Campaign For A Living Venice

At the head of the procession are Sebastiano Bergamaschi, the brother of the 26-year-old killed on Corso del Popolo, and his mother. Brugnaro’s condemnation of the march is challenged

By Giacomo Costa and Mitia Chiarin

September 28, 2024

[Note: Giacomo Gobbato was stabbed to death on the night of September 20 by Sergey Merjievskyy from Moldovia while intervening as Merjievskyy was attempted to rob a 50-year-old woman]

“Better to die as rebels than to live as indifferent.” The sign is red, standing out above the enormous banner at the head that bears the title of the march, which takes up the slogan from a year ago (the “Riprendiamoci la città” march in 2023), sadly updated: “For Jack, for us, for everyone. Let’s take back the city.”

A raised hand, set against the giant poster that shows Giacomo Gobbato jumping from a stage, holds a colored cardboard cutout in the shape of a flame; that too bears, in black marker, the name “Jack”. If the symbolism were not yet obvious, another poster puts it more clearly: “The fire is not out yet”.

There are no party symbols or flags displayed at the large protest march in memory of the 26-year-old killed in Corso del Popolo a week ago, on September 20: there is a banner of San Marco, and many closed fists on a red background – which is the logo of the high school students’ organization – along with a forest of hand-filled sheets of paper.

At the head of the march, in front of the banner and behind the van that keeps increasing the volume of the music, are Sebastiano Bergamaschi, Gobbato’s brother and mother, among others.

The gray sky and the hail that fell in the surroundings of Mestre a few hours before 5 pm certainly slowed down the start of the demonstration, but they did not discourage the thousands of people who gathered at the gates of the train station to march through the city. The route of the procession went to the exact point of Gobbato’s murder, then arrived in Piazza Ferretto.

Against Brugnaro

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro condemned the demonstrators, calling the march a “Red flag parade”: “But what does ‘Let’s take back the city’ mean? From whom and from what? Do they want to return to the budget deficits of before? There is a political demonstration on Saturday, which should not have been before celebrating Giacomo’s funeral, and those who go to it are in favor of those who walk around with knives”.

“What red flags? What knives? This march is our response to Mayor Brugnaro, to the councilor for ‘public inaugurations’ Venturini, to their words of hate. Let’s fill the streets of this city, let’s show our response from below”. Speaking through the microphone and the van’s speakers, organizers lashed out at the municipal council, which criticized the event the day before the demonstration, accusing it of being pure electoral propaganda.

Those present responded with the same chorus as the week before, at the protest in Corso del Popolo 24 hours after the Gobbato tragedy: “Jack is alive and fighting alongside us, our ideas will never die.”

The march begins at 5:32 pm, the mass gathers behind the main banner that follows the van, proceeds towards the Vempa overpass, paralyzing the city with music, slogans and angry placards.

At the Crime Scene

The march’s arrival on Corso del Popolo is a triumph of red smoke bombs, and the descent to the roundabout at Via Torino sees the head of the procession greeted by a mass of people lined up on the sidewalks at the sides of the road, their cell phones raised to film the march.

The speakers occasionally give way to the chorus, always the same, which is now the anthem of the protest. The procession continues at a brisk pace, and it is just 6:05 pm when it reaches the gate of the Guggenheim High School, still covered with flowers, letters, signs, and the head of the demonstration stops. This is the first stop on the route, but it is probably the most important, the most heartfelt, even more so than the arrival in Piazza Ferretto, which in recent days was not a given that it could happen. Here too, shopkeepers and residents are already waiting on site, some have left the bar counter and are reading the signs with their aprons still tied around their waists.

During the break, smoke bombs are lit, and in the light of the red flames, the kids from the social centers, Gobbato’s friends, jump to the rhythm of the music. Then the young people from the Pandora climate laboratory speak to the crowd and talk about being subject to eviction, and again accuse the municipal administration: “Mestre is no longer willing to suffer, the policies and non-policies they are carrying out take away our dignity. Let’s open our eyes.”

“We are all anti-fascists”

At 6:35 p.m., an hour after departure, the procession tightens and curves between the traffic barriers and waste compactors of Piazzale Donatori di Sangue, passes via Rosa and arrives in sight of the square. For a moment the cry changes: “We are all anti-fascists”, then it is once again for the memory of Giacomo, of Jack. Piazza Ferretto on Saturday evening is already full, and once again a wall of cell phones expands around the demonstrators while the mass of heads spreads out and filsl the entire space, without great difficulty. Marching, shouting and dancing, now that they have arrived at their destination there are ten thousand of them, double the number of those who marched in February 2023.

