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ABSTRACT
As interest in immigrant mobilisations in hostile national environments grows among migration scholars, the reasons why immigrants in vulnerable conditions engage in radicalised mobilisation at the local level and why they make alliances with controversial non-institutional radical-left actors need to be further explained. This study examines the conditions of mobilisation and radicalisation by undocumented immigrants in Brescia (a mid-sized city in Northern Italy) through the lens of a contentious moment that took place for two months in 2010, known as the Struggle of the Crane (Lotta della gru). It addresses two questions: why have undocumented immigrants in Brescia been mobilised to contentious political activism? And, why have they created partnerships with non-institutional radical-left organisations, rather than institutional non-state organisations, such as the Church and traditional trade unions? In addition to the hostile national context, discrimination and repression by local authorities triggered the motivation for mobilisation and nourished the radicalisation of the struggle and its endurance. Additionally, competing discourses and practices over immigrants’ access to rights and deservingness by multiple non-state actors played a key role in shaping alliances. The long-lasting alliance with the radical left since the 1990s was renewed and reinforced in 2010 by immigrants’ growing distrust towards institutional non-state actors.
Acknowledgments
The author is indebted to the anonymous referees for their insightful and useful comments. She also thanks Jeffrey Reitz and Tiziana Caponio for their useful advice during the production of the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In Western Democracies, the mobilisation of the discourse on human rights is enabled by the incorporation of the human rights frame through the signature of the conventions of human rights (Cook Citation2010, 146) or through its incorporation in the National Constitutions by states.
2. The Italian radical-left organisations mobilised early on the issue of immigration, between the 1980s and 1990s. Some radical-left organisations are historically associated with the Communist Refoundation Party (Partito Rifondazione Comunista), while other organisations are not associated with any party and claim extra-parliamentary trajectories of political action (Cosseron Citation2007).
3. All the names of interviewees are pseudonyms, to protect their identities.
4. The social centres are usually abandoned buildings occupied by radical-left organisations for political and cultural activities. Most of these occupations in Italy took place in the 1970s and the 1980s, when the immigrants in the country were still few.
5. In 2011, the total number of workers enrolled in the main traditional trade unions in Italy was 14,460,919 and 1,159,052 migrant workers. The CGIL had the highest number of workers enrolled (5,775,962), of which 410,127 (or 7.1%) were immigrant workers. The CISL had 4,485,383 workers, of which 384,237 (or 8.6%) were immigrants. The other trade union members are distributed among the third main left-wing trade union in Italy (the UIL) and other minor unions.
6. As I observed during fieldwork in 2013, the radical-left organisations were composed of Italians (men and women) of different backgrounds and ages, who are committed to social justice and human rights. Among them, some are more radicalised than others. Some have a Catholic background, but have decided to be part of the mobilisation to help the situation of immigrants. The Struggle of the Crane resulted in the development of a collective identity that included immigrant and Italian activists, and was still very strong in 2013, when my fieldwork took place.
7. See Ilaria Sesana. 2011. “Sanatoria Truffa.” Magazino Terre di Mezzo. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://magazine.terre.it/notizie/rubrica/0/articolo/1615/Sanatoria-truffa.
8. Interview with Ramzi.
9. G. Spatola. 2010. “Sgomberati gli immigrati in sciopero.” Corriere della Sera. September 30.
10. Interview with Ibrahim.
11. Interview with Yusuf.
12. “I protagonist della lotta.” Bresciaoggi. November 4, 2010.
13. Galieni. 2010. “Se non ci danno risposte positive noi da qui non scendiamo.” Liberazione. November 3.
14. Galieni. 2010. “Se non ci danno risposte positive noi da qui non scendiamo.” Liberazione. November 3.
15. P. Bonatelli. 2010. “I migranti giù dall gru, stremati dopo 17 giorni.” Manifesto. November 16.
16. Some Italian scholars and activists (especially grassroots movements of the left) have called the mobilisations that took place in 2010 and 2011 ‘a new cycle of protests’ (Oliveri Citation2012). However, the impact of these new mobilisations should not be over-emphasised. As early as 2012, as the financial crisis continued to impact the most vulnerable workers, many of whom are immigrants, these protests and mobilisations had lost a considerable amount of steam. In part, these mobilisations reflect the weakness of immigrant activism in the political arena, as well as the difficulties that non-state actors encounter in their attempts to create advocacy coalitions capable of supporting immigrants’ claims for greater recognition. The organisation behind ‘A Day without Us’ is a case in point. After the first mobilisation in 2010, another mobilisation took place on 1 March 2011, but the results were less important than the previous year. In 2012, the mobilisation was not organised.
17. The organizers of the event were inspired by the French movement that launched ‘The Day Without Immigrants: 24 Hours Without Us’ (‘La journée sans immigrés: 24h sans nous’) in France.
18. “Nuovo Pirellone, protesta a sessanta metri per I cassintegrati della Raimondi Gru.” MilanoRepubblica.it, April 9, 2010.
19. Interview with Mohamed.
20. Interviews with Carmine and Vittorio.
21. I. Brontesi. 2012. “‘Razzista’: la CGIL denuncia Rolfi.” Corriere della Sera, June 13.
22. Ambrosini shows that the most blatant discriminatory ordinances concerned cultural, social and security exclusion. For a complete analysis of these ordinances, see Ambrosini (Citation2013a).
23. Interviews with Benedetto, Carlo and Marta.
24. Interview with Mohamed.
25. G. Spatola. 2010. “Sgomberati gli immigrati in sciopero.” Corriere della Sera. September 30.
26. A. della Moretta. 2010. “Il sindaco Adriano Paroli: ‘un ricatto inaccettabile.’” Giornale di Brescia. November 8.
27. Interview with Ibrahim.
28. Interview with Ramzi.
29. Interview with Vinicio.
30. Interview with Khalid.
31. Interviews with Benedetto, Carlo, Carmine.
32. R. Manieri. 2010. “L’ultimatum di Paroli: ‘Decidere subito o la parola al questore.’” Giornale di Brescia. November 2.
33. R. Manieri. 2010. “L’ultimatum di Paroli: ‘Decidere subito o la parola al questore.’” Giornale di Brescia. November 2.
34. M. Tedeschi. 2010. “Bruciati tutti I margini per chi vuole mediare.” Bresciaoggi. November 10.
35. A. Dessì. 2010. “La CISL: ‘Manifestare si, ma nel rispetto delle regole.’” Bresciaoggi. November 3.
36. During the protest, the CGIL also went through internal pressure by some of its members of migrant origin who were supporting the mobilisation. See interviews with Khalid and Carlo.
37. One example of the fracture between the CGIL and documented, but vulnerable, migrant worker is the mobilisation of approximately 400 porters of Indian origin in Reggio Emilia (Northern Italy) in 2011, who at the end of the protest opted for a hunger and thirst strike. This protest lasted more than six months and the CGIL supported the migrant mobilisation. However, as the negotiations with the employers were protracted, the difficulties that these workers experienced with the CGIL emerged in a visible way and ended with a final rupture of relationships with this union. For the reconstruction of the event, see M. Rinaldini. 2011. “La lotta dei lavoratori indiani in una cooperative di Reggio Emilia.” Inchiesta. June 15. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://www.inchiestaonline.it/lavoro-e-sindacato/la-lotta-dei-lavoratori-indiani-in-una-cooperativa-di-reggio-emilia/.