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With the pandemic, lower-middle-class families in the northern Italian city are in serious trouble. Small business owners protest, young people riot.
People demonstrate in Turin against the new lockout. Taken on November 15th.
“Work, work, work!” They shout in Piazza Castello in Turin. Small traders, landowners, street vendors, taxi drivers protest saying that due to the new block they have no income or only have a low income due to the new block and they don’t know how to make ends meet. The revolt broke out in late October. A bunch of young people broke the windows of Via Roma and ransacked shops. The poor of the poor neighborhoods in the north of the city had stormed the historic center of the rich, wrote the Turin newspaper “La Stampa”. One of the looters was identified because he was too conspicuously carrying several expensive bags home. The police have made sure, now they are back in the window, waiting for the buyers. Gucci windows are replaced and shiny.
After the revolt: some shop windows in Via Roma have not yet been repaired.
“Anger” is the cause of the revolt, says sociologist Roberto Cardaci. The boys had devastated the city center with luxury shops because they were excluded from this glittering world of consumption. Many in the poorest districts are jobless or jobless, have no place in society and no prospects for the future. Without money, they would not be able to define themselves through branded items to “belong”. During the months of blockade, students lost an important orientation framework. Now the government has imprisoned the boys again by decree: no sports, no music, no cinema. Outside of the often cramped family, there is hardly any company for them.
The north of Turin – the agglomeration has two million inhabitants – starts a few steps from Via Roma. Corso Giulio Cesare leads out of the city, on the other side of the Dora Riparia river. There are many small shops which are often written in Chinese, Arabic and Bengali characters in addition to Italian. Many people with dark skin and colorful clothes are out and about. The tram runs, the streets are busy. On the side stretch industrial deserts, where once there were the “Grandi Motori” and other important factories. Some have been turned into parks and sports fields or shopping malls, people here are few. Some sites and buildings are empty. It is a “banlieue” as in Paris, it is sometimes said, that riots arise here. But the area doesn’t seem neglected.
“We want it to be clean here, we are used to a certain standard,” says Carlotta Salerno, mayor of the 6th district. The Barriere district of Milan has always been a district of immigrants, it welcomed and integrated immigrants. Let’s take it as an example: his parents are immigrants from Puglia, at the beginning you lived in a 35 square meter apartment, at each move you could afford a little more space. Then came the downturn, at first creeping, really noticeable since the crisis of 2008. In the northern part of the city it was not possible to start an economic recovery with conversions.
Empty factories are an outward symbol of a certain inner emptiness, says Salerno. With work, many workers had lost their colleagues and, to some extent, their purpose in life, and many did not get over it well. Now everything has gotten much worse with Covid-19. The older ones would become depressed, the young aggressive.
Turin is made up of “two cities that coexist”, said Monsignor Cesare Nosiglia a few years ago, arousing a certain indignation. The saying is now remembered again. The pandemic has drastically exacerbated poverty problems in Turin – as in Italy in general. At the height of the first wave, in March and April, Caritas provided food to 4,000 people a day, up from 1,000 the previous year. For a while the number dropped below 3000, but with the new block it goes up again. Those who have no other choice to survive end up here. Officially, the homeless are 2,200, in reality, according to the sociologist Cardaci, they are probably double. You see them sleeping under the arcades of the city center, wrapped in cardboard boxes and blankets.
Poverty is no longer limited to the lower class, but increasingly affects the middle class as well, for example when someone in the tourism sector suddenly has no job or income but has to pay for a condominium. According to Wally Falchi of Caritas, some people can no longer pay rent or electricity. The electricity is cut, the apartment is cleared, entire families end up on the street when no one enters. Such cases have increased in recent weeks, because at this time many unemployment benefits (citizenship income) are running out. You can apply for an extension, but it takes time.
A problem in Turin – and not only in southern Italy – is the widespread illegal work. Many people are only part-time employed and have earned a “black” income by working overtime. The fund for part-time work (redundancy fund) pays the compensatory contributions based on the official salary. Those who officially earned 500 euros a month and perhaps unofficially the same amount will now receive 350 euros; it’s not enough for life. housekeepers and carers, who have never had a proper contract and lost their jobs are even worse.
