Italy - Report on the Castor train blockade in Valsusa

informa-azione

08/02/2011 - we have received and impart:

Report on the Castor train block in Valsusa
For a week there was a rumour that a Castor train would be passing through Piedmont, between 6 and 8 February, in the direction of France. On Sunday came more precise information that the train would be passing in the night.
We tried to spread the news as quickly and widely as possible and called a blockade at midnight at Chiusa Condove (Valsusa)station.
About forty people were present at the blockade, mostly anarchists and some village people. Within a short time the gathering was surrounded by a large number of policemen, about 200.
At half past three, as the train was due to arrive, the DIGOS [political police] tried to move us away from the railway line.
Despite the numerical inferiority, we tried to block the tracks with tyres and the police immediately charged the group on different sides. We felt it was necessary to risk and try to oppose ourselves, well aware of what we were up against, driven by the ethical tension that we were in the right.
Some comrades were injured and three people were detained. In the morning two of the detentions changed into arrests.
For more than two hours, the police subjected the area to a full military control, taking into custody 29 demonstrators who were identified, searched and filed, and closing road access to the area.
At half past four the first train, consisting of electric engines and empty carriages and between them the waste container, passed at high speed. Around five o'clock a second convoy arrived and stopped at the station until six. The second convoy was made up of a diesel engine and passenger wagons carrying firefighters, technicians and riot police agents. At the rear, an open wagon was carrying something that looked like an antenna.
During the stop the technicians came down excitedly from the train and carefully examined the tracks.
At six o'clock the second train turned back. According to information we received, the first also did the same. In fact, in the transition between the first and second train, apparently, there were at least two blocks with burning material on the tracks.
The trains left again in the morning and, according to the website "sortir du nucleaire", arrived at the border with a 4-hour delay. Rail traffic has been affected this morning.
This transport of highly radioactive material, which the population is kept in the dark about, will go on for about a year between the depot of Saluggia (Vercelli) and Brittany.
We express our solidarity with the arrested comrades, Guido and Arturo, who have always been committed to the struggle against harmful substances and against this miserable existent.
We believe that this long night of struggle has served to highlight the constant presence of nuclear power in our lives and in our territories and to show that you can act even if you are few.
We hope that this is an occasion for many to become aware of the seriousness of the situation and of the urgent need to oppose it, confident, therefore, that we will be many more next time.