(ANSA) - ROME, MARCH 21 - Today over 50 thousand people arriving from all over the country took to the streets in Milan on the occasion of the 28th Day of Remembrance and Commitment in remembrance of the innocent victims of the mafia.
The procession, which left from Porta Venezia to arrive in Piazza Duomo, also welcomed a section of the students, promoted by the student organizations Unione degli Studenti, Link Coordinamento Universitario and Rete della Scienza, which gave space to the voice of young men and women.
In addition to memory, the right to study, culture and sociality - the students say - are the tools of contrast to the mafia according to the students, who took to the streets to denounce the social inequalities and economic and cultural poverty in the internal areas of the country.
"The impoverishment and marginalization in our suburbs contributes to the development of organized crime - comments Giovanni Colombo of the Milan Knowledge Network - as young people we claim cities capable of fighting the mafias: we need accessible services and social spaces that favor emancipation".
During the procession, the students made a flash mob in Corso Giacomo Matteotti to claim participation and power from below, raising hundreds of placards on which was written "Now we decide".
"Early school dropouts in our country have a rate of 12.7%, much higher than the European average - explains Bianca Chiesa, national coordinator of the Students' Union - for many young people the only real alternative to crime is school, but until there it will be a structural refinancing of public schools, this alternative will remain inaccessible for many. We are certain that the enhancement of the right to study can and must be the main tool for affirming this alternative to the mafias. Because it is only with knowledge that mafia cancer can be eradicated".
"School and university classrooms are emptying while prisons are filling up" declares Virginia Mancarella of Link - University Coordination, "for this government the only response to the mafia is repression, but in the meantime the Calderoli Decree continues to exacerbate the differences between North and South, which in fact also means between Serie A universities and Serie B universities and the absence of prospects for those who study in the latter".
(HANDLE).