On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the tragedy of Marcinelle, the General Council of Italians in the East will participate in the commemorations that will take place on August 8 at the mining site of Bois du Cazier, in Belgium, to pay tribute to the 262 workers who lost their lives in the 1956 disaster, including 136 Italians.
This year’s celebrations take on historical significance and a new European dimension; for the first time, in fact, August 8 will be celebrated as a European Day in memory of the victims of accidents at work and for the protection and dignity of workers, in memory of the tragedy of Marcinelle and the sacrifice of miners of eleven different nationalities.
The European recognition, to which the institution has imprinted a decisive impetus the president of CNEL Renato Brunetta, with the support of the foreign minister Antonio Tajani and the CGIE, gathers and projects on the EU level the meaning of the National Day of the sacrifice of Italian labor in the world, established by Italy in 2001, extending the memory of Marcinelle to shared heritage of European peoples and strengthens its universal value as a symbol of safety of work and dignity. The CGIE welcomes this step, intended to consolidate a shared European memory of work and migration.
“Italy combined in all its components has been able to accompany Europe to the necessary enhancement of the tragedy of Marcinelle. We are faced with a historical passage that renews the need to consider in its right dimension migrant work and dignity without conditions to be accorded to each human being. This European institutional recognition expresses a new impetus also to us, protagonists of popular diplomacy, because the strength of Europe is first and foremost that of the generations sacrificed by war and unjust labor, who look at us and ask us to build a future up to our history.” Thus the General Secretary Maria Chiara Prodi, who will lead the delegation of the CGIE to the Bois du Cazier, composed of the advisers Matteo Bracciali, Filippo Ciavaglia, Gianluigi Ferretti, Massimo Romagnoli and Carmelo Vaccaro, together with the honourable Toni Ricciardi, elected in the External Circumscription. At the same time, the councillor of CGIE Massimiliano Picciani will participate in the commemorative ceremony that will take place in Manoppello, in the province of Pescara, town of Abruzzo twinned with Marcinelle, from which 23 of the victims of the tragedy came.
The new European dimension of 8 August must now be translated into a stable opportunity of meeting and collaboration between the bodies representing the diaspores of the continent, favouring the comparison, coordination and promotion of common initiatives. In this perspective, enhancing dialogue with the AICCRE and other networks active at European level, the CGIE relaunches the project Europe in Movement for the creation of an Agency dedicated to European citizens in mobility: an instrument of agreement capable of giving voice to their experiences and requests, and to strengthen their forms of representation.
In the 70th anniversary of the tragedy, the Bois du Cazier confirms itself as one of the fundamental places of European social consciousness: the place where the sacrifice of migrant workers calls Europe to the responsibility of guaranteeing security, protection of rights and dignity of work.
The memory of Marcinelle must continue to live in public culture, in communication, in the activities of the institutions and, more generally, in the educational and formative paths of the new generations.
The sacrifice of migrant workers recalls the principle of the Constitution according to which Italy is a democratic republic founded on work, which fully includes that carried out by overseas compatriots and recognizes its contribution to the economic, social and civil history of the country of origin and those who have welcomed them.
In the memory of Marcinelle, as of Monongah, Mattmark and other places marked by the tragedies of emigration and work, the CGIE renews its commitment to safeguard and make visible this inheritance, in the awareness that the history of the Italian diaspora and its representation is an integral part of that of Italy and Europe.
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