A meeting was held yesterday at the Municipality of Battipaglia, an event to commemorate the “Fatti di Battipaglia” of 1969. The meeting promoted by Mubat as part of the Erasmus+ projects “Seas of Peace” and “aMemoria” with the Gatto and Besta Gloriosi institutes also involved students from other schools. The documentary “Battipaglia 1969” by Pino Bertucci and Luigi Perelli was planned, the same director who 50 years earlier was among the first reporters present in Battipaglia. Dr. Carlo Bruno showed the students how and where to locate documents and archive images in online digital archives. Raffaella, Carmine Citro’s niece (she never met her uncle), intervened to remember the value of democracy and social commitment.
In Battipaglia On April 9, 1969, thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the closure of some industries that constituted the bulk of the local economy: the Manifattura Tabacchi and the Sugar Factory.
The procession, initially peaceful, degenerated into violent clashes as the police attempted to disperse the crowd with tear gas and water cannons. As a few months earlier in Avola, the police fired several gunshots that killed Teresa Ricciardi, a teacher hit by a stray bullet in her home, and Carmine Citro, a young worker, in the street among other protesters.
The revolt spread throughout the city, with the assault and burning of public buildings, including the town hall, the train station and the police station. There were road and train blocks and the police and carabinieri, a rare case, were asked by the government to refrain from fighting the protesters and to retreat safely. The next day the Italian government sent a contingent of carabinieri to Battipaglia to restore public order. The two factories closed, leaving thousands of people without work and the Battipaglia revolt is still remembered today as “the facts” or “the riots” of Battipaglia.
