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Thirty years of Libera, the importance of networking

A plurality of organisations defending civic space at national, territorial and international level, to bring demands from the streets to the palaces. To count

Francesca RispoliPresidente di Libera con Luigi Ciotti

1 marzo 2025

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The intuition that makes it possible to celebrate in 2025 the thirtieth anniversary of Libera, the Italian anti-Mafia association, is due entirely to this word: network. A word that Libera has embodied right from its name, which is long and articulate because it aims to represent a plurality of commitment. That of the associations and that of individuals, together in a thousand forms, to place the fight against mafias and corruption at the centre of public debate.

In the territories and in the world

The association's DNA is made up of genes capable of promoting new forms of essence and representation every day, while remaining faithful to its founding principles. This dynamic nature has made it possible to cultivate, over the years, a growth process that has led Libera to develop in several directions. An inter-associative network, made up of many organisations including the Acli, Arci, Agesci (civil society organisations) and the trade unions, which over the years has found the drive not to lose the original pact between national realities, but rather to renew and strengthen it.

A territorial network, thanks to the intuition of the garrisons that, within the coordinations, allow a greater protagonism of individuals, gathered in small groups. An international network, which has generated in parallel a presence in Latin America, Europe and Africa.

The fight against transnational organized crime, an urgent matter

In defence of civic space

Libera has therefore interpreted the word 'network', already in itself a bearer of ties and collective drive, by declining it in the plural: a network that has become a network of networks. This formula has made it possible to respond to social changes, to gather the demands and needs coming from the grassroots and thus embrace the new challenges of our time, consistently generating political action. Indeed, one of the most distinctive aspects of Libera is its ability to promote civic protagonism in relation to the common interest.

At a time when private space tends to prevail over public space, Libera has been able to protect and strengthen the role of citizens as the main actors of social change. To push in this direction, work in the territories is the fundamental building block to create participation and direct action. Today, public space is often threatened by the advance of private space (even though it is often represented as public, think of the fake squares of social networks) and grassroots realities have the task of defending civic space, a dimension in which fundamental freedoms are protected and people's involvement in political, economic and social life is ensured in an inclusive logic.

Libera interprets the defence of this space as a precondition for a full affirmation of democracy and to allow the opening of channels of dialogue and civic pressure towards institutions.

The Italian supreme court gives broader benefits to the families of innocent victims of mafias

From the squares to the palace

Since its foundation, advocacy has been one of the keys to its commitment. The first bill in 1996, which made it possible to achieve the social reuse of confiscated properties from criminal organizations, was made possible thanks to the activation of over a million people. Over the years, many battles have taken place in this direction, bringing demands 'from the square to the palace', modifying existing regulations and expanding the possibilities to fight mafias and corruption.

In addition to the afore mentioned commitment on confiscated property, in respect of which two European directives were approved, as well as national laws, the list of bills for which the inter-associative network has generated all kinds of national and international mobilisations is long. One thinks of the commitment for the approval of the law against undeclared work and “caporalato” (the illegal recruitement of workforces, often migrants), the protection of witnesses of justice, the amendment on political-mafia vote exchange, the commitment for the introduction of crimes against the environment in the penal code, the pressure to arrive at the first law providing for the prevention of corruption, recently implemented with the transposition of the whistleblowing legislation, the institution of the Day of Memory and Commitment.

Young people in Palermo: 'The battle against mafias concerns us'

Works to be continued, works to be defended

But while many laws have been passed, there are many paths still awaiting a response from the legislator. Libera today continues to fight for the expansion of the rights of innocent victims of the mafias and their families, through the platform "Diritti Vivi" (Live Rights); it is clamouring for a regulation on conflict of interests and lobbying; it is asking for a 'third way' for women and children of criminal families who want to find a future far from their own context; it stresses the importance of a reorganisation and reduction in the field of gambling.

Libera continues to fight for the expansion of the rights of innocent victims of the mafias and their families, through the platform Diritti vivi. Particular attention must be paid to those legislative achievements that risk being set back on the anti-Mafia front, such as the law on the production and trade of armaments, the stop on the publication of judicial acts, which compresses freedom of information, the revision on the dissolution of local authorities for mafia infiltration and the institution of anti-Mafia interdictions. A non-exhaustive list, which connotes the strength of the mafias as a piece of the larger mosaic of the crime of the powerful.

Faced with phenomena that cut across all economic and social sectors, finding backing in the political apparatuses, there is a clear need for an apparatus of regulations capable of intervening in the various areas affected by the criminal presence. There are no simple recipes, short lists of ingredients: a systemic approach is fundamental, one that holds together the repressive front with the preventive one and recognises the role of citizenship as a leavening agent of change. The Libera network will continue to be there, to do its part.

This article was translated by Kompreno with the support of DeepL.

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