Armed Struggle in Italy 1976-78: A Chronology

by Jean Weir (Editor)

An incredible anthology. Not only was there an amazing amount of armed actions in Italy at this time, but those chronicled here (and there are 100s of them) were those carried out by autonomous/anarchist groups/affinity groups, not by the Red Brigades and other Leninist factions. As well as the detailed, annotated chronology, there's a contextual and historical introduction by Jean Weir, as well as several analytical articles published from the Italian anarchist press at the time. "But there was another dimension present in the struggle at the end of the 70s, one consisting of autonomous actions carried out by affinity groups formed for the duration of the action itself. At the time when we first published this counter-information we do so in order to make know and extend the whole dimension of armed struggle, and for this reason we chose to limit our criticism of the forms that struggle took. In reprinting it today we are doing so with another aim: that of contributing to the struggle's qualitative development."

Genres: History

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the chronology format is a little hard to read and contextualize (especially when divided into sections for each attack victim category), the recording of these events provokes quite a bit of excitement. I had no idea Italy in the 70s had this much guerrilla activity. It almost seems like some sort of attack was taking place every single day/night. The short essays at the end give a great analysis and justification for guerrilla struggle, and defend the clandestine attack along with open revolt.

It's great to keep past attacks, struggles, and analyses in mind as we see a mini-resurgence in kneecappings of nuclear executives and the assassination of biotechnology nerds.