through europe

Recently, I have been asked several times by Italian friends and comrades to talk about the British student movement. I must confess that their questions always made me feel slightly embarrassed.
At first, I tried to forget about this uncomfortable feeling, talking about the rise of a new civic participation, which had been lacking in this country since the 1980s, with the brief exception of the anti-war movement of 2003. Then, in my heart of hearts, I tried to offer to my embarrassment the acknowledgment that in the UK, at the moment, there is not a ‘movement’ as such, rather a constellation of small groups and organizations.

“C'ést une révolte!” “Non, Sire, c'est une révolution”, rispose il duca de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt a Luigi XVI la notte del 14 luglio 1789, dopo la caduta della Bastiglia e la defezione delle truppe reali davanti all'insurrezione popolare. Si affermava in quel momento “la grandezza dell'uomo di fronte alla piccolezza dei grandi”, come disse Robespierre, ed arrivava al culmine il pathos che per decenni aveva acceso gli animi di fronte alla possibilità di liberazione del genere umano dalle carceri del buio medievale.

     6pm,  23rd February 2011 @ Lecture Theatre, Courtauld Institute, London

The transcript of the speech is avaible now in [english] and in [italian]

This question, appearing on most newspapers after every riot, such as the one in Rome on December 14, deserves an answer. Do you want to see what our faces look like, when they are not hidden by scarves, helmets and balaclavas?

They are the same faces that pay the rent for your scruffy flats, the faces to whom you offer unpaid internships or full time employment for £800 a month. They are the faces that pay thousands of pounds to attend your lectures. They are the faces of the kids that you slap when you catch them with some weed in their pocket. They are the faces that have to run out of the bus when the inspectors appear, as they couldn’t afford to travel otherwise.

L’Italia vista da Londra sta cambiando colore. Niente più spiagge dorate, piatti di pasta fumanti e donne generosamente svestite. Gli occhi delle nuove generazioni inglesi vedono il fumo delle camionette bruciate alzarsi sulla penisola e di colpo sembrano accorgersi di quanto fosse rimasto finora nascosto dalla luce accecante del sole del mediterraneo.

Sono soprattutto gli studenti, in marcia per le strade di Londra o asserragliati in dozzine di universita’ occupate, che oggi rivolgono lo sguardo verso l’Italia in cerca di un’ispirazione che non sia più quella stantia dei classici.