ITALY

At first light (yesterday ed.), a hundred policemen in riot gear surrounded the Bosco di Ca’ Alte. Barricades, chained bodies, an activist suspended in a tree, fire hydrants and bulldozers in action: in the heart of Vicenza, the HST construction site is advancing, but thanks to today’s resistance…

There is a border, in Vicenza, where two visions of the future clash: on one side is the High Speed Railway, a symbol of modernity, infrastructure and major works. On the other, an urban forest of 14,000 square meters, full of trees, silence and biodiversity. Today, that border is called Ca’ Alte. And it is about to be erased.

In the heart of the Ferrovieri district, the TAV – Treno Alta Velocità/Alta Capacità project has reached its most concrete and impactful phase: lot 2, which connects the city’s western entrance to the station, will involve the construction of a large portion of the urban fabric. Entire neighborhoods will be involved – San Lazzaro and Ferrovieri first and foremost – and two of the city’s great green lungs will also be affected, along with residential buildings and public areas: the Lanerossi Woods and the Ca’ Alte Woods.

The latter, for decades, has represented a space of balance between the city and nature, between concrete and oxygen. But its fate would seem sealed: it will be torn down to make way for a vehicular overpass that will connect the Ferrovieri district with Viale Milano and the SVT bus station area, bypassing the tracks. One of the most invasive collateral works in the project.

Not everyone, however, has passively accepted this transformation. About a year ago, a group of female citizens started a spontaneous movement: the Woodland Assembly, now part of the larger network of Woods that Resist. Their goal? To defend the forest for its ecosystem, climate and social value, but also for its impact on collective health.

For months they have been organizing meetings, debates, public events and presidia. They lived in the forest, built barricades, platforms, moments of culture and sharing. A liberated space, where they experienced another way of being together, of caring for the territory. But now all this is at risk.

Chronicle of the clearing (updated)

At first light, IRICAV2 – the consortium led by WeBuild in charge of the construction – officially kicked off the operations to clear the area. Right from the start, a massive deployment of law enforcement surrounded the area: over twenty vehicles and a hundred officers blocked all the main entrances, garrisoning Via Maganza, Via Ca’ Alte and Viale Fusinato. The area was quickly cordoned off as tensions began to rise.

Meanwhile, activists organized to resist. Some chained themselves to the access gates, others climbed onto the elevated platforms or positioned themselves on the barricades built in the previous months. On Maganza Street, at the height of number 41, the only point still accessible to the outside was formed: there arose a spontaneous garrison of solidarity, animated by neighborhood residents, students, parents, ordinary people who rushed to bring support and witness what was happening.

Attorno alle 9:30 del mattino, le forze dell’ordine hanno iniziato a rimuovere le attiviste e gli attivisti che, fin dalle prime ore dell’alba — circa dalle 6:00 — presidiavano seduti e incatenati davanti ai cancelli di accesso all’area. Una volta completata la rimozione dei corpi a terra, è stato aperto un varco nel cancello principale che conduce al bosco, consentendo ai vigili del fuoco di iniziare le operazioni per sgomberare le piattaforme sopraelevate, dove altri attivisti si erano posizionati in segno di protesta.

Verso mezzogiorno, gli occupanti della prima delle strutture rialzate sono stati fatti scendere, uno a uno, con l’impiego di un camion dotato di braccio meccanico. In seguito, con l’ausilio di una ruspa, le forze dell’ordine sono riuscite a sfondare definitivamente il cancello di ingresso, penetrando con decisione nell’area boschiva.

In the early afternoon, around 2 p.m., the last elevated platforms were taken down, again by bulldozer intervention. In parallel, about 30 activists were transferred to the police headquarters. Law enforcement action continued with the entry into the inner area of the garrison, where the remaining people were pushed back with the use of a fire hydrant.

One presence still resists in solitude: an activist stands about 15 meters above the ground, clinging to an old cedar tree destined for felling in the first phase of the construction work.

Despite the power of the operation and the massive deployment of forces, the resistance has not folded. In and out of the woods, the voices of those defending Ca’ Alte continued to be heard, loud, persistent, present. And thanks to the determination of those who, in various forms, opposed the advance of the bulldozers for many hours, the police stopped at the embankment: for today, no trees fell.

[Source: Infoaut]

Marco Mezzasalma is a BR-PCC (Red Brigades – Communist Fighting Party) militant who was arrested in October 2004.

He has been subject to the 41bis solitary confinement regime for twenty years. As they do every four years, the judges decided to renew his placement in 41bis, a regime likened to torture. Officially, this decision is based on the verification of possible links with the outside world.

The people who look after him know full well that such contacts are practically impossible. In reality, they also fear the resistance of prisoners such as Marco Mezzasalma, Nadia Lioce, Roberto Morandi and Alfredo Cospito.

“By refusing to capitulate, [they] remain political subjects of meaning and value for the oppressed and exploited classes, bearers of an irrepressible hope for revolution and liberation. This is what the state’s torturers fear, this is what they would like to annihilate, to destroy, in order then to display the surrender and submission of those who have carried the class struggle to its highest levels, as proof of the invincibility of the system and the impossibility of revolution,” emphasize the Milan, Turin and Rome sections of Secours Rouge International in a press release published on July 3, 2025.

[Sources: Osservatorio Repressione, Secours Rouge]

In the early hours of Wednesday June 25, an anarchist’s home was searched in Massarosa (Lucca province), in connection with the investigation by the Bologna public prosecutor’s office into the burning of two railway police cars in Rimini on April 20, 2023 (see here ). The action had been carried out in solidarity with the Chilean ananrchists Monica and Francisco, who were about to go on trial for several bomb attacks in Santiago de Chile, and with Alfredo Cospito, who had just ended a six-month hunger strike.

The charges were articles 423 (arson), 270 bis par. 1 (subversive association with the aim of terrorism), 110 (participation in a felony or misdemeanor) and 635 (damage to property).

Fifteen anarchists from various regions of Italy are under investigation. The following day, still at dawn, police officers went to the home of another anarchist for a search in connection with some tags that had appeared in the Massa courthouse during one of the Scripta Scelera trial hearings under art. 639 of the penal code (light damage and defilement).

[Source: Secours Rouge]