The Mafia - Sicily - page 610

The Anti-Mafia Movement
The anti-Mafia movement is alive and kicking in Sicily, tracing its roots back to the begin-
ning of today's Mafia. According to historians, the movement first appeared in the late 19th
century, and lasted in its first incarnation until the 1950s. The movement strove for agrarian
reform, targeting the Mafia, conservative political elites and the latifondisti (big landown-
ers), but its efforts were shattered when the lack of economic prospects in the postwar era
drove thousands of young Sicilians to emigrate in search of work and a better life.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the anti-Mafia movement was headed by political radicals,
mainly members of the left-wing groups disenchanted with the Socialist and Communist
parties. Giuseppe 'Peppino' Impastato became famous during this period; the son of a
mafioso, Impastato mocked individual mafiosi on his popular underground radio show. He
was assassinated in 1978. Things were at their worst for the anti-Mafia movement in the
1980s, when the Mafia was particularly intolerant of anyone perceived as a potential threat.
The assassination in 1982 of General Dalla Chiesa is now seen as one of the major ele-
ments in sparking a new wave in the anti-Mafia movement, with Sicilians from all sections
of society - from educators and students to political activists and parish priests - becoming
involved.
The reformist Christian Democrat Leoluca Orlando, who was elected mayor of Palermo
during the 1980s, also helped to increase anti-Mafia sentiment. He led an alliance of left-
wing movements and parties to create Palermo Spring, which invalidated the public-sector
contracts previously given to Mafia families, restored and reopened public buildings, and
aided in the arrests of leading mafiosi . During the 1990s, Orlando left the Christian Demo-
crats and set up the anticorruption movement La Rete (the Network), bringing together a
broad collection of anti-Mafia individuals and reform organisations. (The party was eventu-
ally absorbed by Romano Prodi's Democrat Party in 1999.)
Civilian efforts saw housewives hanging sheets daubed with anti-Mafia slogans from
their windows, shopkeepers and small entrepreneurs forming associations to oppose extor-
tion, and the formation of groups such as Libera ( www.libera.it ) , cofounded in 1994 by Rita
Borsellino, the sister of the murdered judge Paolo Borsellino. Libera managed to get the
Italian parliament to permit its member organisations to legally acquire properties that had
been seized from the Mafia by the government, establishing agricultural cooperatives, ag-
riturismi and other legitimate enterprises on these lands (see www.liberaterra.it ). Even the
Catholic Church, long silent on the Mafia's crimes, finally began to have outspoken anti-