THE MAFIA

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THE MAFIA

• Edoardo Crisafulli

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• THE FOUR CRIMINAL NETWORKS IN ITALY THE MAFIA
  (SICILY) THE CAMORRA (CAMPANIA-NAPLES) THE
  NDRANGHETA (CALABRIA), THE SACRA CORONA UNITA
  (PUGLIA).

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• MAFIA HAS BECOME A GENERIC TERM FOR ANY
  HIGHLY-ORGANIZED CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION.
• GIOVANNI FALCONE, THE ANTI-MAFIA JUDGE MURDERED
  BY THE MAFIA IN 1992, OBJECTED TO THIS GENERIC
  USE OF THE TERM MAFIA, WHICH, IN HIS VIEW, IS A
  UNIQUE ORGANIZATION.

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• VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF THE MAFIA
• A MIRROR OF TRADITIONAL, PRIMITIVE, SICILIAN
  SOCIETY
• A CONSEQUENCE OF THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF SICILIANS
  AND SOUTHERN ITALIANS
• A UNIQUE TYPE OF CRIMINAL INDUSTRY THAT HAS
  REGIONAL ROOTS
• A SECRET SOCIETY COMPRISING CRIMINALS BUT ALSO
  MEN OF HONOUR
• AN INDEPENDENT JURIDICAL ORDER THAT IS PARALLEL
  TO THAT OF THE STATE.

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• THE FIRST TWO ARE THE WEAKEST INTERPRETATIONS,
  AND YET THEY HAVE BECOME VERY POPULAR. THE FIRST
  MYTH THE MAFIA IS A FEUDAL RESIDUE OF THE PAST,
  AND A MANIFESTATION OF THE SICILIAN CHARACTER.
• SALVATORE LUPO IN HIS HISTORY OF THE MAFIA, ONE
  OF THE BEST STUDIES ON THIS TOPIC, MAKES A VERY
  INTERESTING ARGUMENT

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• AN OUTMODED APPROACH TO HISTORIOGRAPHY
  DESCRIBES NINETEENTH- AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY
  SOUTHERN ITALY AS A SEMIFEUDAL SOCIETY.THE
  REGION IS DEPICTED AS ENTIRELY AGRARIAN AND
  ORGANIZED ACCORDING TO THE LARGELANDED ESTATE,
  ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY INERT AND IMMOBILE,
  SWEPT BY ONLY A SINGLE IMPULSE OF REFORM THE
  PEASANT MOVEMENT.

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• IN THIS CONTEXT, IT SEEMS LOGICAL TO ASSUME THAT
  THE MAFIA SERVED ESSENTIALLY TO ENSURE THE
  SUBORDINATION AND OBEDIENCE OF THE PEASANTS TO
  THE RULING CLASSES, EVEN THOUGH THIS FUNCTION
  DOES NOT APPEAR CLEARLY UNTIL THE YEARS FOLLOWING
  THE 1ST W.W AND THE 2ND W.W.

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• (THE FIRST MAFIOSI) WERE HARDLY THE BLIND AND
  SUBSERVIENT TOOLS OF THE AGRARIAN POWER. RATHER,
  THEY WERE ORGANIZERS OF COOPERATIVES AND WON MUCH
  OF THEIR POWER BASE BY SERVING AS INTERMEDIARIES
  IN THE TRANSFER OF LAND FROM LARGE LANDOWNERS TO
  THE PEASANTS

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• THEREFORE THEY WERE NOT THE GUARDIANI (RURAL
  WATCHMEN), BUT RATHER THE UNDERTAKERS OF THE
  FEUDO, OR LARGE LANDHOLDING CLASS, AND THEY
  PLAYED A ROLE THAT COULD NOT BE IMAGINED OUTSIDE
  OF THE GREAT POLITICAL AND SOCIAL MODERNIZATION
  PROCESS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

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• THE THEORY OF SOCIOECONOMIC ARCHAISM HAS A
  SOCIOCULTURAL COUNTERPART MAFIA BEHAVIOUR IS
  SUPPOSED TO BE A DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF THE
  ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE SICILIANS OR, IN GENERAL, OF
  SOUTHERN ITALIANS.

