The article “The paradigm of Xylella fastidiosa” published on the last issue, number 7, of Fragua Social (p.14-15) resulted in the initiative, on the side of several unions placed in regions very badly hit by the so called “Xylella emergency”, of contacting the comrades in the Apulia region (in Italy). The aim was to organise a series of conferences with the main purpose to shed light on the dark aspects of the current management of this emergency, based on sharing information and experiences.
The initiative was welcomed in the area and the interest and participation of the attendees endorse the efforts of our Union in the dissemination and practice of the anarcho-syndicalist principles with regards problems in rural environment. The conference collected testimonies from Benissa, Alcoi and Albacete, particularly the realities of farmers and people who are sensitive to a comprehensive defence of the territory where they live. It has also been relevant as a first contact, and confirmed the need for a popular and independent co-ordination that embraces both popular and international response by means of several possible actions of solidarity and study.
Particularly in the Puglia Region, people were already working in an independent multidisciplinary scientific committee in order to support, backed by science, our conclusive claims: "there is a criminal strategy against people and the territory behind the fraud of the Xylella fastidiosa emergency". It has been argued that this bacteria is just an instrument, poorly justified, for the consolidation of consumer economies and capitalist mass production to the detriment of the historical culture of the territories and their possibilities for economic autonomy around agricultural production. Tourism and the capitalist devastation of mass production and consumption are against our lands cultural and environmental uses and habits.
