Peripheral resistance to urban neoliberal competition: the borderland of Susa Valley

Peripheral resistance to urban neoliberal competition: the borderland of Susa Valley Barbara Mazzotti for GATE Festival (London February 2013) Between Torino, Lyon, Kiev there is Susa Valley. There you find a mountain called “Maddalena”. This mountain is already crossed by tunnels for high speed trains, and highways. The destiny of the mountain changed since early 1990s, when the European High Speed Rail project mapped it as an area in need of implementation. TAV is the italian acronym for Treno ad Alta Velocità i.e. High-Speed Rail, a railway that allows a sustained speed higher than 200 km/h, with a peak speed around 300 km/h. Eventually, it has be renamed TAC (Treno ad Alta Capacità, High-Capacity Train). It's in 1991 that the plan for a new high-speed railway between Turin and Lyon was approved, in addition to current line across the Alps. The Turin-Lyon TAV is part of EU project TEN (Trans-European Network), particularly of the 5thaxis, from Lyon to the Ukrainian border. Initially the rail was meant to cross Portugal and Spain, from Lisboa central station. It's a recent news the Portuguese Government's abandonment of the project, due to economic crisis. The history of this project and the movement against it, starts in the 1990s, reaching media attention from 2006, when the struggles networked with no global protests during the winter olympic games in Turin. The history of TAV connects urban spaces and struggles with periphery in many different way. For example the first appearance of the urban word “squatter” in Italy, corresponds exactly with the beginning of NO TAV struggles between 1996 and 1998. Susa Valley demonstrates how the encounter between urban space and periphery is not only represented by narratives on migration, gentrification and ghettoization. When it comes to the interests of neoliberal economy in the broader european context, categories such as social, natural, and political collapse in a logic of exception, they become a space of indistinction. Like Agamben describes in “Homo Sacer”, state of exception represents the logic of the lawless law, a space where the power of the political decision hangs on a population, considered as passive “bare life”. The space of Maddalena mountain, its natural environment, its inhabitants and protesters, are all intertwined as subjects of an economic and political decision over their “bios”, over their lives, which is much interrelated with biopower in the general context of global neoliberal market. We will see in a more detailed way how this “bare life” hasn't accepted its destiny of passive subject of decisions, even when violently and illegally repressed. The lawless law of the military camp that now relies on the body of Maddalena, reminds us some feminine mystiques, which belong to a gender based analysis of TAV, organized by feminist comrades in the last years. The territory of Susa Valley has been transformed, in a way transfigured in the last 20 year: a military camp, also a terrain of guerrilla capable of spreading its ideas and practices to every urban context of Italy. The process of reconfiguration of geographies based on areas of geo-economical interests, like the “atlantic sea-steppe” european region that has to be created through the 5 th axis, and the experience of Susa Valley are awakening an (il)logic of colonization, expressed within national borders. The EU hypothetical gesture of “undoing borders”, also implicit in a certain account of neoliberalism, is embedded in a process of spreading the politics of borders everywhere. As Balibar affirms: “no border is ever the mere boundary between two states, but is always overdetermined, and, in that sense, sanctioned, reduplicated and relativized by other geopolitical divisions” (Balibar, Politics and the other scene). What can be defined as a geo- biopolitical division happening in the area is the bordering between competitors of different nature: as a space, Susa Valley is crossed by interests of capitalistic or economic entities, but it represents also the space of creation of new subjects, the squatters, the black blocks, the enemies of the system, the anarchist subversive of democratic order. There is an economic logic that works to legitimate its own power through a request of politics. “This underlying capitalist logic does not automatically secure some kind of (…) order of competitive urbanism. Instead, the (...) neoliberal 'settlement' gad to be engineered through explicit forms of political management and intervention and new modes of institution-building designed to extend the neoliberal project, to manage its contradictions, and to secure its ongoing legitimacy” (Peck “Neoliberizing space”). That means that neoliberal system is not separated from state or parastate powers, but it depends on building a “secured” terrain for its growth and development. Indeed, unlike classic liberalism, neoliberal system requires a production of policies engaged in creating and maintaining the system itself. Indeed, reminds Foucault: “Competition is therefore an historical objective of governmental art and not a natural given that must be respected” and “the essence of the market can only appear if it is produced, and it is produced by an active governmentality”(Foucault The Birth of Biopolitics). As we anticipated competition is also related to the production of subjects embedded or haunted in neoliberal context. The economic centers of the system are urban centers, engaged in the same project of enduring