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• THIS CULTURE IS SAID TO BE CHARACTERIZED BY A
  MISTRUST OF THE STATE AND THEREFORE BY A HABIT OF
  TAKING JUSTICE INTO ONES OWN HANDS, BY A SENSE
  OF HONOUR, BY CLIENTELISM, BY A FAMILISM THAT
  EXEMPTS THE INDIVIDUAL FROM A PERCEPTION OF HIS
  OWN REPONSIBILITIES (SALVATORE LUPO, HISTORY OF
  THE MAFIA)

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• THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF THE MAFIA OR, MORE
  APPROPRIATELY, COSA NOSTRA OMERTÀ (CODE OF
  SILENCE), CODE OF CONDUCT (MAFIOSI ARE MEN OF
  HONOUR), LOYALTY.

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• OMERTÀ, THE MOST FAMOUS FEATURE, AMOUNTS TO A
  STRICT PROHIBITION OF ANY KIND OF CO-OPERATION
  WITH STATE AUTHORITIES, IN PARTICULAR WITH
  MAGISTRATES AND POLICE OFFICERS. (THE CRIME OF
  INFORMING THE POLICE IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH)

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• ANOTHER MAFIA CHARACTERISTIC IS ITS MILITARY
  STRUCTURE THE BASIC UNIT IS A FAMILY OR COSCA
  (CLAN), WHICH IS TIGHTLY-KNIT AND HIGHLY
  HIERARCHICAL CAPOFAMIGLIA OR BOSS, UNDERBOSS,
  CAPODECINA (A SORT OF OFFICER) COMMANDING A GROUP
  OF 10-15 PICCIOTTI OR SOLDIERS.

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• HUNDREDS OF FAMILIES OR COSCHE (CLANS) COMPETE
  WITH EACH OTHER AND CARVE OUT THEIR OWN
  TERRITORIES, WHERE THEY HAVE ABSOLUTE
  JURISDICTION. IN ORDER TO LIMIT THE DAMAGES
  INFLICTED BY MAFIA WARS, A MAFIA COMMISSION WAS
  ESTASBLISHED IN THE 1950S (LA CUPOLA), WHICH
  TRIED TO SETTLE DISPUTE BETWEEN THE FAMILIES.

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• THE FIRST BREAK-THROUGH HAPPENS IN THE 1980S,
  WHEN TOMMASO BUSCETTA, A PROMINENT AND RESPECTED
  MAFIOSO, BECOMES A TURNCOAT OR INFORMANT FOR THE
  POLICE, AFTER A MAFIA WAR IN WHICH SOME OF HIS
  RELATIVES/ASSOCIATES WERE MURDERED.
• IT IS BUSCETTA WHO INTRODUCES THE TERM COSA
  NOSTRA TO A WIDE PUBLIC REVEALS THE HIERARCHICAL
  STRUCTURE OF THE MAFIA AND CONFIRMS THE MURKY
  RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CERTAIN POLITICIANS AND THE
  MAFIA.

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• THE SECOND MYTH. THE MAFIA OPERATES ON ITS OWN
  CODE OF ETHICS.
• This myth goes hand in hand with a debatable
  commonplace one should distinguish between the
  old Mafia and the new Mafia, the old being more
  traditional and more inclined to respect the
  ancient code of ethics (hence, the old Mafia is
  also more heroic, less brutal than the new
  Mafia). This argument has a merely ideological
  or rhetorical substance (Salvatore Lupo, History
  of The Mafia)

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• BUSCETTA, A MAN OF HONOUR, JUSTIFIES HIS
  UNORTHODOX BEHAVIOUR (HE HAS BROKEN THE CODE OF
  SILENCE, HE HAS BETRAYED HIS COMRADES) BY
  CLAMING THAT THE LAST MAFIA WAR BROUGHT TO THE
  FORE RUTHLESS MAFIOSI, LIKE THE NEW BOSS TOTO
  RIINA, WHO HAVE NO RESPECT FOR TRADITIONAL
  CUSTOMS AND CODES OF CONDUCT. HENCE HE NO LONGER
  FEELS BOUND TO HIS OATH OF ALLEGIANCE/LOYALTY TO
  THE MAFIA.

