“They couldn’t have been anywhere else” is the title of the documentary photo exhibition that will be set up on May 27, 2024 at the Institute of Higher Education “Benedetto Castelli” of Brescia for an extraordinary session of the national, Lombardy and Brescia FLC CGIL General Assemblies convened for the 50th anniversary of the Piazza della Loggia massacre.
It was May 28, 1974, a joint demonstration against neo-fascist terrorism called by the trade unions and the Anti-Fascist Committee is planned in Brescia. At 10.12 that day the speech from the stage was interrupted by the explosion of a bomb; eight people died, including five activists from the CGIL school union: Giulietta Banzi Bazoli, Livia Bottardi Milani, Clementina Calzari Trebeschi, Luigi Pinto, Alberto Trebeschi. The other victims, Euplo Natali and Bartolomeo Talenti are metalworkers registered with the FLM while Vittorio Zambarda is a construction worker registered with the CGIL construction workers’ union.
The exhibition “tells” the story and commitment of the victims enrolled in the CGIL school who had to be there precisely because they were militant activists in that anti-fascist demonstration: “they couldn’t help but be there”. The photographic and documentary documentation also recounts the moments of the massacre, the funeral with the intervention of Luciano Lama, the testimonies of the press, of Brescia society and of trade unionists, the reactions of the schools, teachers and students, the condolences and the participation of institutions and employers’ associations, trade unions and the CGIL. Of particular interest is the documentation relating to the title of the school “Livia Bottardi Milani“in Rome and the school”Giulietta Banzi Bazoli” of Lecce.
Finally, the exhibition testifies to the constant commitment of the CGIL school and the FLC CGIL over the years to nourish the memory of those victims and constitutional anti-fascism.
The exhibition, after the event in Brescia, will be available to be displayed in schools – some already nominated and those that request it – to make it a topic of study and debate with the school community and students.
