Battle of Valle Giulia

Last updated

The Battle of Valle Giulia (battaglia di Valle Giulia) is the conventional name for a clash between Italian militants (left-wing as well as right-wing) and the Italian police in Valle Giulia, Rome, on 1 March 1968. It is still frequently remembered as one of the first violent clashes in Italy's student unrest during the protests of 1968 or "Sessantotto". [1]

Contents

Battle of Valle Giulia
Date1 March 1968
Location
Result
Belligerents
Neo-Nazi celtic cross flag.svg Far-right militantsSocialist red flag.svg Far-left militants Coat of arms of the Carabinieri.svg Italian police
Commanders and leaders
Neo-Nazi celtic cross flag.svg Stefano Delle Chiaie Unknown Unknown
Strength
Around 4,000 Students 1,000 Policemen
Casualties and losses
272 arrested
478 wounded
148 wounded

Overview

On Friday 1 March, about 4,000 people gathered in the Piazza di Spagna, who began marching through the Sapienza University of Rome campus; some had the intention of occupying the school. When they arrived, the students found themselves in front of an imposing cordon of police, and during the coping that followed, a small group of policemen broke away to deal with violence of an isolated student; the protesters responded with throwing stones and sharp objects. [2] The leaders of the attacks against police were neo-fascist members of the National Vanguard Youth. [3] Left-wing and right-wing students occupied different buildings. [4] [5] In the brawl, 148 injuries were recorded to police, 478 injuries to students, 4 were detained, and 228 were arrested. Eight police cars were destroyed, and five guns were stolen from officers. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pier Paolo Pasolini</span> Italian writer, filmmaker, poet, and intellectual (1922–1975)

Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist and a political figure. He is known for directing the movies from Trilogy of Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saverio Bettinelli</span> Italian Jesuit writer (1718–1808)

Saverio Bettinelli was an Italian Jesuit writer. He became known as a polymath, dramatist, polemicist, poet, and literary critic. He was a friend of some of the leading authors of his times: Voltaire, Francesco Algarotti, Vincenzo Monti and Ippolito Pindemonte. Théodore Tronchin, Guillaume du Tillot, Melchiorre Cesarotti, Giacomo Filippo Durazzo, Pietro Verri, Giammaria Mazzucchelli and Francesco Maria Zanotti were among his correspondents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piazza Fontana bombing</span> Terrorist attack carried out in Milan in 1969

The Piazza Fontana bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88. The same afternoon, another bomb exploded in a bank in Rome, and another was found unexploded in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The attack was carried out by the Third Position, neo-fascist paramilitary terrorist group Ordine Nuovo, and possibly undetermined collaborators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco de Sanctis</span> Italian literary critic and scholar (1817–1883)

Francesco de Sanctis was an Italian literary critic, scholar and politician, leading critic and historian of Italian language and literature during the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Italy</span>

The languages of Italy include Italian, which serves as the country's national language, in its standard and regional forms, as well as numerous local and regional languages, most of which, like Italian, belong to the broader Romance group. The majority of languages often labeled as regional are distributed in a continuum across the regions' administrative boundaries, with speakers from one locale within a single region being typically aware of the features distinguishing their own variety from one of the other places nearby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pino Rauti</span> Italian politician (1926–2012)

Giuseppe Umberto "Pino" Rauti was an Italian neo-fascist politician who was a leading figure of the Italian far-right for many years. Involved in active politics since 1948, he was one of founders and for many years the leader of the Italian Social Movement (MSI). He was the main representative of the MSI's radical faction until the party dissolution in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefano Delle Chiaie</span> Italian far-right activist

Stefano Delle Chiaie was an Italian neo-fascist terrorist. He was the founder of Avanguardia Nazionale, a member of Ordine Nuovo, and founder of Lega nazionalpopolare. He went on to become a wanted man worldwide, suspected of involvement in Italy's strategy of tension, but was acquitted. He was a friend of Licio Gelli, grandmaster of P2 masonic lodge. He was suspected of involvement in South America's Operation Condor, but was acquitted. He was known by his nickname "il caccola" as he was just over five feet tall - although he stated that originally, the nickname came from his very young involvement, at age 14, in the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist political party established after the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paolo Villaggio</span> Italian actor, writer and comedian (1932–2017)

