Formation The autonomist movement gathered itself around the
free radio movement, such as
Onda Rossa in Rome,
Radio Alice in Bologna,
Controradio in Firenze,
Radio Sherwood in Padova, and other local radios, giving it a diffusion in the whole country. It also published several newspapers and magazines which were circulated nationally, including
Rosso in Milan,
I Volsci in Rome,
Autonomia in Padua and
A/traverso in Bologna. It was a decentralized, localist network or "area" of movements, particularly strong in Rome, Milan, Padua and Bologna, but at its height in 1977 was also often present in small towns and villages where not even the
Italian Communist Party (PCI) was present. There was also an armed tendency known as
autonomia armata (armed autonomy). People such as
Oreste Scalzone,
Franco Piperno, professor in
Calabria University,
Antonio Negri in Padova or
Franco Berardi, a.k.a. Bifo, at
Radio Alice were the movement's most well-known figures. The movement became particularly active in March 1977, after the police in Bologna killed Francesco Lo Russo, a member of
Lotta Continua. This event sparked a series of demonstrations in various parts of Italy.
Bologna University and the
Sapienza University of Rome were occupied by students. On orders from Interior Minister
Francesco Cossiga the
carabinieri surrounded Bologna's university area. This repression met with some international protest, in particular from French philosophers
Michel Foucault,
Jean-Paul Sartre,
Gilles Deleuze and
Félix Guattari, who also denounced the
Italian Communist Party's (PCI) opposition to the University occupation. The PCI was supporting at this time
Eurocommunism and the
historic compromise with the
Christian Democrats.
Clash between the PCI and Autonomia On 17 February 1977,
Luciano Lama, secretary-general of the
CGIL, the trade union closest to the PCI, gave a speech inside the occupied
La Sapienza University. During the speech, the
autonomi and the CGIL's security organization had a violent clash. This resulted in Lama being chased away. This confrontation prompted the expulsion of the students by the police. The clash between the PCI and Autonomia reinforced the more
radical current within Autonomia. The
creative current, which included extravagant components, such as the
Indiani Metropolitani movement, found itself in a minority. Some of the
Autonomi decided that the time had come to
alzare il livello dello scontro (escalate the conflict), in other words, to start using firearms. == See also ==