"You didn't kill them, your ideas will walk on our legs," read a banner
in the aftermath of the 1992 massacres. It was a time of pain but also
of civil reaction. In those years I was in Pisa, studying Computer
Science and was active in the student movement La Pantera. Meanwhile, in
Milazzo, my "adoptive" city in the province of Messina, an intense
political season was taking place. Participation was not just an
aspiration, but a daily fact. It was in that context that I met Santina
Latella. A profound human and political exchange, from which in 1994 not
only a great friendship was born but also the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia
Association.
At the beginning they gave us a few months to live. Young,
inexperienced, idealistic: life and its hard trials would have made us
change our path... and then "in Milazzo the mafia does not exist" and
"you do not give the name of a mafioso's daughter to an association". We
did not listen to them because thirty-one years later, we are still
here. And today we are a reality that has left its mark on a national level.
The choice of the name was not accidental. Rita Atria, a very young
witness of justice, had written words that struck us deeply: "to make
the kids who live among the mafia aware that outside there is another
world made of simple, but beautiful, pure things". A world where people
count, not surnames or recommendations. A simple, but radical message.
That phrase guided us then, and still guides us today: to offer an
alternative, to ignite a civil conscience, to transform memory into
commitment.
Today the association is present in various Italian regions. It
collaborates with schools, civic committees, institutional bodies. Our
work revolves around promoting social justice, denouncing violations of
rights, building a concrete, non-celebratory anti-mafia culture.
We have chosen to stay away from the spotlight. We are not interested in
sterile visibility, nor in the weight of official liturgies. You will
hardly find us waving flags at ritual demonstrations. We prefer
classrooms, squares, courts. That is where lasting change is built. Over
time we have produced dossiers, supported witnesses, filed complaints,
written legislative proposals.
Among the stages that we remember most strongly is the presentation, in
1997 at the Viminale, of the first dossier on violations of the rights
of witnesses of justice. Then the actions on the Ustica case, alongside
Captain Mario Ciancarella, struck off with a false signature of the
President of the Republic Pertini and Minister Spadolini (they never
reinstated the Captain and never opened a political investigation.
Nobody. All the "colors" of parliament silent for three legislatures).
The battles for the truth about the murder of Graziella Campagna. The
proposed laws for the protection of those who report. And also the
requests to reopen the investigations into the death of Lieutenant
Colonel Sandro Marcucci and Marshal Mario Alberto Dettori, the latter
found hanged on a shore in 1987. Two cases over which the shadow of
Ustica still looms. Requests for truth that, after years, were accepted
and then archived. How? There is no space to write about it.
In 2022, from the journalistic and documentary work of myself, Giovanna
Cucé and Graziella Proto, the investigative book Io sono Rita was born.
From that work came an official request to reopen the investigations
into the death of Rita Atria, presented by the lawyer Goffredo D'Antona
on behalf of the association and Rita's sister, Anna Maria Atria. The
investigative work continued even after the publication of the book, and
will be explored in depth in the new edition currently being prepared.
We have never stopped. We have promoted training activities on gender
violence, LGBTQIA rights, racism, corruption. We have established a
documentation center. Our statute provides for the possibility of
constituting ourselves as a civil party in trials for mafia,
environmental crimes, femicide, racial hatred... and, most importantly:
in our Statute we have written in clear letters that we are ANTIFASCISTS.
In 2021 we contributed to the recovery of the audio of Matteo Messina
Denaro, as part of the documentation work started for the book. Before
and after, many other actions: from the Marcucci and Lorenzini case to
the fight against the militarization of the territories and, since 2011,
against the installation of the MUOS in Niscemi.
There has been no shortage of difficulties. We have experienced forms of
marginalization. The most paradoxical case was perhaps the deletion of
our entry from Wikipedia, three times, with the motivation of
"irrelevance". An episode that we denounced as an indication of a
cultural short-sightedness towards independent, uncomfortable, but real
experiences. Someone, in the most "free" encyclopedia in the world,
doesn't want us.
Today, the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia Association continues its work with the
same determination as always. But with a more conscious look. Also
towards those who, taking advantage of our thirst for justice, have
betrayed the fight against the mafia. We don't want to create icons, nor
be celebrated. We simply want to give meaning to the words Truth and
Justice.