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• BUSCETTAS JUSTIFICATION, in fact, IS AN
  IDEOLOGICAL REPRESENTATION. IT DOES NOT
  CORRISPOND TO REALITY. BUSCETTA RELIES ON AN
  OLD-FASHIONED, ROMANTIC PORTRAYAL OF THE
  MAFIOSO AS A HERO OF HIS OWN SORT. ANTI-MAFIA
  JUDGE FALCONE CONVINCINGLY ARGUES -- ON THE BASIS
  OF THE EVIDENCE -- THAT THE MAFIA DOES NOT
  OPERATE ON A STRICT CODE OF ETHICS (IF BY ETHICS
  WE MEAN A SET OF MORAL VALUES THAT HAVE A BINDING
  CHARACTER FOR THE MAFIA AFFILIATES). IN HIS
  FAMOUS BOOK Cose di cosa nostra, FALCONE PROVIDES
  US WITH ONE OF THE BEST, AND MOST LUCID ANALYSIS
  OF THE MAFIA

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• 1.
• ONE CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE MAFIA WITHOUT HAVING
  RECOURSE TO THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL CONTEXT IN
  WHICH IT THRIVES AND OPERATES.
• 2.
• THE MAFIA IS A PARALLEL STATE, NOT JUST AN
  ANTI-STATE. IT OCCUPIES THE SAME SPACE AS THE
  OFFICIAL STATE AND WANTS TO REPLACE IT BY
  PROVIDING BETTER SERVICES.

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• 3.
• THE MAFIAS SUCCESS IS THE RESULT OF A
  UNFULFILLED DESIRE FOR ORDER AND JUSTICE ON THE
  PART OF ORDINARY CITIZENS. THE MAFIA, MOREOVER,
  NEEDS TO CREATE A CONSENSUS.
• 4.
• THE MAFIOSO HAS A PRAGMATIC OR PRACTICAL MINDSET.
  HIS PRIMARY CODE OF CONDUCT IS GEARED TOWARDS
  SURVIVAL. ALL THE SO-CALLED RULES OF COSA NOSTRA
  WERE DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE MAFIOSI AND HIDE THE
  CRIMINAL OPERATIONS THEY CARRY OUT.

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• 5.
• THE MAFIOSO MAKES RATIONAL DECISIONS, NO MATTER
  HOW IRRATIONAL THEY MAY APPEAR TO US. IF THEY
  COMMIT BRUTAL MURDERS, IT IS BECAUSE BRUTALITY IS
  THOUGHT TO SERVE THEIR INTERESTS. MAFIOSI PREFER
  TO KEEP A LOW-PROFILE. THEY DO NOT WANT TO SHOW
  OFF THEIR CRIMINAL ACTIONS. IF THEY INDIRECTLY
  CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR A MURDER, ITS BECAUSE
  THEY THINK THAT THIS WILL PAY OFF. THEY JUST
  INTEND TO INTIMIDATE THEIR ENEMIES.

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• 6.
• IT FOLLOWS THAT BUSCETTA WAS WRONG ALTHOUGH THE
  CORLEONESI WERE PARTICULARLY RUTHLESS, THEY DID
  NOT BREAK ANY SACRED RULE. BUSCETTA CLAIMED THAT
  REAL MEN OF HONOUR WOULD NEVER KILL CIVILIANS,
  THAT IS, RELATIVES OF MAFIOSI WHO ARE NOT ENGAGED
  IN CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES. NOR WOULD THEY KILL WOMEN
  AND CHILDREN, AS DID THE CORLEONESI UNDER TOTO
  RIINAS RULE.

