What factors contributed in the stuggle against the Mafia in Sicily - Essay Example

?What factors contributed in the struggle against the Mafia in Sicily Factors that contributed in the struggleagainst the Mafia in Sicily Introduction Sicily Island is located in the Mediterranean Sea between Italian mainland and North Africa (Seindal 1998). Sicily was ruled by foreign invaders that included Spanish, French, Romans and Phoenicians. Sicily joined Kingdom of Italy in 1860, but its diversity is culture is still evident in the architectural designs, mosques, cathedrals and temples. The residents of the island decided to protect themselves from hostile occupiers through forming own systems of justice and private armies that were referred as the ‘mafia’. Cosa Nostra (Mafia) criminal syndicate emerged in mid 19th century and all cosca aimed at controlling a particular territory (Blok 2001). In 1870s, Romans officials invited Sicilian Mafia clans to help in fighting dangerous independent criminal organisations and protect the land owners (Blok 2001). The Mafia and state had entered in to partnership that allowed the Cosa Nostra to perform the functions that state could inefficiently perform. Factors that contributed to struggle against Sicilian Mafia The mafia and state enjoyed cordial relationships with the Mafia without any disruptions for several years. However, the relationships started tumbling in 1960s after Mafia acquired wealth and threatened the balance of power between the state and Mafia (Blok 2001). Accordingly, the methods of Mafia in acquiring power changed to threatening, extortion and criminal activities thus threatening the State power (Blok 2001). Mafia acquired considerable financial resources through ensuring close working ties with Christian Democratic Party and obtaining guarantees on construction contracts (Allum and Renate2003). In recognition of Mafia’s growing influence, the state decided to withdraw from the relationship with Cosa Nostra (Seindal 1998). Again, Mafia criminal empire expanded in 1970s to become a key network in inter-continent crimes such as money laundering and drug-trafficking. Mafia was initially used to define Sicilian phenomenon, but it is currently used to define any organised criminal organisation especially in Italia (Seindal 1998). In the recent past, Sicilian mafia has expanded to European and international level and has committed other crimes such as money laundering and drug trafficking in countries like Middle East, Latin-America and Switzerland. According to Italian anti-Mafia law of 1982, mafia organisations use intimidation powers and have organised criminal structure that plan its criminal activities. Sicilian mafia has a long history of corruption, murder and extortion (Blok 2001). In early 1980s, Mafia violence was directed at assassination of judges, prosecutors and political authorities. Corleonesi assisted in instigating the Second Mafia war and led a brutal Luciana Leggio against the state authorities in the ‘First Mafia War’. After the Mafia Trials of 1960s, few individuals were convicted of criminal activities and Mafia resumed back to illicit business activities. Control for family dominance within the Mafia organisation resulted to the Second Mafia wars since Corleonesi believed that some families had benefited more from the illicit drug profits and desired to dominate the Mafia through use of violence. Several Mafia families regrouped and started killing specific state figures such as Colonel Giuseppe Russo and several police chiefs (Seindal 1998). Organisations that struggled against the Sicilian Mafia Magistrates Giovanni and Paolo Borsellino The climax of Mafia brutality highlighted the need of the state to curb the organisations criminal activities and several individuals within the state started fighting against the impunity of Mafia (Scheider and Peter1998). In late 1980s and early 1990s, Sicilian prosecutors like Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone work unearthed the hierarchical structure of Sicilian Mafia organisations. The two prosecutors asserted that they would not turn a blind eye and accept the criminal activities of Mafia organisation within the island (Scheider and Peter1998). The work of the two prosecutors clearly presented evidence that fighting the organised Mafia organisations was not about impeding individual attacks since Sicilian Mafia groups carried out organised operations with strategic purposes of entrenching corruption and illegality in Sicily. Falcone and Borsellino encouraged the civilians to change their mentality towards the hegemonic ideology that had persisted in Sicily since 1800s. Falcone and Borsellino encouraged other state authorities to cut the relations with Mafia after witnessing how Mafia had challenged state power and authority through compromising the existing law and order in early 1980s (Seindal 1998). Falcone and Borsellino relied on the legal reforms of 1970s and utilized the broad independence and authority of the magistrates to initiate own investigations against the criminal activities of Mafia. Through working with mafia pentiti, Falcone and Borsellino obtained wide information on