The turmoil in Rome started in 2011 after the city’s budget cutbacks hollowed out public services and institutions, which left many people without affordable housing. Shady speculators swarmed into the picture to snap up buildings the government was selling at rock bottom prices in order to raise money, as Donatella Della Ratta of Al Jazeera reported.
What’s a victimized public to do? Defy the law and occupy what is theirs. In Rome, former employees of the Teatro Valle, a grand public theater and former opera house, physically took over the premises in June 2011—an act of civil disobedience that became known as Teatro Valle Occupato.
The Teatro Valle Occupato declared, “We are interested in commons, mutualism, co-working and we would like to base all the actions on the quality of relationships. We believe in a world built on bottom up quality processes and we are very interested international collaborations.”
Read the full article at On the Commons
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