In December 2009, a working class neighbourhood united to kick out fascists occupying an abandoned convent in downtown Naples, Italy. Fifteen years after they reclaimed this space, the community co-organises it democratically as one of Naples’ urban commons. This was the first major European city to rise up against Nazi occupation in 1943.
Today, Italy is controlled by the fascist sympathiser Giorgia Meloni. Yet Naples' network of urban commons continues its legacy as an anti-fascist city. These are spaces for both actively resisting and creating alternatives to the far-right surge far beyond the city's shores.
Giardino Liberato (Liberated Garden)
The building where locals ejected the fascists was then named Giardino Liberato. “We got together with people from the neighbourhood, the elderly, comrades from the Neapolitan left to have this space declared an urban commons (“bene comune,” for common good) and used for social activities aimed at creating community, aggregation and living differently,” explained Silvana Giannotta, an urban commons activist involved in Giardino Liberato.
According to Naples city laws, the government has granted squatted social centres permanent legal status as urban commons after pressure from social movements. These spaces are run by weekly assemblies, open to all people upholding active anti-fascist, anti-racist and anti-sexist principles.
Giardino Liberato is a huge four-story building and large garden. It has a well equipped library and many rooms for social, political or cultural activities. It hosts weekly activities from martial arts to meditation, with other activities tailoring both the old and young, from cinema to music to educational clubs to mutual aid and anti-fascism. I interviewed Silvinia for a documentary called Cities Against Authoritarianism that I directed.
The documentary was made during a weekend by municipalist activists from across Europe touring and meeting in Naples Urban Commons, both coordinated by the European Municipalist Network.
Over the world, the far-right has made gains against the abject failure of the capitalist system to meet the material needs of the majority, facing reduced living standards and cuts to public services. Alongside this, people feel unrepresented by the failing liberal democratic system. All of these are acute problems in Italy. Silvana thinks the Meloni government has also succeeded, especially as a far-right government disguised with an heir of respectability.
Against a world of crisis, where the far-right makes political capital from fear and division, she suggests: “People demand authority and think [a politics based on] consensus is scary. We counter by proposing something different, by managing in a non-vertical shared way.”
The urban commons resolve the immediate material needs of the community surrounding it. Every activity is free and open to all, whether this is doing activities that would be otherwise unaffordable or eating food or drinks offered at affordable prices. In this sense they offer something to stop people being lured towards the far-right.
For Silvina the urban commons are about recreating public space and making politics for everyone, something that used to happen more so in less individualised times.
“The town square is fundamental. After meeting there we came here [to Giardino Liberato] and transformed it into a square. In small towns, neighbourhoods, the square [and bar] has always been the reference point... Square are places where there are things and people come and stay. They sit and then they start to do something, they chat, they eat, then they create festival. Being [together] in the spaces, living together as part of the day, is fundamental. This is politics beyond institutions when you take back spaces.”
Spaces for resistance and alternatives
Naples urban commons have hosted two long weekend municipalist meetings that I have participated in. On the last trip, in late 2023, I extended my stay for an extra week to delve deeper into these inspiring spaces. This research included attending the weekly assembly at Giardino Liberato. Here around 20 participants talked about a range of issues, sat in a circle, working through consensus to make decisions.
Topics were wide ranging, from up-and-coming events and local issues to house-keeping issues. Another two topics were a city-wide social movement campaign against the gentrification of Naples and a campaign called Mare Libero, (liberate the sea). The network of Naples urban commons provides space to nourish and nurture these and other social movements.
Across Italy the sea is highly polluted and access comes at a cost, as much is effectively private. In Naples, like many cities, local inhabitants are being driven out by gentrification. The city differs as many of its downtown neighbourhoods are predominantly working class when compared to many European cities.
The way the urban commons create a space to solve material problems and enable social movements to create city-wide networks are antidotes to people being attracted towards the far-right. Many people are lured towards far-right populism when they do not see politics working in their interests. The urban commons are a space to make politics relevant for everyone's lives.
The urban commons dotted around Naples are a space for people to make real changes in their lives. In some of these spaces people are tackling the ecological and social destruction caused by industrial collapse. Other spaces are reimagining former prisons as spaces of liberation.
The range of activities, events, workshops, co-creation and other happenings is broad from sports clubs to worker owned businesses, from music production to human rights legal services for migrants. It is hard to imagine what Naples would be like without its urban commons, clearly across the city they make people matter in politics and make politics matter for people.
Many local neighbourhoods organise festivals and street events from within the space the urban commons provide. This is one way the urban commons impact extends beyond their walls. For Giardino Liberato this includes an anti-fascist festival around Friariello. The Friariello is a locally grown vegetable that grows in bundles. The Italian word for “bundle” is “fascio”, which is the root of the word fascism. The tagline for the festival held in May is 'the only good bundle are vegetables'. In May 2024 Giardino Liberato hosted this 12th annual celebration, with a program including political mobilisation around anti-gentrification struggles, sports and workshops, sharing food and drink followed by live music.
Silvana explained, in the final part of the documentary, what it meant to eject the fascists from her neighbourhood. “When CasaPound occupied I was afraid to go home, afraid for my daughter because we are known. One from CasaPound was from the neighbourhood. Because the fascists are traitors, they strike from behind and indirectly, not directly. When we managed to send them away we breathed… The idea [that] we managed to do something like that together, to chase these behemoths away. It was really nice. Then without using force, we were good for that. [There was] small confrontation but not violence, because there were so many of us.”
