Anarchism in Italy
Encyclopedia
Italian anarchism
as a movement began primarily from the influence of Mikhail Bakunin
, Giuseppe Fanelli
, and Errico Malatesta
. From there it expanded to include illegalist individualist anarchism
, and anarcho-syndicalism
. It participated in the biennio rosso
and survived fascism. The synthesist
Italian Anarchist Federation appeared after the war and the old factions alongside platformism
and insurrectionary anarchism
continue until today.
and Errico Malatesta
. Within the Italian section of the IWMA the ideas of Anarchist Communism
as a clear, cohesive movement were formed. At an 1876 conference in Florence, the Italian section of the International Workingman's Association declared the principles of Anarchist-Communism, proclaiming:
It was also in Italy that early Anarchist attempts at revolution began. Bakunin was involved in an insurrection taking place in Florence
in 1869, and in a failed attempt at insurrection in 1874 in Bologna
. In 1877, Errico Malatesta, Carlo Cafeiro, and Costa began an attempt at revolution in Italy. They liberated two villages in Campania
before being put down by the military.
Italian Anarchism was first materialized in the Italian section of the First International. The popularity of the IWA skyrocketed with the Paris Commune
. Because of limited knowledge of the actual events taking place, many militants had utopian visions of the nature of the Commune, leading to a popularity of Anarchist and other Socialist ideas. The radical republican Giuseppe 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.
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 behavior of Marx's General Council. Bakunin's defense 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 excluding Carlo Terzaghi (a police spy) and two Garibaldian socialists, were Anarchists.
Errico Malatesta was an important Italian anarchist. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of Mikhail Bakunin
. Partly via his enthusiasm for the Paris Commune
and partly via his friendship with Carmelo Palladino, he joined the Naples
section of the International Workingmen's Association
that same year, as well as teaching himself to be a mechanic and electrician. In 1872 he met Mikhail Bakunin
, with whom he participated in the St Imier congress
of the International. 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
, the Russia
n Stepniak and about 30 others started an insurrection in the province of Benevento, taking the villages of Letino
and Gallo
without a struggle. The revolutionaries burned tax
registers and declared the end of the King's reign, and were met by enthusiasm: even a local priest showed his support.
In Florence
he founded the weekly anarchist paper La Questione Sociale (The Social Question) in which his most popular pamphlet
, Fra Contadini (Among Farmers), first appeared. He lived in Buenos Aires
from 1885, where he resumed publication of La Questione Sociale, and was involved in the founding of the first militant workers' union in Argentina
, the Bakers Union, and left an anarchist impression in the workers' movements there for years to come.
Returning to Europe
in 1889, he published a newspaper called L'Associazione in Nice
until he was forced to flee to London. During this time he wrote several important pamphlets, including L'Anarchia. Malatesta then took part in the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam
(1907), where he debated in particular with Pierre Monatte
on the relation between anarchism and syndicalism
(or trade-unionism).
After the First 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 the fascist
s came to power. From 1924 until 1926, when Benito Mussolini
silenced all independent press, Malatesta published the journal Pensiero 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 regular bronchial attacks
, he developed bronchial pneumonia
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.
political party
.
Founded in January 1891 at the Congress of Capolago, at which around 80 delegates from Italian socialist and anarchist groups participated. Notable figures included, Errico Malatesta
, Luigi Galleani
, Amilcare Cipriani
, Andrea Costa
and Filippo Turati
. Malatesta envisioned the PSAR as the Italian federation of a new, anarchist and socialist, International Workingmen's Association
.
trade union
that was founded in 1912, after a group of workers, previously affiliated with the Confederazione Generale del Lavoro
(CGI), met in Modena
and declared themselves linked to the legacy of the First International
, and later joined the anarcho-syndicalist
International Workers Association
(IWA; Associazione Internazionale dei Lavoratori in Italian
or AIT - 'Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores in the common Spanish
reference).
The most left-wing camere del lavoro
adhered in rapid succession to the USI, and it engaged in all major political battles for labor rights
- without ever adopting the militarist
attitudes present with other trade unions. Nonetheless, after the outbreak of World War I
, USI was shaken by the dispute around the issue of Italy's intervention in the conflict on the Entente 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 of Armando Borghi and Alberto Meschi.