competition, through production of information, allowed socialities, and dispositifs of repression, renamed “securitization”, and economic power. What kind of governmentality affects Susa Valley and its inhabitants? Susa Valley has been transformed in a borderland. A border between economic areas, a space of exception where the border expresses its violent definition of subjects, of non-citizens, well distinguished by the very same process of creation of “us” against “others”, when the very boundary between these subjects becomes blurred and therefore an even more threatening dispositif of subjectification. This logic of bordering, this exceptional logic is expressed indeed within the borders of a nation state. Is it really “bare life” as an undistinguishable mass of people, rocks and trees, the subject of the power that transformed Susa Valley in a militarized borderland? The concept of “internal enemy”, from Carl Schmitt, that Mathieu Rigouste theorizes about France post-colonial internal securitization represents a wise gaze on actual governmentalities enacted in Susa Valley, Piedmont and Italy, too. Here comes the story of NO TAV movement. Since 1995 the space of Susa Valley became more than a construction site. Between August 1996 and January 1998 in Susa Valley many sabotages occurred against junction boxes, drills, machineries and antennas, claimed by a mysterious group named “grey wolves”. The main focus of investigation becomes the theft of some supplies in Caprie municipal building, which doesn't really seem to be related to the attacks, nor to the anti TAV struggle. Three anarchists are soon accused and arrested on March 5 th 1998, taken from Alcova squat in which they lived together: Sole, Baleno and Pelissero. The same day the squat is evicted and destroyed. The comrades are immediately put in isolation cells, accused of subversive association for terroristic purposes. From the beginning, investigations focus on anarchist groups, but even after perquisitihons and interceptions there are no substantial evidences against them. The trial becomes a media event, where the anarchists are represented as evidently guilty, as “eco-terrorists” or “subversives”, “squatters”. On March 26th, the court rejects the application for release as “there is very high risk of recurrence of other similar crimes". On Saturday March 28 th Edoardo Massari (Baleno) is found dead, hung to his bed with the sheets of Turin's Vallette prison. After the suicide-State murder of Baleno, media don't stop their defamations and the presence of journalists at the funeral causes some protests. Soledad, instead, moved to Italy in1997, after some of the attacks were even committed. She is arrested and kept in isolation too. She commits suicide on July 11 th, when she realizes that the all trial is media conspiracy, as she clearly writes in her last letter to the anarchist comrades. She's right, the real protagonist of the story seem to be media themselves, and their construction of a new internal enemy, the “squatter”, subversive of democracy. Pellissero is condemned to 3 years of jail in 2002, all the accusations of terrorism are finally rejected. After years of creation of committees, different activities against TAV, in 2001 the first big march takes place bringing 3000 inhabitants of the Valley to the public square. The activists start to organize free camping areas to inform about the future of the Valley. In 2002 the protesters increased, as the number of the people engaged in the struggle, mainly inhabitants of the Valley and local governors. In May 31st 2003 the “march of the 20.000” crosses Maddalena mountain, again with the participations of local governments and local activists. After the administrators refusal to sign a contract enabling the construction works, the people organize another march of the 20.000 on June 2005. On July of the same year 21 anarchists and activists get arrested because of connections with NO TAV movement and no CPT (center of detentions for illegal migrants). On October 31 st hundreds of protesters succeed in stopping the first soil surveys, with barricades, hails of stones, provoking a violent reaction of the police which beaten and arrested some of the comrades. During the night an army of antiriot police force the blocks made by Susa Valley inhabitants and in few hours the entire area is fenced: we know that the cost of this operation was 1.6 millions Euros, payed to a mafia construction company named Italcoge. From Askatasuna, squat and community center in Turin, the appeal is for every comrade in Italy: join us. On April 11th 2005 a summit about anti terrorism strategies to apply in Susa Valley takes place, with high resonance on mass media. The rhetoric is very similar to the one of 1970s: the power tries to raise a moral panic against the protesters, through media and actions. This strategy of “tension” will bring indeed to mysterious appearances of bombs, or threatening letters containing bullets, repeatedly after every peaceful or less peaceful demonstration in the area. Like the fake bomb found in November on the 25 th state highway, reported by an anonymous telephone call to the police, right after the blockade of two high speed french trains. The bomb became immediately the protagonist of media attention, which even denounce the return of red brigade. As the “terrorist” rhetoric spreads, 50.000 NO TAV march in a general strike against the construction works and against terrorism. Other investigations start against local governors and inhabitants, more than 100 people receive a charge. The more media