After breakfast, about 500 people gathered outside the Leoncavallo for another visit to the center of the city: this time to the Stock Echange, one of the largest in Europe and headquarter — right in these last weeks — of a huge speculative operation: the supposed merging between the Italian Telecom and the German Telekom, a tipical financial operation which stole hundreds of millions dollars from the pockets of the "sheeps" making the "herd" of globalization: the so-called "savers".
The demonstration — authorized by the police like the demo on wednesday — started at 11.30. Initially the police would not allow us to demonstrate right in front of the S.E. — but then all demonstrants (about 500) raised their hands and pushed their way trough. After some talking, the police stepped back and let us pass.
So, till brunch-break the square in front of the S.E., namely called "Piazza Affari", i.e. "Business square", was filled with green scarves of KRRS, with coloured vests of indian women, with turbans of the Sikh and — of course — with black rap protest music from the Social Centre Leoncavallo.
At the and, at about 2 PM we succeeded and got back to the Leonca all together.
To bring the Caravan in a typical City is an exciting experience. People is used to demonstrations, but not to 300 indian caravaneers with their special dresses, scarves, and slogans. So the demo raised a lot of curiosity, with people asking, people talking, lots of white collars watching and so on.
THE GREEN TRAINS:
In the evening, after a press conference in the afternoon and a general briefing after dinner, 250 caravaneers left for Central Station, where they would demonstrate to state the right to free transportation for political reasons. Again the police was there, but there was no confrontation. At the end we reached an agreement, i.e. the pay of a symbolic price.
OK for the symbolic price, we said, but for couchettes. The caravaneers were tired (see below), and they needed a rest also yesterday night. More bargaining, and at the end the issue was solved: couchettes for everybody for 3.100 marks. The Caravan left thus for Rome at about 11 PM.
PRESS COVERAGE
Today's newspaper write about the Caravan. The Corriere della Sera, the main italian newspaper, published a photo of the white crosses we planted on wednesday (see my previous report by e-mail) and wrote:
"The crosses of misery: An expanse of crosses in Viale elvezia, wordless Spoon River, to recall the horror of misery and war, of the "neocolonization" of the South, of the unbalance between poor and rich countries, of the ravage caused by some trade agreements. A delegation of "Caravan 99" — an association (sic!) demonstrating in these days in several european cities which arrived yesterday to Milan invited by the Leoncavallo — wanted to represent all this with a strong image: these mourning white crosses filled the park behind the Arena for the whole day."