A book to read. In order not to be "on the wrong side of the world ..."

This book that tells the path of a girl in Bagnoli's Italsider, as well as reading pleasantly, is interesting for at least two reasons, which contribute to the clarity of what the factory means and what it means to women.

The emergence of class consciousness, the "worker" transformation, a worker who struggles, of Vincenzina - who is the daughter of an Italisider worker but had a completely different perspective than that of working in a factory that is scary, that you hate - does not happen easily, with contrasts, resistances, contradictions, but, then, above all, with the discovery of the hard factory.

Vincenzina discovers that the factory - who killed the father, like many other workers - is also, and often above all, "community", collective, unity. This community is given by suffering, but is primarily given by the discovery of others, the others; A community that is not outside the factory, but that continues to live, above all, for workers even outside the factory.

Exploitation, heavy, harmful working conditions, the fear of risking life like other workers/workers, the protervy of the leaders who care about human life, everything is there, especially in a steel factory such as Italsider; But there is gradually the discovery of strength, of the need to rebel, the joy of fighting, to unite, to be in a "family"; The reason for the pride of Vincenzina's father to be a communist.

Then, all of this, the book describes it as it has lived by women, which is different. For workers, the effort is greater, because they have the weight of the family, the concerns that accompany them in the factory; concerns that they find every day outside, by the need, fear, suffering of aborting in then more terrible conditions, to sisters who delude themselves of an easy way to make money, from economic difficulties, to the subjects submissive, linked like a chain to their men, for better or for worse, etc. etc.

But then, there is knowledge, the discovery of solidarity between women inside and outside the factory, friendships that become strong like steel. And therefore, the class community that is transformation, which gives strength, unity, hope. The factory in which to also find an unlawful, not false love.

We conclude with Vincenzina's words: "... how many hells existed in addition to his. The devil never stopped spreading poison, poisoning, transforming lives and people. In the end, Absurd, the factory saved. At the beginning he had hated him because he had taken his father and had sucked in her too, while now He realized that he had been on the wrong side of the world. That place, 'or construction site, united people, made sure that everyone compact the other for dignity and nobility, so everyone became a single being, a The only breath that sent life ahead ... ".

From a comment on Il Manifesto: "... When the Italsider will close its doors in the autumn of 1990, a sense of profound melancholy invades the workers. The last day there is silence in the factory, there is little to say. Everything is empty and loss. Bagnoli is destined to become like a laceration of the social and historical fabric of Naples. Vincenzina pays the last coffee to her companions with the bitterness of a farewell, even if now she knows she is one of them, and it will be forever "
"...when