The Agrarian Mafia          n  Agrarian mafia It was in the Sicilian interior that the mafia was exploiting peasants the most n  The Latifondo System A gabelloto leases on a short term contract (usually one year) a property called latifondo from a noble (this money is called gabella). Then he shares the land and sub rents each plot of land to the peasants, to be paid through agricultural products either through the system of the Metateria  or the Terraggio. Metateria - It was a form of Mezzadria that in Sicily did not mean ½ as in the rest of Italy but ¼, the deal was not made directly with the landowner like in Tuscany in the other region of the North of Italy but with the middle man, who was a brutal Mafioso; the peasants were not living in the podere (farm) like in Tuscany and in the rest of Italy but in villages around Terratico or Terraggio A quota was fixed TO BE PAID TO THE GABELLOTO, established at the beginning of the year. Peasants had to loan seeds, loans, wheat from the gabelloto; at the end of the year, being the contract oral, the gabelloto was of course claiming for a bigger part of what he had anticipated Donativi: quotas paid to the campieri and sovrastanti by the peasants The agrarian mafia: -          Landowners -          Gabelloti: joining the mafia enabled a gabelloto to do his job better -          Campieri: protecting the field from bandits -          Sovrastanti: supervising the reaping -          Fontanieri: providing watering to the fields The parasitic revenue of the gabelloto derived from:              What he was obtaining by the peasants                                -                           gabella (rent)   Peasants had always debts with the gabelloti and had just enough to survive If they rebelled the pattern was: -          Friendly advice -          Threat -          Lupara So they had three alternatives of life: 1)      Be exploited by the mafia and reduced to slavery   2)      Migrate   3)      (Try to) Join the mafia and become a campiere   n  Fasci dei Lavoratori At the end of the 1880s oppressed peasants of western and central Sicily began to form new organizations called Fasci The most important was in Corleone: his leader Verro spoke to the peasants in their own dialect with examples from the fable they knew and was therefore extremely effective in his propaganda The fasci were demanding for: -          New contracts -          Cooperation and organizations for workers -          Women’s rights    Mafiosi were not admitted to the Fasci not to give the Government a pretext to suppress them,     but the mafia was in many cases able to infiltrate them                                      Fasci were part of the broader Socialist Movement There was the project of a revolution by both Mafiosi and leaders of the Fasci in a national and international political climate characterized by the huge growth of socialism This project failed either because the Mafiosi understood that the Government would have proved stronger than the Fasci or because the leaders of the peasants were scared and skeptical about the support of the mafia; or both things at the same time 1894: Fasci were declared illegal, martial law, some peasants were killed; Verro too was arrested and sentenced 12 years of prison; liberated two years later thanks to an amnesty   n  Mafia and the Lemon/Oranges Groves Ran protection rackets in the lemon groves, by forcing landowners to accept their men as stewards, wardens, and brokers Complex network of cart drivers, laborers, and merchants which would could either guarantee safe delivery or complete loss Once in control the Mafiosi stole as much as they wanted in order to take a tax or eventually buy it themselves                    Mafia and Fascism                 (Mussolini)                                                              (The Iron Prefect Cesare Mori) In the meanwhile it emerges a new political actor, FASCISM that is ANTI-SOCIALIST In 1921-2 Fascism gains importance in the Italian society   Landowners and mafia’s options 1)      SEPARATISM: asking for the independence of Sicily from Italy (Leader was Finocchiaro Aprile)   2)      EXPLOITING FASCISM: in the fight against Socialism to normalize it within the political system (It was the policy carried out nationally by Sicilian politician Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and former liberal prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti)   n  Oct 1925: Mori is appointed prefect of Palermo And given full powers to bring Sicily under control of State Military solution: suspension of rights, rounds-up, sieges of town: bandits, Mafiosi are arrested and humiliated; women and children are used as hostages to force them to surrender; this create a situation of unease among the population Mori imposed to quit paying taxes to the mafia, to denounce any act of intimidation or violence to the Authorities of the State His strategy was based on impressing the Sicilian population and demonstrating that the State was now stronger than the mafia   What Happened? Mediation of barons, nobles and latifondisti in return for their impunity 1926-7: Many flew to the Us Maxi-trials and Maxi-Condemns for Mafiosi, criminals and political administrators but not the Latifondisti (Landowners)     (1926-1927) 1929: Mori is appointed senator for the rest of his life; he’s upset because he is basically dismissed before he could complete his job In conclusion: Mori arrested not just common criminal or less important Mafiosi, but also important Mafiosi Those who understood that fascism was going to last for a long time began to their interests THROUGH the State: those who carried on in their attitude AGAINST the State were sent to prison, interment, and to the confino; or flew to America (500 were the Mafiosi that went to the States to avoid an inconvenient political climate) Cocco, an important fascist hierarch (politician) in Sicily, was investigated under the accuse of being Mafioso and dismissed by the Fascist party Mori was dismissed by Mussolini in 1929 Mori hit hard the rural mafia and its weakest stratum using the logic of the regime of arresting as many people as possible to demonstrate the power of the State He could rely on the mediation of landowners and latifondisti that therefore found a new legitimation within the Fascist regime