Uniqueness Of The Italian Political Violence - Essay Example

In the book “The rise and fall of Italian terrorism”, (Leonard & Lee, 1987) has described Italian political terrorism as; the terrorist operations committed in Italy by Italian groups against purely Italian targets. The history of political terrorism in Italy is deemed by some scholars to be as long as that of the countrys experience as a unified nation state. Political violence as a phenomenon has been a common feature of Italian public life since the achievement of national unification. “With the exception of the 21 year rule of Fascist dictatorship (1922-1943), Italian history, before and after Mussolini, has been characterized by an enormous volume of political violence” (Leonard & Lee, 1987, p.34). Major violent events have been recorded as occurring at pace of about one every two years from the 1860s until the advent of Fascist rule and then resuming at only a slightly reduced rate in the years. After the World War II, Many of these violent activities came up as a result of workers and peasant strikes, land seizures and factory occupations. Others included bread riots, anti-tax riots and anti-war demonstration. While some events were aimed at the government others were between private groups fighting among themselves. Some scholars have never the less downplayed this past event as being non terrorist and argued that real terrorist activities began in the 1960’s with the bombing of the National Agricultural Bank at Piazza Fontana in Milan and to have subsided with the arrest and eventual prosecution of large numbers of terrorists, after General James Dozier was liberated from the Red Brigade in 1982. Never the less the timeline between these two occurrences saw terrorist organizations (claiming inspiration from either anarchist, communist or neo-fascist doctrines) commit several acts of violence. These activities caused hundreds of deaths, some of which included that of a former prime minister. Thousands of people were reported injured including a pope, and in retrospect, more thousands were sent to prison for committing the violence. All this occurred in a country governed by a democratic political regime, no less and probably somewhat more democratic in 19132 than it was in 1969, with an advanced industrialized economy and having a population noted justifiably for its cultural sophistication and social tolerance. Each of the countrys 94 provinces is said to have been a venue for political violence. For example: Turin, Milan, and Rome. But what were the reasons for this renewed trend of political violence in Italy during this period?This paper will seek to give theories as proponed by different scholars, politians and critics from within and without Italy. Like with any other topic in history, conspiracy theory has been used to explain the reason for the upsurge of political violence in the period between 1968 to 1988. To start with, some people believe that activities of terrorism in Italy was a well crafted plan by foreigners to destabilize the country for various political, economic and strategic reasons. For instance, the Soviet Union together with some of its Warsaw pact partners and middle East friends are blamed for having actively promoted and sustained the activities of the left wing terrorist groups in Italy. It’s this theory which is arguably the most supported among the political class that saw the Octogenerian former President of Italy Sandro Pertini, a hero of Anti Fascist resistance and a self proclaimed fascist ask the Soviet Union to stop supporting terrorist activities in Italy and inspired the American journalist Claire Sterling to write a novel titled ‘The Terror’ a best seller built around this belief. This theory found further support from the neo-fascist political party. Italys neo-fascist political class which saw the Soviets behind the violence. Those against Russia as a possible enemy see America as having a hand in these activities of terror possibly through it’s intelligence services. For instance, Eleanora Moro, the assassinated prime ministers widow, always believed that USA orchestrated the murder of her husband …Her accusation apparently is based on a conversation her late husband had in Washington with then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Members of the Moro family testified that the Christian Democratic leader had been threatened by Kissinger during a visit to Washington in 1974 in an effort to dissuade him from doing anything to promote the entry of the Communist party into the Italian coalition government….(Leonard &Lee, 1987, p. 56) This version of the conspiracy theory is particularly attractive to writers on the left and has it that the American CIA provided support to its Italian counterpart, the Defense Information Service (SID). Other than the two superpowers; other smaller countries like Greece, Israel and Libya have been accused of controlling terrorists groups in Italy. In a document developed by the BRs Strategic Direction and published in 1978, Italy was charged as being in the hands of an international conspiracy. The document claimed that multinational corporations using instruments like NATO, the Trilateral Commission, and the European Economic Community, had conspired to transform the country into an Imperialist State of the Multinationals (which they abbreviated as SIM). SIM was accused of developing and refining techniques, that included the construction of concentration camps (referred to a maximum security prisons the government was building), for the repression of the toletarian victims of capitalist abuse. Even the Italian Communist party was accused of having been assigned an auxiliary role, in the implementation of the multinationals conspiracy against Italy. The above theory has not gone without criticism. According to Luigi Bonante, an international relations professor at University of Turin, Russians would never have tried to support the leftist terrorists at the risk of encouraging a rightist government, unsympathetic to her policies. Further, Pattrizio Peci, who at one time was under the strategic management of the red brigade recounts in his auto biography that although Italian terrorists groups collaborated with other international terrorists there was never any evidence of them working with any foreign espisionage services whether America, Russia or otherwise. Although there are many rumors of willing foreigners who wanted to be accomplices but the terrorist groups in Italy are considered to have been too macho to allow their vanguard status to be diluted by anyone. This is not to say that notorious acts of terrorism have not been committed in the Italian soils by foreigners. A period between 1960 and 80s saw to the Arab attack of planes going to Israel and other Middle eastern nations, assassination of several diplomats by their enemies through hired home agents, the shooting down of Jews by Arabs as they