The day over 1000 Venetians united to say ‘NO’ to cruise Ships in Venice

On the 25th of September 2016, the committee “No Grandi Navi”, literally “No Big Ships” organized a mobilization on the Zattere in Venice, to say once more “NO” to the big ships docking at the Venice harbor.

Over a thousand of Venetians, going from children to grandparents, gathered to celebrate life in Venice in this beautiful “Festa Granda”, or great celebration, which boasts a 20×8 meter floating stage hosting bands playing live music and spokespeople from different fields and geographies sharing their experience of popular resistance.

Besides the foundational “No” to cruise ships, the “No Grandi Navi” committee made sure to say several “Yes”. Yes to a life in Venice. Yes to housing policies for inhabitants. Yes to cruise liners outside the lagoon. Yes to a city of solidarity. Yes to the regulation of water traffic. Yes to regulating the change of use of apartments and buildings for touristic purposes. Yes to Venetian craft. Yes to monitoring of air pollution and wave motion.

Six (!!!) cruise liners were expected to pass through the heart of the city, two of which over 90.000 tons each, which is an impressive size if compared to the size of the city.

We were there and witnessed the great effort and the great organization shown by so many volunteers, and we made sure to take some (many!) pictures of the event, which you can see below.

Of course, the mobilization couldn’t stop the superpower of these big ships and the even greater power of the big corporations, but the departure was delayed for each ship for several hours, creating some significant economic burden and much embarrassment for the cruise companies… all this while Venetians were singing and celebrating with joy and love their city and life itself.

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