On April 30, 1982, the Regional Secretary of the PCI in Sicily, Pio La Torre, was killed with his employee Rosario Di Salvo.
Pio La Torre had proposed the bill which provided for the first time for the crime of “association of mafia” and the confiscation of assets from the mafia.
He had been among the first to realize that, to combat criminal groups, it was necessary to go to the heart of the relationship between economic power and illegal activities and to draw the line between the two terms.

Following his assassination, the law providing for the confiscation of the mafia’s assets was adopted by the Italian Parliament on 13 September 1982.
However, only 14 years later, the return to local authorities of properties seized from the mafia and from the camorra and their allocation to public services was made possible by the so-called law 109/96 by popular initiative.
To achieve this and give it an operational follow up the action of LIBERA was decisive. LIBERA is an association born on 25 March 1995 with the intention to attract the civil society in the fight against the mafia and to promote law and justice.

Currently, properties seized in Italy are about 13,000, but many enterprises, about 2000, which manage them are not always in good conditions, but on the contrary are often in difficulties.
In some cases, the mafia is able to exercise effective blackmail forcing customers and suppliers not to use confiscated assets.
On the other hand, institutions are not always an effective chain of solidarity for these enterprises.
Hence the need to promote a barrier of solidarity, not only locally, with those that are in the front line of this battle.

It is important to:
–    denounce the risk of isolation of the actors involved in the management of these properties,
–    aggregate all those who may be sensitive to a constant struggle to prevent that the confiscated properties come back in the hands of the mafia,
–    to restore confidence among the citizens who do not believe at all that the economic and organizational culture of the mafia should prevail.

Based on these clear needs, and starting from the Campania region, a region severely affected by this kind of crime, is born the association “Culture against camorra”.

The association aims to create a European network to support operators who manage assets seized from the mafia in Campania.

“Culture against Camorra” also wants to demonstrate to citizens that another type of development that is transparent, democratic and sustainable is really possible and that there are no areas “free”.

Democratic and associative structures of the European Union must:
–    consider this issue as central,
–    consider themselves fully involved in the process of growth of civil life in the regions dominated by the camorra,
–    consider this battle as decisive for the construction of a more advanced and just European society.

“Culture against camorra” will:
–    create this European network of support,
–    develop, in this context, all initiatives that may be effective,
–    welcome in this area, all the contributions that our paper is requesting.