(Castellano) (Euskara)
The latest work by the Wu Ming writers’ collective (signed by Wu Ming 4) is about the Hood Gang, the band of hooded men to which Robin Hood belonged and who lived in Sherwood Forest. The title is «The True Story of the Hood Gang», because according to the authors, as in their previous works (Q, Manituana, The Army of Sleepwalkers), they try to set history straight. It is a historical novel, because it is based on real history, but there is also room for fantasy, especially pagan and medieval forest fantasy. But above all, it is treated from another, more popular and less hierarchical perspective, another vision of what was cooking in Sherwood Forest. The book is based on the dichotomy that Sherwood Forest represents and that Wu Ming 4 was so interested in: «on one side, the city, the palace, the constituted authority; on the other, the forest, the popular beliefs, the living nature».
Today, they have released this video:
The launch of this new book coincides with the threat to a park in Bologna, Don Bosco, which has seen the emergence of a new resistance that has joined other existing ones in the city. Since 29 January, the park has been occupied to prevent it from being cut down for a school construction project, Quattrofoglie1. The defence of this park, like many other environmental and climatic resistances proposed in Bologna, is supported, or, as in this case, even called for, by the Wu Ming collective itself.
Wu Ming are from Bologna, and in allusion to their new book, they called, as the Gang of Don Bosco, a demonstration for 9 March in defence of the park (and against all other «useless, harmful and imposed great works»). The writers’ collective was founded in 2000 and three of the five writers are still active today. Then there is the Wu Ming Foundation, a multiform, broader and more ramified entity, made up of collectives, artistic, cultural and political projects around its blog wumingfoundation.com. . They prefer to sign with nicknames which also «make reference to our collective project (Wu Ming) and are an essential part of our poetics».
Undoubtedly, writing this in Donostia (Basque Country), it reminds us a lot of the last imposition and abuse suffered here, the felling of the Manteo park for the project also of a culinary centre (more photos of Manteo). Or that of the San Bartolomé hill to build ANOTHER new shopping centre and ANOTHER car park! And the previous ones of Marrutxipi, Belartza, or Zubieta (Donostia territory) because the new incinerator has been controversial for the way it treats waste, for its emissions, then for its pollution of streams, but previously it involved the felling of 6 hectares of forest (only those rekated to the plant itself)2.
Because as in both cases, nobody can be against schools, the point is to make use of unused spaces, or in areas that are already urbanised, to stop speculating, to stop doing business with the territory and the land, and above all to stop destroying the few trees and natural areas that remain in the city. And the point is to listen to neighbours and to guarantee participation.
As in Donostia, the city council of Bologna has promised that at the end of the works «the park will be more beautiful than before». But no one is unaware of this: if we remove an area of trees to put up the Besta school or a Culinary Centre, even if trees are planted again later, that area of trees will be much smaller, won’t it? If not none at all. «The administration tries to convince the citizens of the goodness of the project by talking about the regeneration of the green area in the demolition zone, when it is known that these soils cannot be regenerated with a magic wand – the project appears – magic, yes! – the possibility of allocating part of the surface to a possible car park, in case the nearby Fair should need it». Blame me!
The project for the «redevelopment» of the Besta schools does not involve refurbishing the existing school but building a new one next to it (Quattrofoglie School), eliminating the park: fifteen thousand square metres that are home to forty-two splendid trees cared for over the years by the residents’ association, the Don Bosco Committee. The park is a lung of Bologna and, in particular, of the Feria area, the most polluted area. So, by building from scratch, they are dressing the project with the usual greenwashing. And despite the elimination of large trees, they are even proposing to reduce emissions. Apparently, it will comply with the regulations, but the greenest thing to do is to build on what already exists.
The Besta secondary schools were pioneers in their time in the early 1980s. They were built according to innovative criteria of motivation, stimulation and participation. In this project, the Don Bosco park was central, as the aim was the integration of the students with nature, through classrooms oriented and open to the park. Needless to say, no matter how much they propose to replant it, that forest will never be replicated. On top of that, more than 40 years later, the new project is not architecturally innovative either: architects and teachers have roundly rejected the project because it merely offers «classrooms and corridors». The cost of this project (€18 million) has also been criticised, which is considered to be six times the cost of a renovation.
Now, moreover, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage has initiated the procedure for the recognition of the important artistic character of the current Besta school and has started the steps to apply for its protection (the Guercino schools, built according to the same project as the Besta, are already included in the General Urban Plan of the Municipality of Bologna as «Building of Cultural Interest and Testimonial Interest of the Second Twentieth Century»). As in Donostia, buildings of interest, social and cultural heritage are being demolished, while more and more plots, buildings and houses are being used for tourism instead of for other needs. (We also covered a similar case regarding the Loiola headqurters)
A march against this project was held on 16 December 2023. On 29 January, when the company’s workers arrived to fence off the area to start logging, they found that a group of activists had tied themselves to the trees. Since then they have remained there, in houses they built in the trees and in the park. While the activity, the debate and the socialisation of knowledge, of food, have given new life to the park. That is why they have called it an urban micro-ZAD. ZAD is a French neologism, an acronym that stands for Zone a Defendre (Zone to Defend), and was the name given in France to occupations aimed at blocking projects harmful to communities and the environment. This occupation is understood as something unprecedented in these latitudes, especially in hyper-urbanised contexts.
In Bologna, and especially the Wu Ming collective, they are very aware of the importance of trees in general, but especially in the city. In an era hit by the climate crisis, drought and related extreme weather phenomena, trees are carbon sinks, they absorb CO2. But they also bind the soil so that, in the event of torrential rain, it is not washed away. On the other hand, they provide us with shade and places to shelter us when the sun is beating down. Other forms of life grow around trees and create ecosystems at different levels that are also fundamental to our lives.
