Workers’ Day: a thought for the very young Pasquale Auriemma from Acerra
Workers’ Day is on May 1st, a moment in which the struggles to assert rights are remembered, which should never be taken for granted, especially in a world in constant transformation and in which economic speculation often engulfs every trace of humanity. We sometimes forget about those who are worse off and those who suffer in a situation that has now become borderline poverty, in the name of all-out competitiveness. There are those who sleep in their cars because they have lost their jobs and cannot pay rent and those who, like riders, face enormous sacrifices for often inadequate pay; there are also those who travel for hours every day to support their family and a job, as happens to many teachers, which, even if stable, is precarious; not to mention an underground and disadvantaged workforce, the modern serfs. Then there is a true story, told as an urban legend, which, if you listen to it live, seems to be an expression of pure fantasy, but unfortunately instead constitutes a surreal condition of daily life for many invisible people: that of a non-EU worker who leaves with the train from Calabria at night to reach Rome and work as a bricklayer and return as soon as the shift ended to his family back in Calabria.
This is how between the Portella della Ginestra massacre of 1947, in which 11 peasants who were demonstrating, political and non-political celebrations were killed, there is also the story of Pasquale Auriemma, fifteen years old, killed by the Camorra without mercy together with four others people. Pasquale is an innocent victim; on the evening of May 1st 1992 he was at the house of a dear friend of his, when two killers, out of cross-revenge, shot inside the house, causing a massacre, with the intention of not leaving any witnesses alive. It is the massacre in Acerra, a municipality near Naples. Pasquale was in eighth grade, his father was an employee of the municipal sanitation department, while his mother was employed in a small company that produced socks; a humble and honest family who lived in via Pietrabianca, a poor neighborhood. Unfortunately, Pasquale’s death goes unnoticed on a day of celebrations or reflections. Yet crime also “offers” work: that is the problem. So today it seems right to remember a very innocent young man who lost his life on May 1st. Matteo Lorenzano, joining our project “#InostriStudentiRaccontanoiMartiriDellaLegalità”, student of the “Filolao” scientific high school of Crotone, class I section. D, writes:
“Pasquale Auriemma died on May 1, 1992 in the Acerra massacre. Pasquale was 15 years old at the time and on an evening like any other he went to visit his friend and companion Silvio, with whom he had grown up in a small Campania neighborhood of Acerra; the evening of the incident was an evening like any other, Silvio’s family was preparing for dinner, suddenly 2 uncovered killers opened fire and killed Silvio and his family. Pasquale, who went to Silvio’s house like almost every evening, saw the whole scene and after witnessing that act of violence, he was killed as an inconvenient witness. The mafia has no respect for children and eliminates anyone who might hinder its interests.”
The CNDDU hopes for greater attention towards events that certainly have a highly symbolic meaning, especially on a day like the current one which should lead to reflection and social cohesion around major humanitarian issues. We invite you to join our project “#InostriStudentiTaccontanoiMartiriDellaLegalità”. The works can be reported to the CNDDU which will make them visible on its social channels (email: [email protected]).