The Unione Anarchica Italiana and the biennio rosso
In the italian events known as the biennio rosso
the anarcho-syndicalist trade union Unione Sindacale Italiana
"grew to 800,000 members and the influence of the Italian Anarchist Union (20,000 members plus Umanita Nova
, its daily paper) grew accordingly...Anarchists were the first to suggest occupying workplaces. The synthesis anarchism federation Unione Anarchica Italiana emerged from the Unione Comunista Anarchica Italiana in 1920.
In Italy individualist anarchism had a strong tendency towards illegalism
and violent propaganda by the deed similar to French individualist anarchism but perhaps more extreme. In this respect we can consider notorious magnicides carried out or attempted by individualists Giovanni Passannante, Sante Caserio, Michele Angiolillo
, Luigi Luccheni, Gaetano Bresci
who murdered king Umberto I. Caserio lived in France and coexisted within French illegalism and later assassinated French president Sadi Carnot
. The theoretical seeds of current Insurrectionary anarchism
were already laid out at the end of 19th century Italy in a combination of individualist anarchism criticism of permanent groups and organization with a socialist class struggle worldview.During the rise of fascism this thought also motivated Gino Lucetti
, Michele Schirru and Angelo Sbardellotto in attempting the assassination of Benito Mussolini
.
Renzo Novatore
was an important individualist anarchist who collaborated in numerous anarchist journals and participated in futurism
avant-garde currents. Novatore collaborated in the individualist anarchist journal Iconoclasta! alongside the young stirner
ist illegalist
Bruno Filippi
Novatore belonged to the leftist section of the avant-garde
movement of Futurism
alongside other individualist anarcho-futurists such as Dante Carnesecchi
, Leda Rafanelli, Auro d'Arcola, and Giovanni Governato.
Pietro Bruzzi published the journal L'Individualista in the 1920s alongside Ugo Fedeli and Francesco Ghezzi but who fell to fascist forces later. Pietro Bruzzi also collaborated with the Italian American
individualist anarchist publication Eresia of New York City
edited by Enrico Arrigoni
.
and the Fascist regime, fighting street battles with the Blackshirts
- culminating in the August 1922 riots of Parma
, when the USI-AIT faced Italo Balbo
and his Arditi
.
USI-AIT was outlawed by Mussolini in 1926, but resumed its activities in clandestinity and exile. It fought against Francisco Franco
in the Spanish Civil War
, alongside the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
and Federación Anarquista Ibérica
, and took part in the Spanish Revolution
. After World War II
and the proclamation of the Republic, former members of the union followed the guidelines of the Federazione Anarchica Italiana
that called for the creation of a unitary movement, and joined the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL).
. It adopted an "Associative Pact" and the "Anarchist Program" of Errico Malatesta. It decided to publish the weekly Umanità Nova
retaking the name of the journal published by Errico Malatesta
.
Inside the FAI a tendency grouped as (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 the French Anarchist movement
, the Federation Communiste Libertaire, whose leading light was Georges Fontenis."
Another tendency which didn´t identify either with the more classical FAI or with the GAAP started to emerge as local groups. These groups emphasized direct action
, informal affinity group
s and expropriation
for financing anarchist activity. From within these groups the influential insurrectionary anarchist Alfredo Maria Bonanno will emerge influenced by the practice of the spanish exiled anarchist José Lluis Facerías.
In the IX Congress of the Italian Anarchist Federation in Carrara
, 1965 a group decided to split off from this organization and creates the Gruppi di Iniziativa Anarchica which was mostly composed of individualist anarchists who disagreed with important aspects of the "Associative Pact" and was critical of anarcho-syndicalism
. The GIA published the bi-weekly L'Internazionale. Another group split off from the Anarchist Federation and regrouped as Gruppi Anarchici Federati. The GAF later starts publishing Interrogations and A Rivista Anarchica.
In the early seventies a platformist tendency emerged within the Italian Anarchist Federation which argued for more strategic coherence and social insertion in the workers movement while rejecting the syntesist "Associative Pact" of Malatesta
which the FAI adhered to. These groups started organizing themselves outside the FAI in organizations such as O.R.A. from Liguria
which organized a Congress attended by 250 delegates of grupos from 60 locations. This movement was influential in the autonomia movements of the seventies. They published Fronte Libertario della lotta di classe in Bologna
and Comunismo libertario from Modena
.
