by https://rebellyon.info via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-Ib0 No TAV
€1 million in damages and 4 Carabinieri trucks set ablaze: a determined protest against the Lyon-Turin high-speed rail line
The annual march against the doubling of the Lyon-Turin high-speed rail line in the Susa Valley this weekend was particularly determined.
On the sidelines of the 10th edition of the “Alta Felicità” festival, 20,000 people mobilized against the ongoing destruction.
As every summer for the past 10 years, the Susa Valley hosted the “Alta Felicità” festival and a large march against the massive, unnecessary, and imposed project to double the Lyon-Turin railway line.
The most successful attack on the TAV project ultimately occurred at the Chiomonte construction site, where the protesters’ determination allowed them to rout the police, set fire to four Carabinieri trucks, and force their way into the site to carry out the desired damage.
As a reminder, this major project, initiated in the 1980s, threatens 1,500 hectares of land, plains, valleys, and mountains across the Alps, in both Italy and France.
To force through its 270-kilometer route, its 202 kilometers of tunnels, and its 11 tunnels under the mountains, the operating company TELT is siphoning off tens of billions of euros invested by local communities and causing irreversible ecological damage.
While the route is more extensive on the French side, it is on the Italian side that work began earliest, and where mobilization has been organized since the early 2000s, with regular encampments (“presidio”) being set up to block the construction.
The mobilization called for this summer was marked by impressive participation, with more than 40,000 people converging from Italy and around the world on Venaus, according to local media.
Record attendance can be attributed both to the festival’s anniversary and to the 15th anniversary of “The Free Republic of La Maddalena,” a presidio (a self-proclaimed stronghold) established during six weeks of fierce struggle in Chiomonte, near Venaus, in 2011.
On Saturday, July 25, a large demonstration and a caravan of vehicles were called to depart from Venaus and Suza after the festival’s opening.
At the start of the demonstration, which drew 20,000 people, three groups formed. The first attack targeted the San Didero construction site, located near Suza.
This 68,000 m² site, launched in 2021 between the A32 motorway and the N25 national road of Moncenisio, is intended to house a large parking lot and the operations offices of Sitaf, which will manage the flow of heavy goods vehicles heading towards the Fréjus Tunnel.
A second demonstration took place in Chiomonte, at the largest Italian construction site for the Lyon-Turin high-speed rail line, a key point in the transalpine tunnel project.
Finally, the third group continued to the Salbertrand construction site, an area designated for the plant processing excavated materials for concrete production, the tunnel lining plant, and the rail-loading and sorting area for shipments to the storage facilities at Torrazza Piemonte and Caprie.
The most violent attack on the TAV project ultimately occurred at the Chiomonte construction site, where the protesters’ determination allowed them to rout the police, set fire to four Carabinieri trucks, and force their way into the site to carry out the desired damage.
At the first construction site, in San Didero, barriers were breached, and a confrontation erupted with police, involving mortars and numerous firecrackers. The group was eventually repelled by police using tear gas. Part of the demonstration then occupied the railway line at Bruzolo for nearly an hour.
TELT, the Franco-Italian company in charge of building the Turin-Lyon line, made the rounds of international media outlets to lament damage estimated at €1 million. While these figures are, of course, impossible to verify, it is nonetheless a significant victory for the No-TAV movement against the current and impending disaster.
Faced with this victory, the far-right Italian government of Meloni, of course, raised numerous cries of outrage against the violence of the protesters against the police and launched a major crackdown.
The Italian equivalent of AFP (ANSA) has been reporting in the media since the beginning of the week that several hundred people have been identified as having participated in the most decisive moments of the mobilization, and four international activists have been arrested.
Meloni and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi have tasked the Turin police prefecture with carrying out the repression against the mobilization. Solidarity with those arrested, and may the Lyon-Turin train line die!
Local News Ecology / Anti-Productivism Land Use Planning / Urban Planning / Transport
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