Danilo Dolci

Dolci’s account of the ‘reverse strike’ by unemployed agricultural workers which he led in Partinico to repair a disused road, and his subsequent trial in 1956. The demonstration dramatised the extreme poverty endured in Sicily, while affirming the right to work inscribed in Article 4 of the Italian Constitution, and was supported by many of the unemployed, farmers and representatives of the labour movement. The reverse strike created a new form of nonviolent protest.

See also: Ancora del Mediterraneo (ed.) (2006), Perché L’Italia Diventi Un Paese Civile, Napoli: L’Ancora, pp. 153.

This covers the mass fast in San Cataldo, the subsequent reverse strike and the trial, and provides a chronology of the events leading to Dolci’s conviction.

These stories, which Dolci collected in Sicily, are the medium through which he elucidates the local dimension of the mafia – its action and influence in Sicily – and its wider impact in Italy and beyond. This is a record of how ordinary people coped with their suffering of violence, and it aims to transmit their vision of social justice. The work has an educational value.

Describes context of his campaigns – not much detail on the campaigns themselves.