As part of the activities implemented by the Istituto Comprensivo Corrado Melone, teachers
engaged in the Erasmus+ project "Road to a Green Future" on 1 September 2023 interviewed an activist from Ultima Generazione, a movement committed to the fight against climate change that, through actions of non-violent civil disobedience, calls on the government to initiate an effective policy to tackle the ecoclimatic disaster to which we are inexorably heading.
Azaria Gardumi is a 27-year-old young man from Trentino, a student of Anthropology and Biology, activist for about a year in Ultima Generazione, involved in the campaigns "We don't pay the fossil fuels' and 'Repair Fund Now', who occasionally works as a farmer. After
being a member of 'Extinction Rebellion', a movement born in England in 2018- 2019 to react against the climate crisis, he decided to join 'Ultima Generazione', in which the values of civil disobedience are pursued and implemented more clearly and resolutely.
-What is Ultima Generazione? How is it organised and by whom is it financed?
Ultima Generazione is part of a network of 13 countries called the A22 network- born in April 2022- including Austria, France, Germany, England, Scandinavian countries, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States with the intention of implementing coordinated civil disobedience actions to demand that governments act now against the climate crisis or we will have dramatic social repercussions. The movement is financed by the 'Climate Emergency Fund', a Californian trust founded by Adam McKay, director of the film 'Don't Look Up', which supports projects on the basis of feasibility. We are not actually dependent on the Cef, but we started with this funding with the intention of becoming autonomous and self-financing ourselves. In Italy, Ultima Generazione is a very transparent organisation, with a website, a well-defined programme, present in 14 Italian cities and structured in local groups that promote meetings and activities.
-Has being an activist changed your life in any way?
I do not feel like an activist, but a normal person living in an emergency situation who has decided to dedicate his time and resources to the service of the community. My life, as a whole, has changed in a positive way because I have regained my freedom to protest for the good of the community.
-Do you think defacing artwork and blocking traffic can really help to spread awareness about climate change among ordinary people? Don't they risk, instead, unleashing a boomerang effect of intolerance and anger towards you and thus also intolerance towards environmental issues?
Our aim is to create discomfort in order to promote active solidarity and force people to see reality, to think, to discuss and thus to take a position and to come out of the indifference in which a large section of public opinion finds itself as it simply delegates the solution of our country's problems to politics. We also try to show the political and cultural situation in our country through the harsh response of the police to our non-violent protests and to shift the focus of public opinion, pushing people to come out of neutrality and take an active role in politics.
-How do you handle the legal repercussions of your actions, the complaints and fines you receive? Are you not afraid of destroying your personal future and becoming social outcasts as a result of the choices you make now?
Like the partisans who fought in the mountains and did what they thought was right without worrying about the future - without wanting to compare myself to them in the slightest - I face this situation with serenity, with the knowledge that I am on the right side of those fighting to build a better future. I feel more aware and satisfied with myself. Of course, I am partly worried about the future. I have been sued many times. I live in Rome, but I have a one-year expulsion order. I have accumulated thousands of euros in fines and I have decided not to pay them because I don't have the money and if I had, I wouldn't do it anyway. On the other hand, civil disobedience goes in the opposite direction, in fact I feel I am right and I believe I am a good citizen.
-Do you think that change can be triggered by the virtuous actions of individual citizens (reducing meat consumption, choosing zero-mileage products, adopting a non-consumerist lifestyle, moving around on foot, by bicycle or public transport, reducing heating and air conditioning, not using plastic, etc.)?
Individual choices certainly are important, and we cannot deny this, but the problem concerns more systemic choices. What value do these individual choices have compared to the billions of people in the world who do not have access to water on a daily basis? Unfortunately, with the economic models in place, we will not be saved from the predicted 1.5 degree increase in temperatures. The world is burning and drowning, which is why we are asking the government for a EUR 20 billion preventive repair fund for climate catastrophes. Europe, despite being an old continent, continues to be a beacon in relation to countries like China, India, Africa and the other developing countries, and should therefore be a point of reference with regard to the policies implemented.
-What exactly are you asking the government for?
We used to demand to stop fossil funding with taxpayers' money, while now our only request is for a Reparation Fund to repair the damage caused by the choices or non-choices of politics and to introduce a re-appropriation of politics by citizens. We express our will to have something that is missing today, something we need and to have the freedom to decide.