Nadia Furnari
Vice President of the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia Association
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
in the aftermath of the 1992 massacres. It was a time of pain but also
of civil reaction. In those years I was in Pisa, studying Computer
Science and was active in the student movement La Pantera. Meanwhile, in
Milazzo, my "adoptive" city in the province of Messina, an intense
political season was taking place. Participation was not just an
aspiration, but a daily fact. It was in that context that I met Santina
Latella. A profound human and political exchange, from which in 1994 not
only a great friendship was born but also the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia
Association.
At the beginning they gave us a few months to live. Young,
inexperienced, idealistic: life and its hard trials would have made us
change our path... and then "in Milazzo the mafia does not exist" and
"you do not give the name of a mafioso's daughter to an association". We
did not listen to them because thirty-one years later, we are still
here. And today we are a reality that has left its mark on a national level.
The choice of the name was not accidental. Rita Atria, a very young
witness of justice, had written words that struck us deeply: "to make
the kids who live among the mafia aware that outside there is another
world made of simple, but beautiful, pure things". A world where people
count, not surnames or recommendations. A simple, but radical message.
That phrase guided us then, and still guides us today: to offer an
alternative, to ignite a civil conscience, to transform memory into
commitment.
Today the association is present in various Italian regions. It
collaborates with schools, civic committees, institutional bodies. Our
work revolves around promoting social justice, denouncing violations of
rights, building a concrete, non-celebratory anti-mafia culture.
We have chosen to stay away from the spotlight. We are not interested in
sterile visibility, nor in the weight of official liturgies. You will
hardly find us waving flags at ritual demonstrations. We prefer
classrooms, squares, courts. That is where lasting change is built. Over
time we have produced dossiers, supported witnesses, filed complaints,
written legislative proposals.
Among the stages that we remember most strongly is the presentation, in
1997 at the Viminale, of the first dossier on violations of the rights
of witnesses of justice. Then the actions on the Ustica case, alongside
Captain Mario Ciancarella, struck off with a false signature of the
President of the Republic Pertini and Minister Spadolini (they never
reinstated the Captain and never opened a political investigation.
Nobody. All the "colors" of parliament silent for three legislatures).
The battles for the truth about the murder of Graziella Campagna. The
proposed laws for the protection of those who report. And also the
requests to reopen the investigations into the death of Lieutenant
Colonel Sandro Marcucci and Marshal Mario Alberto Dettori, the latter
found hanged on a shore in 1987. Two cases over which the shadow of
Ustica still looms. Requests for truth that, after years, were accepted
and then archived. How? There is no space to write about it.
In 2022, from the journalistic and documentary work of myself, Giovanna
Cucé and Graziella Proto, the investigative book Io sono Rita was born.
From that work came an official request to reopen the investigations
into the death of Rita Atria, presented by the lawyer Goffredo D'Antona
on behalf of the association and Rita's sister, Anna Maria Atria. The
investigative work continued even after the publication of the book, and
will be explored in depth in the new edition currently being prepared.
We have never stopped. We have promoted training activities on gender
violence, LGBTQIA rights, racism, corruption. We have established a
documentation center. Our statute provides for the possibility of
constituting ourselves as a civil party in trials for mafia,
environmental crimes, femicide, racial hatred... and, most importantly:
in our Statute we have written in clear letters that we are ANTIFASCISTS.
In 2021 we contributed to the recovery of the audio of Matteo Messina
Denaro, as part of the documentation work started for the book. Before
and after, many other actions: from the Marcucci and Lorenzini case to
the fight against the militarization of the territories and, since 2011,
against the installation of the MUOS in Niscemi.
There has been no shortage of difficulties. We have experienced forms of
marginalization. The most paradoxical case was perhaps the deletion of
our entry from Wikipedia, three times, with the motivation of
"irrelevance". An episode that we denounced as an indication of a
cultural short-sightedness towards independent, uncomfortable, but real
experiences. Someone, in the most "free" encyclopedia in the world,
doesn't want us.
Today, the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia Association continues its work with the
same determination as always. But with a more conscious look. Also
towards those who, taking advantage of our thirst for justice, have
betrayed the fight against the mafia. We don't want to create icons, nor
be celebrated. We simply want to give meaning to the words Truth and
Justice.
Nadia Furnari
Vice President of the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia Association
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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