by globalproject.info
On Saturday 25 May in Venice, the ‘people of the lagoon’ of the ‘No Large Ships’ Committee returned to mobilization with a garrison and a water parade to Fusina.
The Draghi Decree of last July 2021 banned the passage of cruises from the Giudecca Canal, identifying as a temporary solution the moorings spread along the industrial coast of Porto Marghera. Over the past year, citizen mobilisation has brought to public attention the devastating consequences that the cruise expansion of Marghera’s commercial port could have: the increase in cruise traffic can only take place through colossal and irreversible excavations, projects that would lead to the definitive death of the lagoon ecosystem. There is talk of the excavation of 7 million cubic meters of highly contaminated sludge in the industrial area and the reactivation of the Marittima Terminal in the city centre for a traffic of over 1 million cruise tourists, a cost of over 500 million euro to invest in a form of tourism that is harmful, polluting, and of little benefit to the local population.
The day began with a protest at the Zattere, a place historically symbolic of the No Grandi Navi struggle to defend the city of stone from mass tourism and environmental destruction.
The protesters then moved by boat and started a lively water procession, which aimed to reach the second presidium on land at Punta Fusina and contest the passage of the Costa Deliziosa ship along the Canale dei Petrolo.
The water procession was led by a giant aquatic creature called ‘Bisigola’, created with the materials and masks of the ‘people of the lagoon’. The protesters wore these masks throughout the water parade, symbolising the inter-species alliance between human and non-human animals that together defend the lagoon from the threat of new excavations and environmental devastation.
All art materials were created in collaboration between PowerNotte (a Venetian artists’ collective) and Taring Padi (an art collective from Jakarta, Indonesia) during the Gathering Into the Maelstrom initiative, promoted by S.a.L.E. Docks and the Institute for Radical Imagination in the Museum of the Commons framework, which took place from 14 to 19 April during the opening of the Venice Art Biennale.
At the end of the procession, police forces tried to stop the boats at the intersection with the commercial canal but were met with opposition from protesters armed with masks and water pistols.
Saturday was a first fundamental step in the re-appropriation of the lagoon by its people, who continue to live and resist in a city and a territory continually threatened by the speculation of overtourism and environmental devastation.