Another group tended to emphasize anarcho-syndicalism and published Per l'Azione Diretta from Florence
and Bolletino d'Informazione Anarcosindicalista. The Federation of Anarchist Communists
(Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici), or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy
from the fusion of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica (Revolutionary Anarchist Organisation) and the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana (Tuscan
Union of Anarchist Communists). In 1986, the Congress of ORA/UCAT adopted the name Federation of Anarchist Communists
.
The synthesist
Italian Anarchist Federation and the platformist
Federation of Anarchist Communists
continue existing today but insurrectionary anarchism
continues to be relevant as the recent establishment of the Informal Anarchist Federation
shows.
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
as a movement began primarily from the influence of Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
, Giuseppe Fanelli
Giuseppe Fanelli
Giuseppe Fanelli was a nineteenth century Italian revolutionary anarchist. Born in Naples, Italy, he visited Spain in 1868 on a journey planned by anarchist Mikhail Bakunin in order to recruit members for the First International...
, and Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of...
. From there it expanded to include illegalist individualist anarchism
Individualist anarchism
Individualist anarchism refers to several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and his or her will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy but refers to a...
, and anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
. It participated in the biennio rosso
Biennio rosso
The Biennio Rosso was a two year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in Italy. The Biennio Rosso was followed by the extremely violent reaction of the Fascist blackshirts militia and eventually by the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini in 1922...
and survived fascism. The synthesist
Synthesis anarchism
Synthesis anarchism, synthesist anarchism, synthesism or synthesis federations is a form of anarchist organization which tries to join anarchists of different tendencies under the principles of anarchism without adjectives. In the 1920s this form found as its main proponents the anarcho-communists...
Italian Anarchist Federation appeared after the war and the old factions alongside platformism
Platformism
Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist movement originally theorised by Nestor Makhno and is mainly based on his concept of anarchism and the organisational theories in the tradition of Dielo Truda's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists ...
and insurrectionary anarchism
Insurrectionary anarchism
Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory, practice and tendency within the anarchist movement which emphasizes the theme of insurrection within anarchist practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political programme and...
continue until today.
Origins
When the Italian section of the International Workingman's Association was formed in 1869, new and more famous (or infamous)anarchists began appearing on the scene, notable individuals include Carlo CafieroCarlo Cafiero
Carlo Cafiero was an Italian anarchist and champion of Mikhail Bakunin during the second half of the 19th century.-Early years:...
and Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of...
. Within the Italian section of the IWMA the ideas of Anarchist Communism
Anarchist communism
Anarchist communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, markets, money, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers' councils with...
as a clear, cohesive movement were formed. At an 1876 conference in Florence, the Italian section of the International Workingman's Association declared the principles of Anarchist-Communism, proclaiming:
It was also in Italy that early Anarchist attempts at revolution began. Bakunin was involved in an insurrection taking place in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in 1869, and in a failed attempt at insurrection in 1874 in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
. In 1877, Errico Malatesta, Carlo Cafeiro, and Costa began an attempt at revolution in Italy. They liberated two villages in Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
before being put down by the military.
Italian Anarchism was first materialized in the Italian section of the First International. The popularity of the IWA skyrocketed with the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
. Because of limited knowledge of the actual events taking place, many militants had utopian visions of the nature of the Commune, leading to a popularity of Anarchist and other Socialist ideas. The radical republican Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
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.
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 behavior of Marx's General Council. Bakunin's defense 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 excluding Carlo Terzaghi (a police spy) and two Garibaldian socialists, were Anarchists.
Errico Malatesta
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
. Partly via his enthusiasm for the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
and partly via his friendship with Carmelo Palladino, he joined the Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
section of the International Workingmen's Association
International Workingmen's Association
The International Workingmen's Association , sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class...
that same year, as well as teaching himself to be a mechanic and electrician. In 1872 he met Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
, with whom he participated in the St Imier congress
Anarchist St. Imier International
The Anarchist St. Imier International was an international anarchist organization formed in 1872 when the anarchist sections were expelled from the First International after the Hague Congress .The St...
of the International. 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
Carlo Cafiero
Carlo Cafiero was an Italian anarchist and champion of Mikhail Bakunin during the second half of the 19th century.-Early years:...