and national politics attacks NO TAV, the more the movement becomes strong and barricades continues, such as marches and assemblies. Ministers openly declare the presence of terrorists in the movement, while the President of Italy declares that the country cannot remain isolated from european networks. As the president demonstrates his commitment, on December 6 th at 3,20 am 30 trucks of antiriot police evicts NO TAV campings areas beating people and destroying everything with bulldozers. The protest grows, highways in Susa Valley are blocked again by protesters, who reach the area in solidarity with the evicted. Also in Turin a protest starts, by activists, called “no global” by the media. On December 17th 50.000 people march in Turin, but this time there is no resonance in the media, since a peaceful event, with the participation of important artists and intellectuals is not a “news”. As the Winter Olimpic Games celebrations start, Susa Valley becomes a “bomb” in the words of ministries and media. The protests become suddenly very visible because the international context of the games becomes a showcase for NO TAV movement. As the protests grow, accusation of terrorism again start to come from newspapers until the Olympic fire is sabotaged in Susa Valley causing the worst reactions of media and politicians. In 2007 the movement moves from Susa Valley sending delegations of solidarity in Vicenza against the U.S. military base, in Naples for the waste emergency, and Trentino Alto Adige. In August the night of fires: bonfires shine throughout Italy, to express opposition to the construction works. In 2008 1400 people buy terrains in the area, to boycott the works and a protest of 30.000 people takes place. It's in 2010 that drills arrive to the valley. Surveys begin in January, and 40,000 people protest again. Meanwhile the costs of surveys grows up to 6 million euro. Someone set on fire the camping of Bruzolo, a mafia or state intimidation? As a result new protests start both on site and in Turin. The drills are sabotaged by protesters, even under the snow. The claims reach European Union, in Strasbourg, with a delegation of a thousand demonstrators. 2011 becomes the worst year for NO TAV movement in terms of repression, or the best in terms of participation and solidarity. Marches of 70.000 people, barricades and the construction of a permanent civilian garrison. Barricades in May and then 65 charges for civilians and local politicians. On June 26th a violent eviction takes place against families and activists camping near the construction site, the use of Teargas CS, illegal weapons, has been demonstrated in the upcoming days, when 30.000 reached the Valley to take back the terrains. On July 3 rd barricade and guerrilla in the forest is violently repressed, again through the use of CS Gas thrown literally on the heads of the protesters, armed with anti-gas masks and stones. It has been proved that 500.000 teargas CS were thrown that day on civilians, hundreds of injured, a comrade beaten and tortured by the police until a red cross volunteer saved him by bringing away his body. Until the end of August the civilian garrison pushed back every night the attacks of the police and struggled around the fences of the construction area in Chiomonte. 2000 policemen hired, to make 30 workers staying in the militarized zone, even if works haven't started yet. Mass media start a defamatory campaign against “black blocks”, the new name for the enemies of democracy which again connects urban struggles with NO TAV. And again, clashes barricades in September, October, November. On December 8th, 30.000 people march in a peaceful demonstration ruined by the police again, when attacks the activists at the railway station the trains they were taking to go back to Turin and Milan, also injuring random passengers. On January 26 th 2012, 26 people are arrested at the sunset, taken from their houses or squats. The reaction is immediate and crosses all Italy, for days highways and railway stations are blocked in every city. After the march in Susa Valley on February 25 th against the announced evictions of the terrains bought in 2008 by inhabitants of Susa Valley, the eviction unexpectedly takes place the morning after, again with the sunset. As an activist climbs a pylon, a policeman runs after him causing his fall. Luca Abbà is heavily injured and again Italy raises, for days in every city and in Susa Valley every highway and street is blocked. Again clashes, arrests, injured, resistance. Solidarity protests in front of Italian Embassies in the main cities of Europe. 71 people charged or arrested. Until now the protests are still going on, people of Susa Valley are still sabotaging the construction works. This is what NO TAV activists write about 2012: “We leave behind another year of great struggles which once again gave us emotions, joy, some small satisfaction and much hope. 2012 was a special year for us, we lived again on our skin all the arrogance and the engagement of the State in defeating us. We started the year with arrests and the beginning of that judiciary theorem that became a the main public topic throughout 2012. (...) We are talking about 300 measures in progress, at least two million euro asked for damages, (...) at least 90,000 euro per day to defend the Kiomontistan area, and 129,952 agents used against us and our activities. Since 365 days judges and police tried to weaken us, exhaust and scare us with every available tool. In the beginning of the year the biggest event of all time in the Valley was held (February 