The march for development between memory and reading of the present. The presentation of the book “Our march. 19 October – 8 December 1992” , the detailed story full of testimonies on one of the most dramatic and at the same time hopeful pages in the recent history of Sulcis Iglesiente.
After the presentation of the editor and journalist Giampaolo Cirronis , the word passed to the four authors. Sandro Mantega , journalist of the Sardinian Union, after recalling how those days "have had a profound impact on the history of the territory" and how that initiative, "a choral, almost spontaneous mobilization, served to safeguard the economy of a territory", he wanted to emphasize the differences between yesterday and today. "The march should be an example to follow in our day, where instead, despite the serious economic situation, there is no longer a trace of such initiatives due to increasingly worrying indifference and non-participation".
Immediately afterwards it was the turn of Tore Cherchi , Senator at the material time. After a historical contextualization of the March, when "the entrepreneurial state withdrew" and when "the complete liquidation of the mining-metallurgical and energy sector" was wanted, the former parliamentarian recalled how "thanks to that initiative the result was achieved, both at regional and national level, to correct the winding-up approach of the Green Paper on State shareholdings. Many jobs and the entire metallurgical sector were saved”. Before concluding, there was a reading of the current situation: “it is a mystification to think that industries no longer serve the territory. We must enter the ecological transition that generates new manufacturing products and destroys obsolete processes and products. The alternative is to be only a place of consumption and not also of production”.
Even the then Mayor of Carbonia, Antonangelo Casula , wanted to put the past and the future together. “It was a real mobilization of the people, thanks to the participation of all sectors of society. However, from those years on we no longer had an industrial policy worthy of the name and without industry both development and progress will be lacking”. For this reason, the former undersecretary for the economy calls for "a strong political initiative with which to put the demands of an entire territory back on the table".
The last of the authors to speak was the then general secretary of the Sulcis Iglesiente labor chamber Peppino La Rosa : “This book is about us. To some it reminds of a very important event, to others it tells about it. The book is a collective work, in the sense that it was written thanks to the contribution of all those who participated in the March”. It was the former CGIL exponent, after recalling that the proceeds from the sale will be donated to Caritas, who launched a video which in about thirty minutes re-proposed the salient moments of those days. In front of the images, the many protagonists of the time present in the room but also the people who weren't there at the time, relived the emotions and tensions of those long days.
Precisely during the screening, those present, with long applause, wanted to pay homage to some of the protagonists who are no longer there today: Sergio Usai, Antonello Saba, Antonello Corda, Cesira Serra, Giampaolo Puddu , just to name a few. At the end of the videos it was the turn of the speeches from the audience. Much appreciated was that of Cardinal Arrigo Miglio , appointed bishop of Iglesias a few months before the March. Monsignor Miglio, after recalling those years and how "thanks to those events my interest in social issues matured" reiterated that "the March has helped to look at work as a common good for everyone and not just as the interest of some specific sectors. Today the problem of work is also a cultural question: we need to look at the culture of work and not at the culture of income".
