Franco Piperno (born 5 January 1943) is a former communist militant from Italy. He is an associate professor of

Condensed Matter Physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the sub ...

in the

University of Calabria The University of Calabria ( it, Università della Calabria, UNICAL) is a state-run university in Italy. Located in Arcavacata, a hamlet of Rende and a suburb of Cosenza, the university was founded in 1972. Among its founders there were Beniamino ...

.Course held by Piperno
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Biography

Piperno was born in

Catanzaro Catanzaro (, or ; scn, label= Catanzarese, Catanzaru ; , or , ''Katastaríoi Lokrói''; ; la, Catacium), also known as the "City of the two Seas", is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its p ...

. He graduated in physics at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

and was member of the FGCI (Italy's communist youth organization). After his expulsion, in 1969 he was suspected of having sabotaged a Boston Chemical plant, which produced defoliant used in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, but he was immediately released. In

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

he was an activist in the 1968 movement and in the summer 1969 he took part in the demonstration against

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. In the late 1969, with

Oreste Scalzone Oreste Scalzone (born 26 January 1947) is an Italian Marxist intellectual and one of the founders of the communist organization Potere Operaio. Scalzone was born in Terni, Umbria. In 1968 he came to know Franco Piperno, and on 1 March that year h ...

and

Toni Negri Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic-Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political p ...

, he was one of the founders of the far-left organisation ''

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 later he was a member of ''

Autonomia Operaia Autonomia Operaia (Italian: ''Workers' Autonomy'') was an Italian leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It took an important role in the autonomist movement in the 1970s, alongside earlier organisations such as ''Potere Operaio'', ...

''. He also led the wing of Potere Operaio called ''Lavoro Illegale'' ("Illegal Work") With Toni Negri, Oreste Scalzone and others, he was charged for the publication of subversive magazines in 1979 but he escaped the capture. In 1980 he was absolved, but one year later he was condemned to ten years of imprisonment in another trial for insurrectional activity and participation to the

kidnapping of Aldo Moro The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro ( it, Rapimento di Aldo Moro), also referred to in Italy as Moro Case ( it, Caso Moro), was a seminal event in Italian political history. On the morning of 16 March 1978, the day on which the new cabine ...

. In particular, he was accused of having acted as a negotiator (through one of the kidnappers,

Valerio Morucci Valerio Morucci (born 22 July 1949) is an Italian terrorist, who was a member of the Red Brigades and who took part in the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978. Biography Morucci was born in Rome. He took part in the libertarian ...

) between the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...

and the terrorists who were allegedly detaining Moro. Documents left by the journalist

Mino Pecorelli Carmine "Mino" Pecorelli (; 14 September 1928 – 20 March 1979) was an Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome a year after former prime minister Aldo Moro's 1978 kidnapping and subsequent killing. He was described as a "maverick journalist wit ...

after his murder also hinted at an involvement of Piperno in the kidnapping. Piperno then lived in exile for several years, first in France thanks to the

Mitterrand doctrine The Mitterrand doctrine (from French: ''Doctrine Mitterrand'') was a policy established in 1985 by French President François Mitterrand, of the Socialist Party, concerning Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France: those convicted for viole ...

and then in Canada, where he also obtained a position at the

University of Montreal A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. Most of the charges were later dropped, and the sentence was reduced to four years. Piperno returned to Italy from Canada in 1990 and became active locally in his hometown,

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

, creating the cultural association ''Ciroma''. In January 1996 his car was hit by four handgun bullets. In May 1996 Piperno became a member of the local council of the city of Cosenza.

References

1943 births Autonomism Italian communists Libertarian socialists Living people People from Catanzaro Potere Operaio {{Italy-scientist-stub

Biography

See also

References