the structure and relations of Cosa Nostra with Italian state. The two magistrates also joined the “anti-mafia pool’ that shared information on code of omerta and how the Mafia was secretly imposing brutal repercussions on traitors who shared the criminal activity information (Scheider and Peter1998). Falcone and Borsellino also acquired knowledge of the involvement of other non-state actors like Catholic Church and targeted the traditional intellectuals in order to curb the spread of the existing state-mafia hegemony (Catanzaro1988). Both magistrates encouraged the citizens of Sicily to withdraw from any ties with Cosa Nostra and joint the anti-mafia reforms (Scheider and Peter1998). Falcone and Borsellino published reports about the Mafiosi members that were linked with drug trafficking in order to convince the Sicilians that Cosa Nostra was a threat to the security and stability of Sicily. This evidence enabled the Sicilians to change their mentality towards Cosa Nostra and understand why the criminal organisation was so oppressive despite the existence of a ruling authority. Other tactics that Falcone and Borsellino used in educating the Sicilians about the oppressive and criminal nature of Cose Nostra entailed several public speeches that aimed at challenging the traditional state-mafia relations and court trials that aimed at destroying the existing hegemonic bloc of state and mafia relations. The two magistrates demonstrated that state-mafia relations existed as evidenced in their court room trials. For instance, several politicians and public authorities were imprisoned for their role in entrenching mafia power and control in Sicily (Catanzaro1988). For instance, the former mayor of Palermo Vito Ciancimino was convicted for aiding mafia crimes. The magistrates also demonstrated the unwillingness of the state in curtailing Cose Norstra brutality especially in the murder of key government officials like Judge Chinnici since the state had historically delegated such responsibility to the Mafia organisation (Scheider and Peter1998). The two magistrates also visited several schools and exposed the institutions that supported the Mafia violence such as the political parties and Church. The magistrates tried to raise the awareness among the Silicians via television shows thus raising the self-awareness on how the state had assisted the Mafia in perpetuating violence against the Silicians and top state authorities (Seindal 1998). The discontentment among the Sicilians led the Italian state to declare Sicilian Mafia a deadly organisation and challenge against its authority after nearly more than a century of state-mafia relations (Catanzaro1988). New legislation such as Rognoni-La Torre law recognized Cosa Nostra as an outlawed criminal organisation and made it a criminal offense to join the organisation. The law also provided for long imprisonment terms for Mafiosi and allowed the state to confiscate the mafia property. Falcone and Borsellino relied on the legal reforms and the penal code in instituting legal proceedings to Cosa Nostra members from the information that had been gained from pentiti testimonials. For instance, Falcone and Borsellino instituted the Maxi Trials of 1986-1987 and led to convictions of more than 300 members of the outlawed criminal group (Catanzaro1988). There are numerous political reforms that were initiated by Leoluca Orlando, an anti-mafia mayor in early 1990s that led to the decline of mafia influence in Palermo (Catanzaro1988). For instance, the mayor renamed several streets in the city after the various anti-mafia activists that had died due to mafia violence in the city (Allum and Renate2003). This move removed the mafia influence in politics and eventually led to decline in the number of government contracts that were assigned to Mafia members. On the other hand, Sicilian Mafia responded to the judicial attacks through issuing propaganda on the media that was controlled by mafias and executing both Falcone and Borsellino in 1992 (Seindal 1998). Women against Mafia in Palermo Another organisation that was instrumental in fighting Sicilian Mafia was the Association of Women against the Mafia in Palermo. It was the first permanent association in Italy that pressurised the state to enact the Rognoni-La Torre law and offered financial assistance to women who had suffered violence from Mafia (Scheider and Peter1998). The organisation also spearheaded the enactment of Law No. 56 in 1990 that was essential in preventing public administration, state workers and businesses from supporting the mafia. In deed, the efforts of the Association of Women against the Mafia in Palermo contributed to the disassociation of the state from Sicilian mafia (Dickie 2004). Sheet Committee After the brutal murder of Falcone and Borsellino in 1992, the Sicilians started public demonstrations in order to demand reforms in the state affairs. The demonstrations saw the formation of “The Sheets Committee” which was an organisation dominated by women who mainly displayed anti-mafia messages on the streets in Palermo (Seindal 1998). The Sheets committee pressurised the state to end ties with the mafia by issuing