Tute Bianche was a militant Italian social movement, active from 1994 to 2001.
Activists covered their bodies with padding so as to resist the blows of police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

, to push through police lines, and to march together in large blocks for mutual protection during demonstrations

Demonstration (people)

A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...

.

Name

Tute Bianche means, "White Overalls". The name stems from an early demonstration (initiated by a loose group of Italian anti-globalization activists called the Ya Basta Association

Ya Basta Association

The Ya Basta Association is a network of Italian anti-capitalist and pro-immigrants rights organizations and groups, fueled by the Italian social center movement, formed in 1994, and known for the "authorship" of the Tute Bianche, and later disobbedienti phenomena.Formed as a result of the "eros...

), involving the group defense of a squat

Squatting

Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....

ted social center (CSOA), in which demonstrators wore white overalls to evoke the "ghost

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

s" that would haunt the ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

 police proposed to make of the social center. The padding tactic, adopted later, is also referred to as a padded bloc

Padded bloc

A padded bloc is a form of protest in which people march in a block formation and wear padding to protect against the police, following the Tute Bianche movement....

 tactic. It was first used in September 2000 by other activists during the anti-globalization protests in Prague

Anti-globalization Protests in Prague

Anti-capitalist Protests in Prague during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank summit in September 2000 in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic....

.

"If the struggle aims at achieving visibility, the colour of the fight is white, and the white garment covers the whole body."

Activity

Central to the tute bianche movement was the Italian Ya Basta Association

Ya Basta Association

The Ya Basta Association is a network of Italian anti-capitalist and pro-immigrants rights organizations and groups, fueled by the Italian social center movement, formed in 1994, and known for the "authorship" of the Tute Bianche, and later disobbedienti phenomena.Formed as a result of the "eros...

, a network of groups throughout Italy that was inspired by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Zapatista Army of National Liberation

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....

 uprising in Chiapas in 1994. Ya Basta primarily originated in the "autonomist" social centers of Milan, particularly Centro Sociale Leoncavallo. These social centers grew out of the Italian Autonomia movement of the 1970 and 80s.

The Tute Bianche philosophy was based on a specific reading of Italian political / social history, including the idea that the traditional protest tactic of marching and "bearing witness" to power had outlived its usefulness, and a more confrontational, militant form of non-violent protest was required to not only re-invigorate the anti-globalization movement, but redefine how street resistance is understood.

The tute bianche movement reached its apex during the anti-G8 protests in Genoa

27th G8 summit

-Overview:The Group of Seven was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition...

, in July 2001, with a turn-out of an estimated 10,000 protesters in a single "padded block", ironically after a collective decision to go without the white overalls. Shortly after Genoa the Ya Basta Association disbanded, with certain segments reforming into the "Disobbedienti" which literally means "Disobedients". This philosophy includes the occupation and creation of squat

Squatting

Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....

ted self-managed social centers, anti-sexist activism

Activism

Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...

, support for immigrant's rights and refugee

Refugee

A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

s seeking political asylum, as well as the process of walking together in large formations during demonstrations

Demonstration (people)

A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...

 held in the streets, by force if necessary in case of clashes with police.

The tute bianches have had international variations of one sort or another. For instance, in Britain a group calling itself WOMBLES

WOMBLES

The WOMBLES are a loosely aligned anarchist and anti-capitalist group based in London...

 adopted the tactics, even though the political orientation of WOMBLES differed from the Italian movement. In Spain, "Mono Blanco" was the preferred identifier. The first North American variant of the tute bianche, the NYC Ya Basta Collective

NYC Ya Basta Collective

The NYC Ya Basta Collective was a group of anti-globalization activists, based primarily in NYC, active from roughly October, 2000 through October, 2001....

(based in NYC) wore yellow overalls, rather than white.

External links

• Tute Bianche: The practical side of myth making by Wu Ming
• Tute Bianche
• NYC YaBasta Collective
• El movimiento de los tute bianche. Experiencias y estrategias, by Pablo Iglesias Turrión
• Multitud y acción colectiva postnacional: un estudio comparado de los desobedientes: de Italia a Madrid (2000-2005), PhD by Pablo Iglesias Turrión
• http://th-rough.eu/side-projects/tute-bianche-book-bloc-italian-movement-and-coming-european-insurrection From Tute Biance to the Book Bloc, Francesco Raparelli, 2011