, the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Stepniak and about 30 others started an insurrection in the province of Benevento, taking the villages of Letino
Letino
Letino is a comune and small village in the province of Caserta, in Campania, southern Italy.It was one of the villages liberated by the Italian Libertarian Communist Insurrection of 1877 by Errico Malatesta, Carlo Cafiero, Pietro Cesare Ceccarelli, the Russian Stepniak and 30 other comrades....
and Gallo
Gallo Matese
Gallo Matese is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located in a valley near the Matese Apennines chain and the boundary with Molise, about 70 km north of Naples and about 45 km north of Caserta. Its territory is also home of an artificial lake with the...
without a struggle. The revolutionaries burned tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
registers and declared the end of the King's reign, and were met by enthusiasm: even a local priest showed his support.
In Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
he founded the weekly anarchist paper La Questione Sociale (The Social Question) in which his most popular pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
, Fra Contadini (Among Farmers), first appeared. He lived in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
from 1885, where he resumed publication of La Questione Sociale, and was involved in the founding of the first militant workers' union in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, the Bakers Union, and left an anarchist impression in the workers' movements there for years to come.
Returning to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 1889, he published a newspaper called L'Associazione in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
until he was forced to flee to London. During this time he wrote several important pamphlets, including L'Anarchia. Malatesta then took part in the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam
International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam
The International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam took place from 24 August to 31 August 1907. It gathered delegates from 14 different countries, among which important figures of the anarchist movement, including Errico Malatesta, Luigi Fabbri, Benoît Broutchoux, Pierre Monatte, Amédée Dunois, Emma...
(1907), where he debated in particular with Pierre Monatte
Pierre Monatte
Pierre Monatte was a French trade unionist who worked in the printing industry . He was the responsible of the Confédération générale du travail at the beginning of the 20th century, and founded its journal La Vie ouvrière on 5 October 1909...
on the relation between anarchism and syndicalism
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
(or trade-unionism).
After the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, 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 the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
s came to power. From 1924 until 1926, when Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
silenced all independent press, Malatesta published the journal Pensiero 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 regular bronchial attacks
Bronchospasm
Bronchospasm or a bronchial spasm is a sudden constriction of the muscles in the walls of the bronchioles. It is caused by the release of substances from mast cells or basophils under the influence of anaphylatoxins...
, he developed bronchial pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
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
The Socialist Revolutionary Anarchist Party was a short-lived ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
.
Founded in January 1891 at the Congress of Capolago, at which around 80 delegates from Italian socialist and anarchist groups participated. Notable figures included, Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of...
, Luigi Galleani
Luigi Galleani
Luigi Galleani was an Italian anarchist active in the United States from 1901 to 1919, viewed by historians as an anarchist communist and an insurrectionary anarchist. He is best known for his enthusiastic advocacy of "propaganda of the deed", i.e...
, Amilcare Cipriani
Amilcare Cipriani
Amilcare Cipriani was an Italian anarchist patriot.Cipriani was born in Anzio to a family originally from Rimini...
, Andrea Costa
Andrea Costa
Andrea Costa was an Italian socialist activist, born in Imola.He co-founded the Partito dei Lavoratori Italiani in 1892 after renouncing his anarchist principles in 1879. It is probable that this happened due to his marriage to Russian Socialist Anna Kulischov...
and Filippo Turati
Filippo Turati
Filippo Turati was an Italian sociologist, poet and Socialist politician.-Early life:Born in Canzo, province of Como, he graduated in law at the University of Bologna in 1877, and participated in the Scapigliatura movement with the most important artists of the period in Milan, publishing poetry...
. Malatesta envisioned the PSAR as the Italian federation of a new, anarchist and socialist, International Workingmen's Association
International Workingmen's Association
The International Workingmen's Association , sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class...
.
The founding of Unione Sindacale Italiana
Unione Sindacale Italiana is an ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
that was founded in 1912, after a group of workers, previously affiliated with the Confederazione Generale del Lavoro
Confederazione Generale del Lavoro
Confederazione Generale del Lavoro was an Italian labor union, founded in 1906, under the initiative of communist and socialist militants...
