Occupy Wall Street Against the Mafia
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 17, 2011, 2:50 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
WHEN: Saturday, November 19, 12PM
WHERE: Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park)
Occupy Wall Street will welcome famed Italian journalist in hiding, Roberto Saviano, who will be discussing the profound correlation between the worsening of the economic crisis and the skyrocketing businesses of criminal organizations this coming Saturday afternoon. A dramatic example of this correlation is Italy, where the mafia is taking advantage of the country's unprecedented crisis. If new rules do not arise, Saviano explains, the mafias will determine our future.
Roberto Saviano (born in Naples in 1979) is an Italian journalist and writer. His first book, Gomorrah, is a non-fiction exposé about the Neapolitan mafia. Published in 2006, Gomorrah soon became a bestseller and sold 10 million copies all around the world and has been translated in 54 countries. As a consequence of the book’s outstanding success and of its uncompromising attack on organized crime, Roberto Saviano received a number of serious death threats that obliged the Italian authorities to provide him with 24-hour police protection. Since 13th October 2006 he has lived in hiding and has to continuously change his residence for security reasons. The book has inspired the film Gomorrah, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2008 and was Italy's entry for the Academy Awards in 2009.
How does Saviano fits in a movement such as the OWS??!! Right wing, openly in favour of Israel foreign policy, he got plenty of exposure thanks to his publisher mr mafia-man Berlusconi himself...He represents the authority we're fighting. Beware of Saviano, friends http://baruda.net/2011/11/19/urgent-appeal-to-ows-about-roberto-saviano-please-circulate-share-twit%E2%80%8F/
Only stupid people can think that because Saviano has written a book with Mondadori(owned by Berlusconi),then Saviano is a Berlusconi supporter. Prejudice thinking like this,must come from people who just hated Saviano for unknown reasons. Berlusconi has published with mondadori everithing that is going to make money,that´s it.If it works,also if it is against you,you sell it anyway.
Saviano presence in the italian mass media is huge, he is the 1%!
A self promoting attention whore that the italian establishment use as a flag to represent the the "change". He is an authority that must be questioned!
In this video he expressed hatred and despise not only for the young people who reacted to the violence of a fascist and racist police during the student protests in Italy but also for all the activists who are "puffing their joints"! Saviano, get a life! http://video.repubblica.it/dossier/guerriglia-roma-protesta-black-bloc/roberto-saviano/58461/57403
So many links and articles explains the mistifications of this all italian Media Character but they are all in italian...
Risposta di Valerio Evangelisti a Roberto Saviano http://www.globalproject.info/it/in_movimento/Risposta-di-Valerio-Evangelisti-a-Roberto-Saviano/6832
Il Centro Peppino Impastato diffida Saviano http://www.ilmegafonoquotidiano.it/news/il-centro-peppino-impastato-diffida-saviano
Roberto Saviano denuncia per diffamazione Liberazione http://www.liberazione.it/news-file/Denuncia-per-diffamazione--Saviano-vuole-mettere-il-bavaglio-a--Liberazione----LIBERAZIONE-IT.htm
Vignetta di MAKKOX http://www.ilpost.it/makkox/2011/04/16/le-dieci-cose/
GAZA RISPONDE A SAVIANO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBgI_QWgXaI http://fpcgil.forumcommunity.net/?t=44544892
SAVIANO, RIOTTA E IL COMITATO DI REDAZIONE DEL SOLE 24 ORE http://fpcgil.forumcommunity.net/?t=44544892
SAVIANO E BENEDETTO CROCE http://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/notizie/arte_e_cultura/2011/17-marzo-2011/saviano-crede-del-balzo-non-crocee-guerra-ultima-fonte-190244067587.shtml
SAVIANO ED ANNALISA DURANTE http://lnx.casertasette.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=13526
TO BE CONTINUED...
As an Italian young man (I'm 33), I know very well Saviano as a public speaker. Listen to him when he comes, but listen very carefully. You will really learn something. It is a real pity that in Italy there are very few REAL independent thinkers. Saviano is one of them. Freethinkers are a rare and precious thing. Please be careful when trying to judge them.