Paolo Villaggio was an Italian actor, writer, director and comedian. He is noted for the characters he created with paradoxical and grotesque characteristics: Professor Kranz, the ultra-timid Giandomenico Fracchia, and the obsequious and meek accountant Ugo Fantozzi, perhaps the favourite character in Italian comedy. He wrote several books, usually of satirical character. He also acted in dramatic roles, and appeared in several movies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiamma Nirenstein</span> Italian-Israeli journalist and political figure

Fiamma Nirenstein is an Italian-Israeli journalist, author and politician. In 2008 she was elected to the Italian Parliament for Silvio Berlusconi's The People of Freedom party and she served as Vice President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies for the length of the legislature, ending in March 2013. On 26 May 2013 she immigrated to Israel. In 2015, Nirenstein was nominated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the future ambassador to Italy, but subsequently withdrew for what she stated were personal reasons. She is Senior Fellow of Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) and currently works there, at the Israeli-based think-tank of JPCA. She writes for the Italian right-wing daily Il Giornale and contributes articles in English to the Jewish News Syndicate. She is also on the Board of ISGAP and of the WJC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vittorio Foa</span> Italian politician, trade unionist, and writer (1910–2008)

Vittorio Foa was an Italian politician, trade unionist, journalist, and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Ilarione Petitti di Roreto</span> Italian politician

Carlo Ilarione Petitti count of Roreto was an Italian economist, academic, writer, counsellor of state, and senator of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He is seen as a prominent figure in the Italian Risorgimento.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martine Brochard</span> French actress and writer (born 1944)

Martine Brochard is a French actress and writer.

The 1968 movement in Italy or Sessantotto was inspired by distaste or discontent with traditional Italian society and by similar international protests. In May 1968 all universities, except Bocconi, were occupied. In the same month a hundred artists, including Gio Pomodoro, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Ernesto Treccani and Gianni Dova occupied for 15 days the Palazzo della Triennale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Far-right social centre</span> Type of public political space

A far-right social centre is a space inspired by neo-fascist and Third Position ideas, typically in the 21st century.

Action is a liberal political party in Italy. Its leader is Carlo Calenda, a member of the European Parliament within the group of Renew Europe and former minister of Economic Development.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youth Front (Italy)</span> Youth movement of the Italian Social Movement

The Youth Front was the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement from 1971 to 1996.

The Young Italy was the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement from 1954 to 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empathism</span> Literary, artistic, philosophical and cultural movement

The Empathic Movement is a literary, artistic, philosophical and cultural movement founded in the South of Italy in 2020 within the 'New Cultural Triangle of Ancient Cilento': Omignano - "The Aphorisms Village", Salento - "The Poetry Village", Vallo della Lucania - "Seat of Contemporary Arts Centre". From this first Triangle the Cultural Pyramid of Cilento was born to represent the enlarged epicenter of the Movement with 25 villages involved which joined with a new cultural identity and signing a protocol agreement.

Paolo Signorelli was an Italian author, activist, and politician of the extreme right.

References

  1. vedi p. 397 Nanni Balestrini, Primo Moroni,L'orda d'oro: 1968-1977, Feltrinelli, 1997.
  2. Ugo Gaudenzi Asinelli, testimonianza in Nicola Rao, La fiamma e la celtica, Sperling & Kupfer Editori, 2006, pp. 125-126 - ISBN   978-88-200-4193-9
  3. Nicola Rao, La fiamma e la celtica, op. cit., pp. 126: "Ma la cosa più interessante è che a capeggiare l'attacco alla polizia sono i fascisti, a cominciare da quelli di Avanguardia Nazionale, guidati da Delle Chiaie"
  4. Piero Ignazi, Il polo escluso. Profilo del Movimento Sociale Italiano, Bologna, il Mulino, 1989, p. 132
  5. Mario Caprara e Gianluca Semprini, Neri, la storia mai raccontata della destra radicale, eversiva e terrorista, Edizioni tascabili Newton, Roma 2011, pag 223: "Dopo la battaglia di Valle Giulia venne occupata l'università: la facoltà di Giurisprudenza passò in mano al gruppo guidato da Stefano Delle Chiaie, quella di Lettere fu invece "presa" dal Movimento Studentesco. Su Giurisprudenza svettava bandiera nera, su Lettere il drappo rosso"
  6. Cfr. anche Marco Iacona, 1968. Le origini della contestazione globale, Solfanelli, 2008, pp. 86-87