(CGI), met in Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
and declared themselves linked to the legacy of the First International
International Workingmen's Association
The International Workingmen's Association , sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class...
, and later joined the anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
International Workers Association
International Workers Association
The International Workers' Association is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist labour unions and initiatives based primarily in Europe and Latin America....
(IWA; Associazione Internazionale dei Lavoratori in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
or AIT - 'Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores in the common Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
reference).
The most left-wing camere del lavoro
Camera del Lavoro
Camera del Lavoro were centers for Italian Syndicalist labor unions, modeled on the French Bourse du Travail, which flourished from 1895 to the rise of Fascism in the 1920s....
adhered in rapid succession to the USI, and it engaged in all major political battles for labor rights
Labor rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe...
- without ever adopting the militarist
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
attitudes present with other trade unions. Nonetheless, after the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, USI was shaken by the dispute around the issue of Italy's intervention in the conflict on the Entente Powers
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....
' side. The problem was made acute by the presence of eminent pro-intervention, national-syndicalist
National syndicalism
National syndicalism is a nationalist variant of syndicalism.- Founding of national syndicalism in France :National syndicalism was founded in France by the fusion of Maurrassian integral nationalism with Sorelian syndicalism. Interest in Sorelian thought arose in the French political right,...
voices inside the body: Alceste De Ambris
Alceste De Ambris
Alceste De Ambris , was an Italian syndicalist, the brother of Amilcare De Ambris. De Ambris had a major part to play in the agrarian strike actions of 1908.-Life:De Ambris was born in Licciana Nardi, province of Massa-Carrara....
, Filippo Corridoni
Filippo Corridoni
Filippo Corridoni was an Italian trade unionist and syndicalist....
, and, initially, Giuseppe Di Vittorio
Giuseppe Di Vittorio
Giuseppe Di Vittorio, also known under the pseudonym Nicoletti , was an Italian syndicalist trade unionist and communist politician, one of the most influential leaders of the labor movement after World War I....
. The union managed to maintain its opposition to militarism, under the leadership of Armando Borghi and Alberto Meschi.
The Unione Anarchica Italiana and the biennio rossoBiennio rossoThe Biennio Rosso was a two year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in Italy. The Biennio Rosso was followed by the extremely violent reaction of the Fascist blackshirts militia and eventually by the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini in 1922...
In the italian events known as the biennio rossoBiennio rosso
The Biennio Rosso was a two year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in Italy. The Biennio Rosso was followed by the extremely violent reaction of the Fascist blackshirts militia and eventually by the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini in 1922...
the anarcho-syndicalist trade union Unione Sindacale Italiana
Unione Sindacale Italiana
Unione Sindacale Italiana is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union. It is the Italian section of the International Workers Association , and the name of USI is...
"grew to 800,000 members and the influence of the Italian Anarchist Union (20,000 members plus Umanita Nova
Umanità Nova
Umanità Nova is an Italian anarchist newspaper founded in 1920.It wa published daily until 1922, when it was shut down by the fascist regime. In some places its circulation exceeded that of the socialist paper Avanti!...
, its daily paper) grew accordingly...Anarchists were the first to suggest occupying workplaces. The synthesis anarchism federation Unione Anarchica Italiana emerged from the Unione Comunista Anarchica Italiana in 1920.
Italian individualist anarchism and illegalism
Illegalism
Illegalism is an anarchist philosophy that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland during the early 1900s as an outgrowth of individualist anarchism...
and violent propaganda by the deed similar to French individualist anarchism but perhaps more extreme. In this respect we can consider notorious magnicides carried out or attempted by individualists Giovanni Passannante, Sante Caserio, Michele Angiolillo
Michele Angiolillo
Michele Angiolillo Lombardi was an Italian anarchist, born in Foggia, and murderer of Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas in 1897.-Barcelona bombing and Montjuïc repression:...
, Luigi Luccheni, Gaetano Bresci
Gaetano Bresci
Gaetano Bresci was an Italian American anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I of Italy. Bresci was the first European regicide not to be executed, as capital punishment in Italy had been abolished since 1889.-Militancy:...
who murdered king Umberto I. Caserio lived in France and coexisted within French illegalism and later assassinated French president Sadi Carnot
Marie François Sadi Carnot
Marie François Sadi Carnot was a French statesman and the fourth president of the Third French Republic. He served as the President of France from 1887 until his assassination in 1894.-Early life:...
