Operation Spud

Neapolitan legend has it that Austrian Emperor Franz Josef's chief regret over World War I was that it cut off his supply of Naples' famed potatoes. For more than 400 years, peasants have been growing the small, delicious variety in the rich volcanic soil of Naples province, and as harvesting began three weeks ago, it was evident that this year's crop was the best ever. But the price was wrong--a less-than-break-even 1-c- a pound to growers, although the Naples retail price was 7-c-. In the town of Marigliano last week, the farmers' frustration turned to violence.

Carrying picks, mattocks and hoes, some 3,000 peasants poured into Marigliano's marketplace Monday morning for Operazione Taratufo (Operation Spud), as the Communists called it. Many waved crude signs denouncing the Italian government and the European Common Market. Communist agitators in the crowd also put the blame on U.S. President Eisenhower (on the ungrounded thesis that U.S. wheat shipments for needy Italian children had undermined the potato market). Actually, low prices were the result of a local surplus, panicky farmers' hasty dumping on the market, and above all, the tight squeeze of the Camorra, the middlemen-racketeers who dominate farm-produce distribution in the Naples area (TIME, April 20).

When 40 carabinieri arrived to clear the marketplace for the day's trade, tempers flared, and the trouble began. Fighting tear gas with rocks, cabbages and potatoes, the mob forced the troopers to retreat into the city hall, where for good measure the rioters ransacked the local tax office and burned the tax records. Seizing the abandoned carabinieri truck, the peasants drove it through the barred double doors of the city hall's main entrance and set it afire. But inside, besides the harried carabinieri, were 100 women and children, who were trapped in upper floors as the flames spread from truck to building. As their shrill cries were heard, the mob surrounding the building parted ranks to let the women and children file out. At that point, reinforcements from Naples arrived: 500 carabinieri, 500 city cops, and six fire engines. While firemen put out the blaze, the police arrested 107 rioters.

But the aroused peasants had made their point. The Italian government promised to buy $160,000 worth of potatoes at fair prices, and the Naples city government offered to let the farmers peddle their crops on the city streets without paying vendors' taxes.

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