student demonstration found itself crossing paths with the Fridays For Future climate march, headed along Corso Matteotti. The entrances to the station appeared blocked. Now the demonstrators are heading towards Piazza Castello.
Parents, teachers and trade unionists shield the students
11.53am. Trade unionists, parents, teachers and adult activists formed a cordon between the students and the police, trying to protect the children and contain the tension. A gesture that recalls images of the protests in France, where some teachers arranged themselves in a human chain in front of students to protect them during clashes with the police. “We want to protect the kids who are protesting peacefully, we are worried because there are many others hooded and we want to avoid clashes and tensions,” explained Emanuela Termine, professor of Art History at the Passoni high school, among the adults in the cordon.
Turin, student march: photos of Meloni, Valditara, Crosetto and Schlein defaced
Stones and sticks against the police, the procession blocked in Corso England
11.32am. Tension in front of the Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper, where the deployed carabinieri were pelted with stones and sticks. About an hour before departure, the procession is blocked in Corso England, near Via Cavalli: the students are on one side, the police on the other. A fire hydrant is also ready. The protesters return to throwing eggs, but also chestnuts.
Boys on the monument to Vittorio Emanuele
11.17 am: dozens of young people climbed the monument to Vittorio Emanuele with banners and smoke bombs.
Eggs against the police and a cardboard tank
10.50 am: Eggs against the police in Corso Vittorio Emanuele on the corner of Corso Re Umberto. And under the school office, as during the last protest, a cardboard tank was brought and burned. A gesture that once again wants to repeat the mantra of the students "more funds for schools and less support for the war".
Via Cernaia, about thirty hooded men at the head of the procession
The procession starts around 10.20 from via Cernaia, with around thirty hooded people leading the way and around a thousand students, joined by the guys from Cambiare Rotta.
The portraits of politicians stained in red
10 am: Before leaving in the procession, the demonstrators sang Bella Ciao and then painted red the portraits of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara and PD leader Elly Schlein. The accusation is of investing money in the war instead of in schools. Leonardo's symbol is also stained red. Then the chorus: «You are the shame of Italy».
During the demonstration, the first hooded youths also appeared and sticks appeared. Representatives of Askatasuna were also present at the procession.
Palestinian flags and No TAV flags were also in the square
Students from various high schools participate in the procession, from Curie to Alfieri, from Giolitti to Copernico-Luxembourg, up to Cattaneo and Newton, with signs bearing the names of the institutes. Among the flags, Palestinian ones and those of the No Tav movement fly, together with keffiyehs and Albanian flags. Slogans in French are also heard, such as "L'école est à nous", in solidarity with the youth protests that have been ongoing for weeks in France and Albania. The procession is stopped in Piazza XVIII Dicembre, waiting for the arrival of other institutes.
Mayor Lo Russo to students: "Isolate the violent"
"Girls and boys, I want to speak to you directly. In these days many of you are protesting asking for attention and listening. It is your right and your reasons deserve to be listened to. But there are also people who enter schools with their faces covered, smash computers, destroy classrooms, devastate everything. These are hooligans and they do damage above all to you. Because then there are also those who take advantage of those images to talk only about the clashes, leaving the problems you are raising completely in the background. And so the violence ends up taking away space for your reasons". Thus on social media the mayor of Turin and the metropolitan city, Stefano Lo Russo, addressing the students directly, continues: "For this reason I allow myself to ask you one specific thing: isolate them, leave them alone.
Make it clear that they are acting only for themselves, because the school is yours, the protest is yours, the ideas are yours, defend them from those who try to transform them into violence."
High alert, access to Porta Susa and the metro closed
The alert is high: public transport has been diverted and access to the Porta Susa station and the subway has been closed, leaving an entrance open for travelers heading to the platforms. Prefect Donato Cafagna has banned the wearing of helmets, masks and other objects that can be used to cover the face, as well as smoke bombs and firecrackers. In the areas affected by the demonstrations, the consumption and possession of drinks in glass bottles, cans and other potentially dangerous containers are also prohibited.
Lorenzo Giustolisi of USB and teacher of Giulio:
"Then this protest has an eminently political characteristic. If we don't understand this passage, we don't understand that it has something to do with the idea of the future of these kids, we risk focusing on secondary and not central phenomena. To put it concretely, we have to politicize, organize and give direction to the social anger that exists. This is done by uniting the struggles of students and workers, understanding that there are other parts of this society that are in great crisis. It's not just about school, that what is happening on consumption, fuel and bills is something that will affect across the board." The protests of recent days have put the spotlight on the behaviors and actions implemented by managers. The reactions to the students' requests were very different. If one extreme was that of continuous dialogue, the other was the publication of circulars or communications warning the occupiers of the criminal and civil risks associated with their mobilization. “The managers of Giulio and Regina have understood that the plan is not a repressive plan, but a plan of dialogue, reasoning and understanding, because otherwise the school will fail in its task
Daniele Genisio, school assistant at the Caselette comprehensive institute.
"I work in a primary school and today with my colleagues and colleagues we are all on strike. This protest is carried out by high school kids but I stand in solidarity with them and take to the streets. They are asking for better structures, we as a category are protesting because the salaries are a pittance. Today at our school there will have been many protests, especially from parents. But in reality I and the others are also here for the future of their children".
School attacks and arrests
The demonstration comes after days of tension in Turin schools. About thirty young people, between 16 and 20 years old, were identified during the attacks and damage to Colombatto, Boselli, Peano and Bosso Monti.
Yesterday a seventeen-year-old was arrested for resisting a public official and reported for aggravated damage while trying to break a window with a fire extinguisher. During the interventions a carabiniere was injured by the throwing of a stone. A professor and a school assistant at Colombatto were injured in an attempt to block the occupation of the institute's branch.
