83 years ago. On 19 February 1937, Italian settlers, backed by the Royal Army, took to the streets of Addis Ababa in what has been described as 'the most furious black chase the African continent had ever seen'.

Ethiopian men, women and children were lynched in the streets, their homes set on fire and property destroyed. Twenty thousand Ethiopians, perhaps 30,000, lost their lives.

On this anniversary, which is celebrated as Remembrance Day in Ethiopia, we want to remember the too many victims of Italian colonisation.

The massacre of Addis Ababa, like that of Debora Libanòs, like the mustard bombings, like the deportation to concentration camps of the population of the Gebel, like so many other crimes, have for too long been expunged from the collective memory, erasing over half a million victims in the 70 years of Italian colonisation.

The oblivion of colonialism, in Italy as in Europe, prevents us from understanding the dynamics behind the migrations and conflicts in West Asia and North Africa and exposes us to the risk of repeating that history.

Thisis why we applaud and make our own the proposal to establish a 'day of remembrance of the victims of Italian colonialism' and propose to the organisations of Italian civil society to start a common campaign to obtain the establishment of such a day.

For adhesions of individuals and organisations write to decoloniale[at]unponteper.it