A brief history of the Italian section of the Situationist International - Miguel Amorós
Submitted by Alias Recluse on May 19 2014 19:06
A short account of the second Italian Section of the Situationist International (members: Gianfranco Sanguinetti, Paolo Salvadori, Claudio Pavan and Eduardo Rothe) from its origins in the youth culture protests of the mid-1960s to its collapse during the state terror campaign of the 1970s, including discussions of the precursor journal, S, the influence of the French situationists and May ‘68, the role played by the “organizational question”, the various publications of the Italian Section, its isolation from the other radical currents in Italy and the sordid personality conflicts that plagued the Section and finally led to its dissolution in 1971.
The American worker and the Forze Nuove: Turin and Detroit at the twilight of Fordism
Nicola Pizzolato on the commonalities between Detroit and Turin, Italy in the 1960s.
Left wing extremists harass CCU strike leaders
Submitted by backspace on Dec 8 2013 17:38
A 1976 diplomatic telegram sent abroad by the Italian government informing of dangerous workerist intervention challenging the limits of an ineffective 4 hour token strike in Italian industry.
Learning to struggle: my story between workerism and feminism - Leopoldina Fortunati
An interesting account of an Italian Marxist feminist of her experiences and development in the autonomist and feminist movements in Italy in the 1970s.
Radical America #05.05: Italy 1969-1970
Issue of Radical America from September-October 1971, predominantly about the mass struggles in Italy in the previous two years.
The veritable report on the last chance to save capitalism in Italy - Censor
A brilliant hoax report by former Situationist International member Gianfranco Sanguinetti purporting to be by a cultured Italian aristocrat calling himself "Censor". It was sent to 520 of the most powerful people in Italy in 1975 and sounding like a conservative from another era Censor counselled his peers in response to the mass strikes sweeping the country, causing a scandal and laying bare the state manipulation of terrorist groups in the Strategy of Tension.
Franca Rame’s rape: Fascists, carabinieri and ‘a higher wish’ - Girolamo De Michele
Submitted by StrugglesInItaly on Jun 7 2013 09:15
Article on Italian state and police involvement in the rape and torture of a radical activist by fascists, translated by Struggles in Italy. Trigger warning for discussion of sexual violence.
Let’s not talk about desires anymore
“Let’s not talk about desires anymore, let’s desire: we are desiring machines, machines of war.”
After the events of March 1977, Radio Alice became the symbol of the free radios. It was emitted from Bologna, one of the strongholds of the Italian Communist Party and the explicit showcase for the Historical Compromise [alliance between Christian Democrats and Italian Communist Party (PCI)].
Apocalypse and survival - Francesco Santini
A harrowing intellectual biography and review essay devoted to the life and works of Giorgio Cesarano, interwoven with an account of the Italian “radical current” of 1968-1978, when revolutionary expectations ran high but, for the few consistent revolutionaries caught between the terrorism of the state and the armed groups, the hostility of the Stalinist and crypto-Stalinist political formations, and a ruthless and sweeping repression, the results were often madness, prison, suicide and a wave of disillusionment that devastated the revolutionary milieu.
Storming the West - Celluloid Liberation Front
Film theory on the spaghetti western films of the 1960s and 70s and how they were informed by the revolutionary conditions in the real world.
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