Struggle for "redistribution" and for "recognition": the case of the "organized unemployed movement" in Naples (Southern Italy)

The paper addresses the issue of the link between struggles for recognition and for redistribution on the basis of a case study focused on the “movement of the organized unemployed” in Napoli. That is the most important urban protest movement that erupted among marginal workers and poor people in Naples, and also the only one of its kind in Italy. The paper is divided into three parts. I’ll start by describing the mobilization that began in the mid-1970s in Naples. The considerations developed in this section of the paper are based both on the literature and on individual and collective interviews with the local actors involved. I also made use of newspaper articles, photos and videos available on the Internet covering the period from the Seventies until today. Then, we’ll discuss two questions. The first and most noticeable concerns the forms of representation of under-represented people. One of the reasons behind the mobilizations of the "organized unemployed" is in fact the need to voice their protest and fill the deficit of representation by trade unions, Italian political parties and a Bismarckian welfare system which is employment oriented, therefore less inclined to offer social support and coverage to the most vulnerable workers. The second issue concerns the way in which the protest activities of this specific group of Neapolitan unemployed people has fostered the emergence of a "counternarrative" capable of opposing the categories and labels attached to them.