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• 7.
• THE BRUTALITY OF THE CORLEONESI HAS A SIMPLER
  EXPLANATION IN THE LATE 1970S AND EARLY 1980S
  THE MAFIA WAS ADAPTING TO A CHANGING SOCIETY,
  WHERE MAGISTRATES AND THE POLICE WERE MORE
  ASSERTIVE IN TRACKING DOWN THE MAFIOSI AND
  BRINGING THEM TO ACCOUNT. THE MAFIA LEADERS
  THOUGHT THAT BY KILLING THE RELATIVES OF
  INFORMANTS, NOBODY WOULD EVER DARE TO BETRAY
  THEM. THE STRING OF ASSASSINATIONS WAS SIMPLY A
  PRAGMATIC STRATEGY IN KEEPING WITH COSA NOSTRAS
  PROFILE.

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• THE THIRD MYTH THE MAFIA IS MORALLY EQUIVALENT
  TO CORRUPT POLITICS AND TO A WORLD OF CUT-THROAT
  BUSINESS. (THE GODFATHER BOOK AND FILMS ITS
  NOT PERSONAL, ITS STRICTLY BUSINESS).

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• The difference between Mario Puzos and Francis
  Ford Coppolas perspectives Puzo condemns the
  Mafia, whereas Coppola lends credit to the third
  myth described above, which is consonant with the
  popular, Romantic, vision according to which
  the Mafiosi are men of honour, men of strong
  character, who react (or adapt) in violent ways
  to the corrupt and dishonest world of politics
  and business.

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• COPPOLAS PERSPECTIVES.
• The first two Godfather films create an image of
  the Corleone family as an extra-legal authority,
  which abides by a personal code of conduct and
  administers an alternative system of justice.
  While Godfather I and II do not encourage
  unequivocal support for the Corleones, they do
  provoke a re-evaluation of conventional standards
  of legal and moral behavior (my emphasis) by
  placing the audience in an uncomfortable ethical
  position, where they can neither condemn, nor
  completely sympathise with, the Family. (Phoebe
  Poon Morality and legality in Francis Ford
  Coppolas The Godfather Trilogy),

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• The Godfather I and II films invite a polarized
  response. From one perspective, the presentation
  of violence and criminal conspiracy provokes
  feelings of disgust towards the perpetrators, but
  from another perspective, the narrative discourse
  of the films compels our sympathy with characters
  that are essentially evil. (Phoebe Poon ibid)

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• The opening scene of Mario Puzos novel and
  Coppolas film adaption (Godfather I).
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vOIBpHO1gZgQ

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• This scene is a powerful and explicit critique
  against state-sanctioned law and
  state-sanctioned authority In addressing the
  needs of the victim without being excessively
  harsh to the criminals, his ( Vitos) judgment
  of the circumstances appears to provide a more
  approachable and equitable alternative system of
  justice than the state. (Phoebe Poon)

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• The Don reacts with contempt at the low-brow
  view of him as a hired assassin, thereby
  asserting his right to create an alternative
  system of justice based on subjective familial
  loyalty and honour Vito Corleone gratifies our
  lust for vengeance against injustices that fail
  to be redressed through legitimate means.
• This is a crucial consideration to this very
  day, Mafiosi still justify their deeds by
  claiming that the State has failed to administer
  justice in line with its contract to the people
  (provide security, jobs etc.), in vast swathes of
  Southern Italy.

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• PUZOS PERSPECTIVE.
• (From A commonplace blog by D.G. Myers)
•  
• Mario Puzos The Godfather treated the Mafia as
  an autonomous social institution with its
  pressures for conformity, where there is no place
  for a man with any real integrity. From this it
  does not follow, however, that Puzos theme is
  what Gay Talese described in the Washington
  Post in reviewing the novel

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• Whether mens ambitions are fulfilled in the
  arena of politics or banking, business or crime,
  it makes little differencethe rules are often
  the same it is a game of power and money might
  makes right and the most brutal acts are easily
  justified in the name of necessity and honor.
  Governments fight world wars for honor, drop
  atomic bombs for peace, stage bloody brawls for
  Christ and the Mafia, on a mini-scale, acts out
  similar aggressions for similar goalsprofit,
  prestige and justice as they see it. (Gay Talese)

