Living in a neighborhood without a State

In 1981, a few months after the arrivel in the new buildings, the inhabitants of the Laurentino 38 realize that the council and the public administration don't care about them and start the self managemant or other expirience of "living without the State".

If on one side the district without any public or private intervention, services and autorithy have many problems, on the other side it has been an opportunity for social-experiments like self managed activity and cooperation. Even for the many empty spaces avalaible in the neighborhood.

The different social and class composition in the zones of the district we can find different experiences, many of these fortified in the years and now a strong reality in the Laurentino 38.

It is a history made of many associations, committees, informal groups and common people that together realize gardens, public spaces in the buildings, sport facilities and cultural activism.
But this was only possible for some areas of the Laurentino 38, or in other cases only for a while. In other cases there was a criminal attitude from elements of some families that rules the neighborhood, and rules in mafia way.
Even nowadays we have to face with an hooliganism without a cause and but lighter than in the past with junkies and even some other bad attitude typical of lumpenproletariat.

In the area called "cooperative" the buildings are property of the inhabitants who are organized in cooperative wich made possible the construction of houses at very low price. All these people are working-class from railway worker to postal service workers or similar employee and united thru because their militant activities in the left (communists and socialists unions and parties). So for the people of this area of the district is easier to organize themselves and start the first aid for the living here.
One of the first structure was a cooperative for the selling of food and other primary needs cause there was no shop in a range of 3 km. This experience of little cooperation in a little shop becomes after some years a big supermarket owned by COOP (a consumer organizatione of the left), actually is still the only supermarket in the district.

Another interesting experience, and more relevant for us, was the aggregation of young of the same area of the Laurentino 38 who in the 1987 start the squat of Casale Massima (an old farm house that survived the siege by 15 floor buildings) to run a CSOA (Centro Sociale Occupato e Autogestito - Social Center Squatted and Self-Managed). This experience lasted less then 2 years of life but was really important for the creation of a group of activists of the anarchist and autonomous scene from the area of the "cooperative" and from the area of the housing project "i ponti" in what will be the more structured squatting of another space, in one large empty building in the housing projekt area, to run a new CSOA in 1991, and still alive, called Laurentinokkupato/L38 Squat.

In other areas, mainly on the empty spaces of the bridges buildings, but even in the empty flat on the surrounding buildings, everything empty starts to get squatted. Organized occupations by committee or organization of the revolutionary left or even smaller do it yourself initiative for the accomodation of sons and similar issue.
This wave of occupation of buildings and houses happens without obstacles and in the abscence of any reaction by the council or the police. So the people in the housing project see these events as an ulterior sign of the abandon of the neighborhood and many people stop paying the rent (very cheap) to the council and for this reason the Agency for the House (IACP) nearly go bankrupt and stop paying for maintenance, gardner, elevators and even heating.

After few years in this situation,the beginning of the occupation and squatting and the self-management of the bridges building, originally projected for the community but until that time still empty.

In every complex of bridges buildings there is a circular building, called "rotonda", inside there there is a big hall and a stage for music or theater etc.. The fifth bridge rotonda was occupied and used as a Squatted Theater and after some years as Motorcycle Club for chopper and leather party.

In the same "rotonda" building at the 3rd bridge there was the catholic church where was celebrated all the religiuos ceremonies in the first years. On the other side of the bridge, in another empty building the work of the Associazione Il Nettare started. They worked, like other groups, on youth and against the abandon of primary school in the Laurentino 38, which is a big problem even now. And there was even gyms and other activities that started in the empty buildings.

The sixth bridge "rotonda" building was used by the Organizzazione Proletaria Romana (a left wing group) to start a big commiitee of the inhabitants (Associazione Inquilini Assegnatari ASIA) who run periodically meetings for the inhabitants about the struggles against the deterioration of the neighborhood. In the same building there was even party of the neighbours and even a famous live performance of the electro punk and Gronge. And other similar experiences happened in other parts of Laurentino 38.

But it hasn't always been so positive. In different places and different times it was very difficult to do something out of the control of the criminal mob intrested only in selling drugs and making money quick and easy. If there wasn't a strong enough group of people to contrast them, the criminals rule the streets.

The situation now is less dramathic than in the 80ties and in the 90ties. After 25 years, Laurentino 38 is not far to be a normal roman suburb neighborhood in the south Rome.

· The end of the insulation thanks to new streets that come and go from Laurentino have broken the ghetto mentality
· The new generation of young people born in the Laurentino 38 and and not brought here from other places are less riotous than the generation before.
· The big work of many realities for an exchange of experiences between the neighborhood and the city.
· The death and the jail sentences of some of the major criminals of the suburb.
· The death many many heroin addicts. Many of the from the first borderline generation who arrive here in the 80ties.
· The urbanization of many people that in the 1980 was at he first experience of living in a flat.

Today in this area we have to face new issues. The council finally have approved a deal for the improvement of the living standards in the suburbs (PRU Piano di Recupero Urbano) even in Laurentino 38 the state is doing something.
But one of the first things that the state wants to do is privatization, legalization and eviction.
We, L38 Squat/Laurentinokkupato, support the right of the people who live in insane squatted house to have a new, regular, one. We oppose that the experiences, like ours but not only, born may years ago when here was a social desert of desperation, have to surrender and close because now the council want to re-own the occupied buildings. Our experience is still rich of activities and new ideas and don't want shut down cause we want to fight to change the world.