|  
                          On the usual page "ai lettori" (to the readers), 
                          which opens the magazine, we report the death of a ninety-year-old 
                          anarchist who lived in Michigan: he was an Italian immigrant, 
                          one of the many that gave rise to a vast Italian-speaking 
                          anarchist movement in North America between the end 
                          of the 19th century and the last decades of the century 
                          just passed: a movement that has now exhausted itself, 
                          but also contributed - among other things - to supporting 
                          our magazine financially in the first years of its life. 
                          Globalization is the focus of two articles: Maria Matteo 
                          discusses the new "contro" movements in Italy, 
                          while Vittorio Giacopini analyzes the innovations that 
                          have been introduced into "political" action 
                          since Seattle. The cover dossier concerns world agriculture, 
                          famine, the policies of the multinationals, etc.: it 
                          is written by Zelinda Carloni and Adriano Paolella, 
                          the latter a key representative of WWF Italia. 
                          A recurrent theme on the pages of "A" is that 
                          of gypsies and the attitude of the authorities (and 
                          people) towards them. This time "A" discusses 
                          the gypsies in Palermo, with three articles that reveal 
                          the usual contradictions and the repression that is 
                          not even particularly well concealed. 
                          Mauro Macario remembers Victor Jara, the Chilean poet 
                          and songwriter, victim of the generals in the coup 30 
                          years ago. Lilla Consoni interviews Teodora Ansaldo, 
                          a former lawyer who now devotes herself to dance. Maria 
                          Mesch presents the experience of alternative lifestyles 
                          and alternative technologies represented for over twenty 
                          years by the Ufa-Fabrik, in the heart of Berlin. 
                          Anarchist thought, with its limits and perspectives, 
                          is the focus of an interview with Gianpiero Landi, one 
                          of the organizers of a Study Conference on Francesco 
                          Saverio Merlino, to be held in Imola (Bologna) on July 
                          1st. At the turn of the last century, Merlino was a 
                          key anarchist figure, but he subsequently developed 
                          a critique of the revolutionary conception, moving closer 
                          to more "moderate" positions, without this 
                          meaning he ever moved fully away from anarchist socialism. 
                          An interesting figure, on whom to reflect, not only 
                          thinking of the past. 
                          On the specific problems of agriculture and those who 
                          have chosen to live in the country, there is an article 
                          by the members of an anarchist commune in Puglia, the 
                          Urupia commune. 
                          Other themes discussed in this issue of "A": 
                          an account of the 23rd Congress of the Italian Anarchist 
                          Federation (FAI); the proposal of an anarchist summer 
                          camp for this coming summer; four book reviews (on the 
                          Roma, immigration, repression, ideologies); three letters 
                          (one on the singer songwriter Fabrizio De André, 
                          a report on a case of solitude in prison, one against 
                          the Catholic Jubilee). And the usual column by Felice 
                          Accame. 
                          Then we have the communiqués, the list of "A" 
                          sales outlets, subscriptions, a page advertising our 
                          "cousin" magazine Libertaria (a quarterly 
                          published by the same publishing house, although it 
                          is totally editorially independent). 
                        
                        
                        
                        
                          
                           translated by Leslie Ray  
                       |