left their synagogues and above all the scandalous attempted murder of Pope John Paul 2 through a shooting by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish citizen with rumored help from the Bulgarian government (Leonard & Lee, 1987). But this cannot be categorically called political terrorism since it was not committed by Italians on fellow Italian. This ushers us back to another theory given by the critics of conspiracy explaining the resurgence of political terrorism in Italy between late sixties to the late eighties. These theories can be simplified to domestic conspiracy and subdivided to the several facets of the same: To start with, (Leonard & Lee, 1987) introduces us to what some scholars, politician, and journalists have referred to the strategy of Tensions. Its proponent argue that the Italian Social Movement under Giorgio Almirante, took advantage of the workers and student riots of 1968 and 1969 by first pretending to offer legal representation to the victims of the protest while on the other hand secretly committing acts of terrorism and blaming it on the leftist in order to gain political sympathy. For instance the Piazza Fontana bombing is connected to this theory. The logic behind the theory is that the sympathy would have inspired a neo-fascist take over of the government. It is even claimed that not only did strong Neo Fascist adherents like National Vanguard and New order carry out covert terrorist activities but they also controlled leftist movements, but in disguise in order to attain rightist goals. Another theory, blame every act of political terrorism on the Neo-facists, this time without the Leftist angle which has entirely left out the role of the leftist in all these activities….. the growth of radical, disorder and political violence which…intensified during 1968-69 created proliferation of small conspiratorial neo-fascist and Neo-Nazi groups which were numerous and active for the next decade and more…(Tarrow, 1989, p.67). This theory substitutes MSI as the leaders of terrorism with a group called Secret Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due (P2) under the leadership of Eicio Gelli who conspired with high ranking politician’s military men and police officer to facilitate political terrorism that ran into the seventies. When their attempt at causing tension amounted to a failed coup de tat staged by the Neo Fascist elements in 1970, the Neo-fascist forces even tried the tactic of destabilizing the country’s centre wing and right wing political parties by callously displaying democratic antics. Further, “… on 2nd August 1980,at the start of the ferragosto holiday, Neo-Fascist terrorists succeeded in completely reestablishing their stature as public enemies deserving of comparison with extreme left wing fanatics…”(Drake, 1989, p.70). This theory fails in its inability to cast a role for Antonio Negri, a former professor of political thought in the University of Padua charged in 1979 with a conspiracy to overthrow the Italian government by inspiring the formation of terrorist groups, masterminding the Red Brigade and planning the kidnap and murder of Aldo Moro. In summary he was accused of promoting leftist terrorism. Other non conspiracy approaches have been taken up to explain the terrorism phenomenon in Italy. For instance, the cultural disposition of Italy has been blamed for being the breeding ground for activities of terrorism. The scenario is one in which Italian population was shifted from an agrarian to Industrial lifestyle around the sixties. The rural-urban migration created a declining belief in the Catholic doctrines, changing the traditional Italian family and gave the electorate the audacity to pass laws allowing for abortion and civil divorces. This created a certain level of value erosion and lesser respect for the existing authorities, leaving the young in deficiency for alternative leadership. The left –wing and later the Neo Fascist leaders took advantage of the eager youths and recruited them to fight for their political causes. The cultural aspect is further accentuated by the existence of the Mafioso activities. Especially during the 80,s, this created a trend of the assassination of chief government agents charged with dealing with the proliferation of revenge murders. Other factors are economic…. “ A central contention of this argument is that a marginal stratum of Italian society evolved, one composed of people excluded from participation in the labor market because the existing system of labor -management relations made it unprofitable for employers to take on new workers…”(Leonard & Lee, 1987, p.65). Well read Italians who lacked jobs in the mainstream market were recruited by terrorist groups. Further the social amenities and academic institutions in Italy were experiencing and overload and frustrated Italians joined terrorist activities to vent at their frustration with the overload. Lastly, political disposition of Italy has been highly blamed for political terrorism. “…Most general political explanation questions the democratic character of the countrys political culture…” The constant political instability caused by the diverse ideological differences between the left-wing and the rightist excited a proliferation of political terrorism inspired by ideological loyalties. Such high levels of terrorism only subsided towards the early nineties as Italy got into a serious march toward democracy. . Bibliography Ferraresi, F 1988, ‘The Radical Right in Postwar Italy’, Politics and Society , vol. 16, no. 1, pp.71-119. Weinberg , L & Eubank, W 1987, The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism. Tarrow, S 1989, Democracy and Disorder: Protest and Politics in Italy 1965-1975.. Spotts, F & Wieser, W, Italy, A Difficult Democracy (ch. 9). Della, DP & Tarrow, S, ‘Unwanted children: political violence and the cycle of protest in Italy 1966-1973’, European Journal of Political Research (1986) vol. 14, nos 5-6, pp.607-632. Edwards, P 2006, ‘Autonomia and the political: An Italian cycle of contention, 1972–1979’, Modern Italy (2006), 11, 3, pp. 267-283. Lumley, R 1990, States of Emergency: The Cultures of Revolt in Italy from 1968 to 1978 (1990); ch. 19 ‘The Red Brigades: Sons and Daughters of ’68?’, pp.279-293. Drake, R 1989, The Revolutionary Mystique and Terrorism in Contemporary Italy. Videorecording: ‘The age of terror’ (2003), Recorded off-air from ABC-TV 13, 20, 27 August and 3 September 2003. Broadcast as part of Big Picture programme. See parts 2 and 4 especially. Ferraresi, F 1996, Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy after the War (1996). Ferraresi, F 1992, ‘A Secret Structure Codenamed Gladio’, Italian Politics: A Review, Vol 7 (1992), pp. 29-48. Moss, D 1989, The Politics of Left-wing Violence in Italy 1969-1985. Catanzaro, R 1991 (ed.), The Red Brigades and Left-wing Terrorism in Italy (1991). Wagner, RP 1986, Pacifici, The Moro Morality Play. Read More