Introduzione
Salvatore Lupo
Mafia e nuova politica fascista
Matteo Di Figlia
The Mafia and the new fascist politics
The mafia has always been connected to politics, even if in many
different ways. Also in the 1920’s the mafia tried to establish some links
with the new fascist politicians while, on their side, the public authorities
had to deal with some bosses. The aim of this paper is to show that this
double-sided relationship didn’t follow a straight line. The Cosche didn’t
realize immediately what was going to happen in 1922 and each cosca
tried to ally itself with the Fascist party independently, choosing its own
strategies. On the other hand, fascism attitude towards the mafia kept
changing over time, according to the needs of the regime.
Imbrigliare il conflitto sociale : mafiosi, contadini, latifondisti
Francesco Di Bartolo
The problem of agrarian cooperation
After WW1, in Mussomeli, near Caltanissetta, the soldiers cooperative
controlled by the entrepreneurial «mafioso» power, became the social
mediator for renting land from the owners. This was a sabotage of public
plans according to which that role was to be played by a big public
enterprise. In the following years, the local organized gang of the mafia
succeded to consolidate a social coalition in accordance with the property
in order to manage taxes with the aim to create a monopoly of resources.
In the thirties, the cooperative found itself under the «Mori storm», but
the attempt to disrupt the organized gang of the mafia was not successful.
Once the judicial storm was over, the system of government reluctantly
agreed to return the control of the management of the land to the mafia
with the secret hope that this could help to spread the new rhetorics about
the agrarian propaganda of the regime.
L'avvocato del diavolo
Antonino Blando
Devil’s Advocate
This paper examines the «imperatives of the reasoning» concerning the
mafia under the fascism. We are before a rather reticent rhetoric (ancient
and contemporary) on the nature of the mafia which pretends to explain
in apodictic form what it is not. The lawyers play a fundamental role in the
creation and maintenance of the imperatives of the reasoning on the mafia,
because of the same nature of their profession. They are distant but near
to their assisted and this «specific ambiguity» characterizes the position of
the lawyer within the judicial stage. The lawyer is, for his nature, the man
of a faction, he is not obliged to the truth; on the contrary he is faithful
to the duty of loyalty and honesty to his client and must be indifferent
to the social and political effects of the judgment. Of course both for the
lawyers and their clients, the mafia didn’t exist and if it existed it was
another thing. The paper is about «this other thing», i.e. mafia’s ability to
harness both verbal communication and lawyers work in order to put up
an identity fit to play on the public scene.
Sottoprocesso : le cosche palermitane
Manoela Patti
On trial. The cosche of Palermo
Between 1925 and 1930, fascism dealt a strong blow to the mafia, in
fact Sicilian cosche had to go on about a hundred of trials. By analysing the
trial papers, this work shows how the cosche of the Palermo district were
structured in the Twenties. One important thing that comes out is that the
mafioso control is a sort of legacy passed on through several generations
of the same family or group.
Identità sociali e conflitti politici nell'area dell'interno
Vito Scalia
Social identities and political conflicts in internal areas
This article analyses the trials against organized crime in order to
highlight the net of relationships, both horizontal (territorial mobility,
parental relationships and property acquisitions) and vertical (bonds with
the political sphere and with the institutions of the state and the society),
through which the careers and the fortunes of characters, families and
groups of mafia of modest social origin are built. What comes out is an
image of the Mafia that goes well beyond the horizon of the latifundium
and the town hall. In fact, it appears as an organization with ability of
social control and projection in economic and political circuits of such
wide dimensions as to guarantee the persistence of a phenomenon to which
for too long it has been refused to apply the label of organized crime.
Dal passato al futuro: uno sguardo dagli anni trenta
Vittorio Coco
From the past to the future.
A look from the ’30
This article analyses a report on the palermitan mafia of the ’30 written
by the Regio Ispettorato of public security for Sicily, the body created
in 1933 by the fascist regime to make a second operation against mafia
after the Mori’s one. The Mussolini’s claim to have definitely defeated
the phenomenon during the previous years is contradicted by this report,
that shows the articulated structure and the activities of the cosche on the
outskirts of the town.
Un dibattito marxista : mafia e latifondo
Carlo Verri
A marxist debate: the mafia and latifondo
This article analyzes how the mafia was viewed by the Italian
communists in the twentieth century and focuses on their idea that the
criminal organization was a consequence of feudal remainders in the
sicilian society. The essay focuses on the writings of two very important
politicians of Pci (Grieco, Sereni) and tried to understand how their
tradition has survived up to today.
Appendice
Vittorio Coco, Manoela Patti
Come interpretare l'Altro: il Mezzogiorno nel discorso della Lega Nord
Michel Huysseune
How to interpret the Other.
The Mezzogiorno in the discourse of the Lega Nord
The intellectually sustained Padanian nation-building discourse
produced by the Lega Nord pays relatively little attention to southern
Italy. This discourse generally avoids popular stereotypes on the South,
but it does reflect intellectual discourses that relate the economic success
of regions and nations to their cultural identity. In its interpretation
of Otherness of the South, the Lega argues that the region has been
contaminated by extra-European cultural influences, but equally envisions
the region as a victim of the Risorgimento and the Italian state.
L'opinione pubblica nel processo penale: Giano bifronte, ovvero la verità giudiziaria contesa
Marcella Marmo
(Ri)pensare il Mediterraneo? : alcune note critiche
Rosita Di Peri