Insecurity, accidents, discrimination: where have the rights at work gone?

That song is timeless: «Vincenzina in front of the factory, Vincenzina doesn’t wear the scarf anymore. A face in front of the gate that is already opening. Vincenzina you looked at the factory, As if there is nothing but factory … “, Enzo Jannacci sang it in 1974 and now returns, with vigor, to give the title to the meeting” Vincenzina, the factory and her sisters: literary stories of work and women’s rights “during the Festival of Law and Literature in Palmi, from 13 to 16 October, where we talk about gender discrimination, wage differences, parity and equality, but also and above all about the enormous literary and cultural richness that lies within the story of a battle for equality that is claimed, and sometimes denounced.

Have you ever wondered why, despite the many laws that formally aim to guarantee gender equality, these rules then have profound difficulties in being concretely applied? Mimma Sprizzi and Eleonora Lombardo Yes! And if they ask, once again and in public, looking in the eyes without discounts a world of work, still too sexist. Because in the end the effectiveness of the law also passes, and perhaps above all, through cultural changes, through what a community manages to modify its own profound feeling thanks to culture and writing. Not militant statements, therefore, but thanks to the method of contamination between law and literature, in-depth reflections on women, work and equality.

“I still remember the astonished face of that old colleague of mine, as wise as he was resigned, who asked me” do you really think that we can talk about justice and legality using the songs of De Andrè? “. And I replied “of course yes. Indeed, a single song by Faber is better than twenty or thirty of our conferences ». To speak is Antonio Salvati, a Neapolitan magistrate who has lived for twenty years in Calabria, in Palmi, where he organizes a Festival, lasting four days entirely dedicated to Law and Literature. «Put like this», Salvati continues, «it seems a heavy thing, a demonstration for professionals. Instead, it’s anything but that, and for a very simple reason. Talking about law, justice, equity, legality is a right, I would almost say a heritage, which belongs to all of us. You don’t need to have a law degree to discuss such important topics. This is why doing it starting from the novels of Dickens or Kafka, but also from the songs of Pino Daniele, or from the paintings of Goya, serves to convey this very important message ».

This year the guiding theme of the festival is work: «We talk about precariousness, especially among young people; of the tragic phenomena of illegal hiring and accidents at work, but also of the drama of alienation, in these cities of ours where we continually run like hamsters on the wheel to get to and from the factory, shop or office, and the progressive disappearance of guarantees resulting from the achievements of the second half of the twentieth century. We deal with it through the novels of Charles Dickens, the words of Erri De Luca, Aldo Nove and Maurizio De Giovanni ».