25th) when half of Italy came to testify the support for our struggle and the growth of consent to our position, more and more rooted in our common thought. Soon we became aware of Si-tav new strategy that will be repeated throughout the year: to respond to any movement's success progressing the works in Clarea. It is when the worst event happened, just two days after the enlargement of the construction area their way to show their muscles against the Valley's movement, which, instead, is always able to expand its strength. It is the case that the more affected us, the fall of Luca from the pylon he reached to oppose to the enlargements. Once again we met the NOTAV spirit embodied by Luca, ready to sacrifice himself for an idea of life completely opposite and antagonistic to bulldozers and to the police forces, which continued working frantic and indifferent to his lifeless body on the ground, in order to reach their result at the cost of a life. That day deeply affected us and from that day a wild week of struggle and mobilization started, which stopped everything in the Valley and in many areas of Italy. “Bringing the Valley in every city” was one of the slogans that were screamed, while mobilizations for Luca and the valley were organized everywhere, from the biggest cities to the smallest villages. Over the months we lost terrains in Clarea, meters that they conquered with difficulties, and for which we're still struggling with many forms of resistance. It was on April 11 th with the farce of the expropriation of the land conquered months before by force by the state. The laws were silenced and militaries marched to plant yet another flag on our land. This year developed through permanent forms of resistance, widespread and of different intensity. The area and the militaries have been targeted and pushed to the hardest times, day and night, and this is the plan that today (and tomorrow) continues effectively. The summer camp was born in Chiomonte and more than three months of confrontations and clashes (...) led the Valley to be even more militarized. And then the fall, the return of Luca in Clarea, the trip to Lyon and yet another fake funding to the work. We also saw the fall of the government and we prepare to meet the next one, we imagine in continuity with the previous. There's no year of struggle that doesn't leave a deep sign, but 2012 has left something indelible in us and in our mountains. It left us with the knowledge of a country in a shamble which supports the interests of few people at the expense of the many, protected and fed by the government of the day (...). It left us once again the confidence to win this battle, because we have the time, the reasons and determination on our side, which can not be beaten nor by the tear gas, nor by the courts nor from newspaper pages”. Soldiers are the last resource that the state put in the game, after the employment of other security forces in the past. The use of CS Gas during the clashes of July 3 rd 2011 is not enough to convince media about the spread illegality performed by the state on civilians. The entire government together with justice system and mass media defined the protesters as “terrorists”, meaning “the others” of democracy, non-citizens. We can read this strategy as a form of definition of an internal enemy, on which every weapon is justified and honorably used to avoid the subversion of the system. Which system? The system of neoliberal competition between urban centers in the broader context of the young fortress europe, and the system, or logic, of legitimization of power over citizens through the creation of an internal enemy, the protester. Moreover, the military zone of Susa Valley represents a space of exception, where the creation of “bare life” is an ongoing training for the army, like Alpini, involved in international conflicts such as Afghanistan. But the normalization of the soldiers presence to restore a certain “order” as a spread strategy in Europe in not our only argument. Our argument wants to show how also economic interests on Susa Valley, with the presence of market and para-market, is deeply intertwined with the process of imposition of a work that nobody desires. Whose economic interests is italian government defending by constructing TAV? There is a myth about axis number 5: a transnational region based on the transportation of goods from Kiev to Lisboa, from the atlantic sea to the steppe. This is only a myth, reclaimed by italian politicians to defend TAV, since the project has been renamed “mediterranean corridor”, cause apparently it will be running from Algeciras (Spain) to Miskolc since Portugal renounced to the project. Moreover EU financial aids will be transformed in highways for what concerns the hungarian context. the mythological axis number 5 is part of TEN, as I said before, which funds whatever kind of infrastructure, not only the high speed railways. The stretch Turin-Lyon is apparently the only one approved and supported with an unjustifiable enthusiasm by Italian and French governors. There is another economic interest involved in the construction of TAV all around Italy, not only in Piedmont, named mafia. We find an appeal in an article appeared on Repubblica on March 6 th 2012, signed by Roberto Saviano, well known writer engaged in anti-mafia struggle in Italy. He denounces mafia infiltrations in every TAV construction works in the last 30 years. He asks not to hide this “risk” for the sake of democracy. NO TAV movement too is openly denouncing the presence of 'Ndrangheta in the area of Susa