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This thread comes as update & amplification to the ongoing struggle of migrant farmworkers (majority Black) in the plantation-like system of Southern Italy, run by mafia clans in collusion with the state. 1/
Before the update, here a brief summary I’ve created last month to educate/inform my IG following. Please read, follow, and tap "translate tweet" at @aboubakar_soum Black Italian trade union leader who is supporting farmworkers organizing. 2/
You can find this online action in blog form over my website, with relevant links in English. Direct link in bio.
CONTENT & TRIGGER WARNING: slavery, human trafficking, exploitation, antiblackness, racism. 3/
CONTENT & TRIGGER WARNING: slavery, human trafficking, exploitation, antiblackness, racism. 3/
WHERE DOES MY FOOD COME FROM? Aka why y'all should care:
The UK Fruit & veggies import from Italy generates £234M per year, making, with wine, a rough 31% of total Italian export sales and ⅓ of UK total food market. 4/
The UK Fruit & veggies import from Italy generates £234M per year, making, with wine, a rough 31% of total Italian export sales and ⅓ of UK total food market. 4/
WHO BRINGS FRUIT & VEGGIES TO MY TABLE?
Exploited Farmworkers of different identities but with shared experiences of death, exploitation & dehumanizing living & working conditions. https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/22121/italy-263-investigations-in-2019-against-gangmaster-system 5/
Exploited Farmworkers of different identities but with shared experiences of death, exploitation & dehumanizing living & working conditions. https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/22121/italy-263-investigations-in-2019-against-gangmaster-system 5/
While I acknowledge the presence of East European and Italian laborers, their migratory status is largely temporary and with the possibility to travel back home/travel somewhat freely in Italy. Those who are migrating from NON EU countries will disappear. 6/
While the Italian state seeks to deprive these workers of their humanity & agency, with the help and support of activists like Aboubakar Soumahoro (trade union leader & sociologist), still their rise. #nonsonoinvisibile #imnotinvisible https://www.gofundme.com/f/portiamo-il-cibo-in-tavola-ma-abbiamo-fame 7/
National norms like the Bossi-Fini decree, remove any possibility of social security for those of non-EU migratory and refugee status, forcing them into the invisible network of illegal labor largely held by organized crime in the South of Italy https://strugglesinitaly.wordpress.com/equality/en-immigration-policies-in-italy/ 8/
Additionally, we must consider HOW these workers are made illegal & legitimately traded into human trafficking with laws like the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy & Libya (2017, renewed on Feb 2nd 2020) https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/01/libya-renewal-of-migration-deal-confirms-italys-complicity-in-torture-of-migrants-and-refugees/ 9/
War refugees + Economic Migrants get to Libya trying to reach Europe for a better future > International traffickers exploit their movement and put them on boats > The boats are approached in international waters by Italian & Libyan coast guards with 2 outcomes: 10/
Brought into Italian underfunded hotspots (to then disappear in the network of organized crime) OR sent back to Libyan coast guard (via Memorandum policy) to end up in the Mediterranean slave trade https://www.msf.fr/sites/default/files/out_of_sight_130218.pdf 11/
We should also consider how populations in the Global South are displaced in their own lands via economical market saturation, imperialism etc, etc, etc. 12/
If lucky, workers are paid around £18(Black &/or without legal status)/£25 (East Europeans) for 12 hours of work. During lockdown, the majority of black & deemed irregular migrants had no possibility to move from campsites to plantations due to the necessity of work permits. 13/
In the past months, our comrades have organized strikes, demonstrations, educational platforms all while being undocumented, living in a hostile environment and being terrorized by the Mafia retaliating. Stand in Power Mohamed Ben Ali 14/
As of yesterday, @aboubakar_soum & a delegation of farmworkers, chained themselves outside Palazzo Pamphili where the Gov was holding a post C19 super meeting with all parties. They declared the beginning of a hunger+thirst strike to demand: 15/
1. Reforming the agricultural supply chain introducing an "Ethically sourced, picked & produced" product license that would force producers to meet the labor standard of work permits, residence, and a living wage. 16/
2. Changing immigration policies, including: amnesty for undocumented & invisible workers with the release of an emergency residence permit due to health crisis, to be then converted to work-related residence permit. Stop the Libyan agreements & hostile environment decree. 17/
3. Launch an emergency plan to cover and support not only undocumented workers and migrants but also all people who have lost their job (or were made precarious) by the C19 crisis. 18/
After a few hours, they were invited in and PM Conte is said to have agreed to listen to Demand 1&3 while asking for further proposals & reviews for demand 2. To be heard, our comrades had to publicly give up their humanity. 19/
While their demands would benefit ALL WORKERS, The Italian Gov keeps colluding with organized crime & fascist groups taking to the streets. We stand in support of efforts that will reverberate all over Europe. Nobody is left behind. #nonsonoinvisibile 20/20