Saviano is not independent at all. He always move with a police squad and work for the Endemol and Mondadori corporations. Freethinkers must not ignore the long series of lies Saviano made up with the complicity of all the italian mainstream media to pump up his public figure. He offended and intimidated, also with the help of a cynical legal office, so many who are defending the memory of true mafia victims, including the Annalisa Durante family and the "Centro Peppino Impastato". He his a dangerous and populist character who sympathize for right wingand fascist theories in a still fascist Italy.
No Saviano at OWS! Roberto Saviano is not loved by the Italian movement, he is a police advocate and rejoiced when they arrested demonstrators.
I have a feeling Saviano was right. The violence probably was started by the students and not the police.
14dec 2010 in Italy was a day of popular outrage against the fact that MPs were bought by mafioso Berlusconi's money,letting him to stay in power after a confidence vote... yet Saviano attacked those who were protesting! He may have a captivating writing style and address actual grievances of the mafia-ridden Italian territories, but he did never question the legitimacy of the mafia connected state institutions or advocated changes to the local capitalist system which benefits both state and mafia elites. If you are still going to host him,please keep this in mind and raise the question if he stops talking about mafias and addresses your goals and practices. In solidarity from Italy with your struggle!
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/mont-n18.shtml
Italy: The cabinet of Mario Monti—a government of the banks
Roberto Saviano's speach at Zuccotti Park made the headlines on EVERY italian newspaper. We've also seen a lot of interviews to Saviano on italian TV but only few images and a very short videos of that speach in NYC and what we've seen looks badly staged. He talked to a small audience of italian journalists, cops in disguise and maybe some italian tourists while the Occupy Wall Street movement was elsewhere. The performing of an useless "repeat it in unison" for such a small crowd was especially ridiculous! Yet another media media mystification for the italian people...
Roberto Saviano is a media charachter who works for the Berlusconi family co-owned Mondadori/Endemol corporations. They are the 1% who torture the mind and soul of the italian people with a propaganda that include sold out "intellectuals" and tasteless TV.
Question authority! Question Saviano! Question his supporters who act as fans or headless zombies! Cast out the false prophets!
Take care and ciao.
SAVIANO E LE MELE DEL TRENTINO http://house-of-mystery.blogspot.com/2010/06/roberto-saviano-e-un-pagliaccio-inventa.html
I was wondering when organized crime, the worst corporation of them all, was going to be mentioned.
Saviano is UNDESERVING of being at OWS!!!! The 99% of Italy considers him to have at least NOTHING to do with the movement, and many times has he spoken against it. This is the best testimony about him: PALESTINE RESPONDS TO SAVIANO, by Vittorio Arrigoni Gaza http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJoJxsiQTg4
http://baruda.net/ Urgent appeal to OWS about Roberto Saviano Dear sisters and brothers in Zuccotti Park; it is with deep dismay that we learn of today’s appearance on your stage of Roberto Saviano, best selling author of Silvio Berlusconi’s editorial group Mondadori. We are ashamed of having such an impostor to be the first Italian to represent us in this day. And yet we are not surprised, because misinformation – or hijacking truths – is the first weapon of oppression we have to fight against. That misinformation about Saviano still tricking so many well-meaning Italians thanks to a mediatic empire, Berlusconi’s owning pretty much all mainstream information channels, from tv to right and left wing press, is now apparently trying to sneak onto your stage. We expect it to be for need of self-advertisement on behalf of Saviano; we cannot understand what this man might have in common with the fight against that 1% he himself is part of. It’s years we fight against a corrupted government and its speculators, an organized crime stronger than ever, a piloted media, a growing oppression of freedoms; and in this struggle, we always found Saviano to be on the other side of the barricade, stressing our differences, judging us from his columns on repubblica while enjoying the millions he made out of a book far less courageous than hundreds of others – but backed by Berlusconi’s editorial group, and therefore sold in all his supermarkets.
