Italian anarchism as a movement began primarily from the influence ofMikhail Bakunin,[1]Giuseppe Fanelli,Carlo Cafiero, andErrico Malatesta. Rooted incollectivist anarchism andsocial or socialist anarchism, it expanded to includeillegalistindividualist anarchism,mutualism,anarcho-syndicalism, and especiallyanarcho-communism. In fact, anarcho-communism first fully formed into its modern strain within the Italian section of theFirst International.[2] Italian anarchism and Italian anarchists participated in thebiennio rosso and survivedItalian Fascism, with Italian anarchists significantly contributing to theItalian Resistance Movement.Platformism[3] andinsurrectionary anarchism have long been particularly common in Italian anarchism and continue to influence the movement today. ThesynthesistItalian Anarchist Federation and insurrectionaryInformal Anarchist Federation appeared afterthe war, andautonomismo andoperaismo especially influenced Italian anarchism in the second half of the 20th century.
When the Italian section of theInternational Workingman's Association was formed in 1869, new and more famous (or infamous) anarchists began appearing on the scene, notable individuals includeCarlo Cafiero andErrico Malatesta. Within the Italian section of the IWMA, the ideas ofanarchist communism as a clear, cohesive movement were formed. At an 1876 conference in Florence, the Italian section of the International Workingmen's Association declared the principles of Anarchist-Communism, proclaiming:
The Italian Federation considers the collective property of the products of labour as the necessary complement to the collectivist programme, the aid of all for the satisfaction of the needs of each being the only rule of production and consumption which corresponds to the principle of solidarity. The federal congress at Florence has eloquently demonstrated the opinion of the Italian International on this point...
It was also in Italy that early Anarchist attempts at revolution began. Bakunin was involved in an insurrection taking place inFlorence in 1869[4] and in the failed1874 Bologna insurrection. In 1877, Errico Malatesta, Carlo Cafiero, and Costa began an attempt at revolution in Italy with theBanda del Matese. They liberated two villages inCampania before being put down by the military.[4]
Italian Anarchism was first materialized in the Italian section of theFirst International. The popularity of the IWA skyrocketed with theParis Commune. Because of limited knowledge of the actual events taking place, many militants had utopian visions of the nature of the Commune, leading to popularity of Anarchist and other Socialist ideas.[5] The radical republicanGiuseppe Mazzini condemned the Commune because it represented everything he hated: class struggle, mass violence, atheism, and materialism. Mazzini's condemnation helped to increase the defection of many republicans to the ranks of the IWA.[6]
As the split between Marx and Bakunin became more prominent, the Italian section of the IWA primarily took the side of Bakunin against the authoritarian behaviour of Marx's General Council. Bakunin's defence of the Paris Commune against the attacks of Mazzini and Marx and Engels's incompetence in challenging them led to Bakuninism becoming the prominent strain of thought in the Italian IWA. In 1872, Bakunin, and Cafiero helped to organize a national federation of Italian IWA sections. All the delegates at the founding congress excludingCarlo Terzaghi (a police spy) and twoGaribaldian socialists, were Anarchists.[7]
Errico Malatesta was an importantItaliananarchist. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend ofMikhail Bakunin. Partly via his enthusiasm for theParis Commune and partly via his friendship withCarmelo Palladino, he joined theNaples section of theInternational Workingmen's Association that same year, as well as teaching himself to be a mechanic and electrician. In 1872 he metMikhail Bakunin, with whom he participated in the International'sSt. Imier Congress. For the next four years, Malatesta helped spread Internationalist propaganda in Italy; he was imprisoned twice for these activities.
In April 1877, Malatesta,Carlo Cafiero, theRussianStepniak and about 30 others started aninsurrection in the province of Benevento, taking the villages ofLetino andGallo without a struggle. The revolutionaries burnedtax registers and declared the end of the King's reign, and were met with enthusiasm: even a local priest showed his support.
