Two different protests have been put on by school workers in Torino in 3 days.
The first, on Saturday 21st, took place in front of the ‘Teatro Nuovo’ where the ministers Profumo (Education) and Fornero (Labour) were taking part in a conference about school. The protesters target were the financial cuts that the PM Monti’s government is setting on public instruction, just as the previous government did. Meanwhile the founds for private schools (most of wich are owned by catholic associations) are left untouched. Protesters threw eggs against the two ministers, and police scattered them by using tear gas.
The second demostration took place on Monday 23rd, in front of the town hall. About 500 protesters gathered to ask the major to stop the privatizations of nursery schools, planned for the beginning of the next school year. The first consequence of the privatizations is that all the precariuos teachers will loose their job. Protesters tried to get inside the town hall, where the council was going on, or at least to speak to the major or to the responsible for the education department, but they both were elsewhere and the access was denied. Again, police intervened roughly to keep protesters out of the palace. Eyewitnesses report also dangerous maneuvers committed by police trucks in the streets near the town hall.
Education, and particulary its transition toward a private system, is not a new issue in Italy, but it looks like a new attention is dedicated to this subject.
Resources
About saturday
– text [it] TG1 (first channel of national tv)
– text [it] Another article from TG1
– text [it] Senti
– text [it] Quotidiano.net
About monday
– audio+text [it] Blackout radio (grassroot movement’s radio from Torino)
– text [it] Lo spiffero
– text [it] Contropiano.org
Struggles in Italy 