Freedom of speech is paramount, and never we would ask to prevent anyone from saying anything, let alone from stepping in Zuccotti park. Censorship is a weapon of those powers we are all trying to fight, no doubt. But still, we ask you all to listen to his words today with double care. Don’t let the usual Saviano circus deceive you. Don’t let his mask trick you.
When today he will jump on your stage, beware of his words about oppression. For these are the words of a self-declared supporter of neo-fascism (april 2010), who always distanced himself by the culture of the Left praising the deeds of Almirante – frontman of a neo-fascist party which did not hesitate to arm its own ranks, in the 70ies, in order to shoot and beat those 99% who would go down in the streets during protests. And when we would go down in the streets these years to fight against the government, austerity, and corruption, finding ourselves beated and tear-gassed by the police; it would be Saviano who would lead the trashing campaign against us, defending law and order to the point of calling us criminals. Ourculture, he said, (especially after the anti-government riots of December 2010. You can check www.repubblica.it), does not belong to him. Well, his culture does not belong to us. For we fight againstoppression, we struggle to feed our families and keep our job, we fight against organized crime, we fight against that 1% he represents. When today’s he will advertise his editorial empire on your stage, beware of his words about crime. Because crime does not just come from thievery and corruption. Crime comes also from murder. Always on the side of the most powerful, Saviano has been defending more than once the work of the Israeli aviation against Gaza after Operation Cast Lead, which killed 1400 palestinians, mostly civilians, 314 of them children, to avenge the death of 9 Israeli soldiers (another 4 Israeli casualties came from friendly fire). Saviano called this disproportion “democracy”, tagging palestinians in the Occupied Territories as “terrorists”. This, at a time when Israeli intellectuals are the first ones to raise the alarm of racism and authoritarianism in their country. But there are no midways in Saviano’s system of thought, no questions. Your movement bears the support of Chomsky and Zizek – we do not deserve to be represented by Saviano. ..continue reading at http://baruda.net/
(continue) When today he will advertise his editorial empire on your stage, beware of his words on Power. For that Roberto Saviano is part of that 1% of bankers and financial hawks who keep deciding of us 99%. One week ago his editorial protector, Silvio Berlusconi, stepped down under the pressure of yet another financial crisis. Our country has then been handled to a lobby of bankers, CEOs, and a list of doubtable people who have already been tried for corruption and fraud, and questioned for conflicts of interests of all sorts. The main Italian banking groups will now directly rule our country through this cabinet. We are now a de-facto protectorate of our banks. In all this, Saviano was quick to decide which side he’s take: he’s a regular guest at the house of Corrado Passera, CEO of Intesa banking group, and now promoted to the post of minister of development (development of his own business, we can suppose). When today he will advertise his editorial empire on stage, beware of his words on freedom of speech. Because that is the same Roberto Saviano who tried to secure the exclusive copyright of being the only hero who fights organized crime. At the cost of turning his lawyers against no-profit local grassroot organizations like the Peppino Impastato center in Sicily (October 2010); a local reality, the Center, exposed day-to-day to the real threat of a murderous criminality which spared millionaire stars like Saviano and his bodyguards, but does not hesitate to target activists and journalists who live and fight daily on the frontline. Saviano was not the first one to speak against organized crime and we know for a fact (since investigations completed in 2009) that his death threats were mediatic fabrications Thousands struggle against organized crime each day, without bodyguards – Saviano can afford them, they can’t – and tv appearances. They write and enquire and speak as loud as they can, they walk out of their house every day, they fear for their children at school, they pay out of their own thin savings all those trials for defamation moved against them by Camorra leaders, mafia politicians, or people like Saviano. You never heard of them, cause they are not part of that 1% which chose to sell and promote him instead – an author ready to all sorts of compromises and columns against his own people for the sake of keeping his wealth and fame.
