From Don Panizza to the farmers of Goel, stories of commitment against organised 'ndrangheta-style corporations

"Doing justice means understanding what economic, social and labour relations made all this possible. We need to understand who recruited these workers, who organised their transports and their days, what housing conditions they lived in, which farms employed that labour using 'caporalato', which production chains benefited from it, which markets those products were destined for. The system had been rotten for a long time. Between 2020 and '21,' the priest recalls, 'we met 80 African labourers who had already rebelled against the exploiters of Pakistani nationality present in the Cassano all'Ionio area. With the support of other associations we led 18 of them to denounce'. In an open letter, Don Giacomo pleads for Taj Mohammad Alamyar, the only survivor of the Amendolara massacre, the national Referral Mechanism for assistance to victims of trafficking and serious exploitation (a protection system coordinated by the Department of Equal Opportunities).

But in Calabria there are also those - associations, biodistricts, farms - who silently conduct their own personal battle against illicit intermediation and labour exploitation, for a healthy, fair and sustainable agriculture. In Rosarno - which 16 years ago was the scene of a violent uprising of farm labourers, which later degenerated into clashes with the population - a female farmer challenges abuse, theft and vandalism by implementing indigenous crops according to the methods of French farmer Pierre Rabhi, an Algerian-born philosopher of agroecology. He combined biodynamics and 'sobriété heureuse', happy sobriety. On her 60 hectares of Tenuta Badia Patrizia Rodi Morabito, manager of Coldiretti and member of the board of the Reggio Calabria Chamber of Commerce, grows olive and citrus trees 'with respect for the land and people'. After living art around the world, she took over the historic family business dating back to 1896 with her sister. "They burnt an entire kiwi crop. So I decided to devote myself only to local agricultural products. It's my way of reacting and resisting. Like a little hummingbird. According to an African legend, during a forest fire, it did not run away, but carried drops of water with its beak to put out the flames'.

It was the Colibris network, built by Rabhi in the early 2000s, that inspired the entrepreneur to create a new model of society based on autonomy, ecology and humanism. Thus, two years ago she was awarded the prize named after Lea Garofalo, a victim of the 'ndrangheta, killed in November 2009 by her ex-partner. "How do I manage my land? I rely on contractors,' Patrizia Rodi Morabito concludes, 'they provide me with qualified and protected personnel. And I give my crops to local cooperatives. Gioia Succhi, for example, a company that processes and produces semi-finished natural citrus juices in San Ferdinando'.