Issue 294 commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta, with a report on the convention held in Naples to celebrate this major figure.
Also remembered in this issue is Ivan Illich, on the 1st anniversary of his death, with articles by Filippo Trasatti, Pietro M. Toesca and Francesco Scotti and an interview by Filippo Trasatti with Paolo Perticari on Illich and Foucault.
On 7th November an “alternative” general strike was held, called by Italy’s non-aligned trades unions, in support of pensions, social services and a series of other concerns; Cosimo Scarinzi discusses the issues involved.
Iraq is always with us, and Antonio Cardella reports on the “secondary” effects of the war there.
Are human beings the most arrogant of the species? That is the question posed by Francesco Codello. Speaking of arrogance, an article by Sergio Onesti on Italian football, which is becoming less about sport and more and more about money and business, particularly with the emergence of Sky as a major player.
In the “Fatti & Misfatti” column, two reports, one by Emergency on the work of the Goderich Surgical Centre for the injured and traumatised of Sierra Leone, and one on the demonstration in Modena against the eviction of the “Libera” social centre.
“Naga” is a voluntary association operating in Milan to help immigrants and nomads with health problems; Paolo Cottino, a young anarchist architect, reports on the project, in an extract from his recent book “La Città Imprevista”.
Andrea Papi writes an article, “a society within society”, in which he says that the social context must be transformed internally, at grass roots level, in a libertarian direction. This is perhaps the remedy to the malaise of Berlusconi, which, according to Massimo Ortalli, is based on the instrumentalisation of the pettiness and mean-spiritedness to which Italy’s citizens are so often subject. And on the subject of Berlusconi, he recently attempted some historical revisionism on the subject of Mussolini’s “good” dictatorship; Patrizio Biagi sets the record straight.
This month Alessio Lega’s regular column on singer songwriters looks at the great Georges Moustaki.
In “A nous la liberté”, Felice Accame considers the usefulness of the “supplementary information” that we find surrounding us today.
To the other side of the world, and an article by Jean Jacques Gandini on Hong Kong, in the vice-like grip of the government of Beijing.
This month only Massimo Ortalli hands over “Ritratti in piedi” to Gianni Alioti, and the subject is Italian emigration to South America, specifically Brazil, and the testimony of Zélia Gattai, writer, photographer and wife of Jorge Amado.
The issue closes with letters by Mauro Massafra (on animal rights) and Chiara Bellini (complimenting Andrea Papi on his article “Lo stato delle cose”).

by Leslie Ray