Years of Lead (Italy)

The term's origin possibly came about as a reference to the number of shootings during the period of the conflict, or as a reference to a popular 1981 West German film, named Marianne and Juliane in English after the main characters, but which was released in Italy as Anni di piombo. This is closer to the original title, Die bleierne Zeit (The Leaden Time), which refers to the 1950s in West Germany, a period which is perceived as conservative and suppressive by the character of Marianne, a female terrorist within the film. Marianne's terrorist cell is based on the real-life West German far-left militant group the Red Army Faction (RAF), who gained notoriety during the 1970s by kidnapping and killing dozens. Their Italian counterpart, the Red Brigades, copied one of the RAF's 1977 German Autumn crimes in the 1978 kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro. == Background ==

The Years of Lead emerged from the widespread social unrest of the late 1960s. The turmoil was fuelled by the rapid and disruptive social changes of the post-war Italian economic miracle, which saw a mass exodus from rural areas and the explosive, often chaotic growth of cities. This transformation, combined with the paralysis of the political system—dominated by the Christian Democracy (DC) in a permanent but unstable coalition—created deep-seated tensions. Expectations for reform in housing, education, and social services, raised by the brief centre-left experiment of the early 1960s, remained largely unfulfilled, leading to profound disillusionment. This unrest coalesced into two major movements: the student movement and the workers' movement. The Italian student movement, part of the global Protests of 1968, began in late 1967. It was driven by the crisis of an education system that had expanded massively but remained chronically underfunded, overcrowded, and unreformed. The movement quickly developed a radical anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist critique, challenging not only university structures but also the values of consumer society and the traditional nuclear family. It drew ideological inspiration from a mixture of dissident Catholicism, a revival of Marxist thought outside the traditional Communist Party, and international events such as the Vietnam War and the Cultural Revolution. The student protests intersected with a powerful wave of labour unrest that culminated in the "Hot Autumn" (Autunno caldo) of 1969. This period saw millions of workers, particularly in the northern industrial centres, engage in massive strikes. The militancy was especially strong among the new generation of semi-skilled workers, many of whom were recent migrants from Southern Italy, who found themselves working in rigid, alienating assembly-line conditions. Student activists joined workers on picket lines, and new forms of struggle emerged, including wildcat strikes and factory occupations, which challenged both management authority and the control of traditional trade unions. While the unions ultimately reasserted their leadership and secured a landmark national contract for metalworkers in late 1969, the "Hot Autumn" fundamentally changed the balance of power in the factories and demonstrated a new potential for mass collective action. It was in this climate of intense social conflict and revolutionary expectation that armed political violence began to escalate. The Italian Communist Party (PCI), then the most powerful opposition movement, was prevented to gain power by the alliance of most other parties with the Christian Democracy. Its apparent abandonment of revolutionary goals also disappointed left-wing radicals. On the right, neo-fascists remained marginalized since the fall of Benito Mussolini: the Italian Social Movement (MSI) failed to break out of its isolation following its brief alliance with Fernando Tambroni's government in 1960. This situation favored the rise of radicals both on the left and on the right. On the far left, small groups emerged from the student and worker movements, disillusioned with the perceived moderation of the Communist Party and committed to overthrowing the state through armed struggle. On the far right, neo-fascist groups frustrated by the MSI's failures initiated the "strategy of tension" — a campaign of indiscriminate bombings designed to create panic, discredit the left, and provoke an authoritarian coup d'état. The first major attack of this campaign, the Piazza Fontana bombing of December 1969, is often cited as the symbolic start of the Years of Lead. == Timeline of events ==

