The World March arrives in Trieste

After passing through the City of Koper-Capodistria, in Slovenia, on February 26, the Second World March for Peace and Nonviolence finally arrives in Italy.

The program of the passage of the March in the Trieste area was greatly reduced due to the orders issued for the emergency of the coronavirus: as in Umag (Croatia) and Piran (Slovenia) it was not possible to meet with the Muggia and Trieste schoolchildren (it 500 children were waiting in the Aula Magna of the University of Trieste) and a public conference was canceled in which nuclear disarmament and ethical options for peace would be discussed.

Late in the morning the grassroots team was received privately at the Muggia City Council by Muggia Mayor Laura Marzi, then the delegation moved to the City of Dolina-San Dorligo della Valle where it was received (again privately ) by the Minister of Environment, Territory, Urban Planning and Transportation Davide Þtokovac.

Then the group moved to the San Giovanni park (former psychiatric hospital, then open to the city) where, in a private ceremony in front of the Nagasaki kako, Alessandro Capuzzo, of the local organizing committee, recalled the figure of the nonviolent psychiatrist Franco Basaglia with the support of interpreter Ada Scrignari.

Also present were Roberto Mezzina, former director of the Mental Health Department of Trieste and the two actors Pavel Berdon and Giordano Vascotto from the “Accademia della Follia”.

The second, in particular, related his experience when he was found locked up in a psychiatric hospital as a child, before the Basaglia reform, a reform that allowed him to have a normal life and find a job outside the old hospital.

The delegation then moved to the center of Trieste to visit the "places of memory" where there are individual commemorative plaques recalling the horrors committed by the Nazi-Fascists and in Piazza Oberdan a monument commemorating two murdered "boyfriends" by the Nazis.

In several places the "dealers" left wreaths and bouquets of flowers.

The day ended with a meeting with Trieste's friends from the 2nd World March where the promoter of the March, Rafael de la Rubia, shared his experiences of the countries he visited.

In the end, the "Danilo Dolci Committee for Peace, Coexistence and Solidarity" wanted to pay tribute to the 5 protesters with the Italian and Slovenian bilingual flags of peace before leaving for the next stage: Fiumicello-Villa Vicentina, a city 50 km from Trieste.

Writing and photography: Davide Bertok