What do these events in Rosarno reveal?

As soon as I saw the tragic images from Rosarno, I caught the first available plane and went there. What I found were the same elements I had seen in Castel Volturno, the same dangerous mix of organised crime, illegal labor and serious unease. Personally, I have studied the history of blacks in the United States and what I saw in that town in Calabria looked like what happened in Alabama during the Twenties in the past century. I never expected to see anything similar in Italy in 2010.

Reports also showed immigrants, especially Africans, armed with bars and sticks, crossing the town and causing destruction and chaos. Why all this anger?

I was the first person to make an appeal against violence, trying to make people understand that even if they are totally in the right, violence puts them in the wrong, as well as them being cleverly manoeuvred and exploited. I tried to teach those young people that the history of black people, from the United States to South Africa, teaches us that then best results have been achieved thanks to non-violence.

What do you think of comments such as “excessive tolerance” or “ticking bombs” made by important political personalities?

That day I experienced the answers as a citizen rather than as a politician. I was amazed by the election strategies used to address even such a complex and delicate issue. Bad politics often use aggressive mechanisms in which differences are emphasised. It is true that ever since the Nineties Italy has been experiencing a real social creation of an enemy. The result is that over time a number of reflexes and slogans become sedimented in the collective imagination and in symbolic frameworks of daily life, which contribute not only to social instability but also to the business of fear.

Were events in Rosarno really so totally unexpected?

One must bear in mind that Rosarno was already a municipality under the administration of an external commissioner and hence there were already serious problems there. The law establishes that the commissioner must send a quarterly report to the Ministry of the Interior. I would like to know where this report is and what it said. Is it possible that none of these problems ever came to light?

What role do you believe the ‘Ndrangheta played in these clashes?

Thanks to my experience and my visit to Rosarno, as well as authoritative interlocutors such as the Libera association, I have understood that in those areas nothing of any importance happens without the approval of Mafia bosses. In fact I am still wondering who were the two mysterious people who started the clashes. Perhaps investigations might lead to very interesting developments. Faced with threats and real danger, many immigrants left because they no longer felt safe.

So the ‘Ndrangheta is involved?

One interesting thing I experienced personally, was seeing people with sticks, bars and even axes threatening immigrants, luckily separated by police cordons. Then I saw those same people taking part in an anti-racist event. Another interesting conclusion, reached by two extremely diverging newspapers such as Libero and l’Unità, is that it seems a strange coincidence that such degeneration should coincide with new European benefits, no longer attributed on the basis of the amount of fruit that is picked, but on the number of hectares of land officially cultivated. In other words, it seems that at a certain point the labourers who were so important suddenly became unnecessary. The bomb at the Palace of Justice in Reggio Calabria looks like another strange coincidence.

What has the manner in which immigration is managed to do with this?

Many of the immigrants I met in Rosarno have also worked in Apulia, in Campania and in Brescia. This means there is a real “army” of illegal workers moving all across the country. Another serious problem is the lack of flexible means for managing seasonal work. Obviously the Bossi-Fini law has a great deal to do with this, and although it is meant to be addressed at fighting illegality, it effectively foments it.

And what role does racism play in this?

What happened in Rosarno certainly included a powerful racist element. International TV channels clearly broadcast the message of “hunting the black man” that took place in Italy. What is often forgotten is that these events should not be underestimated. The truth is that we like to hear what suits us. For example that our colonialism was good. Then we discover that we used gas in Ethiopia. Our memories are short and we forget we approved racial laws in 1938. Our society has become increasingly fearful and unkind.

“Immigrants are human beings and therefore they must be respected” said Pope Benedict XVI. What is the meaning of respect in reference to immigrants?

The direction that politics impresses on society is extremely important. In parliament there is a lot of talk about protecting life, both embryonic and dying, but who protects life in between these events? Those who vote for the defence of embryos as living, then create laws that ruin the lives of living people. Politics itself lacks coherence.

And who will pick the olives now?

They will return. The immigrants will return. There is no alternative. If one talks to people here it is clear that those in Rosarno are not prepared to take those jobs, in spite of unemployment being about 18%.

Translated by Francesca Simmons