Report
Manifestival: Always on the side of obstinancy
Il manifesto’s Manifestival offered a portrait of the current state of affairs, which can only feature plenty of darkness and stark contrasts. But here, too, it is all a question of persistence, of not surrendering in the face of passing years, troubles and governments.
Luciana Castellina’s story is one of persistence, of an obstinacy that yields to nothing, proving that it’s simply not true that everything fades away with time. Some things always remain.
She was born in 1929, and one need only recount two events from her day on Saturday: the afternoon in Terni at a meeting of her party, Sinistra Italiana, and the evening at the Palladium theater in Rome at il manifesto’s Manifestival, discussing life, and therefore politics, with the newspaper’s vice-director Micaela Bongi and Daniela Preziosi, the parliament correspondent of Domani.
Obviously, everyone is different, but some people can never retire from being who they are. Castellina got her first Communist Party card in 1947. A little over 20 years later, she co-founded il manifesto and was expelled from the party for it. Now, 55 years later on, she has still not joined the ranks of the defeated preaching about the end of everything. Instead, she continues to be what she has always been: a militant communist.
This is a defining trait of il manifesto: you never stop being part of this “original form of politics,” which, contrary to many predictions, continues to appear on newsstands in Italy every day. It’s true for Castellina, it’s true for Daniela Preziosi, who interviewed her, and it’s also true for Simone Pieranni, who spoke at the Moby Dick library about the green transition in China, the United States and Europe. You can leave il manifesto, but il manifesto will likely never leave you.
Perhaps it is even true for the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, who stopped by to offer a greeting. We brought out from our archives some of the pieces he wrote for our paper in years past – “as a historian and as an activist,” he said, recalling that il manifesto not only provides information but also works to build, or rebuild, “a political culture.”
The second day of the Manifestival was the most political of all, taking the audience on a long journey along borders of every kind. The geographical ones that do not exist in nature but create wars and injustices, of which Maysoon Majidi spoke. She fled persecution in Iran only to be arrested in Italy accused of being a people smuggler before being acquitted because “she did not commit the act.” The borders of law and rights, which apply to those who can afford them but not to the rest of the world. The borders of our digital lives, as we still try to understand what artificial intelligence truly is – a machine that serves power or one that serves community.
The borders of struggle, too, with the extraordinary and unprecedented meeting that brought together Chris Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union in the U.S., and Dario Salvetti from the GKN factory collective. And the borders of information, which can be precious material or spoiled goods depending on who produces it. What is journalism in a time of genocide? Orly Noy, from the courageous Israeli magazine +972, discussed this with Lenaig Bredoux of France’s Mediapart and Cyrus Salimi-Asl of Germany’s Neues Deutschland.
The resulting portrait of the current state of affairs can only feature plenty of darkness and stark contrasts. But here, too, it is all a question of persistence, of not surrendering in the face of passing years, troubles and governments. Hundreds were in the audience listening. There was a line outside the Palladium theater half an hour before the doors opened, and the other events – at the Villetta Social Lab, the Moby Dick library and the La Mescita winery – were also sold out. We had hoped for this, but hadn’t expected it.
On Sunday, amid press reviews, assemblies and remembrances, the Manifestival was set to go on the offensive: at 4:30 p.m. at the Palladium, Jeremy Corbyn, Manon Aubry of La France Insoumise, Jan van Aken of Die Linke, and Irene Montero of Podemos would be the guests on a panel with a challenging title: “Which Left in the Face of the Black Wave?”
Just a few days ago, the European Parliament saved Ilaria Salis from an unjust trial in Hungary by a margin of a single vote. While that is very good news, the AVS party MEP came perilously close to being handed over to Viktor Orbán’s country, where the rule of law does not exist. It is a sign of just how close we are to a rebirth of tragedy in our small but very privileged corner of the world. There is no easy solution, but there is the hope of building one together.
To offer that hope at the close of Saturday’s events, there was the voice of Lili Refrain: melodies, synthesizers, sea monsters, travelers, martial arts. These things, too, are necessary to exist. To persist. To resist.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/sempre-dalla-stessa-parte-con-ostinazione on 2025-10-12