1969 Public protests Public protests shook Italy during 1969, with the workers' rights movement and autonomist student movement being particularly active, leading to the occupation of the Fiat Mirafiori automobile factory in Turin. Killing of Antonio Annarumma On 19 November 1969, Antonio Annarumma, a Milanese policeman, was killed during a riot by far-left demonstrators. He was the first civil servant to die in the wave of violence. Piazza Fontana bombing . The funeral march goes through Milan Cathedral Square. Milan, 12 December 1969 The Victor Emmanuel II Monument, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome and the Banca Commerciale Italiana and the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Milan were bombed in December. Local police arrested 80 or so suspects from left-wing groups, including Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist initially blamed for the bombing, and Pietro Valpreda. Their guilt was denied by left-wing members, especially by members of the student movement, then prominent in Milan's universities, as they believed that the bombing was carried out by fascists. Following the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, who mysteriously died on 15 December while in police custody, the radical left-wing newspaper Lotta Continua started a campaign accusing police officer Luigi Calabresi of Pinelli's murder. In 1975, Calabresi and other police officials were acquitted by judge Gerardo D'Ambrosio who decided that Pinelli's fall from a window had been caused by him becoming ill and losing his balance. Meanwhile, the anarchist Valpreda and five others were convicted and jailed for the bombing. They were released after three years of preventive detention. Then, two neo-fascists, Franco Freda (resident in Padua) and Giovanni Ventura, were arrested and accused of organizing the massacre before being acquitted by the Supreme Court in 1987 for lack of evidence. In the 1990s, new investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing, citing new witnesses' testimony, implicated Freda and Ventura again. However, the pair cannot be put on trial again because of double jeopardy, as they were acquitted of the crime in 1987. 1970 Birth of the Red Brigades in 2008 The Red Brigades were founded in August 1970 by Renato Curcio and Margherita (Mara) Cagol, who had met as students at the University of Trento and later married, The Red Brigades considered Gruppo XXII Ottobre its predecessor and, in April 1974, they kidnapped Judge Mario Sossi in a failed attempt at freeing the jailed members. Years later, the Red Brigades killed judge Francesco Coco on 8 June 1976, along with his two police escorts, Giovanni Saponara and Antioco Deiana, in revenge. 1972 Assassination of Luigi Calabresi in 2014 On 17 May 1972, police officer Luigi Calabresi, a recipient of the gold medal of the Italian Republic for civil valour, was killed in Milan. Authorities initially focused on suspects in Lotta Continua; then it was assumed that Calabresi had been killed by neo-fascist organizations, bringing about the arrest of two neo-fascist activists, Gianni Nardi and Bruno Stefano, along with German Gudrun Kiess, in 1974. They were ultimately released. Sixteen years later, Adriano Sofri, Giorgio Petrostefani, Ovidio Bompressi, and Leonardo Marino were arrested in Milan following Marino's confession to the murder. Their trial finally established their guilt in organising and carrying out the assassination. Calabresi's assassination opened the chapter of assassinations carried out by armed groups of the far-left. Judge Casson identified Ordine Nuovo member Vincenzo Vinciguerra as the man who had planted the Peteano bomb. The neo-fascist terrorist Vinciguerra, arrested in the 1980s for the bombing in Peteano, declared to magistrate Felice Casson that this false flag attack had been intended to force the Italian state to declare a state of emergency and to become more authoritarian. Vinciguerra explained that the SISMI military intelligence agency had protected him by allowing his escape to Francoist Spain. Casson's investigation revealed that the right-wing organization Ordine Nuovo had collaborated with the Italian Military Secret Service, SID (Servizio Informazioni Difesa). Together, they had engineered the Peteano attack and then blamed the Red Brigades. He confessed and testified that he had been covered by a network of sympathizers in Italy and abroad who had ensured that he could escape after the attack. "A whole mechanism came into action", Vinciguerra recalled, "that is, the Carabinieri, the Minister of the Interior, the customs services and the military and civilian intelligence services accepted the ideological reasoning behind the attack." 1973 Primavalle fire A 16 April 1973 arson attack by members of Potere Operaio on the house of neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) militant Mario Mattei in Primavalle, Rome, resulted in his two sons, aged 22 and 8, being burned alive. Milan Police command bombing During a 17 May 1973 ceremony honouring Luigi Calabresi, in which the Interior Minister was present, Gianfranco Bertoli, an anarchist, threw a bomb that killed four and injured 45. In 1975, Bertoli was sentenced to life imprisonment: despite self-identifying as an anarchist, the Milan Court wrote that he was connected with the far-right New Order and was a SID informant and a confidant of the police. A magistrate investigating the assassination attempt of Mariano Rumor found that Bertoli's files were incomplete. ==== First murder by the Red Brigades ==== On 17 June 1974, two members of MSI were murdered in Padua. Initially, an internal feud between neo-fascist groups was suspected, since