{"id":6108,"date":"2024-05-20T22:29:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T22:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/?p=6108"},"modified":"2025-06-30T01:12:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T01:12:24","slug":"march-1968-pierpaolo-pasolini-to-the-students-at-valle-giulia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/march-1968-pierpaolo-pasolini-to-the-students-at-valle-giulia\/","title":{"rendered":"March 1968: Pierpaolo Pasolini to the Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are posting Pierpaolo Pasolini’s 1968 letter to the students in revolt to invite reflection on the continuities and discontinuities of students’ protest, consider what has happened since and think retrospectively about Pasolini’s concerns and criticism. The English version of the letter is a slightly modified version of a translation made by students at Dartmouth College.<\/p>\n

Letter to the Students, <\/strong>Pierpaolo Pasolini, 1968<\/p>\n

You\u2019re late, kids.
\nAnd it is of no importance if you had not been born yet\u2026
\nIt is sad.
\nThe polemic against
\nthe PCI (Communist Party) should have been made
\nduring the first half of the past decade.
\nNow the journalists of the world (including
\nthose on television)
\nkiss (as I believe one still says in the language of the university) your asses.
\nNot I, friends.
\nYou have daddy\u2019s boy faces
\nYou were born with silver spoons in your mouths.
\nGood pedigree does not lie.
\nYou all have the same spiteful look.
\nYou are fearful, uncertain, desperate
\nbut you also know how to be
\narrogant, manipulative, and self-assured:
\nthe prerogative of the petty bourgeois, friends.<\/p>\n

When yesterday at Valle Guilia
\nyou came to blows
\nwith the policemen
\nI sympathized with the policemen!
\nBecause the policemen are the children of the poor
\nThey come from the peripheries, rural or urban.
\nAs for me, I know very well \u2028their way
\nto have been kids and teenagers,\u2028 the precious thousand liras,<\/p>\n

the father who remained a kid as well,
\nbecause poverty stripped him of authority.
\nThe mother callous as a porter,
\nor tender,\u2028 due to some illness,
\nas a bird; \u2028the many siblings,
\ntheir dwelling\u2028 between the gardens with red sage (in lands\u2028 owned by others, and allotted to them);
\nlow \u2028on sewers, or the apartments in the large\u2028 tenements \u2026<\/p>\n

And then, look at them: dressed like clowns,
\nwith the rough fabric with rancid stench
\nWorst of all, naturally, the psychological state
\nto which they are reduced
\nfor about forty liras a month:
\nwithout a smile,
\nwith no more friendship with the world,
\nseparated, excluded (in an exclusion that has no equal)
\nhumiliated by the loss of human qualities
\nin exchange for those of a policeman
\n(being hated makes you hate).
\nThey are twenty, dear young men and women, your age.<\/p>\n

We obviously are in agreement
\nagainst the police institution
\nBut blame the Judiciary, and then see!
\nThe young policemen that you,
\nfor sacred hooliganism (of noble Risorgimental tradition),
\nyou spoiled children, you have beaten,
\nbelong to another social class.<\/p>\n

At Valle Giulia, yesterday,
\nthere was a fragment \u2028of class struggle:
\nand you, friends (although in \u2028the right) were the rich ones,
\nwhile the policemen (who were in the \u2028wrong) were the poor ones.
\nGreat victory is, therefore,\u2028 yours!
\nIn these cases,\u2028 the cops should 
\nget flowers, friends.<\/p>\n

(source, <\/a>students of Dartmouth College)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Italian text<\/strong><\/p>\n

Siete in ritardo, figli.
\nE non ha nessuna importanza \/
\nse allora non eravate ancora nati\u2026
\nAdesso i giornalisti \/
\ndi tutto il mondo \/
\n(compresi quelli delle televisioni)
\nvi leccano (come credo ancora si dica \/
\nnel linguaggio delle Universit\u00e0) il culo.
\nIo no, amici.
\nAvete facce di figli di pap\u00e0.
\nBuona razza non mente.
\nAvete lo stesso occhio cattivo.
\nSiete paurosi, incerti, disperati
\n(benissimo) ma sapete \/
\nanche come essere
\nprepotenti, ricattatori e sicuri:
\nprerogative piccoloborghesi, amici.
\nQuando ieri a Valle Giulia \/
\navete fatto a botte
\ncoi poliziotti,
\nio simpatizzavo coi poliziotti!
\nPerch\u00e9 i poliziotti sono figli di poveri.
\nVengono da periferie, \/
\ncontadine o urbane che siano.
\nQuanto a me, conosco assai bene
\nil loro modo di esser stati \/
\nbambini e ragazzi,
\nle preziose mille lire, il padre rimasto \/
\nragazzo anche lui,
\na causa della miseria, che non d\u00e0 autorit\u00e0.
\nLa madre incallita come un facchino, \/
\no tenera,
\nper qualche malattia, come un uccellino;
\ni tanti fratelli, la casupola
\n(\u2026.)
\nE poi, guardateli come li vestono: come pagliacci,
\ncon quella stoffa ruvida che puzza \/
\ndi rancio fureria e popolo. \/
\nPeggio di tutto, naturalmente,
\n\u00e8 lo stato psicologico cui sono ridotti
\n(per una quarantina di mille lire al mese):
\nsenza pi\u00f9 sorriso, senza pi\u00f9 amicizia col mondo,
\nseparati, esclusi (\u2026)
\nSiamo ovviamente d\u2019accordo contro \/
\nl\u2019istituzione della polizia.
\nMa prendetevela contro la Magistratura, \/
\ne vedrete!
\nI ragazzi poliziotti
\nche voi per sacro teppismo \/
\ndi eletta tradizione risorgimentale)
\ndi figli di pap\u00e0, avete bastonato,
\nappartengono all\u2019altra classe sociale.
\nA Valle Giulia, ieri, si \u00e8 cosi avuto \/
\nun frammento
\ndi lotta di classe: e voi, amici \/
\n(bench\u00e9 dalla parte
\ndella ragione) eravate i ricchi,
\nmentre i poliziotti (che erano dalla parte
\ndel torto) erano i poveri.
\nBella vittoria, dunque,
\nla vostra! In questi casi,
\nai poliziotti si danno i fiori, amici.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Image: Students and police clash at Valle Giulia, March 1968<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are posting Pierpaolo Pasolini’s 1968 letter to the students in revolt to invite reflection on the continuities and discontinuities of students’ protest, consider what has happened since and think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays"],"yoast_head":"\nMarch 1968: Pierpaolo Pasolini to the Students - Printed_Matter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/primolevicenter.org\/printed-matter\/march-1968-pierpaolo-pasolini-to-the-students-at-valle-giulia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"March 1968: Pierpaolo Pasolini to the Students - 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