Valley, demonstrated by several trials and investigations since 1994. Mafia economy has a long history of infiltration in every big public work, in particular when it comes to the construction of highways or railways. The strategy is easy: a mafia company, obviously under cover by a “clean” business company, easily wins public tenders because of its advantageous prices and supplies. As the work starts, the initial budget starts to augment and all of the construction site becomes a net of mafia recycling of cement, waste and money. But in Susa Valley not even the tender has been necessary, because as an “emergency” work the procedure becomes a “concession”, similarly of what happens after an earthquake when the reconstruction works have to be assigned in a short time. This status of emergency (or exception) makes it even easier for mafia business to infiltrate, through the political power they gained in northern regions since the 1970s and along the 1990s, when, in 1995, the city government of Bardonecchia, in Susa Valley, became the first municipality of northern italy declared to be a direct emanation of Ndrangheta. We find some important examples of how the process develops in other public construction works: the system is based on sub-tenders. The construction of TAV in Reggio Emilia brought to the area more than 60 mafia organizations, winners of sub-tenders and now stabilized in the region. In 2008 the mafia investments for Milano TAV were discovered through investigations, when a mysterious mountain of toxic waste was discovered in the same area. Another story which could be exemplary for Susa Valley was the Napoli Roma TAV, where through infiltrations of mafia business or payment of bribes, the budget raised from 13 billions euros to 75 billions in 10 years. The cost for one kilometer of TAV is nowadays estimated around 44 millions euros. In its annual report (2011), the National Anti-Mafia Bureau (DIA) established that the Piedmont region has the third highest rate in terms of penetration by the Calabrian Organized Crime. In Susa Valley the companies which won, or win, the tenders are usually founded in the very moment the tender grant is published, then they declare bankrupt after few years. The connections between these companies, like Italcoge and mafia are well known by the activists who are constantly making independent investigations, sometimes receiving threatening letters and having their cars set on fire. Who wants to do business in Piedmont has to deal with the right families. “The route of the TAV Lyon-Turin is designed: every sleeper in Val di Susa is a 'ndrina, naming 'Ndrangheta groups. There are families like Siderno, Natile, from Gioiosa Jonica, like Mammoli, San Luca, Platì. A piece of Calabria transplanted in Piedmont. Ten local 'Ndrangheta in the region. In Turin and surroundings' ndrine have settled for some time”. (Vazzana, L'Unità, March 9 th 2012) In June 2011, the Minotauro operation led to the arrest of nearly 150 people, businessmen, politicians and affiliated with gangs, for different reasons, like the nominee of EU MP, or, related to our topic, the participation to TAV construction works. For example the same fences that the activists have cut so many times, surrounding Chiomonte construction site, have been paid 1.6 million Euros to Italcoge, the company owned by Lazzaro family, now bankrupted, because of a sub-tender awarded by Ltf to CMC and from CMC to the mentioned mafia company. But behind Lazzaro family there is another family, called Iaria affiliated with 'Ndrangheta, whose boss, named Giovanni, has been proclaimed “godfather”. Nevio Coral, constructor and politician, close to calabrian families Varacalla and Pipicella (named Petru u Zoppu) describes in a telephone call how the system works: “When the streets are done, the work is done, the contracts go on ... we get one person and put him in the municipality, another in the Council, another in a Proloco, another somewhere else... when we get there we find our people everywhere ... and become a strong group ... “. With the operation Albachiara the presence of sicilian mafia is brought to light, too so that in June 2011, 19 arrest warrants are released. March 2nd 2012 the anti-Mafia Investigation Department of Turin confiscate assets for 10 million euros, related to Ilaria D'Agostino and Francesco Cardillo, two men from the clan of Locri, who laundered the proceeds of drug trafficking on behalf of the boss from Ciminà (Rc) Antonio Spagnolo. The dirty money were reinvested in real estate and in the management of major public works: the TAV, the work for the Winter Olympic Games of 2006, through the construction of Imperia harbour. Again, the strategy have been that of sub-tenders, through the company Ediltava. The mafia “spread” is called contracts and bribes. This is only one of the reasons why NO TAV movement is protesting. 