Life Without the Mafia

Via Le Monde, there is something new going in Corleone (Sicily).

Sicile : paysans sans parrain à Corleone
LE MONDE | 08.04.08

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Corleone is traditionally associated with Cosa Nostra, the renowned Sicilian Mafia, responsible for the assassination of the “Clean Hands” anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone. But as the Italian judicial system progressively arrested the Godfathers of the organization (such as the famous Toto Riina and Giovanni Brusca), it also seized their possession, mostly their land. The land is then turned over to farmers who can cultivate it to generate their own revenue. Such a practice would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. No one would have dared, on threat of death, “trespass” on Mafia land. But times are changing and even though some acts of sabotage and intimidation still occur, most of the agriculture taking place there is largely peaceful.

Farmers working Mafia land have created cooperatives and they have specialized in organic agriculture, producing “anti-Mafia” pasta, tomato sauce and wine. Initially, retailers were afraid of buying their produce for fear of retaliation. But progressively, as the second and third coops were established, circuits of distribution opened and the label “Libera Terra” (Free Land) is now omnipresent in the organic aisles of the Italian supermarkets.

However, it is not easy to make a living in this line of work, so, most farmers have second careers to make ends meet. They cannot use the land as collateral for loans because it does not technically belong to them (it belongs to the state and the state will not sell it for fear that it might end up back in Mafia hands). Moreover, Italian bureaucracy is notoriously slow, so, seized land only becomes available 10 or 15 after seizure, which requires enormous work to restore the land and get up-to-date equipment.

But the young men of Corleone get help: every summer, other young men from other Italian provinces volunteer to work in the fields in solidarity with the “anti-Mafia Ragazzi.” Times are changing in Sicily.