- Mondo Beat files a complaint in Milan Court against the Police headquarters, which suspends the deportation injunctions and authorizes a public rally
- Dante Palla locates a field that is suitable to create a campsite.
On March 18, Tecnografica Milanese handed us 7,000 copies of the fourth issue of Mondo Beat magazine (whom pages were reproduced in the previous chapter).
Many copies of the Magazine were sold at the Liceo Parini, where the first contestation of the Italian school was staged. Many copies were also sold in other high schools in Milan. Thousands of copies were sold in the streets of Milan, where the cops of the Urban Brigade did not ask us for the hawker license, although we were not disguised as nuns. After three days of selling, only 500 copies remained, which were blocked, for distributing them selectively in the time.
On March 24, Melchiorre Gerbino went to Pierluigi Perronace's trial, who was sentenced to stay 3 years without going to the center of Milan,
as already described.
On March 31, Gunilla Unger and Melchiorre Gerbino left the apartment where they lived during 18 months. Gunilla left for Sicily to visit our son Nino, who lived with my parents. Since that day, I slept in The Cave.
Note:
After the dissolution of the Mondo Beat Movement and the definitive departure of Melchiorre Gerbino from Milan, a stretch of street in Via Rucellai, that part where Gunilla Unger and Melchiorre Gerbino lived, had its name changed from "Via Bernardo Rucellai - poet" into "Via Martin Luther - theologian".
I must say that I haven't appreciated it at all, since it seems to me that this was done to indicate that there is some relationship between Contestation and Protestantism. I didn't appreciate this because I have no appreciation of Martin Luther and the Lutheran Church. From my point of view, Luther adapted the fraudulent Roman Christianity in a even worse fraudulent Christianity, in order to free the barbarian kings from the yoke of Rome and let them handle the fraud themselves. Indeed, a cascade of absurdities has descended from Luther, Prince Charles who will lead the Anglican Church. And Prince Charles is a balanced gentleman, think further, on Reverend Jim Jones.
So, let me clarify my position with the words of Bertrand Russell: "I say quite deliberately that the Christian Religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world".
In fact, at the time of Mondo Beat, I have not protested against the Vatican, but I have contestasted the Vatican and, by the years, my stand against the Vatican (and Martin Luther) has become radicalized, such radicalized that I have converted to Islam.
On April 3, assisted by lawyers Alessandro Garlatti and Carlo Invernizzi and accompanied by 200 youths of the Base of Mondo Beat, Melchiorre Gerbino lodged a complaint with the Milan Court against the Police headquarters.
A copy of this complaint was sent to the Minister of Justice and a copy to the Minister of the Interior.
150 people went to the Courthouse to submit a complaint.
From left, lawyer Carlo Invernizzi, Melchiorre Gerbino, lawyer Alessandro Garlatti, as they descended the stairs of the Courthouse of Milan, after they had submitted a complaint against the Police headquarters. Lawyers Carlo Invernizzi and Alessandro Garlatti were pupils of the notorious lawyer Francesco Carnelutti.
Two hundred longhairs at the Courthouse
A strange procession. Two hundred longhairs in the Court for the recognition of their "civil rights".
In the photo, with his hands up, Zafferano.
Two hundred longhairs in Court to enforce their civil rights.
We want to be left in peace, as honest people.
In the photo, Cristo di Monza.
Longhairs at the Palace of Justice to demand "rights" for the Beat generation.
As you can see, the youths of the Base of Mondo Beat were always in the front line for affirming civil rights, both in risky rallies and in legal actions.
In the photo, the first in the left corner is Giorgio Contini, then Giorgio Cavalli Ombra, Melchiorre Gerbino, Zafferano, Eros Alesi.
(photo AGI - Il Giorno)
From left, Giorgio Cavalli Ombra, Melchiorre Gerbino, Zafferano (his face is half-covered) and the poet Eros Alesi.
After filing the complaint against the Police headquarters, they returned to The Cave, which was located 200 meters from the Court.
Below is a copy of the complaint against the Milan Police headquarters
The complaint was accompanied by a detailed report on the harassment and violence inflicted on the youths of Mondo Beat by agents of the Milan police headquarters.
*
On April 5, the secretary of the Lombard Republican Youth arrived at The Cave and communicated that the Minister of Justice, who was a member of the Republican Party, had received a copy of the complaint against the Milan Police headquarters and he was willing to receive Melchiorre Gerbino in Rome.
Melchiorre Gerbino thanked the Secretary and assured him that he would go to meet the Minister as soon as possible.
But, in reality, I didn't care to go to Rome to be photographed together with the Minister (they made so many photos of me in Milan!). Instead, it would have been interesting to take this occasion for finding a compromise with the Police headquarters. So I called the youths who were in The Cave and I solemnly declared that I was going to Rome to meet the Minister of Justice, to request severe sanctions against some officials of the Milan Police headquarters. At that, police informers, who never failed in the premises of Mondo Beat, ran towards the Police headquarters, to tell about this news, and it didn't take long time before Gaetano, the owner of the bar opposite The Cave, called me because of someone on the phone...
"Antonio Saccardo speaking. I am a commissioner of the Milan Police headquarters, Mr. Gerbino, I would be happy to meet you. I do not officially request it."
"Mr Saccardo, this would be my pleasure."
"May I come with a driver, to pick you up?"
"Yes, sir.".
Antonio Saccardo was a Neapolitan gentleman in his fifties, gray hair, strong build. He was a little lame. As we crossed the premises of the Police headquarters, which he liked to show me, he leaned with one hand on a stick and with the other on my arm.