360 professors and researchers confirmed the following arguments of NO TAV movement (from NOTAV.info) – In Susa Valley many connections Italy-France already exist, like Frejus (A32) highway and Frejus (Turin-Modane) railwayand two, plus two international state highways. TAV is useless: – The promoters of TAV have always talked about an increasing traffic on the line, but the real data about last 20 years show a substantial stagnation, with a little decrease after 2008, both of passengers and goods. Indeed, in early 1990s an increase was predicted from 1.5 milion to 7.5 milion passengers, while the real number of passengers is nowadays 700.000. This is the reason why the project became “High Capacity Rail”, as a demonstration of blindness in front of the decrease for 6 million tuns of goods in the last 10 years. Cargo trains crossing Frejus railway are empty Unsustainable damages: – According to preliminary project of 2010 the expense will be of 14.000 millions euros only for the constructions in the Italian territory (much more according to independent calculations), which means the 57% of the total cost, even if only the 30% of the railway will be within Italian borders. To find enough money italy needs to contract new debts with banks, but Italian public debt is already over 130% of PIL, one of the highest in Europe, reason for cuts in most public services. Also, it is Italian habit to double the costs while the works move forward. An example is the TurinMilan TAV, which costed 73 million euros per kilometer, unlike 10 million euros per kilometer spent by France for TGV. Negative environmental impact: – The work for the construction of the line will last for more than 20 years, during which hundreds of trucks will cross the valley bringing excavation material, with great emission of CO2 and thin dust. It's predicted an increase of the 10% of heart diseases. – The work for the galleries are going to affect the water-bearing stratum, this already happened in Tuscany, where 7 villages got their aqueducts dry due to TAV works. – There are many proofs that the mountains under which the main tunnel must be excavated contains uranium and asbestos, and reassurances of the pro-TAV about security techniques to be used are vague and contradictory. Where the rubble from 57km excavation will be brought? Because of its broader implications, NO TAV protesters gained the support of ecologist, anarchist, left-wing movements all around Italy and Europe, and every episode of repression, such as indiscriminate arrests or evictions, becomes the input for occupation of highways, assemblies, public events in solidarity with Susa Valley, which is nowadays one of the most important movements in Italy. The neoliberal rhetoric is evidently unmasked as just a discourse of power. The connection of goods transport between Lisboa and Kiev, more than useless, has been unmasked too, as a chimera, a bad nightmare from which we already woke up, struggling for others to do the same. When it comes to neoliberal economic bio-power we all can be the enemies, we all inhabit the centers of peripheral borderlands. We're all heroes, all potential martyrs, when we are just people. I want to end with a letter, written by Giulia from Rebibbia prison in Rome, in the beginning of this month. “There are times when the sun comes through the bars, it filters through the glass, through the bottle you have on the table, it stretches as excerpts on the table, and warms up a little your ear. There are times in the night when you look at the ceiling, listen to the silence, hear the sound of the empty corridor, you hear the hissing of a closed door. There are times when you sit down open air to smoke a cigarette and you look at the sky and think that if you believed in God you would thank him for being capable of enjoying such a beauty from here as well. There are times when you walk through the halls and think that they will never go away from your lungs. There are times, many times, when your body is still and your mind imagine yourself while destroying everything in your hands. There are times when you would pay gold for a nice cold beer. There are times when the smell of earth, leaves and autumn reaches you from nowhere to make you remember. There are times when the sun of autumn sky makes you think again to the mountains and to your dogs breath. There are times when finally all empty words disappear, all the masks fall. There are times when they fall from others faces, without them knowing about it. There are moments when you realize that this place has changed you and others times when you think you are always the same, and you discover and rediscover yourself. There are times when you recognize what is the time in the day from the noise you hear in the corridor and you realize that it is becoming normal. There are times when you suddenly wake up at night because a light is spying your sleep. There are times when you see a mother crying because she cannot do the most natural thing on this earth as to be with her children. There are times when you cry for a mother weeping, for the hugs denied, for mutilated relations, because you think that nobody will never pay for all of this pain. There are times when you think you could watch for hours your comrades faces, who are with you, because you know that it is only thanks to those eyes that you've never been afraid of this hell. There are times when you think of the pain of those who come to visit you, of the face they have every time they go away, dismayed because "we're leaving her here." There are times when the blood runs cold at the thought of freedom, because you think you won't be able to carry out your comrades with you. There are moments, many moments, when a laughter burst like a thunder, like a waterfall off a cliff which then unfolds, fresh, on the skin, on the face, in the head. There are times when you see the smile back on the face of a friend and you think there's nothing more you need for that day. There are times when you get the news that someone is out or escaped and the bars are broken and the smile is mocking. There are times, many, constant, repeated when you think of a pile of rubble, broken keys, burned uniforms and feel the freshness of bare feet on the grass and you take a deep breath.