It is not only due to the history of this four-generation struggle against a dynamite factory and then chemical dye factory that polluted a river for over a hundred kilometers between 1882 and 1999 that one could call it such. It has taken on a vivid reflection with current events.
Join us on Friday, March 15th at 7 PM at the St Roch Association Space in Nice for a discussion-debate.
This is why a number of collectives and associations are supporting this discussion-debate “Water, preservation of our territories, and corruption”, a situation Patricia Dao experienced and lived through for more than ten years.
Bormida is the name of a river in a valley on the border of Liguria and Piedmont, the subject of intense battles by a handful of die-hard individuals against the economic, political, religious, and mafia powers that showed little concern for health and the environment. At the heart of this relentless fight that lasted 117 years was ACNA, a dynamite factory established in 1882 which was then transformed into a chemical dye factory from 1929 to 1999.
Under a hyper-paternalistic façade, the responsible parties sought only profit, disregarding the respectful development of the men and women of this valley as well as nature. The author traces all these years of popular resistance with heart and sensitivity in a unique style of contemporary poetry for a surprising and poignant testimony.
Within the editorial team of the Valle Bormida Pulita newspaper, a publication created by Renzo Fontana—her partner and former journalist of the Unita—it was initially just a modest contribution of investigations, analyses, and information on a complex and intertwined situation. It spearheaded the last ten years of the fight by a group labeled as “green terrorists.”
Like him, Patricia always refused to be a subservient journalist; they preferred to become extraordinary journalists. With their friends and support from renowned international experts, the couple managed to withstand political-financial, police, and mafia pressures, not to mention the equally brutal threats from a part of the population that saw their actions only as a threat to their livelihood and source of income.
A great lesson in journalism in addition to being a magnificent hymn to life for a book that takes on an additional dimension with another scandal, that of the Vatican in the immediate entourage of the Pope, not to mention the struggles at Notre-Dame des Landes, the Lyon-Turin tunnel project, and Europe’s large steel mill in Taranto (Italy) to mention only the most publicized ones, but we must not forget those in our region, even our department…
This is why a number of collectives and associations are supporting this discussion-debate “Water, preservation of our territories, and corruption”, a situation Patricia Dao experienced and lived through for more than ten years.
