To the members of the Progressive International,
My name is Domenico Lucano, and I write to request your support.
For many years, we have suffered a crisis of solidarity here in Italy. While governments in Rome have promised to deliver prosperity, regions like Calabria have been starved of resources. Young people have been forced to emigrate to find economic opportunity. And with their departure, our towns have been abandoned to history.
Amidst this process of depopulation, migrants from across the world have traveled to Italy to find a better life. But instead of welcoming them, our government has detained them, demonized them, and deported them. The true face of 'Fortress Europe' is visible here in the south of Italy: inhumane, illogical, and — by the right to asylum enshrined in international law — illegal as well.
In my town of Riace, we rejected the drift toward dehumanization to reawaken our community. We provided decent work, health care, housing, safety — not only to those who had lived here for generations, but also to those who had just arrived from long journeys abroad. We founded the Città Futura to realize a new future for Riace, preserving our local heritage precisely by welcoming refugees to our community.
I was elected on this platform three separate times — a revolutionary program of hospitality, rejuvenation, and abundance. Over the course of these 14 years, Riace became a beacon of hope for the dispossessed peoples living in Italy, and a source of inspiration for sanctuary cities around the world.
For these crimes of compassion, we have been persecuted. Under the banner of "Italians First," the forces of reaction have targeted our town and the model of hospitality that we fostered over more than a decade. First they blocked our funding. Next they placed me under house arrest. Finally they forced out the migrant families in our community. Their aim was not only to destroy the Riace model, but also to send a message that such hospitality would not be permitted anywhere in this country.
Now, the courts have condemned me to more than 13 years in prison for the absurd charge of encouraging "illegal" migration. It is a ruling that left me speechless: a shocking affront to our justice system, and a dangerous signal to undocumented migrants living among us. Prime Minister Mario Draghi speaks often about the need to safeguard human rights, but he is silent in the face of this historic injustice.
The stakes of this case are much higher than my own freedom. Solidarity itself is on trial. No crime was committed in our town of Riace. The crimes are those of our government in Rome, which denies the most basic rights to the refugees that live here, and leaves them to drown on the Mediterranean Sea instead.
I write now to ask your help to rectify this injustice. In recognition of the Progressive International’s courageous defense of persecuted peoples around the world, I request your support to fight the charges set against me, to stand up for the migrants shut out of our society, and to dismantle the fortress that has been constructed along the borders of Europe.
Domenico Lucano