With the aim of bringing the young people of our schools together with the thoughts and values of Gaetano Salvemini, the annual conference organized by the Molfetta High School Network, chaired by the Headmaster Carmine d’Aucelli, is renewed.
This year, on the occasion of one hundred years since the fascist kidnapping and assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, the relationship between the two anti-fascists will be investigated and their invitation will be launched to young people for a civil and political commitment, based on individual responsibility in improving the world around them.
This is what Salvemini writes to the wife of the deceased Matteotti:
In the few months that I was in the Chamber, between 1919 and 1921, I never approached her husband. I was isolated… But I looked around me. And I soon learned to notice that young man with his solid culture, clear ideas and tenacious will. I felt a great sympathy for him. But I didn’t prove it… But when He was killed, I felt partly guilty of his death. He had done all his duty: and for this he had been killed. I hadn’t done my duty: and that’s why they left me alone. If we had all done our duty, Italy would not have been trampled upon and dishonored by a gang of murderers. Then I made my decision. I had to return to my place in the battle. And I did everything possible to alleviate the remorse of not having always done all my duties…
From that traumatic moment Salvemini’s anti-fascist commitment, the foundation of the clandestine newspaper “Don’t give up!”, the prison, the exile and the studies on the Regime that will characterize the American years were born.
Citizens are invited at 9.00 am to follow the performance of the students of the local Liceo Classico, who will stage Matteotti’s speech to the Chamber, on 30 May 1924.
This will be followed by a speech by Professor Mirko Grasso, curator of the “Diary of ’47” by G. Salvemini and author of the very recent “The opponent. Matteotti against Fascism”published by Carocci.
The students will then divide into groups led by representatives of the city’s voluntary sector, with whom they will address current problems close to them, investigating the causes and proposing solutions.