He congratulated me for my intelligent attitude of having educated the youths of Mondo Beat in being respectful of the policemen, even when they were arrested.
Since with the walk we arrived in a dining room, where some plainclothes policemen were eating, as they recognized Mr. Saccardo, they got up and gave us a solemn military salute.
While we proceeded with the walk, Antonio Saccardo was telling me about his life. When, as a young lawyer in Naples, he had adopted anti-fascist attitudes that had caused him a world of trouble. To get rid of those problems, he had no choice but to join the police as a volunteer and he did it. But when its time arrived, he joined the Resistance. And he was assigned to a clandestine radio station, which was never found by the Germans, because it transmitted very short messages from a location in the heart of Milan which was a few meters away from the location of the German radio (in fact, this is a famous story)... Antonio Saccardo treated me with a father-to-son attitude, which didn't embarrass me, because he was somehow sincere.
In the end, we would easily have found an agreement, since the Police headquarters would no longer impose mandatory expulsion orders on the youths of Mondo Beat and, consequently, Melchiorre Gerbino had nothing to do in Rome. To formalize the new course, Antonio Saccardo and Melchiorre Gerbino agreed on a rally on April 8, organized by Mondo Beat and authorized by the Police headquarters.
Articles on the Mondo Bear Rally April 8, 1967
The Corriere della Sera with one more misinformation "Maoist communists and longhairs allied in a new din in the city center". In fact, there was not a single Maoist communist who participated in the rally. Nor it was any din during the rally.
Photos of the Mondo Bear Rally April 8, 1967
In one of the signs reads "Long hair is not unconstitutional" (I capelli lunghi non sono anticostituzionali).
In conclusion. The complaint against the Milan Police headquarters, which had a huge media coverage (the Corriere d'Informazione broke the news in the front page) and the Rally that followed, were substantial steps towards the assertion of civil rights in Italy. Ordinary people understood that the police were not above the law. The Swedish leather coat that Melchiorre Gerbino had wore during that wet winter in Milan and with which he went to the Court to submit the complaint, would become the emblem of the assertion of civil rights in Italy because, after him, other activists would have worn similar leather coats on the occasion of official events for the assertion of civil rights.
As a consequence of this rally, authorized by the Police headquarters and escorted by its officers, something profound changed in the Mondo Beat Movement.
As the news spread that the city of Milan was safe for the Beats, many youths arrived from all over Italy and along with them youths from other countries and they were so many that we could no longer welcome all of them inside The Cave. Many remained with their backpacks on the sidewalk, others in the bar in front of The Cave, while onlookers permanently clogged Via Vicenza, the street in which The Cave was located.
Furthermore, since we were no longer in danger with the police, strange characters came to The Cave to give speeches, people who did not participate in the events of the Contestation, nor understood its motivations. These people never stopped talking, unless they were sure that some of the nonsense they wrote would be published in Mondo Beat magazine.
To complicate the critical situation, lawyer Contini, Giorgio's father, arrived from Sardinia to take him back home. Giorgio Contini was the trustee of the cellar of The Cave, which was the heart of the Movement, and there was no one who could replace him well, as Giorgio's intelligence and dedication were unique. His absence was felt at the very moment when more than ever his presence would have been necessary, but however it was good that his father arrived, as Giorgio needed medical attention, since he suffered from bronchitis, because he had been in the humidity of the cellar for too long.
Returning to consider the situation created because of the pacification with the police headquarters, if on the one hand it was positive, on the other it was very risky, since Mondo Beat could end as a breaking movement and become only a fashion.
Therefore, it was urgent to find a way to proceed without losing our identity. And logic said that since what really destabilizes power is the loss of control over the sexual behavior of its subjects, and what made Mondo Beat attractive was the promotion of a sexual revolution, we had to further promote this sexual revolution.
So, in the double aim of getting out of the confusion created by the too large number of people who crowded in The Cave, and to further trigger the sexual revolution, Umberto Tiboni and Melchiorre Gerbino decided to create a campsite on the outskirts of Milan, where everyone could pitch a tent without paying. And they asked Dante Palla to urgently find a land to rent.
And on April 20, Dante Palla communicated the good news. He had found a suitable place to create a tent city. To get there, you had to take tram 24 to the Vigentino terminal, then walk for 10 minutes. It was easy to do, as tram 24 had a stop in a corner of Piazza Duomo.
In fact, the place was ideal, big enough to accommodate 200 tents. On one side, the field was delimited by the wall of a factory; on the opposite side it was bounded by the Vettabbia brook; in the direction of the road, it was delimited by a row of bushes and, behind, there was the square of a petrol station; in the opposite direction there were fields as far as the Alps, who stood out on the horizon. The price agreed by Dante Palla, for four months rent, was £ 140,000 (say, as 1,400 copies of the Magazine). Umberto Tiboni and Melchiorre Gerbino decided to take it immediately.
On April 23, four of us went to the house of an old peasant, who was waiting along with two sons. Gerbino put £ 140,000 on the table. He said we were boy scouts who wanted to camp out as soon as possible. The farmer replied there were no problems. So, we signed the contract, valid from May 1 to August 31, 1967.
There, the tent city of Mondo Beat would have arisen, which the Corriere della Sera would have baptized New Barbonia. Other newspapers, also from the reactionary area, would have called it Barbonia City. Both appellations had the same meaning of "new tramps city". But this wouldn't have annoyed us, these nicknames were amusing, we have liked them.
Barbonia City would have lasted 42 days, before the Vatican was able to have it destroyed by the Italian government, but the consequences of what happened in those 42 days are not yet calculable.
