Defying the Mafia: Addiopizzo's Heroic Stand Against Extortion

Memorial mural dedicated to prosecutors and judges killed by the Mafia in Piazza della Memoria, Palermo, Sicily.

“You need to put yourself in order.”

Hesitate and if you’re lucky you may hear, “You need to find yourself a friend.” Otherwise, your nudge may come in the form of clearer warnings like superglue in your business’s keyhole or a can of gasoline next to a lighter on the threshold of your door. The Mafia can afford to be discreet since everybody in Sicily knows what they are talking about. You don’t need pizzo, or protection money, to be spelled out.

Indeed, without even saying the word pizzo, it has become a $15 billion business. As of 2008, organized crime was the biggest business in Italy. It’s understandable that there has been a spirit of resignation about pizzo, since for as long as people can remember, it has always been this way.

There are some twisted benefits that may make it seem like the protection money is worthwhile. If your Vespa is stolen—possibly even by a Mafia member—and you’re paying pizzo, the Mafia may find it and bring it back to you. But then you’re told that it was stolen because your “neighbor” is out of work and needs a vehicle to get groceries. So you’re now encouraged to help your neighbor with a couple hundred euros so they don’t starve. You pay €200 and saved the €4,000 cost for replacing your transportation. But there still is the cost of pizzo, which is built into your expenses like your electric bill, and needs to be paid regardless of your financial circumstances. It’s considered cultural continuity and “economic convenience.” But is it really?

It’s certainly messy.

There’s an additional dark side where shop owners turn to their extortioners to keep out competition, use them for debt collection, and settle employee disputes.

When you consider the staggering amount of money that the Mafia takes from Italian citizens through drug trafficking, loan sharking, extortion—which has expanded beyond pizzo into tourism, restaurants and food production—it should be no surprise that the Italian economy is struggling. According to Confesercenti as reported by ABC News, in 2008 Mafia enterprises were worth about €90 billion ($117 billion) or 6 percent of all of the Italian economy combined. That’s a mind-bending amount of potential infrastructure and improvements that are being diverted to organized crime.✴︎

So where does the name, “Mafia” come from? It roughly translates to swagger or bravado, but those in the organization call themselves the Cosa Nostra, which literally translates to “Our Thing.” Cosa Nostra rose up in the late 1800s. Nobility previously had owned most land and had their own private armies to enforce law. Eventually, they sold off or rented their land to private citizens. The unification of Italy in 1861 meant that public and church land also were redistributed and there suddenly were many multitudes more of landowners who needed to protect their property. Police were in extremely short supply, and some cities had no permanent police force at all. Eventually certain men were recruited to protect land, deter thieves, and negotiate the return of stolen property, which also meant that communities didn’t have to hire or train their own police force. The Mafia had come into being.

Before 2004, nearly 100% of all suburban and rural businesses in Sicily and about 50 percent in its urban regions paid pizzo. The Mafia was completely out in the open and had been an alternate universe’s version of the “Cheers” bar, where everybody knows your name, although people know better than to shout “Norm” when they see you.

So who would dare not to pay pizzo when you’ve been sent messsages to do so? Sicily is a place where messages, silences, and your words are very important. Libero Grassi is one such renegade. He was a successful Italian clothing manufacturer with approximately 100 employees who in 1990 took the bold stand of taking out an ad in the local newspaper and writing an open letter addressed to “My dear extortionists.” He informed them that he was no longer willing to pay pizzo on his business worth approximately $5 million. Grassi became somewhat of a national hero for standing up to the Mafia. Despite having support from the mayor, federal police, and the press, fellow businessmen were not in solidarity with him and accused him of demolishing the image of the Palermo business world. After being shunned and attacked by his colleagues, his shop was robbed in the exact amount of his pizzo. There also was an unsuccessful arson attempt on his shop. Ultimately, Libero Grassi was shot in the head three times as he walked from his home to his car before he headed to work less than a year after he penned his famous letter.

With the Mafia having such a strong clutch hold, it can feel nearly impossible to fight against what has always been this way, especially when resisting can potentially result in death. It’s also terrifying to break against peer pressure when it’s always been done this way, all your neighbors pay pizzo, and you risk isolation or disdain like Libero Grassi. Nonetheless, there have been a number of things that are causing positive change, although the cost has been very high.

