The Unseen. Nanni Balestrini
and not so young too the street outside is transformed into a car park with all the cars jammed into it there’s a sea of heads everyone sitting on the benches and on the ground tapping their feet and all this echoing out as the bright-coloured lights turn faster and faster I look about to see where China is and I see her against the wall with Gelso whose head’s shaking with laughter his hair hanging right over his face when he lifts it he sees me and waves for me to go over there too
the party was at its height there was such euphoria such great excitement people coming in and out in and out indescribable confusion they all really liked the place we should stay there they said we should stay there whatever it took we’d do terrific things in the Cantinone the music was blaring out loud as can be in the thick of the crowd I meet Scilla carrying a 15-inch spanner saying there are too many phoneys here I spot one he gets his stuffing knocked out Scilla was the only glum face in the entire place they were all looking at the stage where somebody was singing I love to play pound out my music all day but I don’t earn my wages that way for I play like a mule I’m a wild boy I wanna win I’m kinda rough but believe me I’m cool and I went to be with China right under the stage and I stayed right there holding her close while the music blared out loud as can be
suddenly the music stops Scilla has gone up on to the stage and over the microphone he says the cultural assessore* is here outside with a message from the mayor and the council people roared with laughter saying bring him in here to us and we’ll eat him up the cultural assessore is young small and nervous with a little moustache and a white raincoat and he’d been a 68’er he waits patiently until the voices quieten down to let him speak and then he says I must tell you that the situation is urgent we’ve just had a telephone call from the chief constable telling us that you’ll be cleared out of here within twenty-four hours by order in the name of the council and the mayor I’m appealing once again to reasonableness and good sense evacuate the Cantinone and we promise you room in the new multi-purpose centre as soon as the work on it is finished
uproar and shouting come from every part of the hall then Nocciola begins speaking you’re conning us first you go and say that we’re provocateurs and fascists then that you want to find somewhere just for us the truth is that you’re shit-scared about your council majority because if it was up to you you’d be the first to call the police but we know very well that this story of the multi-purpose centre is a fairytale you only have to look at how little you’ve cared about our problems in the past no no the assessore bravely interrupts him I want to point out that this is a slander the problems of young people are problems of great concern to us in the next budget we’ve allowed for considerable expenditure on youth and culture but there are timetables that have to be respected however I assure you that a satisfactory solution will be found for your problems too
you should have talked to us about it first he says in a conciliatory tone you should have trusted us and together we’d have found a satisfactory solution I think the needs underlying what you’ve done here are valid what isn’t valid however is the way you imagine you’re going to satisfy them together we must find another way but meanwhile the Cantinone needs to be cleared before any irreparable damage is done people have had enough out out everyone’s shouting I’m waiting for an answer I’ll only leave here when I’ve got your answer whether it’s negative or affirmative he manages to add then from the stage Valeriana gets some silence and she says the decision is up to the floor and we must all discuss it but not while he’s here and if he wants he can wait outside and we’ll give him our decision later
Scilla escorts him outside and before leaving the stage he raises his arm holding up the spanner thunderous applause breaks out everyone’s shouting we in the collective don’t really know what to do we confer briefly then Cotogno takes the microphone comrades we can’t leave here under the threat of police intervention if we clear out of here voluntarily now letting ourselves be blackmailed by the mayor and the parties then we’ve lost we must decide what’s the best thing to do whether to stay here and defend the occupation which means confrontation or not I think that for the time being confrontation isn’t in our interest I think it would split the movement whether we win or lose in military terms because whatever happens we’ll lose politically and even if we win in military terms we’ll be up against an unmanageable situation
we must decide what’s in our best interest for the growth and strengthening of this movement and so the most pressing problem for us is not to preserve the Cantinone at any price the problem is that we must preserve this strength that we’ve built and that’s why we must say no to the voluntary evacuation they’re suggesting but we must also say no to confrontation maybe just at the last moment but we must decide for ourselves autonomously when and how to evacuate if we evacuate as the result of our own autonomous decision we keep our political strength intact and tomorrow we’ll be able to carry on the renewed struggles of this movement for the conquest of a social space we’ll be able to carry on with other occupations and other struggles if instead we go for confrontation here today we risk everything I believe we lose everything
there were a lot of disgruntled faces even if the majority were in agreement with Cotogno but in that general euphoria it was like throwing cold water on a fire our position is agreed in the discussion and so we send word to the mayor that the mass meeting has decided to go on with the occupation to the bitter end but then we decide that we can’t just all hang on waiting for the break-in there must be 400 people there for us all to stay there and then all leave together at the last moment is impossible it’s better for just a few to do it because then it’s easier to leave it takes time to persuade everybody nobody wanted to leave nobody wanted to admit the party was all over but at last they went they dismantled and took away everything that didn’t have to be left behind and in the end only those of us in the collective were left about sixty in all
in the big hall candles are lit and the main lights are switched off the atmosphere of earlier evenings returns with sleeping bags being unrolled and people lying down only this time no one wants to talk or sing to tell stories and make plans to roll joints and make love this evening everyone has a stick or a bar besides their sleeping bag I see Valeriana sitting against a pillar smoking her eyes fixed on the angled shadows on the cross vaults I go up to her with China and I see her eyes are glistening what’s wrong Valeriana shit all this work for fuck all I liked this place we’ll never find a place as nice as this maybe if we occupy some broken-down hut right out in the wilds maybe then they could let us have it but a place like this that they don’t even know what to do with no way are those bastards going to let us have it
from time to time someone who’s on guard comes back inside for the changeover it’s bitterly cold outside it’s not too warm inside either any more we put the sleeping bag down and I slip inside just as I am the floor is hard but I’m tired and it feels comfortable enough all the same China takes off her man’s tweed jacket she rolls it up and puts it under my head we’ll be more comfortable like that she says and she slips in too China isn’t sleepy and she sings to herself I’m a wild boy hear what I say ain’t nobody better groovin’ tonight don’t you ever stand in my way or you’ll be in trouble alright eyes closed I say they’re already standing in our way we’ll be lucky now if we don’t get into trouble but China goes on sometimes it’s rough on me if I misbehave like you see but even in jail I could fight and I liked to go out on the town every night
11
After that first retaliatory sally was driven off with that charge of plastic explosive on the ground floor the guards outside the prison didn’t make another move also because there was a moment when a comrade at a high window displayed a lovely bright orange ball something like two kilos of plastic and that bright orange ball up there was enough to bring down the entire prison and so they understood that that first explosion was just a warning that a lot worse could happen if they persisted and then from time to time one of the captured guards was also displayed at the big corridor windows with a knife at his throat as proof that they were alive and to tell those down below not to try anything
the captured guards had been split into small groups and every half hour they were moved into different new cells there were precise shifts a whole system of half-hourly moves had been worked out in advance so that from outside no one could ever tell which cell there were guards in so that there was no chance of trying