. The theoretical seeds of current Insurrectionary anarchism
Insurrectionary anarchism
Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory, practice and tendency within the anarchist movement which emphasizes the theme of insurrection within anarchist practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political programme and...
were already laid out at the end of 19th century Italy in a combination of individualist anarchism criticism of permanent groups and organization with a socialist class struggle worldview.During the rise of fascism this thought also motivated Gino Lucetti
Gino Lucetti
Gino Lucetti was an Italian anarchist and would-be assassin.Born in Carrara, Italy, he fought in the assault troops during World War I. Later he emigrated to France, from where he returned to attempt the assassination of Benito Mussolini, Italy's Fascist Duce...
, Michele Schirru and Angelo Sbardellotto in attempting the assassination of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
.
Renzo Novatore
Renzo Novatore
- Life :Abele Ricieri Ferrari was born in Arcola, Liguria, Italy on May 12, 1890 in a poor peasant family. He did not adjust to school discipline and quit in the first year never coming back after that. While he worked in his father's farm, he self educated himself with an emphasis in poetry and...
was an important individualist anarchist who collaborated in numerous anarchist journals and participated in futurism
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
avant-garde currents. Novatore collaborated in the individualist anarchist journal Iconoclasta! alongside the young stirner
Stirner
Stirner:* Max Stirner, pseudonym for Johann Caspar Schmidt , German philosopher and journalist* Karl Stirner , painter, illustrator and poet...
ist illegalist
Illegalism
Illegalism is an anarchist philosophy that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland during the early 1900s as an outgrowth of individualist anarchism...
Bruno Filippi
Bruno Filippi
Bruno Filippi , was an Italian individualist anarchist writer and activist who collaborated in the Italian individualist anarchist magazine Iconoclasta! alongside Renzo Novatore....
Novatore belonged to the leftist section of the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
movement of Futurism
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
alongside other individualist anarcho-futurists such as Dante Carnesecchi
Dante Carnesecchi
Dante Carnesecchi was an Italian individualist anarchist associated with left wing futurism alongside other individualist anarchists such as Renzo Novatore, Leda Rafanelli, Auro d'Arcola, and Giovanni Governato.-External links:** in Italian*]]...
, Leda Rafanelli, Auro d'Arcola, and Giovanni Governato.
Pietro Bruzzi published the journal L'Individualista in the 1920s alongside Ugo Fedeli and Francesco Ghezzi but who fell to fascist forces later. Pietro Bruzzi also collaborated with the Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
individualist anarchist publication Eresia of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
edited by Enrico Arrigoni
Enrico Arrigoni
Enrico Arrigoni was an Italian American individualist anarchist Lathe operator, house painter, bricklayer, dramatist and political activist influenced by the work of Max Stirner.- Life and activism :He took the pseudonym "Brand" from a fictional character in one of...
.
The Fascist regime and afterwards
When the war ended, USI peaked in numbers (it was during this time that it joined the IWA, becoming known as the USI-AIT). It became a major opponent of Benito MussoliniBenito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and the Fascist regime, fighting street battles with the Blackshirts
Blackshirts
The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...
- culminating in the August 1922 riots of Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, when the USI-AIT faced Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo was an Italian Blackshirt leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force , Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa , and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.After serving in...
and his Arditi
Arditi
Arditi was the name adopted by Italian Army elite storm troops of World War I. The name derives from the Italian verb Ardire and translates as "The Daring Ones"....
.
USI-AIT was outlawed by Mussolini in 1926, but resumed its activities in clandestinity and exile. It fought against Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, alongside the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...
and Federación Anarquista Ibérica
Federación Anarquista Ibérica
The Federación Anarquista Ibérica is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups inside the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo trade union. It is often abbreviated as CNT-FAI because of the close relationship between the two organizations...
, and took part in the Spanish Revolution
Spanish Revolution
The Spanish Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and more broadly libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to...
. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the proclamation of the Republic, former members of the union followed the guidelines of the Federazione Anarchica Italiana
Federazione Anarchica Italiana
Federazione Anarchica Italiana is an Italian anarchist federation of autonomous anarchist groups all over Italy. The Italian Anarchist Federation was founded in 1945 in Carrara. It adopted an "Associative Pact" and the "Anarchist Program" of Errico Malatesta...
that called for the creation of a unitary movement, and joined the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL).
