The challenge of ARCI: “Let’s start again with the associations”

“Times are hard, the political situation is delicate, but we have to take back control of the situation, and start building again, by getting people involved.”  The President of the Varese branch of the cultural association, ARCI, Giulio Rossini read an incisive speech this morning, Saturday 6 April, at the beginning of the provincial organisation conference. The objective of this day of discussions and debate was to promote social, cultural and environmental commitment. “Whenever and wherever our forces allow us, we must respond by supporting our ideas,” Rossini explained.

In particular, the results of the national and regional political elections provide little comfort. “We are witnessing a political implosion and a decline in values, which began after the Second World War, which have allowed the birth and growth of social gathering and the social conscience of civil rights. Now, it is time to react, to understand how to fight social and cultural degradation.”

The context, on the one hand, but also the attack on the school system, which has the task of educating the new generations, are the two concerns that the president put at the heart of his speech. “These are two urgent problems, which we need to solve by giving back prominence to thinking, and importance to the values and the commitments typical of associations. First of all, we need to resume the fight for peace, which has been obscured in recent years, but which is still current and necessary; then there is the battle against the Mafia – soon, there will be the anti-Mafia Caravan, which we’ll be involved in, also because of the dire emergencies that exist in our region; and then, the battle to protect people’s rights, with a commitment to get jus soli recognised.”

Finally, Giulio Rossini began the chapter on culture. “We must win back spaces, starting with our premises, which will be open to all associations that apply. Varese lacks incentives, it lacks the general participation that allows individuals to meet and share paths: we act randomly, because the institutions give no direction. This is why we have to start from below, support what we have to continue growing stronger, with social value, the mainstay. Our town has been at a dead end for years, but it’s time to turn the page and to look to the future with optimism.”

And the energy, the drive to carry on, will come from the numerous associations in the region, that have presented their plans. And also from the young people, some of whom have come into the new managing board, which has the task of putting into practice the new “era of doing”.