Twenty years after those posters marked in mourning that triggered the rebellion of traders against the racket imposed by the mafia, the “attackers” of Addiopizzo return to the streets to send a new message. At dawn this morning, like at dawn on June 29, 2004, Palermo woke up covered in stickers.
The black-lined posters and the traders’ revolt: an exhibition to celebrate 20 years of Addiopizzo
Twenty years after that date that undoubtedly marked a turning point in the fight against racketeering and extortion, Addiopizzo chooses the streets of the center of Palermo to open a reflection on the economy of the city and in particular on certain areas that have experienced a change: via Maqueda, corso Vittorio Emanuele, via Emerico Amari and via Isidoro La Lumia. “Places – we read in a note from Addiopizzo – where in the last ten years there has been an urban, productive and social change whose impact is unprecedented in the history of Palermo. A change that has generated a new and important economy that has its pivot in the tourist use of the places in the historic center”.
Hence the question printed on the stickers attached last night: “Which economy in via Maqueda? Which economy in Corso Vittorio Emanuele? Which economy in via Amari? Which economy in via La Lumia?”. A question that is “anything but rhetorical” which, the Addiopizzo activists explain, we want to “address and share with public opinion, the economic fabric and the political class of this city. Without pretending to give answers but with the will, even this time, to open a reflection”.
For the twentieth anniversary, the “attackers” of the anti-racket association have decided to tell the story and path of active citizenship through an exhibition, “Addiopizzo 20”, which will be inaugurated today at the No Mafia Memorial, in Corso Vittorio Emanuele 353. Photo , videos, posters, drawings and newspaper articles that testify to the breaking of a wall, that of silence on protection money, but also the support for traders and entrepreneurs who have found the courage to report, the involvement of young people in activities in favor of legality and the fight against educational poverty. Until the new challenge: “What economy in via Maqueda, corso Vittorio Emanuele, via Amari and via La Lumia?”
