Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, after the Second World War, many

armed Armed (May, 1941–1964) was an American Thoroughbred gelding race horse who was the American Horse of the Year in 1947 and Champion Older Male Horse in both 1946 and 1947. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in ...

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

organizations were active, as well as far-left ones.

Background

The attempt to endorse the

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...

(MSI) by the

Tambroni Cabinet The Tambroni Cabinet was the 15th cabinet of the Italian Republic led by the Christian Democrat Fernando Tambroni. It lasted from 25 March to 26 July 1960. The government received the necessary vote of confidence from the parliament thanks to th ...

, in 1960, led to rioting and was short-lived. Widespread

labor unrest A labour revolt or worker's uprising is a period of civil unrest characterised by strong labour militancy and strike activity. The history of labour revolts often provides the historical basis for many advocates of Marxism, communism, socialism and ...

and the collaboration of

countercultural A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

student activist Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political e ...

groups with

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

factory workers and pro-labor radical leftist organizations such as

Potere Operaio Potere Operaio ("Workers' Power") was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1967 and 1973. (It shouldn't be confused with "Potere Operaio Pisano" which was one of the components of a competing revolutionary group, Lotta Conti ...

and

Lotta Continua Lotta Continua (LC; en, Continuous Struggle) was a far-left paramilitary organization in Italy. It was founded in autumn 1969 by a split in the student-worker movement of Turin, which had started militant activity at the universities and factor ...

culminated in the so-called "

Hot Autumn The Hot Autumn ( it, Autunno caldo) of 1969–70 is a term used for a series of large Strike action, strikes in the factories and industrial centers of Northern Italy, in which workers demanded better pay and better conditions. During 1969 and 197 ...

" of 1969, a massive series of strikes in factories and industrial centres in

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

Student strike Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or academ ...

s and labour strikes, often led by workers, leftists, left-sympathizing laborers, or Marxist activists, became increasingly common, often deteriorating into clashes between the police and demonstrators composed largely of workers, students, activists, and often left-wing militants. In the same period, various organizations with a far-right ideology also emerged in Italy and undertook violent action. Young neo-fascists perceived the legal,

political party MSI as betraying them through its ostensible inaction in the face of attacks by the police and political opponents, as in the case of the

Acca Larentia killings The Acca Larentia massacre was the journalistic name given to a double homicide that occurred in Rome on 7 January 1978. Five teenagers of the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement were ambushed while leaving the local party headquarters ...

. Influenced by theories of

urban guerrilla warfare An urban guerrilla is someone who fights a government using unconventional warfare or domestic terrorism in an urban environment. Theory and history The urban guerrilla phenomenon is essentially one of industrialised society, resting bot ...

and spontaneism, a number of neo-fascists moved from

street-fighting Street fighting is hand-to-hand combat in public places, between individuals or groups of people. The venue is usually a public place (e.g. a street) and the fight sometimes results in serious injury or occasionally even death. Some street fig ...

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

.
''For more information, see Years of Lead and Strategy of tension.''

Organizations

Notes

References

External links

*{{cite journal , date=November 1984 , title=Terrorism and Security: The Italian Experience, url=https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/129291NCJRS.pdf, journal=United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism , access-date=11 October 2020 Clandestine groups Terrorism in Italy Far-right politics in Italy Neo-fascist organisations in Italy Neo-fascist terrorism Factions of the Years of Lead (Italy) Defunct organisations designated as terrorist in Italy

Background

Organizations

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links