Terza Posizione
Encyclopedia
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
group founded in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1978 (but already present with the name of Lotta Studentesca from 1976). The TP rejected both capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, looking instead to found a political and economic Third Position
Third Position
Third Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
, with its main influence being Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
. The group became a front for the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari was an Italian neofascist terrorist organization active from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso...
(NAR) in 1980. It insisted on tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, anti-parliamentarism and militarism
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....
.
Overview
The group was founded by ex-members of previous neo-fascistNeo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...
groups such as Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo , full name Centro Studi Ordine Nuovo, "New Order Scholarship Center") was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and terrorist organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956...
, Avanguardia Nazionale, Lotta di Popolo, Fronte Studentesco, disbanded for apology of fascism
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...
. Peppe Di Mitri was the leader of the group, with Roberto Fiore
Roberto Fiore
Roberto Fiore is an Italian nationalist politician and a founding member of the European third position movement which is against both communism and capitalism...
and Gabriele Adinolfi
Gabriele Adinolfi
Gabriele Adinolfi is an Italian far right ideologue and essayist. He was one of the prominent characters of the 1970s extraparliamentary far right.-Early political career and Terza Posizione:...
amongst its most important ideologues. Massimo Morsello
Massimo Morsello
Massimo Morsello was an Italian far-right political activist and singer-songwriter. He was the main figure of Italian far-right political music and, with Roberto Fiore, a co-founder of the Italian neofascist movement Forza Nuova...
was also a member. Parallel to the official organization, an operative clandestine nucleus was formed, led by Peppe Di Mitri. The movement was not to last long as Di Mitri was arrested not long after its foundation. When he was arrested in the summer of 1980, the structure merged with Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari was an Italian neofascist terrorist organization active from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso...
.
The group motto was Nè fronte rosso nè reazione, Terza Posizione (Ital. "Neither red front nor reaction, Third Position"). The group logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
was a variation of the Wolfsangel
Wolfsangel
The Wolfsangel is a symbol. It is also known as the Wolf's Hook or Doppelhaken. The upright variant is also known as "thunderbolt" and the horizontal variant as "werewolf"....
symbol, with the central bar substituted by a fist holding a hammer.
Terza Posizione was one of the various Italian neofascist groups of the '70s (alongside with Lotta di Popolo, for example) that attempted to break the wall between radical left and radical right ideologies. Terza Posizione platform supported a social, corporativist state and looked with interest at both the Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
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...
and the Vietcongs.
Terza Posizione and the NAR
On December 1979, in one of the premises of the organization, three members were arrested, having been caught while moving a box full of hand grenades. After the incident, the police found several CarabinieriCarabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
uniforms, false papers, arms and explosives. As a result, in September 1980, Fiore, Adinolfi and other forty members of Terza Posizione received a warrant of arrest. However Fiore and Adinolfi escaped abroad, leaving the leadership of the group to Giorgio Vale (a member of Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari was an Italian neofascist terrorist organization active from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso...
). The NAR's Giusva Fioravanti of the NAR would later accuse Fiore and Adinolfi of absconding with the movement's money. Without Di Mitri's lead the NAR quickly took control and used TP as a front movement.
Investigations into activities
In June 1983, judge Mario Amato, who was investigating the links between the Terza Posizione and neo-fascist terrorism, was assassinated by a commando formed by Gilberto Cavallini and Luigi Ciavardini. The instigators of the killing were NAR members Francesca Mambro and Valerio FioravantiValerio Fioravanti
Giuseppe Valerio Fioravanti is an Italian former child actor and terrorist, founder of the neo-fascist terrorist group Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari....
(Both have been convicted for a lot of other terrorist killings and the 1980 Bologna massacre
Bologna massacre
The Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari...
). The judge had been investigating under severe isolation from his superiors, like the chief prosecutor Giovanni De Matteo, a member of Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
, and under heavy attacks from his colleague Antonio Alibrandi, a right-wing sympathizer and father of Alessandro Alibrandi, member of Terza Posizione and NAR.
Legacy of Terza Posizione
Despite its brief life and ambiguous relationships with terrorist groups, Terza Posizione remains one of the most influential groups of the Italian and European far right. Many of its former members continued to play prominent roles in the far right politics after the disbanding of the original association.Peppe Dimitri later joined Alleanza Nazionale and became the advisor of Gianni Alemanno. Fiore and Morsello, meanwhile, repaired to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
founding the International Third Position
International Third Position
International Third Position ' was a neo-fascist organization formed by the breakaway faction of the neofascist British National Front and Italian neofascists led by Roberto Fiore....
along with Nick Griffin
Nick Griffin
Nicholas John "Nick" Griffin is a British politician, chairman of the British National Party and Member of the European Parliament for North West England....
and other English nationalists. They then returned some of their ideals to Italian politics with Forza Nuova, albeit with less social-oriented and more strictly anti-immigration overtones. Forza Nuova web sites and manifests are still sometimes titled Forza Nuova per la Terza Posizione ("New Force for the Third Position"). Gabriele Adinolfi
Gabriele Adinolfi
Gabriele Adinolfi is an Italian far right ideologue and essayist. He was one of the prominent characters of the 1970s extraparliamentary far right.-Early political career and Terza Posizione:...
is not formally involved in politics but he is still active in the Italian far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
scene as an ideologue and thinker.
See also
- Third PositionThird PositionThird Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as "beyond left and right", instead claiming to syncretize radical ideas from both ends of the...
- Neo-fascismNeo-FascismNeo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...