Italy 60s-70s

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.

Sent 9th February 1976, originally classified for ‘Limited official use’ but since declassified and released as of 2006. Taken from the original text found in the Wikileaks public archive.

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.

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.

On the 9th of March 1973 Franca Rame was abducted by five men and forced to get in a van where she was tortured and raped. Famously, Franca managed to talk about this aggression in a monologue called ‘Lo Stupro’ (‘The Rape’), which she included in the show ‘Tutta casa, letto e chiesa’.

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.

Apocalypse and survival: Reflections on Giorgio Cesarano's book, Critica dell’utopia capitale, and the experience of the radical communist current in Italy

By Francesco Santini (1994), Spanish translation by Carlos Lagos P. Original text in Italian at: http://www.autprol.org/public/news/apoeriv.htm
English translation from Spanish completed January 2013

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.

"I remember we used to wear the same dusters from The Wild Bunch or the one James Coburn wore in Duck, You Sucker!" —Francesco Piccioni (Red Brigades member)

External and internal militants: Workers autonomy in Porto Marghera seen from West Germany 1971-1974 - Karl-Heinz Roth

A text describing the relationship between the struggles and ideas of the workers of the Porto Marghera chemical plant in Italy, along with the group Potere Operaio which they were closely linked to, and the ex-student activists in West Germany who tried to learn from the Italian example and develop similar workers' initiatives in their own part of Europe.

Introduction

This text recently appeared in French in the recently published book Pouvoir ouvrier à Porto Marghera - Du Comité d’usine à l’Assemblée de territoire (Vénétie – 1960-80) [“Workers’ Power in Porto Marghera – from the Factory Committee to the Territorial Assembly (Venetia – 1960-80)”], Les nuits rouges, 2012.

The refusal of work - Workers Committee of Porto Marghera

This text was published by Italian chemical workers in the “Comitato operaio di Porto Marghera”, in Quaderni dell'or-ganizzazione operaia, no. 1, 1970, in duplicated format.

Introduction

This text is translated from the French version, which can be found in the recently published book Pouvoir ouvrier à Porto Marghera - Du Comité d’usine à l’Assemblée de territoire (Vénétie – 1960-80) [“Workers’ Power in Porto Marghera – from the Factory Committee to the Territorial Assembly (Venetia – 1960-80)”], Les nuits rouges, 2012.

Italy 1960s-70s - reading guide

Libcom.org's reading guide on the Italian social movements of the 1960s-70s, which saw massive strikes, protests, occupations, directly democratic assemblies and widespread radicalism across society.

Key texts

1962-1973: Worker and student struggles in Italy - Sam Lowry - Short, simply-worded history of the wave of strikes and occupations that gripped Italian factories and universities during the 1960s.

Antonio Negri: a revolt that never ends

Documentary about the life and ideas of Italian Marxist Antonio Negri. With interesting footage and information from Italy in the 1960s-70s it follows his development from the 'Operaisti' through to his trial for supposed involvement in the Red Brigades all the way up to Empire and the anti-globalisation movement.