Because this is what organized crime does to our life, in the land of what Saviano calls Gomorra, or further down where ‘Ndrangheta and Mafia rule, or up north, where politics and financial speculators strike deals. It buys people like Roberto, and uses them to shut us. It tells us that either you’re part of that 1%, like Saviano, and ready to defend your privileges; or else, breaking your silence will not make you rich – it will make you unemployed, broke, or dead. Had your movement been in Italy, he would have called you “hoolingas of chaos”, as he did with us when we were teargassed by the police. To him, here, we do not even have the right to look into facts, to raise the question of state violence, to occupy or disobey. When he will jump on your stage selling himself as an occupier like you, think about it.
The 99% of Italy
First of all, you do not represent "the 99% of Italy", it is kind of pretentious! Saviano published first and last names of the Camorra people and helped us understanding the functioning of the Camorra. I'm sure he doesn't enjoy having to go around with policemen all the time. the alternative? being forgotten with bullets in his head or glorified by people like you who like heroes...why don't you all stop judging this guy and admit he is doing something unusual nowadays: HE IS SERIOUSLY RISKING HIS LIFE TO REVEAL THE TRUTH. WOULD YOU DO IT?
Only stupid people can think that because Saviano has written a book with Mondadori(owned by Berlusconi),then Saviano is a Berlusconi supporter. Prejudice thinking like this,must come from people who just hated Saviano for unknown reasons. Berlusconi has published with mondadori everithing that is going to make money,that´s it.If it works,also if it is against you,you sell it anyway.
As an Italian man I laugh at hearing that you consider Saviano as a Berlusconi supporter. Please, listen to him carefully when he comes. Superficial prejudices like this are unacceptable.
Only stupid people can think that because Saviano has written a book with Mondadori(owned by Berlusconi),then Saviano is a Berlusconi supporter. Prejudice thinking like this,must come from people who just hated Saviano for unknown reasons. Berlusconi has published with mondadori everithing that is going to make money,that´s it.If it works,also if it is against you,you sell it anyway.
http://insorgenze.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/la-macchina-del-fango-di-saviano-contro-i-manifestanti-del-14-dicembre/
http://insorgenze.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/il-capo-della-mobile-minacce-non-riscontrate-lo-scrittore-ho-una-condanna-a-morte/
http://insorgenze.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/alessandro-dal-lago-la-sinistra-televisiva-un-berlusconismo-senza-berlusconi/
http://insorgenze.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/il-razzismo-anticinese-di-saviano-lassocina-protesta/
http://insorgenze.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/saviano-e-il-brigatista/
http://insorgenze.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/la-denuncia-del-settimanale-albanese-%C2%ABsaviano-copia-e-pure-male%C2%BB/
http://insorgenze.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/croce-e-le-fonti-autorevoli-di-saviano-%E2%80%A8ecco-perche-il-caso-non-e-affatto-chiuso/
http://insorgenze.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/ma-dove-vuole-portarci-saviano/
this is what we need.........we need the mafia, hells angels,bloods,crips,zetas,the cartels,sons of silence,and everyone else to put aside our differences and stand side by side like they did in the movie the warriors so we can take back what is ours because it is all our turf.........united we stand......divided we fall ......they can't stop us all
'Gomorrah' stunk as a movie, that's all I know.
Dear Friends Occupy Wall Street. I am a simple Italian citizen (one of 99%) and are a little surprised and concerned to see that some comments related to the meeting with Saviano. May 'be that Saviano, for reasons related to publishing and the possibility of appearing in the press, has often to do with the distrust of which 1%. But I would 'certainly tell you that the Mafia does business mainly with 1% and exploit and subjugate the parts more' weak and insecure than 99% to which we all belong. Please be careful: the fight against the Mafia, the conniving, the illegality, not just in Italy, is a fundamental and necessary for the criticism of the system with which the mafias are conniving. Globally, in Italy and the U.S. as in Europe, etc. ... Let us be united in this struggle, first to judge and comment, let's listen to what we can Saviano 'say. (I would need a method of listening to everyone and anyone). Thank you for your struggle. In Italy we are not yet mature enough, perhaps, but hopefully soon we can make room a fight at your side. Against the Mafia and for the emancipation of 99%. Greetings. Ferruccio. (Italy)
i disagree with saviano about many things, but he will speak against mafia and if that's all, it's ok for me. if he will say bullshit i'll criticize him and spread my criticism, but first i want to hear what he has to say. Warnings are welcome, censorship is not.
