Southern Chronicles: The Political Ecology of Class in the Italian Industrial Periphery

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on class as a central concept for analyzing the common ground of labor and environmental struggles. Through the examination of the frictions between industrial workers and environmentalists in Brindisi, an industrial city in the Italian South, the article unravels the socio-ecological dilemmas underlying their valuation frameworks. It addresses the job blackmail as a central element of the framework through which workers and environmentalists understand the contradictory forces at work in the local socio-ecological crisis. The article looks at the critical junctions that underpin the making of the local working class. As concrete determinations of capitalist socio-ecological contradictions, these junctions constitute the focus for the political ecology of class pursued in this article. To illuminate the place-bound experience of these contradictions, the article looks at the tension between value and values in shaping the experience of the work–environment nexus. Assuming the centrality of class for labor and environmental struggles, the article argues for the re-articulation of the fields of workers and environmentalists as a crucial step towards the definition of a common emancipatory socio-ecological project.

KEYWORDS:

• Class
• environment
• Italy
• valuation
• work

Acknowledgements

The author wants to thank Jaume Franquesa, Natalia Buier, Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and helpful comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Brindisi between 2015 and 2016 (15 months). First-hand data were collected through semi-structured interviews, informal conversations and extended observation among working-class households, unions, and environmentalist groups.

2 See “Edipower: davanti ai cancelli le istanze di operai e associazioni ambientaliste,” BrindisiReportit, 24 April 2014.

3 The industrial area also includes metal-mechanical production, aeronautics, pharmaceuticals, LPG storage facilities, waste disposal plants and a sugar refinery.

4 All names are pseudonyms.

5 The Eni (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) was established in 1953 as an oil and gas public company. After its privatization in 1992, the state remained the major shareholder. The Brindisi petrochemical pole is managed through the chemical subsidiary Versalis.

6 See “Morti Petrolchimico il gip di Brindisi archivia l' inchiesta,” La Repubblica, 4 June 2008.

7 For an overview of scientific studies on the impact of industrial contamination in the area see Portaluri (2012). The epidemiological study by Forastiere et al. (2017) highlighted the anomalous incidence of cardiovascular, respiratory diseases and (certain types of) cancer, as well as congenital malformations.

8 See “Impressionante sfiammata dalla torcia del petrolchimico: cittadini in allarme,” BrindisiReportit, 2 July 2015.

9 See: https://www.mise.gov.it/images/stories/documenti/BROCHURE_ENG_SEN.PDF (accessed August 26 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This article received support from the European Research Council Advanced Grant “Grassroots Economics: Meaning, Project and Practice in the Pursuit of Livelihood” [GRECO] (IDEAS-ERC FP7, Project Number: 323743); the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (CEECIND/01894/2018/CP1533/CT0001); and the Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia (UIDB/04038/2020).