The first and most significant effort to reduce the power of the Mafia was the Maxi Trial, led by two magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, which lasted from February 1986 to December 1987. Falcone had spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. He and Borsellino both came from the same neighborhood and saw many of their childhood friends become members of the Mafia. They ultimately became prosecuting magistrates and compiled testimony from informants regarding illegal activities of the mafiosi. This longest trial in history was held in a protected bunker to secure the safety of those testifying and ended with the conviction of 338 Mafia members who were collectively sentenced to over 2,665 years, not including the 19 bosses who received life sentences. This trial and the resulting sentences proved judicially the existence of Cosa Nostra. In retaliation, the Mafia murdered several judges, prosecutors, police, and most notably both the magistrates. Falcone was killed with 500 kilos of TNT hidden under a highway he was expected to drive on. The explosion registered as a volcanic tremor by those monitoring Mount Etna on the other side of the island. His wife and three members of his police escort also were killed as a result.

A month later approximately 100,000 people demonstrated to protest Falcone’s death, and protestors carried signs that said “No to the Mafia.”

Only a few weeks later, Paolo Borsellino was killed by a car bomb during a visit to see his mother. Five police officers, including the first woman Italian police officer, were also murderd by that bomb.

Aftermath of car bomb that killed Paolo Borssellino and five police officers on Via D’Amelio on July 19, 1992.

These deaths, and the high-profile attention negative attention the Mafia were getting from around the world, caused them to re-think their strategy and go underground.

A second thing that brought about change were words from Pope John Paul II after the death of Rev. Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi. Father Puglisi was murdered by the Sicilian Mafia in 1993 for creating a refuge for youth and providing an alternative to organized crime, which was threatening the indoctrination of fresh soldiers for the Mafia. The Pope said, “Let us pray that these Mafiosi and Mafiose convert to God.” This powerful statement struck a cord in the hearts of the people because Pope John Paul II didn’t tell the Mafia to “repent,” but rather to be converted. Before this, the Mafia were seen as giving generously to the church, celebrating the sacrements of the Catholic church, and otherwise being Catholic, if a bit fallen away. Hearing that the Mafia needed to be converted meant that they weren’t considered Christians, which was a profound revelation to the masses, who sometimes saw them as a necessary part of the community.

The third change to the power of the Mafia comes from the grassroots, “No Mafia” movement, which emerged in 2004 when five broke college graduates wanted to open a bar in Palermo. Times were different than when Libero Grassi was alive, and their methods was more calculated. Rather than pay the pizzo for their business, they anonymously posted signs all over the city stating,

A whole people who pays the pizzo is a people without dignity.

Italian people are nothing if not proud. These signs created quite a buzz throughout the city. Next, the group organized protests, posted banners, and created a quiet uprising against pizzo, and importantly got people to talk openly about this previously taboo topic of pizzo. The entrepreneurs designed a sticker with a logo with an X in the middle, and the Italian words for “critical consumption” which in whole means “goodbye protection money.” Shockingly, there were no repercussions for their blatant refusal to pay. In part, this is due to the Mafia’s desire to stay underground and not attract the type of negative attention that it drew in the 1990s. Now in 2023 over 1,000 businesses do not pay pizzo and are members of Addiopizzo. Membership requires a rigorous process to ensure that the business has no Mafia ties. As Addiopizzo continues to expand, it organizes educational programs in over 90 schools with the support of local police. Addiopizzo is built on three pillars: critical consumption—encouraging consumers to reject shops that contribute to the Mafia, victim assistance, and social inclusion.

If you listen carefully, you’ll hear a new phrase, “Pago chi non paga,” which means, “I pay those who don’t pay.” It’s all part of a critical campaign where consumers are encouraged to patronize shops and businesses with the AddioPizzo sign on their door. The sign conveys that there is no portion of your funds that go to the Mafia.

As consumers, we get to choose whether we support the Mafia or spend money in establishments and with vendors that say no to the Mafia. Despite everything, approximately 70 percent of businesses still pay pizzo.

Change takes time, but change is happening, and it’s transforming the community in Palermo.

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✴︎ Article: The Mafia Is Italy's Biggest Business, ABC News