In the First Italian Republic, after the Second World War, several armed, paramilitary, far-right organizations were active, as well as far-left ones, especially during the Years of Lead.
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In the First Italian Republic, after the Second World War, several armed, paramilitary, far-right organizations were active, as well as far-left ones, especially during the Years of Lead.
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 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, [note 1] . [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]
| 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 2] | 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 3] | CasaPound |
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