The virus has caused more solidarity, says Falchi. “This is the only good thing. The people in the condominiums get to know each other better, they move together and help each other. Cook another dish for the neighbor. “Or retired parents buy ground coffee for their unemployed children who can no longer afford it. No coffee, which is an indicator of poverty in Italy.
The social welfare of the state is overwhelmed by the emergency, so it feels. Organizations such as Caritas, the Red Cross and civil protection with their volunteers jump into the void. Volunteers in red vests collect excess food at the Porta Palazzo market while vendors clear out the stalls. The vegetables are fresh and arrive at the food counter the same day. In the evening, people line up in front of the back doors of some parish centers. Due to Covid-19, closer contact is not desired here. There is so much to learn: in the past there were mostly seniors in line, now the under 35s are the largest group. Families with children are increasingly affected by poverty. Volunteers bring food to single people who are quarantined due to Covid-19.
Collection and distribution of large-scale works at the Food Bank; this organization is present throughout Italy. Pallets of food scrap from supermarkets arrive in a department store on the southern outskirts of Turin and go to help organizations from all over Piedmont. There are currently several tons of pasta in stock, directly from the factory, of excellent quality, but incorrectly packaged so that it cannot be sold. Typically, six to eight staple foods and hygiene items are distributed, many come from EU aid programs and some are bought at wholesale prices.
Salvatore Collarino.
With Covid-19, the demand at the Food Bank increased from 20 to 40 percent. From here 110 thousand needy people are cared for, the number of “absolutely poor” in Piedmont is 300 thousand according to official statistics. They were “heavy months” during the pandemic, says Salvatore Collarino, an entrepreneur with his video production company and – as a volunteer – director of the Banco Alimentare in Piedmont. He fears that the second Covid 19 wave will have even more drastic consequences than the first. “Many entrepreneurs around me survived the first wave. But now they say they couldn’t do the same thing again. “
The menu of the poor has recently been enriched: butchers, dairies and restaurants have overcrowded shops because there are not enough tourists and many families are saving on food. They donate excess food instead of destroying it. Sometimes there is now raw ham or parmesan in food packaging. The wild boar is also present in autumn. Wild boars are a nuisance in Piedmont. The Food Bank has an agreement with breeders, hunters and butchers, so stocks are reduced and most of the meat goes to the needy.
Forty volunteers work in the central warehouse of the Banco Alimentare in Turin, but almost all of them have disappeared in the home office. Most of them are retired, including artisans, traders or computer specialists who want to do something useful. You commit to working for Banco Alimentare at least three days a week – this creates a well-coordinated team. Also, there are fifteen employees in the field, there is hard work to be done that retirees cannot be expected to do. The annual turnover of goods reaches 7,000 tons of food with a market value of 20 million euros, but officially the turnover is 700,000 euros. “Thanks to the volunteers, we turn every euro into a book for a real 20 euro”, says Collarino.
Fiat leaves the void
awy. For decades Turin has been for many a city of industrial and social progress, thanks to Fiat and other large industrial companies. But after the boom years, Fiat greeted the city. The huge Mirafiori Sud plant has been converted and some Maseratis are still under construction here. The Lingotto factory is now a shopping center, you no longer need the racetrack on the roof, you can go there for a walk. The National Auto Museum remains a reminder of the glory days.
“From 1995 onwards, Fiat stopped investing in innovation,” says Filippo Astone, editor of the magazine “Industria italiana”. The Agnelli family, as the main shareholder, no longer considered car manufacturing as their core business. With the founding of FCA, the merger of Fiat and Chrysler, most of the auto industry was relocated to America. According to Astone, Fiat’s creeping retreat was the hardest blow to Turin as an industrial location compared to the 2008 economic crisis. The 2006 Winter Olympics gave some impetus to urban development and tourism, but now that has collapsed with Covid. -19. The creation of new industries – there was an attempt in the telecommunications sector – was unsuccessful. However, there are now several initiatives in the areas of auto parts, mechatronics, aerospace and artificial intelligence.
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