Mafia, racism and the crisis of democracy in Italy

Rome, January 15th, 2010.

Power in its most ambiguous and dangerous forms has replaced the power of democracy in Italy. Politics, information, culture and education are being widely controlled and freedom of expression now exists in name only. In spite of the commitment of some courageous magistrates and of activism, the various mafias are stronger and more widespread than ever, not only in the South, but throughout the whole of Italy. During the present economic crisis organized crime has bought up hundred of businesses in difficulty and taken advantage of the tax amnesty known as the “Fiscal Shield”, which was irresponsibly passed by the Government, and brought billions of Euros - the profits from criminal activities - back into the country. The laws passed in favour of the mafias (such as the suppression of the law that allowed telephone interceptions) have allowed the clans to grow to a point of reaching a record turnover of about 200 billion Euros in 2009. Instead of striking out at Cosa Nostra, the 'Ndrangheta and the Camorra, the recent security laws, (the ill-famed “security package”) was written and approved in the form of a racial law that criminalizes and persecutes the Roma people, refugees and more vulnerable foreigners by excluding them from the workforce - often allowing them to fall into the hands of the clans themselves. Italy has also had (and still has) its heroes, like the magistrates Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and their heirs. Before being assassinated in Palermo by the Mafia and other hidden powers in 1992, Paolo Borsellino informed those in politics of the only way to fight Mafia collusion: “When there is the slightest suspicion of a public figure having contacts with organized crime, we have to make a clean sweep.” Italy, however, failed to heed the words of the anti-Mafia magistrate. Until trials are held and concluded, no one can claim that Senator Dell'Utri, Prime Minister Berlusconi, the President of the Senate Schifani, the Minister of Justice Alfano, Senator Vizzini (member of the Antimafia Commission!) and the dozens of MPs whose names appear in the trial records of cases brought against organized crime (based mainly on testimony from Mafia “pentiti” and “collaborators with justice”) have committed any crime. However, when these “opinions” that concern, for example, Berlusconi and Dell'Utri, come from magistrates of exemplary integrity like Paolo Boresellino himself, (see interview on 21/5/1992:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeGtZbtMamU) and therefore from witnesses and collaborators with justice like Giovanni Brusca, Gaspare Spatuzza, and Massimo Ciancimino, we cannot but think back to the courageous suggestions made by Borsellino. But no: thanks to the close links between power and information, a delegitimization campaign is underway in Italy of the magistrates that fight corruption; the politicians who for years have shown a serious and important commitment in combating the Mafia, like the former magistrates Antonio Di Pietro and Luigi De Magistris; and the collaborators with justice (who represent one of the main and most effective instruments in the battle against organized crime). At the same time, politics is closing ranks around people suspected of incorrect behaviour, and is about to rehabilitate political figures of the past; people linked to murky events in recent Italian history, such as Bettino Craxi who was found guilty of corruption in 1996 and 1999. Faced with this situation, with Italy dominated by such strong and unscrupulous powers that we are unable to see a ray of hope that things will change in the near future, even the commitment of activists and supporters of democracy and human rights culture becomes more difficult and perilous by the day.

Photos: Paolo Borsellino, the anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo; The murder of Paolo Borsellino

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