The young people of Brindisi were notably absent from the “counter-dinner”.

BRINDISI – The sirocco blows on the courses. There are more uniforms than “bourgeois”. The people of Brindisi may have complained, but they are proving to be diligent. Chapeau. In Piazza Vittoria the climate changes. The sirocco makes you sweat, but Brindisi is alive there, in these days of the G7. Preparations are in full swing at Castello Svevo, but it is a red zone there. Piazza Vittoria is also a “red zone”, but in another sense. The counter-dinner attracts people, speeches, dances and food do the rest. The glance is this: there are no longer antagonists, but demonstrators; there are no longer policemen, but agents. And maybe some of them mentally nod to some speech. Peace, yes, that. Against the “G7 of war”, says Bobo Aprile from the stage. Drissa Kone, on the other hand, is “mad as hell”, especially with what is happening to some foreign workers, beaten bloody while returning from work, here in the Brindisi area. Lia Caprera is behind the large table. Who’s missing? The young people of Brindisi. They are few, the average age is high. They will take care of registering the score: the young people of the African Community of Brindisi and its province, the German volunteers of Debt for climate and other nationalities.

The “registry question” goes hand in hand with the demonstration on May 31st against the industrial crisis and redundancies in Brindisi. There were few young people there too. An explanation can come from afar, from the events of the G8 in Genoa in 2001, from that “violation of human rights of proportions never seen in Europe in recent history” (Amnesty International), from Diaz’s “Mexican butcher’s shop” (an expression used by a police officer). Some analysts saw in that experience the end of the organized protest against neoliberalism, against globalization, against inequalities. On the stage in Brindisi they talk about peace, they throw broadsides not only at Erdoğan, but also at Zelens’kyj. On the stage, to the right of the speaker, a flag of the Kurdish people is waving, to the left one of Palestine. The solidarity with the two peoples is tangible.

A girl notices a certain singularity, typical of the summit of the “greats of the Earth”: “So they talk about the problems of Africa without those directly involved”? The G7 represents an “ancient” and outdated world. Of course, other emerging countries are invited, but it remains a mere representation of the West. Another girl arrives a little late. You focus precisely on the wording of this summit. “The setting of the meeting is Borgo Egnazia: a luxury structure in a recently built agglomeration which in architectural jargon is referred to as ‘false history’, as false as the representation of the world it hosts these days”, she echoes . Meanwhile the protesters help themselves: couscous, frize, red wine. The pizzica triggers some hints of dance. Journalists are there, both local ones and some international ones. Come on, Brindisi is really at the center of the world these days.

What impression is left of the counter-dinner? The impression is that the struggle has no place in this portion of the West. Has it already been said that in the end the “big ones” are locked down, far away, inaccessible? Surely. On the other hand there are few who are outraged by the massacre of the Palestinian and Kurdish people, by climate change, by pollution – and Brindisi knows more about this -, by inequalities. The impression, however, is that even these people, who believe in it, can still do very little. The reason? Young people are missing from the roll call, apart from those listed above. Didn’t they share the themes? No, perhaps the reasons are different. And damn more complex.