Years of Lead

One of the most under looked chapters in the post-war history of our movement is the Years of Lead in Italy. It was a true time of struggle, very similar to not just Weimar Germany, but also today’s world.

It was the result of public uncertainty following the end of World War Two. Mussolini had just been ousted from power and killed, the Monarchy had just been abolished following a public referendum on the matter, and a brand-new government under a completely different political system had sprung up. What didn’t help was that there was now another conflict arising between the Americans and the Soviets. With many Italians disliking both Americans and the Soviets for defeating them in the then-recent Second World War, it would only make sense for the new republic to become a breeding ground for new radical political movements. This trend was also seen in post-war Germany as well as post-war Japan, however, out of all of these movements, the post-war Italian fascist movement had the most radical tendencies of them all.

The new government itself, was also very moderate and appealed to and was only really supported by the centrist political factions, much like post-war West Germany. The main political party in power was, also just like Germany, the party of the Christian Democrats, which just like the CDU in Germany were moderate conservatives. Now obviously this new government was opposed by members on the right who wanted to restore the glory of Mussolini’s regime, as well as members on the left who wanted a Communist state. Although both factions opposed the new Liberal Democratic government, they also opposed each other for obvious ideological reasons. This rivalry would shortly begin to manifest out on the streets.

The first major Fascist movement to arise in post-war Italy was the Italian Social Movement (MSI) founded by Giorgio Almirante and other ex-members of Mussolini’s movement who were critical of the new government. Despite being an openly Fascist political party, because of its anti-communist stance it received a lot of support from wealthy businessmen and even the United States. As a result, it began to reform itself to appeal to it’s supporter base. It even ousted Almirante from power because he was too radical for the reformists. As a result, the party began to split into different internal factions, mainly between the radical revolutionary faction and the moderate reformists. Eventually this internal infighting would only spiral further out of control when the MSI became a de facto pro-establishment party when it decided to ally with the Christian Democrats, advocating foreign policy in favour of America and NATO, supporting the European Union and even sided with Israel, something which the revolutionary Fascists did not stand for.

But what really pushed things forward was the Years of Lead, which resulted from a mix of counter-cultural student activism and industrial workers strikes (known as the Hot Autumn), which were usually leftist or Marxist in terms of ideology, that usually resulted in clashes with the police. This only worsened when a police officer was killed during one of these riots, which many say sparked the violence to come. This would later come to be true with the Piazza Fontana bombing, which was orchestrated by the Fascist paramilitary group Ordine Nuovo, which splintered off the political group of the same name, of which Julius Evola was a member of. The government initially suspected anarchists to be behind this attack and thus the police began to arrest anarchists in the area. One of the anarchists arrested was Giuseppe Pinelli, who would then die whilst still in custody from falling out of a window. Leftists would then blame his death on the police which would further civil unrest.

Eventually a group known as the Red Brigades would be established that would become the lead leftist group in the Years of Lead and a rival to the Ordine Nuovo. They were established out of fear of a Fascist takeover like US backed pseudo-Fascist regimes like those of Operation Condor or the Greek Regime of the Colonels. Much like how many post-war Fascist organisations arose out of fear of a Communist takeover of Italy. This very much proves my point that post-war Italy was a breeding ground for new radical ideas and movements because of the emerging cold war.

Over the next two decades, there would be increased political violence from both left-wing and right-wing militias, through forms such as assassinations, bombings, and street violence. Sometimes this would be against each other, other times against the government. Some of the highlights of this period include the kidnapping and murder of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro by members of the Red Brigade in 1978, the bombing of Bologna railway station two years later by members of the Revolutionary Fascist group Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari which resulted in the deaths of 85 people and countless more injured. Another major event was the 1974 bombing of an anti-fascist protest in Brescia, also done by Ordine Nuovo members that killed eight and killed over a hundred more.

Eventually this violence would cease as many of these group would disband with many of their members imprisoned. However, there would be a minor resurgence of these activities in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Now that the brief history lesson is out of the way I want to look at some the radical ideas that spawned during this period, in particular, the ideas on one individual, that being Franco Freda.

Knight of Lead: Franco Freda.

Franco Freda was the ideological figurehead for the right-wing factions in the Years of Lead, a Padua citizen, he founded the Group of Ar, which was based on the Traditionalist philosophy of Julius Evola and other traditionalist figures such as Rene Guenon. He would later become an acquittance of Evola in addition to other Italian Fascist figures during his political career.

As part of his political career, he participated in the activities of Ordine Nuovo, despite never formally being a member of the group. He was later trialled and imprisoned for some time in relation to activities, especially regarding the more violent actions of the group, despite Freda not having any direct involvement in these activities.

Freda can be seen as precursor to the Siege movement, as he had a strong disregard for the system and believed that through party politics you were only playing in the system’s game. Thus he favoured revolutionary action instead. He was a staunch anti-capitalist and condemned both liberal democracy in addition to soviet bolshevism.

In his magnum opus The Disintegration of the System, he wrote that the goal of Revolutionary Fascists was the destruction of the Bourgeoise order that was imposing liberal values on the Italian people, knowing that Liberalism and Fascism cannot mix, as a result, he opposed America, considering the nation as a parasite responsible for the Judaization of Europe. He also saw the Enlightenment as responsible for the rise of the Bourgeois order and the birth of liberalism and Marxism.

In place of party politics, he advocated for a tactic very similar to what we call accelerationism, he even uses the world “accelerate” frequently in his writing. He believed that the system should be destroyed by all means necessary, sounds familiar right? I would argue that Franco Freda is a predecessor to James Mason and a proto-accelerationist. He favoured a tactic based on Mao’s strategy of guerrilla warfare (hence the name Nazi-Maoism) to disrupt the bourgeois order and the capitalist mode of production. He criticised private economy and favoured collectivisation and syndicalist economy instead. Something which was seen during the days of the Italian Social Republic (the German vassal state established with help from Mussolini following the fall of the Fascist regimes at the hands of Communist Partisans).

Now before people start calling Freda a communist or even a NazBol, I am here to state that he was indeed critical of Marxism and its offshoots, but unlike other fascists at the time, he looked at the positives of communist states, especially revolutionary movements like Viet Cong as well as Palestinian rebels as they were successful in their goals compared to communist political parties. (They were even able to win over the Axis forces in occupied countries during WWII due to their guerilla tactics.) In addition, he knew that Capitalism and its societal counter-part Liberalism were a much greater threat than any Communist at the time. One only must look at the world today to understand that he is correct. He favoured the way of the warrior as he knew that the only way to achieve victory was through the complete annihilation of the old bourgeois order to make way for the birth of a new society.

This worldview very much parallels the ideals promoted by Joseph Tommasi and the NSLF as well as, of course, James Mason, with one potentially arguing that Disintegration of the System can be seen as a predecessor to Siege, both books, though written by different authors, promote the exact same viewpoints.

Therefore, on that note, I would recommend that all those reading this article should read Disintegration of the System if you have not already.