265

rivista anarchica
Year 30 no.265
Summer 2000

summAry

The summer issue of the magazine (covering July, August and September) has 84 pages and is the biggest issue produced so far in almost thirty years.
The cover and four articles are devoted to clericalism in Italy, in the year of the Jubilee. Carlo Oliva employs his usual ironic style to discuss the third mystery of Fatima, the first official example of a "prophecy on the past". Cristina Gramolini (from ARCI Lesbica) analyses the profound similarities between the Church and the right wing on the subject of homosexuality and homophobia. Maria Matteo underlines the contemporary importance of the episode of the heretic Fra' Dolcino, who still arouses discussion in his region, Piedmont, 700 years after his revolt against the Church. Francesca "Dada" Knorr discusses the increasingly numerous "repentances" of the Catholic Church.
There is a photo feature devoted to the recent international Conference of Studies on "Anarchists and Jews" held in Venice between 5 and 7 May.
The demonstrations in Brazil against the 500th anniversary of that country are the object of a letter from Massimo A. Rossi. Again on the Fatti&Misfatti pages, there is a report on the battle being fought by a group of youngsters in Campsirago (near Lecco) to defend their experience of self-management and organic farming, threatened by the usual interests of the property speculators.
Gianni Sartori presents two interviews - with the Italian journalist Guido Piccolo, who has an in-depth knowledge of Colombia, and with the Colombian teacher Carlos Romero - on the situation of civil rights in general and the indigenous peoples in Colombia.
In view of the forthcoming Olympics in Sidney, a long dossier is devoted to Australia: it is by Tiziana Ferrero-Regis, an Italian anarchist who has lived in Brisbane for 8 years. She interviews two people who for many years have been key figures in Australian anarchism (Brian Laver and Peter Sheldon); there is discussion of the experience of a local libertarian newssheet in Brisbane and finally on the question of relations between anarchist movements and aborigines.
Frediano de Libero looks at Berlin, particularly the "cafés" in the districts of the former East Berlin and the atmosphere there.
Problems associated with immigration are discussed by Maria Mesch in her interview with Marion Baruch, an Italian artist who was born in Romania and is currently resident in Paris, where she runs a website devoted to "illegal" immigrants.
Enrico Bonfatti considers the social and environmental costs associated with transport in Italy.
Considerable space is devoted, as ever, to reviews of books (Jean-Jacques Gandini reviews a book published in France on China, Dino Taddei presents five new Italian books) and CDs (Nadia Agustoni on the latest by Lalli, Marco Pandin on Nick Drake and Loris Vescovo).
In two separate articles, both Francesco Berti and Tiziano Antonelli discuss the history and theory of anarchism. Berti analyses the inadequacies of the anarchist analysis of fascism and the problem of totalitarianism/democracy in general. Antonelli defends the conception of "anarchist communism" in relation to other conceptions of libertarian thought.
As ever, Cristina Valenti looks at theatre, this time in relation to prison, analysing two specific experiences of theatre inside prisons, in Padua and Volterra (Tuscany).
Completing the issue are the columns by Felice Accame (who looks at the human costs of social respectability) and Carlo Menga (on the strike by journalists), three pages of communiqués, listings of libertarian events over the summer, a short story by Tina Goldman (on a flag, first thrown away and then recovered) and three long letters (two in the subject of prison and one devoted to the singer-songwriter De André, who died just over a year ago).
It is to De André, particularly to the special issue devoted to him by this magazine, that the back cover is devoted.
Have a good read and a good summer!

translated by Leslie Ray