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Only stupid people can think that because Saviano has written a book with Mondadori(owned by Berlusconi),then Saviano is a Berlusconi supporter. Prejudice thinking like this,must come from people who just hated Saviano for unknown reasons. Berlusconi has published with mondadori everithing that is going to make money,that´s it.If it works,also if it is against you,you sell it anyway.
Saviano may have money, but he is a revolutionary; he faces the risk of death everyday. He sacrificed a lot to expose what happens in his country and to try and change it; I think that embodies the spirit of OWS. (Don't believe me? Take a trip to Southern Italy and see what happens there for yourself.)
@ Guy @ Gigi Russo @ MayhemH You are talking nonsense. When he criticized the students he only referred to those bunch of idiots that where burning every single thing that came under their way. Burning and smashing a cash machine and claiming that that's your attack on capitalism it's just fucking bullshit. These idiots completely overshadowed an important protest and that's why Saviano attacked them. Please cut the crap. And even if you don't agree with him (completely legitimate) simply don't turn what he said in something false.
Regarding the fact that Saviano publishes with Mondadori, I'll answer you by quoting an old motto from the 60's workers movement:
DENTRO E CONTRO
WITHIN AND AGAINST
He was also against the one who are "activist who puff their matijuana joint" look at the repubblica.tv video where he "reply" to the students, you'll see hanger and arrogance.
Oh, and why Saviano never, never, never criticized the police's violence, never criticized capitalism, Why he never criticized the exploitation, layoffs of workers, the closure of schools, the war, people tortured and killed in prison by the police? WITHIN and FOR?
Errr because he writes about mafia? But also have you read him? You are painting him like the worst of the fascists...
The fact that doesn't write about EVERYTHING doesn't mean that he is not entitled to talk about what is his subject of enquiry and what the people from OWS invited him for... not to lecture about capitalism. I find it incredible that you are asking them not to let somebody speak (especially Saviano about mafia) just because you don't like the guy, you have a very twisted idea of freedom of speech. Let him speak.
Anyway he talked, I don't think he said any monstrosity. And I guess our conversation ends here.
Ciao ciao
per caso sei italiano?
To all the ones that are trying to destroy the image of the only italian guy that is trying to change Italy and to give a real contribution to our democracy. In the open letter of December 14th 2010, Roberto was not calling all the pacific protesters "idiots", but he was going against the violent protesters that destroy whatever the other thousand of pacific protesters wanted to pacifically say to the italian government. Roberto Saviano published with Mondadori that's true, but to me this look like more a challenge that Saviano throw to Berlusconi than a "secret" alliance between these two. And finally i would like to know which one of us has ever infiltrated mafia/camorra and wrote a book about what everyone in that country knows but no one had got the courage to say just because of the fear to be killed...he did it and he needs PROTECTION, our solidarity and our respect. He is one of us,he is trying to do what anyone ever did in Italy, he should inspire us indeed.
I appreciate the presence of Roberto Saviano in OWS, i hope he'll be present also in italy to our assembly and meetings (nobody saw him). Most of the things that people wrote about savioano are true, but I personally like the idea of a speech from saviano. If you can invite Beppe Grillo, an indipendent italian that have a lot of affinity to occupy wall street movement (he was in may in Spain). bye, Davide Gatto italy
I really don't think a person who has no depth of knowledge on anything should be the person giving lectures to movements he cannot fully understand. . . not forgetting his anti-Palestine politics. . . and of course his complicity with Berlusconi. Obviously I cannot tell anyone what to do or not to do, however I would strongly suggest you read up his articles about the student movement in Italy which is at the forefront of the fight against austerity before making your decision. . . Solidarity from a Roman in London