InFlorence he founded the weekly anarchist paperLa Questione Sociale (The Social Question) in which his most popularpamphlet,Fra Contadini (Among Farmers), first appeared. He lived inBuenos Aires from 1885, where he resumed publication ofLa Questione Sociale, and was involved in the founding of the first militant workers' union inArgentina, theBakers Union, and left an anarchist impression in the workers' movements there for years to come.
Returning toEurope in 1889, he published a newspaper calledL'Associazione inNice until he was forced to flee to London. During this time he wrote several important pamphlets, includingL'Anarchia. Malatesta then took part in theInternational Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam (1907), where he debated in particular withPierre Monatte on the relation between anarchism andsyndicalism (ortrade-unionism).
After theFirst World War, Malatesta eventually returned to Italy for the final time. Two years after his return, in 1921, the Italian government imprisoned him, again, although he was released two months before thefascists came to power. From 1924 until 1926, whenBenito Mussolini silenced all independent press, Malatesta published the journalPensiero e Volontà, although he was harassed and the journal suffered from government censorship. He was to spend his remaining years leading a relatively quiet life, earning a living as an electrician. After years of suffering from a weak respiratory system and regularbronchial attacks, he developed bronchialpneumonia from which he died after a few weeks, despite being given 1500 litres of oxygen in his last five hours. He died on Friday, 22 July 1932.
The Socialist Revolutionary Anarchist Party (Italian:Partito Socialista Anarchico Rivoluzionario) was a short-livedItalianpolitical party.
Founded in January 1891 at theCapolago congress, at which around 80 delegates from Italiansocialist andanarchist groups participated. Notable figures included,Errico Malatesta,Luigi Galleani,Amilcare Cipriani,Andrea Costa andFilippo Turati. Malatesta envisioned the PSAR as the Italian federation of a new, anarchist and socialist,International Workingmen's Association.
Unione Sindacale Italiana is an Italiantrade union that was founded in 1912, after a group of workers, previously affiliated with theConfederazione Generale del Lavoro (CGI), met inModena and declared themselves linked to the legacy of theFirst International, and later joined theanarcho-syndicalistInternational Workers' Association (IWA;Associazione Internazionale dei Lavoratori inItalian orAIT –Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores in the commonSpanish reference).
The mostleft-wingcamere del lavoro adhered in rapid succession to the USI, and it engaged in all major political battles forlabour rights – without ever adopting themilitarist attitudes present with other trade unions. Nonetheless, after the outbreak ofWorld War I, USI was shaken by the dispute around the issue of Italy's intervention in the conflict on theEntente Powers' side. The problem was made acute by the presence of eminent pro-intervention,national-syndicalist voices inside the body:Alceste De Ambris,Filippo Corridoni, and, initially,Giuseppe Di Vittorio. The union managed to maintain its opposition to militarism, under the leadership ofArmando Borghi andAlberto Meschi.
In the Italian events known as thebiennio rosso the anarcho-syndicalist trade unionUnione Sindacale Italiana "grew to 800,000 members and the influence of the Italian Anarchist Union (20,000 members plusUmanita Nova, its daily paper) grew accordingly ... Anarchists were the first to suggest occupying workplaces."[8]
Renzo Novatore was an important individualist anarchist who collaborated in numerous anarchist journals and participated infuturism avant-garde currents. Novatore collaborated in the individualist anarchist journalIconoclasta! alongside the youngStirneristillegalistBruno Filippi[9] Novatore belonged to the leftist section of theavant-garde movement ofFuturism[10] alongside other individualist anarcho-futurists such asDante Carnesecchi,Leda Rafanelli,Auro d'Arcola, and Giovanni Governato.
Pietro Bruzzi published the journalL'Individualista in the 1920s alongside Ugo Fedeli and Francesco Ghezzi but who fell to fascist forces later.[11] Pietro Bruzzi also collaborated with theItalian American individualist anarchist publicationEresia ofNew York City edited byEnrico Arrigoni.
When the war ended, USI peaked in numbers (it was during this time that it joined the IWA, becoming known as theUSI-AIT). It became a major opponent ofBenito Mussolini and theFascist regime, fighting street battles with theBlackshirts – culminating in the August 1922 riots ofParma, when the USI-AIT facedItalo Balbo and hisArditi.
