Where Is Culture in Rome? - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 238

lization and attitudes are concerned (mudu and pessina 2007). some social cen-
ters, such as lab 00128 (Csoa auro e marco 1995), el Chentro, and laurentino
occupato, are located in the city's most dilapidated areas,6 although some social
centers operate in the center and squats in the san lorenzo district have so far
managed to resist the pressures from neoliberal policies now prevailing in the
city. The most recent example of a social center located in a central neighborhood
is the angelo mai that resisted gentrification processes in monti between 2004
and the end of 2006 before negotiating a move to a new space close to the Cara-
calla baths (Cellamare 2008). The situation on the opposite side of the tiber River
has proved somewhat tougher: alice nella città, break out, and interzona ceased
their activities many years ago, and askatasuna was attacked and destroyed by
the police in 1992.
social centers vary considerably in terms of the scale of their activities. for
example, ex Casale falchetti can be considered just a meeting point for the neigh-
borhood, while forte prenestino is part of an international circuit. one of the
network's major features is its ability to mobilize thousands of people quickly—
thanks in part to remarkable information technology skills—to help prepare big
events, such as concerts or illegal raves, or demonstrate against neoliberal politi-
cal moves. from this perspective, they differ greatly from center-left institutional
parties, which often take weeks or months to prepare political initiatives in pub-
lic spaces. since the beginning of the 1990s and before any other movement or
party began to do so, social centers have played a major role in organizing street
parades and other types of happenings.
perspectives and Challenges
links among social centers have usually proved rather volatile despite the fact
that “official” networks were generally formed based on similar political affili-
ations. initially, there were two major subdivisions: groups close to autonomia
and Radio onda Rossa, and pro-anarchist groups. in the second phase, the map-
ping of political affiliation became somewhat more complex, since social centers
liaising with the institutional left and others close to leninist groups, in particu-
lar the proletarian anti-capitalist movement, arose alongside the former two. at
the time of the Genoa countermobilization against the G8 summit, the italian
Csa movement linked to the antiglobalization movement was divided into five
main networks (membretti and mudu 2013). Given these different political back-
grounds, it comes as no surprise that social centers have had difficulty liaising
with institutional left-wing parties and have seldom had any contact with more
conservative or neofascist parties, which tend to dub them criminals. in addi-
tion, in Rome, neofascists organized three pseudo social centers, of which Casa
pound, close to piazza Vittorio, is the most famous.7 most recently, the referen-
dum against water privatization and the debate on the commons has created a