Postwar years and today
In the immediate postwar years there existed failed attempts at a resurgence of anarchosyndicalism. The Italian Anarchist Federation was founded in 1945 in CarraraCarrara
Carrara is a city and comune in the province of Massa-Carrara , notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence....
. It adopted an "Associative Pact" and the "Anarchist Program" of Errico Malatesta. It decided to publish the weekly Umanità Nova
Umanità Nova
Umanità Nova is an Italian anarchist newspaper founded in 1920.It wa published daily until 1922, when it was shut down by the fascist regime. In some places its circulation exceeded that of the socialist paper Avanti!...
retaking the name of the journal published by Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of...
.
Inside the FAI a tendency grouped as (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 the French Anarchist movement
Anarchism in France
Thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Restoration was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers in the International Brigades. French anarchism reached its height in the late 19th century...
, the Federation Communiste Libertaire, whose leading light was Georges Fontenis."
Another tendency which didn´t identify either with the more classical FAI or with the GAAP started to emerge as local groups. These groups emphasized direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
, informal affinity group
Affinity group
An Affinity group is usually a small group of activists who work together on direct action.Affinity groups are organized in a non-hierarchical manner, usually using consensus decision making, and are often made up of trusted friends...
s and expropriation
Expropriative anarchism
Expropriative anarchism is the name given to an anarchist practice carried out by certain anarchist affinity groups in Argentina and Spain which involved theft, robbery, scams and counterfeiting currency. The robberies done were called "expropriations on the bourgoisie"...
for financing anarchist activity. From within these groups the influential insurrectionary anarchist Alfredo Maria Bonanno will emerge influenced by the practice of the spanish exiled anarchist José Lluis Facerías.
In the IX Congress of the Italian Anarchist Federation in Carrara
Carrara
Carrara is a city and comune in the province of Massa-Carrara , notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence....
, 1965 a group decided to split off from this organization and creates the Gruppi di Iniziativa Anarchica which was mostly composed of individualist anarchists who disagreed with important aspects of the "Associative Pact" and was critical of anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
. The GIA published the bi-weekly L'Internazionale. Another group split off from the Anarchist Federation and regrouped as Gruppi Anarchici Federati. The GAF later starts publishing Interrogations and A Rivista Anarchica.
In the early seventies a platformist tendency emerged within the Italian Anarchist Federation which argued for more strategic coherence and social insertion in the workers movement while rejecting the syntesist "Associative Pact" of Malatesta
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of...
which the FAI adhered to. These groups started organizing themselves outside the FAI in organizations such as O.R.A. from Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
which organized a Congress attended by 250 delegates of grupos from 60 locations. This movement was influential in the autonomia movements of the seventies. They published Fronte Libertario della lotta di classe in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
and Comunismo libertario from Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
.
Another group tended to emphasize anarcho-syndicalism and published Per l'Azione Diretta from Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and Bolletino d'Informazione Anarcosindicalista. The Federation of Anarchist Communists
Federation of Anarchist Communists
The Federation of Anarchist Communists , or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy from the fusion of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica and the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana . In 1986, the Congress of ORA/UCAT adopted the name FdCA...
(Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici), or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
from the fusion of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica (Revolutionary Anarchist Organisation) and the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana (Tuscan
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
Union of Anarchist Communists). In 1986, the Congress of ORA/UCAT adopted the name Federation of Anarchist Communists
Federation of Anarchist Communists
The Federation of Anarchist Communists , or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy from the fusion of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica and the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana . In 1986, the Congress of ORA/UCAT adopted the name FdCA...
.
The synthesist
Synthesis anarchism
Synthesis anarchism, synthesist anarchism, synthesism or synthesis federations is a form of anarchist organization which tries to join anarchists of different tendencies under the principles of anarchism without adjectives. In the 1920s this form found as its main proponents the anarcho-communists...
Italian Anarchist Federation and the platformist
Platformism
Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist movement originally theorised by Nestor Makhno and is mainly based on his concept of anarchism and the organisational theories in the tradition of Dielo Truda's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists ...
