Social Centre Làbas

The following section will give an overview on the history of Làbas as a squatted space, which will help to better understand its current positionality in the city of Bologna.¹ This general information has been gathered and obtained through informal conversations and common knowledge acquired during the fieldwork period.

4.3.1 Làbas’ Occupation and Eviction

As briefly mentioned, the SC Làbas is one of the few liberated spaces that survived the last decade of repression in Bologna. To understand the extent in which Làbas plays a role in the urban organism in Bologna, it is necessary to focus on its history of occupation, repression, and institutionalization. The political collective involved in Làbas first occupied the former Masini military complex in 2012, which is located in the wealthy Santo Stefano neighbourhood in Bologna. Before its occupation, the complex that consists of several large buildings, together with underground rooms, and a central garden, had been left unused and empty for several years. The collective was mostly formed by students, precarious workers, and other activists involved in similar urban projects around the city.

During this initial period, Làbas started to seek to establish a self-production of an alternative economy through projects such as the biopizzeria, the farmers market, and their community garden, and to develop mutual solidarity from below, through projects like housing occupations, workshops for precarious people and children, the establishment of their social dormitory and

1 It is important to highlight the study published by Giannini and Pirone (2019), which is recommended to consult to obtain further and more detailed data and information on the history of the SC Làbas prior 2018.

34 the Italian school for migrants (Giannini & Pirone 2019). The most known project at this time was Accoglienza Degna, the social dormitory born inside a SC for the first time. This project was the hallmark of what Làbas was seeking to establish: a space where people were welcome to gather and stay if in need. Specifically, Accoglienza Degna was a grassroot project that allowed people without shelter (mostly migrants at this time), to sleep and eat inside Làbas, whilst providing help to the political collective in order to revitalize the building complex. Accoglienza Degna not only offered a way for people to find temporary accommodations, but also pushed for a intercultural exchange between those who run the social centre and the people coming for shelter. Activists would organize various ‘theme nights’ where they would celebrate each of the residents’ country and culture by eating their local food and watch films produced in different countries to celebrate diversity and spread more awareness among people. The occupation of the barrack forced the collective to experiment with new and alternative forms of direct action, mostly based on the principle of mutualism, mutual solidarity, cooperation, and reciprocity (Giannini & Pirone 2019), which can be observed in how projects like Accoglienza Degna were organized. According to Pitti (2018), these practices generated through principles of solidarity and mutualism can be described as processes of “re-appropriation of ‘what already exists’”, and an “experimental re-use of existing socio-economic models and socio-political tools” (73). At this time, the political collective at Làbas started to denounce issues around urban spaces and the right to their re-use by grassroots organizations and the local population, for example by setting up a space for the Italian school and for the local farmers to sell their products, whilst trying to offer a space that was free to use and accessible to many, therefore changing the building’s purpose and sense (Giannini & Pirone 2019). Therefore, the SC began to become a hub for civil society to meet, rather than being a traditional squatted space accessible only for the political collective directly involved.

On legal terms, Làbas was seeking to establish legal recognition through an open dialogue with the local institutions and government to keep the building open to use, organizing demonstrative actions and protests to raise awareness among the population. The direct actions were generally focused on the right to the city and for housing rights for the marginalized, such as students, precarious family and workers, and migrants. Despite their active involvement in the city’s politics, in 2013 the Masini building was sold to an investment bank directed by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, resulting in a four-year process of constant negotiations between the activists and the local municipality in order to keep the space and its activities running. However, after the order from the private bank to free the barrack, 2017 saw the violent eviction of the activists from the building by the local police authorities.

35 4.3.2 SC Làbas in Vicolo Bolognetti

After Làbas’ eviction in the summer of 2017, a public debate developed around issues of urban revitalization of abandoned areas, with many asking the local government to find a temporary space for Làbas to re-open their activities. At this time, Làbas was already a very well-known spot in town, both for their activities and the ideals they were pushing forward. This led to a demonstration on September 9^th which saw the participation of more than 15,000 people asking for their right to the city and for Làbas to re-open in a different location. This public pressure on the matter allowed the political collective to obtain a space by the local government in Vicolo Bolognetti, a street located in the city centre of the city. Vicolo Bolognetti is located inside the city’s walls and within walking distance from the University’s neighbourhood, which makes it an easy spot for young people to reach. However, the area surrounding Vicolo Bolognetti before the new opening of Làbas was inactive: there used to be few spots for people to gather and engage in leisure activities. For this reason, the opening of Làbas was strategic as it revitalized the areas, offering the neighbourhood a new communal space to spend time.

After opening in the new space, Làbas tried to continue with the same kind of activities and projects they were bringing forward before. However, due to a lack of space, as the building in Vicolo Bolognetti is considerably smaller than the former Masini barrack, they could re-start most of their activities except for the Accoglienza Degna project. This shows an important limitation to the collective. With the opening of the new space, the activists recognized that now there are certain limits and constrains to their freedom and autonomy, as they are not squatting the building anymore, but it was given to them by the municipality (Giannini & Pirone 2019). This point will be better elaborated in chapter 5, where the analysis of Làbas activity will be presented.

Nevertheless, despite the new constraints and lack of a bigger space, Làbas managed to start new projects and let the old ones grow and expand, becoming even more popular compared to before.

Finally, an important change that happened with the new opening is the revision of Làbas’

definition. In fact, the activists decided to change the label attached to the centre: they do not refer to Làbas as a social centre any longer, but as a ‘Social Municipality’. This represents an important turning point for Làbas as it differentiates what they are doing at the centre compared to other liberated space around the city. Through information obtained during interviews and informal conversation with the militants at the centre, I found that Làbas opted for this definition for two main reasons. First, the activists realized that, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Làbas became a real and important subject in the city’s political and social arena.

During this time, they started sustaining the local population with more projects and activities to try to provide support and help people during the pandemic, often breaking the national rules

36 against the spread of the virus to help marginalized communities.² Secondly, the activists realized that framing themselves as a ‘social centre’ did not match with what they were doing any longer.

Historically, social centres have always been places that were not open to the public to the extent Làbas is. Usually, social centres have a political collective who decides when and for how long they want to open the main gates to the public, and they decide which events they want to share with those who are not involved in the centre. On the other hand, Làbas offers a space that is always open for people coming from the outside. Làbas in Vicolo Bolognetti present itself as a common space, where people are welcome to enter at any time of the day and engage with any activities happening in the centre at any moment. People are also welcomed to enter the space for their own personal activities, such as studying or meeting with other people. This aspect really represents a turning point for Làbas internal praxis, as its ‘hybrid nature’ between a urban political laboratory and a social centre allowed for the formation of an alternative ‘urban regeneration’ (Giannini & Pirone 2019, 963). Nevertheless, for the purpose of this paper Làbas will be referred to as a social centre, as it still presents many of the features discussed in chapter 2 and it can still formally fall into the category of what a social centre entails. I recognize that the change in name represents an important formal decision to better encapsulate the nature of Làbas, however it is important to note that most of the activists in the centre, together with the people coming from the outside, still refers to Làbas as a ‘social centre’ for practical reasons.