Italian Lives, Belgian Coal

How the Toxic Legacy of Coal, Migrant Labor, and Industrial Capitalism Shapes the World We Live In

On June 23, 1946, Italy and Belgium signed the “men in exchange for coal” agreement, in which Italy committed to sending fifty thousand workers each year to the Belgian coal mines, and Belgium pledged to supply a few thousand tons of coal to Italy each month.

On June 23, 1946, Italy and Belgium signed the “men in exchange for coal” agreement, in which Italy committed to sending fifty thousand workers each year to the Belgian coal mines, and Belgium pledged to supply a few thousand tons of coal to Italy each month. The first treaty of its kind, the agreement paved the way for the European Coal and Steel Community, a precursor of the European Union. In Italian Lives, Belgian Coal, Daniele Valisena explores the relationship between labor migration, coal extraction, and environmental transformation in the Belgian coalfields of Wallonia. Drawing from French, Italian, and Belgian archival documents; printed primary sources; and oral history interviews conducted by the author, this book breaks new methodological and empirical ground, blending environmental history and the history of migration, historical literature and anthropological work, and history and the contemporary. Each chapter captures and interrogates the agency of different actors, including the Italian and Belgian states, the coal industry, medical experts, miners, and the ecologies that develop in polluted areas left by the coal industry. Italian Lives, Belgian Coal tells a sobering story of the environmental and corporeal injustice wielded by capitalist institutions and its impact on health and medical science, society, and nature.