Free The Unseen by Nanni Balestrini

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