t-shirts that were printed with anti-mafia messages and injustices that had been committed by the Cosa Nostra such as brutal killing of Borsellino and Falcone (Dickie 2004). Libera Another notable organisations that fought the mafia was the Libera organisations that was formed later in 1995. The main aim was to lobby the state to enact legislation that could convert the seized mafia property in to public property for the establishment of community projects (Scheider and Peter 1998). The Libera spearheaded Law 109/96 that allowed the confiscated mafia property to revert to social cooperatives that furthered the anti-mafia ideologies (Dickie 2004). In addition, the Libera organisations furthered the ideals of transparency in political processes thus ensuring corrupt politicians could not hold any elective positions in politics (Dickie 2004). ARCI This is an anti-mafia organisation that dates back to 1957. The main activities include fighting the mafia and addressing social problems in Sicily (Dickie 2004). According to the organisation, Cosa Nostra is a cultural problem that needs several political and cultural reforms (Dickie 2004). The organisation organised conferences that aimed at ensuring that youths attain knowledge on existing dangers posed by the mafia. In addition, ARCI provides education and supports youths from poor families in order to minimize the mafia recruit pool in Sicily (Dickie 2004). Movement of Red Diaries This is another major organisation that was formed by Paolo Borsellino’s brother in order to fight Sicilian Mafia. The organisation aimed at investigating the state and Cosa Nostra members that participated in the killing of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino (Scheider and Peter1998). It is rumored the Borsellino’s ‘red diary’ contained critical information on the Mafiosi that could have brutally murdered Falcone. The Red Diary pressurised the state to investigate the death of Borsellino since his diary disappeared at the scene of his death and might have contained incriminating information against state officials and mafia members (Dickie 2004). The organisation also published information on political corruption during the previous elections in order to enable citizens understand the links between the mafias and state authorities. The Red Diary deconstructs the state-mafia system and enlightens the youth to engage in other products activities (Dickie 2004). Addiopizzo Addiopizzo is an anti-mafia organisation that was formed in 2004 by Silician businessmen in order to encourage fellow business men from paying pizzo to the mafia organisations. The main aim was to initiate a consumer revolution and deny the mafia the pizzo extortion proceeds that finance criminal activities (Dickie 2004). This organisation has plastered the cities with anti-mafia slogans and calls for businessmen to join the Addiopizzo network in order to denounce the extortion associated with Mafia. Addiopizzo has ensured that consumer purchases do not support the mafia and that educational anti-mafia tours help the tourists in Palermo shop for goods freely without fears that some proceeds of their purchase will be channeled to Cosa Nostra (Dickie 2004). Conclusion The main anti-Mafia organisations aimed at maintaining a common moral and political goal of averting Mafia violence and activities in Sicily. Sicilian society has produced Mafia since the legal economy is weak and offers few substantial opportunities. In Sicily, the people consider violence and illegality as a means to survival and struggles against the Mafia has made the people believe that it is impossible to change the current situation. The social lifestyle in Sicily is also characterized with crisis in political parties, incapable trade unions and weak institutions. Although their approach to fighting the Mafia differ, some organisations have been educating children on the dangers of criminal activity in order to diminish Mafia’s pool of potential recruits. Magistrates Falcone and Borsellino helped in creating awareness of the criminal nature of Cosa Nostra while anti-mafia organisations Libera, Women against mafia in Polermo, ARCI, Sheet Committee, Red Diaries, and Addiopizzo have assisted in fighting mafia activities through enabling Sicilians deconstruct the state-mafia relations. Although there are numerous legislation that have been enacted to control activities of mafia in Sicily, the Italian state has not showed much commitment in curbing international crimes perpetuated by the mafia such as narcotic trafficking and money laundering. Reference List: Allum, F and Renate, S. 2003. Organized crime and challenge to democracy. London: Routledge. Blok, A. 2001. Hunour and violence. Malden: Polity Press. Catanzaro, R. 1988. Men of respect: a social history of the Sicilian Mafia. New York: The Free Press. Dickie,J. 2004. Cosa Nostra: a history of the Sicilian Mafia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Scheider, J and Peter, M. 1998. ‘Educating against the mafia’, Trends in organised crime, 4 (2): pp 7-18. Seindal, R. 1998. Mafia: money and politics in Sicily, 1950-1997. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. Read More