I wrote this to someone on Marxmail list, but here it is for this list, fwiw:
My take after reading up. I'm still speculating, I have to follow up on just how far along the Messina Straits bridge project is: (1) The only way Berlusconi stayed in power was a coalition with NA. (2) If the NA had its way, all foreigners would be run out of Italy. And the South would be run by martial law. (3) Most of these migrant workers are in the north, but the anti-immigrant, racist politics and the bad economy have created an exodus of workers. (4) Some of the migrants went south hoping to get work on the Messina Straits bridge project (and to do that you would have to go through crime syndicates on both Sicily and Calabria. (5) Berlusconi isn't particularly anti-Ndrangheta, but favors some groups over others. (6) The crime syndicates are hardly united, much of their violent crime is when they turn on each other. They are out to make a buck, and if cooperation gets it, then they cooperate. If not, they can turn violent. (7) The South, which already has high unemployment, was already filled up with a lot of Albanians and other E. Europeans, many hoping to get in on the bridge project. (8) I wouldn't be surprised if it included migrant-on-migrant violence, such as Albanians attacking Africans. (9) The Africans in the particular area concerned ended up in the worst possible jobs waiting for the bridge project--fruit harvesting and are fed up. (10) Many Southerners would choose the Ndrangheta over Berlusconi, Rome, the Vatican or the Northern Alliance. That is the way it has been for a long long time. Just wish they had the communist and anarcho-syndicalist alternatives (outside of Naples and some other cities that is difficult). CJ _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