-On 8 August you met the Minister (Pichetto Fratin), do you think this is a sign that the government and politics are finally listening to you?
Unfortunately, we don't think this meeting brought anything constructive, despite the apparent emotional closeness that the Minister showed with regard to the effects of the climate crisis on young people. Perhaps, this time, it was useful to shift the focus away from the issue of the withdrawal of the so-called “Reddito di cittadinanza” (basic income) and turn the focus of the debate to climate and climate denialism. The meeting took place in the usual patronising terms: the Minister invited us to stop defacing works of art, but in fact we see no positive signs. On the contrary, the government has approved an 'eco-vandals' decree that envisages heavy penalties and fines for those who deface historical buildings and monuments. Government choices, increasingly oriented towards repression, go in the direction we expected. We are showing the situation of a country where political chaos prevails.
-Do you think that schools can be a valuable tool to raise awareness of environmental issues among the younger generations? In what way? Do you wish you could meet students at school to talk about your struggle and the issue of climate change?
I personally consider myself lucky to have attended public school and I believe it has defined me for the individual I am. I believe that school has a fundamental role and that teachers have a huge responsibility to the new generations, beyond the values of the environment. What is important is to understand the importance of the times we live in and the role we have to play in these times. We would love to meet the students and talk to them to spread our message, but our message is difficult to digest, it is not conciliatory and alienates many people. We are aware of this.
-What are the differences between the Last Generation movement and Fridays for Future?
Unlike the Fridays for Future activists, we decided to get emotionally involved. We chose to do something obnoxious, something uncomfortable, that we don't like, that nobody else wants to do, but that arouses an indignation, an unease that gets a lot of media attention and can really fuel a debate.
The facts show that in terms of numbers, the latest Fridays for Future demonstrations have had a big drop, as with other climate movements, while our protest strategy has attracted a lot of media attention over the past year and that goes in the direction of change.
-Aren't you afraid that the protest actions carried out by Ultima Generazione activists may set a bad example and send the wrong message to younger people, who focus more on the extreme gesture rather than its meaning?
When we do our actions, we have technical advice to support us because it is not our intention to damage monuments, fountains or paintings. For example, in the Trevi fountain we used vegetable charcoal, which is used in sanitary engineering to wash certain materials. Unfortunately, if only the gesture remains, this is a symptom of a problem of cultural and information poverty. In Rome, every day a person takes a bath in the Trevi fountain, but that does not receive the same media indignation as we do. We protest, we do not inform. Certainly, through our actions of civil disobedience we highlight the political and cultural situation of the country.
-Will you take part in the States General of Climate Action to be held in early September?
Probably not, precisely because we are not a climate movement and we are moving away from the vision of climate-only movements. Of course, we share the same sensibility, but we are going in a different direction. Our vision is broader: the climate crisis is a symptom of a disease of our organism as a whole. We want to design a more ethical revolution; we want to introduce a new language based on non-violence. We are imagining a new way of being in the world based on empathy.
-What relations do you have with other European groups that carry out the same protest actions as you do?
There are coordinations even though each group is autonomous. We have formal and informal contacts to exchange useful information and best practices on how to act. There have recently been very heavy repressive actions in Germany (searches, seizures, closure of accounts, blacking out of Internet pages) and it is not excluded that this could also happen to us; therefore, confronting these situations can help us. There are also coordinated actions such as the blocking of the Mont Bnc tunnel in December last year on both the French and Italian sides, or the blocking of several airports, in particular the private jet terminals on Valentine's Day, which was done in agreement with other groups.
-Do you perceive an intergenerational struggle on these issues? Do you feel that adults are less committed than young people?
The movement is intergenerational and also sees the participation of adult people. We certainly find it more difficult to establish an emotional connection with older people.
-Do you think there is a difference in the way Italian citizens respond to your actions compared to what happens in other European countries?
It often happens that during roadblocks citizens express anger and frustration towards us. We know that we are doing something that creates discomfort and may generate dissent but, as I said, it is part of our strategy. Perhaps, if we look at what happened in the recent protests in France, we can see a less empathetic response from Italians that probably has a profound historical and cultural reason. In Italy, we have delegated everything to the state and, even when government responses are insufficient and inadequate to solve problems, we seem to have lost the ability to take back our role and actively participate in politics. This is where Ultima Generazione comes in.
I docenti Massimo Malerba, Giusy Picone, Sabrina Lascala, Rossella Licata.
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