From Germinal
November 2025
There was a moment, during the evening at Carso in Corso in Monfalcone dedicated to Sandro Morena on Friday, November 7th, when I felt like the very walls were shaking. A seismic shock from pure collective vibration: it was Barrio Alto who had just started the right song, the one that makes the skin on your arms stand up and make the glasses crash on the table. A music as rough, mixed, anarchic as certain written walls: world music from the border, from the suburbs, to the struggles, to the toasts and the scars. And above all to the stories of those who never backed down.
The event dedicated to Sandro—comrade, oral historian, activist—wasn't a pristine memorial. It was a family dinner where everyone brought something: a memento, a bottle of wine, a piece of music, a laugh. Anarchist conviviality, the kind Sandro truly loved, became the evening's centerpiece. More than a memory, a revival. More than a commemoration, a celebration where melancholy melts away in the desire to be here together again.
Between the guitar and a chorus that knows no discord because anything goes, there was that " joy of militancy " Sandro often spoke of: a formula that came as naturally to him as pouring wine for guests or aligning a political discussion without turning it into an intellectual ring. Barrio Alto, Paolo Zei, Laura Fogagnolo, Alessandro Guerra, and Piero Purich played their part: it was the perfect soundtrack for that Bisiacaria that refuses to surrender to institutional hatred and continues to defend its libertarian spaces as if they were collective existences.
In this atmosphere, the new issue of Germinal has also arrived, the one dedicated entirely to Sandro Morena. An issue that isn't leafed through: it's embraced. And it's now available at Germinal on Via del Bosco in Trieste and at Caffè Esperanto in Monfalcone, with the option of requesting a digital or paper copy.
Leafing through it, you can almost hear Sandro speaking. His many lives, his thirst for knowledge, his way of making oral history like bread—with his hands—are conveyed through contributions that are both lucid and moving.
Alessio Lega's closing poem is a heartbreaking one: a portrait of Sandro laughing "among the gendarmes," a laugh that undermines the very foundations of the State, more than a hundred academic treatises. Then there are the words of the comrades of Caffè Esperanto, who remember the generous and radical man who donated the headquarters to the collective, transforming a place into a political promise that continues.
The cover, featuring a graphic elaboration of a painting by writer Mattia Campo Dall'Orto, and an illustration by Anton Špacapan Voncina inside, as well as a photo by Mara Fella, enrich the iconographic sources of the issue, which contains images that many have sent us and which portray Sandro at different stages of his life.
Anna Di Gianantonio recounts the "joy of activism" as a connection and freedom; Gualtiero Pin paints a portrait of travel, combat, and memory; Chiara Paternoster of the Associazione Esposti Amianto recalls Sandro's immense work in uncovering the truth about asbestos; Piero Purich portrays his "polytropos" side, a traveler through space and time; Marco Niro reconstructs Sandro as a mentor, the one who, with stubborn faith, was able to inspire new writers and new stories. And then there are contributions from his comrades, friends, and his niece: Federico, Andrea, Giustina, Liviana, Monica, Gigi, Ciua, Tiziano, Paolo De Toni, Massimo Carlotto, and others who contributed. Each adds a piece to the picture of a militant who never stood still. The result is a polyphonic symphony, as if Sandro's story itself were told by a chorus: that of his community of comrades, friends, associates, and accomplices. And every voice says the same thing: it's not just about remembering it, but about continuing it.
Barrio Alto's music knit everything together: the words, the drinks, the hugs. And as the party continued, someone said Sandro would make a toast, then set up the microphone, give a couple of giant critiques or an absurd chorus, and finally enjoy the celebration of the community he loved so much.
And maybe that's the point: never leave us alone. And it's in the happy chaos of our evenings, in the copies of Germinal that pass from hand to hand, in the chants and discussions between Trieste, Gorizia, and Monfalcone, that Sandro continues to be with us.
Because memory is struggle. And our joyful struggle has become music and a copy of our Germinal. Once again. For Sandro and with Sandro: because if we don't dance, it's not our revolution.
Luca – Esperanto Coffee
For the full .pdf of the November 2025 issue of Germinal (#136) dedicated to the life of the anarchist Alessandro Morena, including the following speech, go to https://www.germinalonline.org/
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from the march of gorizia to turin: the strength to be there together
Transcript of the speech in Piazzetta Esposti Amianto on June 23, 2025
We are here as the Anarchist Germinal group of Trieste. We have not prepared a real text, however we wanted not only to be here, but also to say something, because the relationship that bound us to Sandro was a very close relationship, which starts from a long time ago. I personally remember well, it was the year 2000, when thanks to Claudio Venza, another comrade who has been gone for some years now, who knew Sandro, he told us let's present the book Dust in Trieste, it was around the mobilization against the G8 and so we younger people also knew Sandro. For us Gorizia at that time was a black hole, we didn't think that there were comrades there from our area, but from there a relationship began, because after that the festival Amianto Mai Più began and we came every year to do the book banquet, then the Coordinamento Libertario Isontino was born and all the rest is history, I won't tell you about it. But I would like to remember two moments with Sandro, where I was also there, the first one is 2018, the anti-militarist march in Gorizia, of which he was one of the main promoters so much so that he came to Milan to an anti-militarist conference to propose it, and I remember him in the front row, both in the negotiation with the police headquarters, which of course wanted to limit our route, and in the square. That march was historic because 400 comrades and comrades who are in Gorizia to contest the official celebration of World War I, that's something that had never been seen in Gorizia, I remember his 200-tooth smile that he had that night, he was really happy, I remember that, all of us were happy, but he in particular, who had put a lot of effort into it. The other moment is 2021, there was an anti-militarist demonstration in Turin, and we organized cars and Sandro had to come with us and he called me a week before and told me that they had diagnosed the tumor - I was among the very first to know.
As you know it was a very aggressive tumor, very bad, and he thought he was not coming. I kind of insisted and finally Sandro was convinced and he came with us and we went to the march, a very nice march, very well attended. In the evening we ate in the comrades' headquarters, the next day we all went back together and I remember that he thanked me for having insisted a little bit, because for him being at that procession, being together with comrades, eating together, collectively, singing, chatting, for him that was life, one of the main aspects of his life, not the only one clearly, but it was what gave him precisely that joy in militancy. Sandro then fought with his disease and conquered years of life.
He left a month ago, truly sad news that struck us in the heart. He was a comrade who gave us so much and we will truly remember him with much affection. Ciao Sandro.
Alessandro Morena was also remembered on Saturday, June 28, 2025 in Trieste at the 80th anniversary party of the Germinal Anarchist Group.
Federico for the Germinal Anarchist Group of Trieste
Comments
what's the connection to…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 01/18/2026 - 07:42
what's the connection to emile zola?
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