Jack’s Friend: “We Don’t Look Away”

“It takes your breath away for there to be so many people, because it means we are not turning away,” Sebastiano Bergamaschi, who is still limping from the leg where he was stabbed by the same knife that killed his friend, insists into the microphone.

“We must distance ourselves from the narrative that, even in the aftermath of Jack’s death, has wanted to pit us against each other. They want us to take it out on those who are worse off than us, but instead we should ask ourselves why they are worse off than us. Those who have power, those who sit in the City Hall, in the Region, have the power to change things and have never done so. So, the change must start with us. We must free ourselves from that unbearable feeling of impotence that takes hold of us when we hear of other deaths, other tragedies. This city is not made by people like Luigi Brugnaro, it is made by us, who choose to go out into the streets. It is no longer a debate of opinion: let’s find another path, from the bottom. Who cares about City Hall’s approval? This demonstration should have been held last Thursday, before Jack’s death, and there would not have been so many of us. And if what happened touched us, if we really want to honor his memory, we must put an end to this war among the poor. We can change this city, well before the elections.”

 

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107 Associations, Unions, Movements and organizations joined the demonstration. Below is a list of all that participated:

Altobello in Cammino, Giovani per l’umanità, Gruppo di Lavoro Via Piave, Gruppo via Piave Arcobaleno, Marghera Libera & Pensante, Marghera Oggi 2.0, Mestre Occhi sulla Città, Panchina Calda, Venice Bangla School, Viva Petrosto, Viva Piraghetto, Al Vapore, Anpi 7 Martiri, Anpi Erminio Ferretto, Arcimboldo Caffetteria, Associazione Poveglia, Blubanana studio fotografico, Ca’ dei Greci, Casa di Amodou, Cgil Venezia, Coffe Break, Collettivo Pandora, Comitato ex Umberto I, Comitato Villaggio San Marco, El Fontego, Eticity Venezia, Gasparinetti Terra e Acqua, Gruppo25aprile, I celestini Chirignago, I sette nani Cipressina, Il Giralibri, Libreria Heimat Marghera, Mestre Mia, Passa Cinese, Pizzeria Columbus, Progetto Comune, Punto Pace Pax Christi, Rete degli studenti medi Venezia, Senonoraquando, StoriAmestre, Tavolo Comunità Accoglienti, UIL Veneto, Unione Universitari Venezia, Amici del parco di san Giuliano, inMarcia per la pace, Società di Mutuo Soccorso Carpentieri, Calafati di Venezia, Compagno è il Mondo Venezia, Movimento di Cooperativa Educativa, Lungo la rotta Balcanica, Mediterranea Venezia, Associazione Culturale Ricreativa A. Gramsci, Rete Solidale per la Casa, Esodo, Do.VE a.p.s, Il Granello di senape, Associazione Di Casa, La voce del quartiere Piave, Radicali Italiani, Sinistra Futura – Veneto, Cooperativa Sociale OvEst, Strade Democratiche, Cooperativa Caracol, Partito Democratico, Alleanza Verdi-Sinistra, Italia Viva, Partito Socialista, +Europa, Rifondazione Comunista, Movimento 5 Stelle, Venezia è Tua, Terra e Acqua, Emergency Venezia, DisarmArte, Centro Pace Sonia Slavik Mirano, Giuristi Democratici, Emanuele Battain Ve, GIT Banca Etica Venezia, Movimento dei Focolari, UIL Venezia, Amnesty International, Tapu Singular, Rivolta, M.arte, Circolo Arci Luigi Nono, Sale dokS, Comitato No grandi navi, Colletivo liberi saperi, Assemblea sociale per la casa, Laboratorio Morion, Indaco – Incursioni di Danza e Arte Contemporanea Asd, Centro Calcografico 3C ETS Mestre, Comitato difesa ambiente territorio ETS Spinea, Gruppo Zelarino e Dintorni, Mediterranea Chioggia, Movimento 5 Stelle in Consiglio regionale del Veneto, Una Strada APS, Ca’ Luisa, Casa del Popolo, Associazione SOS Diritti, ANPI Martellago, Libera, Bar Candiani, Refugees welcome Venezia, Associazione Coro Voci dal Mondo, Associazione lecalamite, Associazione Culturale Conte-Giuponi A.P.S., Gruppo Bella Ciao cittadini non indifferenti, Pastorale degli stili di vita.

Source: La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre