Armed, far-right organizations in Italy

In the First Italian Republic, after the Second World War, several armed, paramilitary, far-right organizations (Italian: organizzazioni armate paramilitari di estrema destra) were active, as well as far-left ones, especially during the Years of Lead.

Background

Further information: Strategy of tension and Years of Lead (Italy)

The attempt, in 1960, to include representatives of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the neo-fascist heir of the National Fascist Party, in the Tambroni Cabinet led to rioting and was short-lived.^[1] Widespread labor unrest and the collaboration of student activist groups with factory workers and radical leftist organizations, such as Potere Operaio and Lotta Continua, culminated in the Hot Autumn of 1969, a massive series of strike actions in factories and industrial centres in Northern Italy.^[1]

Student strikes and labour strikes, 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 left-wing militants.^[1]

In the same period, various organizations with a far-right ideology 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 from the extreme left, as in the case of the Acca Larentia killings.^[2]

Influenced by theories of urban guerrilla warfare and spontaneism,^[3][4] a number of neo-fascists moved from street-fighting to armed militancy and terrorism.^[5]

Organizations

Name in Italian	Flag or symbol	Name translated	Leading figures	Period of activity	Ideology	Principal actions	Political representation, affiliation, or legacy
Associazione Protezione Italiani		Italians' Protection Association		1961–1979	Neo-fascism	Alto Adige bombings (1961)[6]
Avanguardia Nazionale		National Vanguard	Stefano Delle Chiaie[7]	1970–1972	Neo-Nazism	Reggio revolt (1970), Gioia Tauro train station sabotage (1970), and Peteano massacre (1972)	Comunità Politica di Avanguardia[8]
Falange Armata		Armed Phalanx	SISMI[9]	1990–1994	Far-right politics	Assassination of Opera prison educator Umberto Mormile (1990)
Fasci di Azione Rivoluzionaria		Fasces of Revolutionary Action[note 1]	Pino Romualdi	1946– 1947; 1951	Neo-fascism	Attacks against Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of the United States, Rome[10]
Movimento di Azione Rivoluzionaria		Movement of Revolutionary Action	Carlo Fumagalli Gaetano Orlando[11]	1962–1974	Neo-fascism	Arson and bombing attacks on Enel pylons (1960s), and arson attack on the Pirelli-Bicocca tire depot in Milan, in which a worker lost his life (1971)
Movimento Rivoluzionario Popolare		Revolutionary Popular Movement	Paolo Aleandri Marcello Iannilli[12]	1979–1980	Neo-fascism	Bombing attack at the Capitoline Hill (1979), bombing attack on the Regina Coeli prison (1979), bombing attack against Italy's High Council of the Judiciary (1979), and bombing attempt at the Piazza dell'Indipendenza in Rome, which failed due to bomb malfunction (1979)[13]
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari		Armed Revolutionary Nuclei	Valerio Fioravanti Francesca Mambro Massimo Carminati Alessandro Alibrandi Franco Anselmi	1977–1981	Neo-fascism	Bologna massacre, a bombing with 85 dead (1980), and assassination of magistrate Mario Amato (1980) and police officer Francesco Evangelista (1980)	Forza Nuova
Ordine Nero		Black Order	Fabrizio Zani Marco Pastori Adriano Petroni Luciano Benardelli	1974–1983	Neo-Nazism	Italicus Express bombing (1974), Piazza della Loggia bombing, with 8 people dead and 102 wounded (1974),[14] and assassination of judge Vittorio Occorsio (1976)
Ordine Nuovo		New Order	Pierluigi Concutelli[15] Pino Rauti	1965–1973	Neo-Nazism	Piazza Fontana bombing in the headquarters of the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura, with 17 people dead and 88 wounded (1969), and Peteano massacre, with 3 Carabinieri killed and one injured (1972), plus various bombings of trains	Movimento Politico Ordine Nuovo[16]
Terza Posizione		Third Position	Giuseppe Dimitri Nanni De Angelis Roberto Fiore Gabriele Adinolfi Massimo Morsello	1979–unknown	Neo-fascism	Collaboration with the Armed Revolutionary Nuclei in armed militancy and popularization of the Third Position ideology[note 2]	CasaPound

See also

• Left-wing militant groups in Italy
• Italian fascism
• Post-fascism in Italy
• Radical right (Europe)
• Right-wing populism
• Right-wing terrorism
• Ultranationalism

Notes

1. Not to be confused with Benito Mussolini's Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria, it was also known as Legione Nera (Black Legion).
2. The rhetoric of the Third Position developed in Italy and in France. In the 1980s, it was taken up by the National Front in the United Kingdom. In 1983, the National Front was taken over by a Strasserist faction led by Nick Griffin, who presented himself as a Third Positionist.

