A Guide for the Critical Anti-Racket Consumer
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A GUIDE FOR THE CRITICAL ANTI-RACKET LA GUIDA PER IL CONSUMER CONSUMATORE CRITICO PAY ANTIRACKET THOSE PAGO CHI NON PAGAWHO DON'T PAY OPERATORI ANTI-RACKET ECONOMICI ANTIRACKET BUSINESSES 11/2013 Interno_GDEF1611EN.indd 1 22/11/13 16:25 2 Interno_GDEF1611EN.indd 2 22/11/13 16:25 A guide for the critical anti-racket consumer The needs of freedom and security are immanent in society. There are places in my country, Italy, where every day you fight battles to reassert them. Many are the ways and the tools to do it. The guide for the critical anti-racket consumer makes an important contribution in this regard. It is much more than a list of economic and commercial operators who refused to pay the “pizzo” (protection money) in the four regions of Calabria, Campania , Apulia and Sicily. It is a platform of civil "resistance" to Evil. A hundred pages of enormous ethical implications where you can find the names and references of shops, businesses where you can buy what you need, sure to contribute to the healthy market economy. An editorial project realized thanks to a clever use of European structural funds . It makes me proud to think that a great nation like the United Kingdom has decided to pay heed to this initiative and encouraged it by translating this book into English and disseminating it among foreign nationals who travel to Italy. This collection is a true guide, a "good practice " which adds to the intense and fruitful investi- gative and judicial co-operation between Italy and the United Kingdom with the dual objective of defeating criminal organizations and contributing to the economic recovery in Southern Italy. Angelino Alfano Minister of the Interior 3 Interno_GDEF1611EN.indd 3 22/11/13 16:25 My first contact with the anti-extortion racket movement goes back to 2012 when, dur- ing an official visit to Palermo, I met the young people of Addiopizzo. I was struck by the dedication and energy demonstrated by young people of different social backgrounds and without any political affiliation, who had decided to react, organising themselves in an in- dependent manner to change an unacceptable reality. That reality, which they so effectively hit out at with their assault of stickers, proclaiming, "An entire people that pays pizzo is a people without dignity." I remember offering myself to them in an interview as "spiritual ally". Some months later, again in Palermo, I met the representatives of LiberoFuturo and Liberi professionisti: courageous businessmen and professionals who decided to put their skills at the service of the fight against organised crime. On that occasion I met Tano Grasso, founder and driving spirit of the anti-racket network. He described how the movement was structured throughout the country and the many initiatives it was involved in. We said goodbye with a promise to collaborate together on a common project. One year later, this undertaking has taken shape in the guide that you have in your hands, the English version of “La guida per il consumatore critico antiracket”, which has been endorsed and translated by the British Embassy. This catalogue of one thousand 'clean', responsible businessmen and shopkeepers that have reported extortion or have never paid it is a significant encouragement for consumers. By choosing them, we can support honest operators who have decided to show themselves publicly, putting themselves in the front line to create a different society. The decision to collaborate with the anti-racket movement has not been dictated by a sim- ple sharing, at a personal level, of the movement's goals. The United Kingdom, the Embassy and the Consular network, whose work I lead, are engaged with Italy at many levels to share information and experience, and to fight together against transnational organised crime. The anti-mafia legislation passed by Italy, the fruit of years of bitter experience in the fight 4 Interno_GDEF1611EN.indd 4 22/11/13 16:25 against the mafia and other criminal organisations, has been examined with great attention by our country’s politicians and experts, with a view to applying many of the lessons that Italy has learned in our own context. The United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service has for several years now deployed a Judicial Liaison Officer to the Italian Ministry of Justice: this judge is in direct and daily contact with courts and prosecutors in all parts of Italy. Italy has also posted an officer with similar functions to the UK. Our National Crime Agency, in some respects the equivalent of the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia, have two officers, with support staff, posted in our Embassy in Rome, who work daily with Italian police forces to carry out