This just reinforced my impression that Italy is a really, really horrible place.

Sorry, but it does.

Nasty stuff.

I fully expect cjcjc, pagar, Shatterface, Rod Liddle, Iain Dale, Paul Staines, Phil Hendren, Chris Mounsey and Old Holborn to support Italy’s “required actions to combat Islamisation and immigration”.

Terrible, terrible stuff in Italy and I share Paul’s negative feelings about the country in question, as I share John Booth’s fear for this thread as it has the deadly ‘i’ word in the title…

Quite obviously these Italians have legitimate concerns over the respiratory activities of foreigners and it is the left’s failure to engage with the otherwise law abiding olive working classes that results in these sorts of manifestations of legitimate grievances.

In the end, three hundred policemen were called into the area to save the immigrants from being lynched.

Correction, the PC brigade marched in with their Marxist suppression of free speech, it comes to something when you can’t hang a darky from a tree without the yuman rites brigade sticking their fucking noses in.

As someone of Italian descent (my Dad is from Calabria), the blame lies with Berlusconi and the Mafia. Firstly from what I’ve heard the ‘trouble’ started when the immigrants started protesting outside the home of the local ‘Godfather’. So whilst I’m sure racism played a part (especially in the exploitation of the workers in the first place) what you are witnessing is actually the mafia at work, more than the Calabrese lynching immigrants. I think this is a needs to be emphasised, as there is a big difference. The Ndrangheta remember recently sank ships containing nuclear waste off the coast of Calabria in a scam where they managed to get paid for supposedly disposing of the waste legitimately.

Roberto Maroni and the Northern League will be playing this for all it’s worth as ultimately they want to split away from the south of Italy and form a new Neo Fascist Northern State they want to call Padania.

Berlusconi is holding onto power through the tips of his fingers and is kept there by the Northern League. He has no principles but egomania.

As a gay man I can understand the fear of the rise of the right, and the hold of the mafia (check out the gay bars in Rome and you’ll see what I mean). In my last visit I must say that I saw more Anarchist and Socialist graffiti than fascist. Italy is divided at the moment with few in the political middle.

In summation I will say Italy can be a lovely country and I think it would be racist to label the Calabrese uniformly racist, without understanding that nothing in Italy, especially Italian Politics is black and white.

While I don’t agree with Maroni’s policy, I don’t see how he is mistaken. Illegal immigration creates a wonderful opportunity for organised crime. The answer is either to enforce immigration law properly, or have completely free immigration. You can’t have a muddled middle way on it, that allows criminals to exploit the gap. In this case, the only humanitarian response is to offer these particular immigrants official work permits.

@6 Nick
“In this case, the only humanitarian response is to offer these particular immigrants official work permits.”
Now you’ve cracked it. I agree.

However, Maroni was wrong because he was talking as if Mary Poppins had been in government all this time. For all the tough talking that comes from Mr Berlusconi’s coalition, the first thing on the agenda should be to go and seriously deal with organised crime and their subhuman exploitation of tens of thousands of desperados.

Didn’t the authorities know about the appalling living conditions, the exploitation and the fact that organised crime runs the entire agricoltural trade/human traffick in southern Italy?
If the Guardian could pen a report as far back as 2006, what on earth was Mr Maroni the Home Secretary doing?

@1 Paul Sagar.
“This just reinforced my impression that Italy is a really, really horrible place.”
At the moment, yes. I concur. And that’s someone with Italian blood typing this up.It’s a shame because obviously there’s a vast number of Italians who disagree and who would rather things were different-

Lucio Buffone @ 5 is right that “it would be racist to label the Calabrese uniformly racist”, sure, but I’m afraid too many events coming from Italy in the last 2 years have been symptomatic of a country that is losing its battle with racism.

but I’m afraid too many events coming from Italy in the last 2 years have been symptomatic of a country that is losing its battle with racism.

Fascist mayors, segregated buses and blackshirts are racist now?

PC madness.

Loving the way I’m indirectly charged with being a racist in this post without uttering a single word on the subject. Anyhow, as has already been said by Lucio, and I agree with wholeheartedly, the politics of Italy are never quite so black and white.

This is especially the case when you throw into the mix not just the Ndrangheta (who ironically enough started out life as social bandits blackmailing and robbing from the rich) along with the fact Italy herself as a sovereign nation as only been unified for the last 150 years or so and its been dicey ever since.

As the oriinal post noted, Calabria is the poorest of the poor in Italy, which means social unrest, be it overt racism spilling into riots, or simply just the rise of organised crime syndicates is somewhat inevitable. I don’t very much you’d see much difference in cultural attitudes towards non-Italian immigrants even i the Government was left wing.

As I say though, thanks very much for being labelled a racist. Why not go the whole hog and call me a neo-Nazi. Then pop over to my blog and read the many times that I have said that I personally don’t care about immigration where it occurs as a result of the free movement of labour and trade.

Would bet a large amount of money that Mounsey, Dizzy and Guido believe in the free movement of people as much as capital. Think you’ll find they are all on the record as being opposed to immigration controls. They are also opposed to welfare payments. The “no welfare, no walls” position.

@9 dizzythinks
I’m sorry but I’m lost here, or maybe I missed something.
Who called you a racist and when?
I don’t see any other comments by ‘dizzythinks’ on this thread?

Claude:

Comment 2 by John Booth using Dizzy’s real name Phil Hendren.

For all the tough talking that comes from Mr Berlusconi’s coalition, the first thing on the agenda should be to go and seriously deal with organised crime and their subhuman exploitation of tens of thousands of desperados.

That might be slightly easier said than done. There are parts of Italy (quite a lot of the mezzogiorno in fairness) where the writ of the Italian Government has simply never run (well, except for a brief period in the 20s and 30s, but I imagine that no-one here is calling for a new fascist Government…).

@11 Cheers, I didn’t know…

@12 Tim J
Of course it’s easier said than done. But for the record Silvio Berlusconi has not said a word, not one, zero, about the whole matter. He opened his mouth today (for the first time since being done over last month) to announce his new attempt at bringing in immunity laws for the Prime Minister – what the Italians call an “ad personam” law…a tailor-made piece of legislation…

Secondly. While Silvio didn’t pass judgement about the matter, his ministers rushed to speak out against immigration but not a single thing was said about organised crime in the area.

It’s the lack of will that is stunning. That’s what I meant, Tim J.

13 – agreed entirely. Berlusconi has been a right old shower as Prime Minister. If only there were some sort of consistent challenge to him… But this latest immigration tragedy (scandal? disaster? outrage? I’m not sure of the right word) is ultimately just another indication of the break down of governance in the south. And that’s a story that goes back sixty years, not six.

I certainly agree that it would be better if there was a Government that tackled organised crime in Italy. I just don’t think that it’s very likely. After all, there’s only ever been one, and that came with decided associated drawbacks.

Clearly, if these illegals were not there, no trouble such as that reported would have occurred. And, being illegal, they shouldn’t be there.
So yes, Italian Governments are at fault for not keeping them out or kicking them out. But when that is suggested, you get all the Amnesty creeps howling with indignation.
ALL European governments ought to collaborate in removing illegals forthwith.
And of course illegal violence from whatever source should be slapped down hard, with any lynchers or other killers brought to face the death penalty.