References

1. Montanelli, Indro; Mario Cervi (1989). L'Italia dei due Giovanni [The Italy of the two Giovannis] (in Italian). Milan: Rizzoli Editore.
2. Zanarini, Manuel (10 June 2008). "NAR: lo spontaneismo armato neofascista" [NAR: the neo-fascist armed spontaneism]. Ariana editrice (in Italian). Archived from the original on 5 February 2022. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
3. Commissione Parlamentare sul Terrorismo (Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism) (24 February 2006). "L'eversione di destra dopo il 1974" [The right-wing subversion after 1974]. Archivio900 (in Italian). Archived from the original on 23 November 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
4. Paternoster, Renzo (1 July 2015). "Gli "Orfani" Del Msi: Dal Ribellismo Allo Spontaneismo Armato" [The MSI 'Orphans': From Rebellion to Armed Spontaneism]. Storia in Network (in Italian). Archived from the original on 23 November 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
5. Minnucci, Marzia (2015). A destra del MSI: evoluzione armata della destra radicale [To the right of MSI: The armed evolution of the radical right] (PDF) (Thesis) (in Italian). Free International University of Social Studies "Guido Carli". Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
6. Tortello, Leticia (18 October 2019). "Alto Adige, nella valle che sogna la secessione e invoca la grazia per i suoi terroristi" [Alto Adige, in the valley that dreams of secession and invokes pardon for its terrorists]. La Stampa (in Italian). Rome. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
7. Harris, Geoffrey (1 January 1994). The Dark Side of Europe. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0748604661.
8. "Comunità Politica di Avanguardia" [National Vanguard community]. Misteri d'Italia (Mysteries of Italy) (in Italian). Archived from the original on 15 October 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
9. Pipitone, Giuseppe (25 June 2015). "Trattativa, l'ex capo dei Servizi Fulci: "la Falange chiamava dalle sedi Sismi, alcuni 007 usavano esplosivi"" [Revelation, the former head of the service Fulci: "the Falange called from the Sismi headquarters, some 007s were using explosives"]. Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
10. Portella della Ginestra: alla radice del segreto italiano [Gate of the Broom: at the root of the Italian secret] (in Italian). Memoria e Futuro. 2019. ISBN 9788831618823.
11. Lanza, Luciano (2014). Secrets and Bombs. Piazza Fontana 1969. Translated by Sharkey, Paul. Christie Books. ISBN 9781873976203.
12. "Movimento Rivoluzionario Popolare" [Revolutionary Popular Movement]. WebArchive (in Italian). Centro di documentazione storico politica sullo stragismo. 2005. Archived from the original on 9 March 2008. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
13. Casillo, Giuseppe (2012). A destra della destra: Terza Posizione [To the right of the right: Third Position] (Thesis) (in Italian). Universitá degli Studi del Molise. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
14. Rodella, Mara (22 July 2015). "Strage di piazza Loggia, ergastolo ai neofascisti Maggi e Tramonte" [Piazza Loggia massacre, life imprisonment for neo-fascists Maggi and Tramonte]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
15. Bianconi, Giovanni (19 April 2011). "Torna libero Pierluigi Concutelli" [Pierluigi Concutelli returns free]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
16. Baldoni, Adalberto; Provvisionato, Sandro (1989). La notte piu lunga della repubblica : sinistra e destra, ideologie, estremismi, lotta armata, 1968-1989 [The longest night of the republic : left and right, ideologies, extremisms, armed struggles, 1968-1989] (in Italian). Serarcangeli.

Further reading

• Cento Bull, Anna (2016). Ending Terrorism in Italy. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-845740-65-8.
• Weinberg, Leonard; Eubank, William L. (2019). The Rise And Fall Of Italian Terrorism. Routledge. ISBN 978-0367295561.

External links

• "Terrorism and Security: The Italian Experience" (PDF). Report of the Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism. United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. November 1984. Retrieved 11 October 2020.