"When you talk about organized unemployed in Naples, times stops". The "Movimento dei disoccupati organizzati" in Naples between memories and contested futures

In the proposed paper we address the link between struggles for employment and “recognition” of the MDO-Movimento dei disoccupati organizzati (organized unemployed movement) in Naples, a movement whose first mobilizations took place in Napoli in the mid-seventies and which is still lasting in present times. Its requests have been basically jobs in social services or in urban renewal. The paper is based on a research made of direct observation and interviews with the local actors involved. Starting with some references to the historical research on the experiences of mobilization of the unemployed in the past, the paper gives an account of the origins and the most important characteristics of the Movimento. It follows evolution and cycles of mobilization of MDO, its difficulties and crisis. Finally, the paper discusses the social representation of the Neapolitan unemployed and their attempt to produce a counter-narrative and a different image of themselves. Both the social composition and the leadership of the movement have often changed. After the most innovative successful experience of the seventies, there have been difficult moments, points of decadence and moments of reprisal. But the movement is alive still now after more than forty years.