Federation of Anarchist Communists
Federation of Anarchist Communists
The Federation of Anarchist Communists , or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy from the fusion of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica and the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana . In 1986, the Congress of ORA/UCAT adopted the name FdCA...
continue existing today but insurrectionary anarchism
Insurrectionary anarchism
Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory, practice and tendency within the anarchist movement which emphasizes the theme of insurrection within anarchist practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political programme and...
continues to be relevant as the recent establishment of the Informal Anarchist Federation
Informal Anarchist Federation
Informal Anarchist Federation , not to be confused with the Italian Anarchist Federation is an Italian insurrectionary anarchist organization...
shows.
Timeline
- 1865 Foundation of the International Revolutionary Brotherhood.
- 1869 Foundation of the Italian section of the International Workingman's Association.
- 1876 - The red-and-black flag was first used by the Italian section of the First International
- 1891: Foundation of the Socialist Revolutionary Anarchist PartySocialist Revolutionary Anarchist PartyThe Socialist Revolutionary Anarchist Party was a short-lived Italian political party.Founded in January 1891 at the Congress of Capolago, at which around 80 delegates from Italian socialist and anarchist groups participated. Notable figures included, Errico Malatesta, Luigi Galleani, Amilcare...
- 1900: The Anarchist Gaetano BresciGaetano BresciGaetano Bresci was an Italian American anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I of Italy. Bresci was the first European regicide not to be executed, as capital punishment in Italy had been abolished since 1889.-Militancy:...
assassinates King Umberto I of ItalyUmberto I of ItalyUmberto I or Humbert I , nicknamed the Good , was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death. He was deeply loathed in far-left circles, especially among anarchists, because of his conservatism and support of the Bava-Beccaris massacre in Milan...
. - 1912: Foundation of the Unione Sindacale ItalianaUnione Sindacale ItalianaUnione Sindacale Italiana is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union. It is the Italian section of the International Workers Association , and the name of USI is...
trade-union (joined the International Workers AssociationInternational Workers AssociationThe International Workers' Association is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist labour unions and initiatives based primarily in Europe and Latin America....
founded in 1922) - 1918: Beginning of the Italian Factory Occupations known as biennio rosso
- 1920: Publication of the newspaper Umanità NovaUmanità NovaUmanità Nova is an Italian anarchist newspaper founded in 1920.It wa published daily until 1922, when it was shut down by the fascist regime. In some places its circulation exceeded that of the socialist paper Avanti!...
(New Humanity) - 1920: Founding of the Unione Anarchica Italiana
- 1936–1939: Sébastien Faure CenturySébastien Faure CenturyThe Sébastien Faure Century was the French/Italian contingent of the Durruti Column during the Spanish Civil War, named for the anarchist of the same name. It formed the First Century of the International Group, and consisted of about fifty members from France, Italy, and other countries...
, contingent of the Durruti ColumnDurruti ColumnThe Durruti Column was the largest anarchist column formed during the Spanish Civil War . During the first months of the war it has come to be the most recognized and popular military organisations fighting at the republican side...
in the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939... - 1945: Establishment of the Italian Anarchist Federation
- 1986: Foundation in Italy of the Federation of Anarchist CommunistsFederation of Anarchist CommunistsThe Federation of Anarchist Communists , or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy from the fusion of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica and the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana . In 1986, the Congress of ORA/UCAT adopted the name FdCA...
See also
- Federazione Anarchica ItalianaFederazione Anarchica ItalianaFederazione Anarchica Italiana is an Italian anarchist federation of autonomous anarchist groups all over Italy. The Italian Anarchist Federation was founded in 1945 in Carrara. It adopted an "Associative Pact" and the "Anarchist Program" of Errico Malatesta...
- Federation of Anarchist CommunistsFederation of Anarchist CommunistsThe Federation of Anarchist Communists , or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy from the fusion of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica and the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana . In 1986, the Congress of ORA/UCAT adopted the name FdCA...
- European individualist anarchism#Italy
- AutonomismAutonomismAutonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. As an identifiable theoretical system it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerist communism...
- Fasci SicilianiFasci SicilianiThe Fasci Siciliani, short for Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori , were a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, which arose in Sicily in the years between 1889 and 1894...