An assembly in the States can get noisy, but for the most part, it is a planned event regulated by staff, and with a school spirit, sport, or community theme. Assemblies in Italy are ran by students, are total chaos, and basically an open mike event. When the students feel there needs to be change, they skip class for the day, hold an assembly, and take turns passionately giving speeches with anarchist undertones. It is quite funny, actually.
Today I arrived at school in Santa Croce, planning on attending class. I was immediately informed that the previous day's anti-system spirit(we had a manifestazione, which I will describe after the assembly) was to be carried on again today, in an assembly. So instead of going to class, hoards of students made the march from Santa Croce to San Gallo.
There is an outside basketball court at the school in San Gallo, which is where we held the assembly. It was cold. We sat, and then for two hours heard students take turns with the microphone bantering back and forth about the Reforma Gelmini. The Gelmini reform, from what I understand, is a series of changes involving schools and includes a switch from five to four years of high school, but also eliminates public universities. Most students are against it, they fear that they will not be able to attend a college because private ones are too expensive.
After the speeches, students went off to find food and some mingled in the court. I stayed until about 12:30, when my friends left. Some students are staying the night at the school, they are holding an occupation of the school. There are other schools in the city doing the same.
The previous day we had a manifestazione, which is a political
protest. The protest, like the assembly was against the Gelmini Reform, and against the current system. I attended the event with my classmates. It was pretty incredible, a whole piazza filled with students(pictured is the commencement of the protest in piazza San Marco.) We gathered for about an hour and then a van started blasting some Damian Marley and the like, so naturally we all started to follow the music. Some friends and I got up pretty close to the van and we all followed as it started down the normally very busy road that connects piazza San Marco and the famed Duomo. Piazza San Marco is normally very busy because it is a center where many buses stop. There was no room for buses, so they shut down for a couple hours. We made a very long trek along the road to the Duomo all the while dancing, moshing, shouting, making speeches, and trying our best not to get trampled. 
We turned at the Duomo and made a loop back to the piazza adjacent to San Marco. In the piazza where we ended up is a university, and we were greeted by college students also holding signs. The signs said things such as "students against the Gelmini reform" or more extreme students preferred things such as "the government is fascist, and we want communism", the signs varied, as did the people. There were people from all walks of life, and all different schools in Florence. There were everywhere from well dressed kids in sweaters and ironed jeans to the more artistic type in inventive ensembles. The amount of dreadlocks rivaled those in attendance of a reggae concert, I was impressed. All in all it was a very interesting and good experience. Even if I don't agree with everything the protest stood for, I do like that students try to make changes. I have witnessed students in action, standing up for something that they believe in, just not at the level that the Italians do. I hear that they are also on strike in the south (I have a friend who attends school in the south) and that strikes are quite common. I'm not going to make a statement on which I think is better: the more passive ways of American students, or the revolution-esque ways of the Italians, but it is really eye-opening to have a view of both.
No comments:
Post a Comment