investigations into crimes that affect both our countries. However, with all this good work being done by police, prosecutors and courts, it is clear that the breeding ground of crime needs to be attacked by developing a public attitude which is prepared to stand up for the culture of legality. It is very striking how strongly Italian civil society - also including commerce, industry and business, as this guidebook shows - is participating in this essential work. I will be happy to ensure that our authorities, and also the public, in the United Kingdom, has the chance to find out more about your encouraging range of activities and I would be pleased if our embassy could continue to play a role in supporting your efforts. It has been a privilege to collaborate in this initiative and I would like to wish all those involved, most sincerely, the strength, courage and perseverance you will certainly need to bring this excit- ing work towards the success it so richly deserves. May the next edition of this booklet be identical with the entire Yellow Pages directory! Christopher Prentice, British Ambassador to Italy 5 Interno_GDEF1611EN.indd 5 22/11/13 16:25 6 Interno_GDEF1611EN.indd 6 22/11/13 16:25 Speaking about Critical Consumption and the campaign ‘Pago chi non Paga’ [pay those who don’t pay] means talking about the responsibility of the free market. It is through a renewed economy that we will be able to fend off the interests of the Mafia. Those who pay protection money not only take money away from themselves and their own families but also damage those businessmen who have found the strength to go to the police. Part of the money goes into the pockets of those offering ‘protection’ with the effect of adding wealth to the Mafia and, most of all, reinforcing their control of the territory. For this reason even buying just a pair of jeans, a coffee or whatever else where protection is not paid, is never a neutral factor: it is a true act of liberty. This catalogue of 'clean', responsible businessmen and shopkeep- ers is a significant encouragement for consumers, certain that they are choosing honest operators. The producers of goods and services that have reported extortion or have never paid it, have decided to show themselves publicly, putting themselves in the front line to create a different society. Choosing to use them, means helping them and ourselves, along the path of emancipation. A simple gesture, multiplied by hundreds or even thousands of consumers, becomes an extraordinary measure for removing resourc- es from the Mafia and rewarding those clean operators who, among many difficulties, observe the rules and do not aid the criminal phenomenon. This list is guaranteed by FAI with its reputation and credibility from over 20 years of anti-racket work in Italy. It is a list of hope. The pioneers are leading the way now but they are few, just like the followers of Garibaldi. To win the war will take many people’s support. Help us so that this hope can become a reality of freedom for everyone. Silvana Fucito Consumo Critico project coordinator 7 Interno_GDEF1611EN.indd 7 22/11/13 16:25 8 Interno_GDEF1611EN.indd 8 22/11/13 16:25 The revised entries here are taken from the text by ANTIRACKET T. Grasso “An anti-racket glossary” published in book form by N. Daniele, A. Di Florio, T. Grasso “The Camorra GLOSSARY and anti-racket”, Felici publishers, 2012. Addiopizzo. “An entire people that pays extortion is a people without dignity”. One morning at the end of June 2004 many Palermo shopkeepers read these words written on a sticker with a black border of mourning, as they opened their shutters. Vittorio, one of those who put up the stickers, tells us how the initiative came about. “The phrase on the sticker came to us simply during a chat in a café. We were fantasizing about opening some premises, even though we didn’t have the money to do it or have a business plan; then someone raised his voice and asked, ‘but what if they then ask us for protection money?’ That was where the idea of the sticker was born.” The seven ‘sticker fixers’ at the time had an average age of 25, but nevertheless the initiative was a watershed in the city of Palermo. It was the most innovative experience, after that of creating the anti-racket association, in the struggle against extortion. For the first time the issue of the struggle against the protection racket was faced as something that involved citizens and consumers alike, rather than just a problem limited to shopkeepers. If ‘protection’ is a means of control of territory, the silence of shopkeepers and businessmen is an issue that must involve the entire community. This is the point of departure of the new strategy of Critical Consumption and it is in this perspective that the confrontation with the Mafia takes place at a daily level.