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• After the Don is shot on the streets outside
  Genco Olive Oil, after Michael Corleone guns down
  the police captain McCluskey and the drug
  smuggler Sollozzo, after Sonny Corleone has been
  murdered in retaliation, Vito Corleone calls a
  meeting of New Yorks Five Families with
  invitations to Families all over the United
  States in order to sue for peace. The meeting is
  filmed by Coppola, and so too is the Dons
  speech. But its central passage is not recorded
  (D.G. Myers)

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• Let me say that we in the Mafia must always
  look to our interests. We are all men who have
  refused to be fools, who have refused to be
  puppets dancing on a string pulled by the men on
  high. Who is to say we should obey the laws they
  make for their own interest and to our hurt?
  Sonna cosa nostra. These are our affairs. We will
  manage our world for ourselves because it is our
  world, cosa nostra. And so we have to stick
  together to guard against outside meddlers.
  Otherwise they will put the ring in our nose as
  they have put the ring in the nose of all the
  millions of Neapolitans and other Italians in
  this country.

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• MICHAELS JUSTIFICATION OF THE FAMILY BUSINESS.
•  
• Coppola does not include this speech, because it
  does not express his message. Coppolas message
  is delivered by Michael Corleone. When Michael
  returns from hiding in Sicily after the murders
  of Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, he finally
  goes to see his old flame Kay Adams. (D.G.
  Myers)Michael tells Kay that he is working for
  his father now.

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• But I thought you werent going to become a man
  like your father, Kay says you told me. My
  father's no different from any other powerful
  man, Michael repliesany man whos responsible
  for other people, like a senator or president.
  Do you know how naïve you sound? Kay asks with
  a smile. Michal asks why. Senators and
  presidents dont have men killed, replies Kay.
  Oh, Michael says whos being naïve, Kay? Kay,
  my fathers way of doing things is over, its
  finished. Even he knows that. I mean, in five
  years, the Corleone Family is going to be
  completely legitimate. Trust me, thats all I can
  tell you about my business.
• (D.G. Myers)

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• The message here is clear the Mafia differs
  from the U.S. government only in the extent and
  reach of its power (D.G. Myers)
• This message is reinforced various times
  consider Michaels trip to CUBA Michael is
  presented as a shady businessman who is not
  different from other powerful (legitimate)
  businesspeople or representatives of American
  companies wishing to do business with a corrupt
  dictator. This is a view that can be enjoyed by
  libertarian and political radical alike, but it
  is not the view of Puzos novel. (D.G. Myers)

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• In the novel, Michaels speech to Kay is rather
  different
•  
• Youve got the wrong idea of my father and the
  Corleone Family. Ill make a final explanation
  and this one will be really final. My father is a
  businessman trying to provide for his wife and
  children and those friends he might need someday
  in a time of trouble. He doesnt accept the rules
  of the society we live in because those rules
  would have condemned him to a life not suitable
  to a man like himself, a man of extraordinary
  force and character. (Puzo)

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• What you have to understand is that he considers
  himself the equal of all those great men like
  Presidents and Prime Ministers and Supreme Court
  Justices and Governors of the States. He refuses
  to accept their will over his own. He refuses to
  live by rules set up by others, rules which
  condemn him to a defeated life. But his ultimate
  aim is to enter that society with a certain power
  since society doesnt really protect its members
  who do not have their own individual power. In
  the meantime he operates on a code of ethics he
  considers far superior to the legal structures of
  society. (Puzo)

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• The Mafiosi may consider themselves far
  superior to the rest of society, but by Puzos
  lights, they are lesser men. The Godfather is a
  full picture of the Mafia, but it does not
  glamorize it. Puzo represents the Mafia as the
  social institutionalization of violence. Puzo
  does not suggest a superficial and sloganeering
  moral equivalence between the Mafia and
  governments or businesses. His Mafia is a unique
  institution that uniquely degrades men, when it
  does not murder them. (D.G. Myers)

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