by Francesco Ferri
The time for caution is over. The attack – structured, violent, widespread – against the forms of solidarity experienced in Riace marks a point of no return. The sentence of Mimmo Lucano to 13 years and two months of detention is a total fact. The Court of Locri decision portrays precisely the contemporary political and juridical landscape and the power relations that organize society. And it’s a horrible picture.
Two sensations, among others, seem to dominate the field of solidarity in these hours. The first is fear. The audacity of the counterparty is such as to frighten, it is useless to deny it. Is it possible not to be paralyzed? First, it is useful not to refuse but to welcome fear. Make it your own, inhabit it. Break it down, understand it, socialize it, politicize it. We are afraid because the systemic violence, the organizational power and the tactical cockiness of the enemies of solidarity are very far-reaching. It is from this awareness that we must start again. We need ambitious, radical, structural collective responses, equal to the generalized attack against solidarity, of which the Lucano case is an accurate litmus test. Continue