In Bologna, they have experienced the effects of climate change due to rising sea levels and flooding. Their region, Emilia-Romagna, is suffering from another effect related to drought and sea rise: the salinisation of water and land, in the area closest to the coast. Being a delta, the Po river delta, we are talking about a large river area with the effect of tens of kilometres inland. River water is reduced by drought, and this favours the introduction of seawater. This also seeps through the soil, affecting agriculture and ecosystems.
Meanwhile, Emilia-Romagna is a region of great infrastructural works: the third most cemented region in Italy, with around 9% of its soil impermeabilised (the Italian average is 7.1%, already very high) and it was the third in terms of increase in soil consumption in 2021 (in that year 658 hectares more were covered!). But above all, the most worrying data after what we have explained, is that it is the first region in Italy in cementification of flood zones: 78.6 hectares in 2020-2021 alone of high-risk areas and 501.9 hectares of medium risk. This accounts for half of the national consumption of land with this degree of hydraulic hazard!
Because, as the Band of Don Bosco denounces «The ruling class of Emilia-Romagna, and in particular that of Bologna, is addicted to cement and asphalt, the hardest drugs that exist. They cannot stop, they continue to consume and take overdoses, and they know that they will continue to do so until they reach – and make us all reach – the bottom of the abyss». Because in addition to these projects, they are promoting others such as the Passante, the bypass that will widen the A14/Tangenziale. For its construction they have already destroyed wild meadows, a three hundred metre long strip of trees, trees in the Eugenio Montale Garden and more.
Therefore, given its similarity, we also compared it at the time with the felling and destruction of trees here in Donostia for another variant, in Marrutxipi. Yes, here we can also conclude that the Basque ruling class, and specifically those of Donostia (San Sebastian), also suffer from an addiction to cement and asphalt. Because these (Marrutxipi, Manteo, metro, Hish Speed Train – TAV, etc.) are the ones who suffer from addiction to cement and asphalt.
In addition, the Don Bosco Band denounces that projects are being announced all the time, in addition to another luxury student residence or the largest ski resort in the Mediterranean. The latest projects are: a twelve thousand square metre Museum of Italian Culture, a new flat development, projects in the former FICO area and in the Feria area. As in Donostia, another major project will be the new high-speed train station. Or while in Donostia they have squandered millions on the metro, in Bologna they have sold a tram project, also within the projects proposed as green. But also other projects such as Trilogia Navile, the Tettoia Nervi, the work of Giulia Srl and the P Tower, the Unipol complex, the speculative operations in Cyrenaica and in the district of San Donato, the Tecnopolo, the remodelling of the exhibition centre, Fico or the People Mover. As we denounce so many times, behind all this developmentalism we only have, besides the lucrative interest, the interest of making the city stand out among the European ones, as a touristic, logistic and economic reference.
The residents of Don Bosco Park «do not believe that pouring concrete in a park is something sensible, useful and even less that it can be considered green». For this reason, they have organised themselves into a committee which, in turn, is coordinated with other committees and municipal associations active in environmental protection, and especially in the case of Bologna, against the Passante project, the extension of the bypass.
Because prior to the Banda de don Bosco, the Wu Ming collective has dedicated itself to denouncing the developmentalist approach of Bolognese politicians and their green hypocrisy. These denunciations were preceded by a three-part series entitled «These years in Bologna: the green lies of the Lepore-Clancy council». The green lies… if we think about what the Donostia City Council has done while in 2019 it received the Sustainable City award, and while it sells itself as Donostia Green Destination and announces the Hiri Berdea 2030 (Green City 2030) strategy!
This movement, as happened before, we place it in the context of others initiated elsewhere. Undoubtedly, the occupation of the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta (USA) against the construction of Cop City, is currently the most consolidated. On the other hand, we also recently reported on the occupation of the Brandenburgo Forest in Berlin (Germany), which the company Tesla wants to continue deforesting in order to expand its electric car factory. (We previously covered different experiences of forest resistance in «Resisting with forests from the treetops«).
Wu Ming uses the concept of «big, useless and imposed projects» which are obviously not limited to Bologna but are a result of capitalism, of the desire for profit, for grandeur and also for humanising the planet by filling it with asphalt and concrete. About 10 years ago we also coordinated at the European level to jointly denounce these projects as Forum against Unnecessary Imposed Mega-projects. This coordination is still needed.
This is the video produced by the Don Bosco Gang to introduce themselves and announce the 9 March protest, using the animated film «Over the Hedge» – stay tuned for a new installment of the Don Bosco Gang!
«We are convinced that there is no environmentalism without anti-capitalism and class struggle».
(Senza chiedere permesso)
NOTES
1 The new name chosen is also eloquent, Four Leaves – as Fausto Bonafede of WWF noted, «an ingenious name that perhaps alludes to what will be left on the trees at the end of the work».
2 And we should add other projects that were stopped and that were going to mean a considerable environmental and forestry loss, such as Belartza 2, Uliako Lore Baratza or the surf park planned in Antondegi.
MORE INFORMATION:
- www.wumingfoundation.com/giap/2024/03/parco-don-bosco-che-si-difende/
- www.wumingfoundation.com/giap/2023/12/balle-green-scuole-besta/
- www.wumingfoundation.com/giap/2023/11/balle-green-di-lepore-clancy/
- sollevamentiterra.noblogs.org/post/2023/12/13/chiacchiere-con-il-comitato-scuole-besta/
- brughiere.noblogs.org/post/2023/12/30/una-riqualificazione-spietata
- www.rivoluzioneanarchica.it/bologna-microzad-al-parco-don-bosco/
aplaneta.org 