USI-AIT was outlawed by Mussolini in 1926, but resumed its activities in clandestinity and exile. It fought againstFrancisco Franco in theSpanish Civil War, alongside theConfederación Nacional del Trabajo andFederación Anarquista Ibérica, and took part in theSpanish Revolution. AfterWorld War II and the proclamation of the Republic, former members of the union followed the guidelines of theFederazione Anarchica Italiana that called for the creation of a unitary movement, and joined theConfederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL).
The prominent Italian anarchistCamillo Berneri, who volunteered to fight against Franco was killed instead in Spain by gunmen associated with theCommunist Party of Spain.[12][13][14]
In the immediate postwar years there existed failed attempts at a resurgence ofanarcho-syndicalism.[3]
Inside the FAI a tendency grouped as Gruppi Anarchici d'Azione Proletaria (GAAP – Anarchist Groups of Proletarian Action) led by Pier Carlo Masini was founded which "proposed a Libertarian Party with an anarchist theory and practice adapted to the new economic, political and social reality of post-war Italy, with an internationalist outlook and effective presence in the workplaces... The GAAP allied themselves with a similar development within theFrench Anarchist movement, the Federation Communiste Libertaire, whose leading light was Georges Fontenis."[15]
Another tendency which didn't identify either with the more classical FAI or with the GAAP started to emerge as local groups. These groups emphasizeddirect action, informalaffinity groups andexpropriation for financing anarchist activity.[16] From within these groups the influentialinsurrectionary anarchistAlfredo Maria Bonanno will emerge influenced by the practice of the Spanish exiled anarchistJosep Lluís i Facerias.[16]
In the IX Congress of theItalian Anarchist Federation inCarrara, 1965 a group decided to split off from this organization and creates theGruppi di Iniziativa Anarchica which was mostly composed ofindividualist anarchists who disagreed with important aspects of the "Associative Pact" and was critical ofanarcho-syndicalism.[3] The GIA published the bi-weeklyL'Internazionale. Another group split off from the Anarchist Federation and regrouped asGruppi Anarchici Federati.[3] The GAF later started publishingInterrogations andA Rivista Anarchica.
In the late sixties a new generation of young people created various informal anarchist groups and projects outside of the original formal organizations of theItalian Anarchist Federation and theUnione Sindacale Italiana.[17] On 12 December 1969, a bomb went off at thePiazza Fontana in Milan that killed 17 people and injured 88.[18]Giuseppe Pinelli, an Italian railroad worker and anarchist, was picked up, along with other anarchists, for questioning regarding the attack.[19] Just before midnight on 15 December 1969, Pinelli was seen to fall to his death from a fourth floor window of the Milan police station.[20] Most commentators now agree the bomb was placed byneofascist activists as part of aplot inspired by sections of thesecret services.[21][22] Later, in the Years of Lead, the trend of anarchism was violently repressed, while it survived throughout and continued to exist.[17]
In the early seventies, aplatformist tendency emerged within the Italian Anarchist Federation which argued for more strategic coherence and social insertion in the workers' movement while rejecting thesynthesist "Associative Pact" ofMalatesta which the FAI adhered to. These groups started organizing themselves outside the FAI in organizations such as O.R.A. fromLiguria which organized a Congress attended by 250 delegates of grupos from 60 locations. This movement was influential in theautonomia movements of the seventies. They publishedFronte Libertario della lotta di classe inBologna andComunismo libertario fromModena.[3]
In 2022,Alfredo Cospito began ahunger strike to protest against his incarceration under theArticle 41-bis prison regime. By February 2023, this protest had generated a debate in Italy about the revival of the anarchist movement. Bomb threats were made against a newspaper in Bologna and bullets were sent to another newspaper and to prosecutor general Francesco Saluzzo. Solidarity attacks against Italian diplomatic offices were made by anarchists in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.[23][24] Cospito stopped his hunger strike in April 2023 after his compulsory life sentence was ruled unconstitutional. He had lost 50 kg.[25]
