Forgiving the Factory. The "trial of Marghera" and the memory

This article deals with the importance of memory for the study of de-industrialization and its consequences, focusing on the industrial site of Porto Marghera, the area surrounding the historical city of Venice, which can be acknowledged as a representative of those large-scale sites of heavy industry whose rise and subsequent dismission has marked the history of Italian “fordism”. By giving attention to the spatial dimension of memory and representation, this contribution points out the controversial relationship between the factory and the city that has emerged as a key feature of the twentieth-century modernization in the Venetian area, triggered by an important trial held against the management of the main factory of the area. Eventually, it is argued that this ‘criminalization’ of the twentieth-century industrial history bears a profound analogy with the pattern of collective remembrance of war.

this article stresses the importance of a further dimension, that of memory, for the study of de-industrialization and its consequences. In order to do so, it focuses on the industrial site of Porto Marghera, the area surrounding the historical city of Venice. This not only underwent a fundamental phase of industrialization during the twentieth century, but was followed by one of de-industrialization whose consequences are still largely felt. With its main chemical plant (Montedison, then Enichem) manufacturing at its peak almost half of the grand total of petrochemical production in Italy, it also stands as a representative of those large-scale sites of heavy industry whose rise and subsequent dismissal has marked the history of Italian “Fordism