the crime had occurred in the city of Franco Freda. However, the murder was then claimed by the Red Brigades: it was the first murder of the organization, Bombing of Italicus train On 4 August 1974, 12 people were killed and 48 others injured in the bombing of the Italicus Rome-Brenner express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro. Responsibility was claimed by the neo-fascist terrorist organization Ordine Nero. Arrest of Vito Miceli General Vito Miceli, chief of the SIOS military intelligence agency in 1969, and head of the SID from 1970 to 1974, was arrested in 1974 on charges of "conspiracy against the state". Miceli was acquitted in 1978. On 8 July, in Rome, Judge Vittorio Occorsio was killed by neo-fascist Pierluigi Concutelli. On 22 March, a Rome policeman Claudio Graziosi was killed by Nuclei Armati Proletari. A photographer took a photo of an activist shooting at the police. This year was called the time of the "P38", referring to the Walther P38 pistol. On 16 November, in Turin, Carlo Casalegno, deputy director of the newspaper La Stampa, was seriously wounded in an ambush of the Red Brigades. He died thirteen days later, on November 29. On 7 January, in Rome, young militants of Italian Social Movement (MSI) Franco Bigonzetti and Francesco Ciavatta were killed by far-leftists, another militant (Stefano Recchioni) was killed by the police during a violent demonstration. On 11 April, in Turin, policeman Lorenzo Cutugno was killed by the Red Brigades. The corpse was found that same day in the trunk of a red Renault 4 in via Michelangelo Caetani, in downtown Rome. A consequence was the fact that the PCI did not gain executive power. Moro's assassination was followed by a large clampdown on the social movement, including the arrest of many members of Autonomia Operaia, including Oreste Scalzone and political philosopher Antonio Negri (arrested on 7 April 1979). 1979 Active armed organizations grew from 2 in 1969 to 91 in 1977 and 269 in 1979. In that year there were 659 attacks. On 24 January, worker and trade unionist Guido Rossa was killed in Genoa by the Red Brigades. On 29 January, Judge Emilio Alesandrini was killed in Milan by Prima Linea. On 9 March, university student Emanuele Iurilli was killed in Turin by Prima Linea. On 20 March, investigative journalist Mino Pecorelli was gunned down in his car in Rome. Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti and Mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti were sentenced in 2002 to 24 years in prison for the murder, though the sentences were overturned the following year. On 3 May, in Rome, policemen Antonio Mea and Piero Ollanu were killed by the Red Brigades. On 13 July, in Rome, Lieutenant Colonel of Carabinieri Antonio Varisco was killed by the Red Brigades. On 21 September, Carlo Ghiglieno was killed in Turin by a group of Prima Linea. On 11 December, five teachers and five students of the "Valletta" Institute in Turin were shot in the legs by Prima Linea. On 7 February, Prima Linea militant William Vaccher was killed on suspicion of treason. On 10 April, in Turin, Giuseppe Pisciuneri a Mondialpol guard, was killed by Ronde Proletarie. On 28 May, in Milan, journalist Walter Tobagi was killed by Brigata XXVIII marzo. 1981 On 5 July, Giuseppe Taliercio, director of the Porto Marghera's Montedison petrochemical establishment, was killed by the Red Brigades after 47 days of kidnapping. 1982 On 26 August, a group of Red Brigades terrorists attacked a military troop convoy in Salerno. In the attack, Corporal Antonio Palumbo and policemen Antonio Bandiera and Mario De Marco were killed. The terrorists escaped. On 21 October, a group of Red Brigades terrorists attacked a bank in Turin, killing two guards, Antonio Pedio and Sebastiano d'Alleo. 1984 On 15 February, Leamon Hunt, American diplomat and Director General of the international peacekeeping force, Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), was killed by the Red Brigades. On 18 February 1994, the Florence court absolved MSI member of Parliament Massimo Abbatangelo from the massacre charge, but ruled him guilty of giving the explosive to Misso in the spring of 1984. Abbatangelo was sentenced to 6 years. Victims' relatives asked for a tougher sentence, but lost the appeal and had to pay for judicial expenses. 1985 On 9 January, in Torvaianica (a town near Rome), policeman Ottavio Conte was killed by the Red Brigades. On 27 March, in Rome, economist Ezio Tarantelli was killed by the Red Brigades. 1986 On 10 February 1986, Lando Conti, former mayor of Florence, was killed by the Red Brigades. 1987 On 20 March 1987, Licio Giorgieri, a general in the Italian Air Force, was assassinated by the Red Brigades in Rome. 1988 On 16 April 1988, Senator Roberto Ruffilli was assassinated in an attack by a group of the Red Brigades in Forlì. It was the last murder committed by the Red Brigades: on 23 October a group of irriducibili (hardliners) declared, in a document, that war against the State was over. ==Events after 1988==

Resurgence in the 1990s and 2000s In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a resurgence of Red Brigades terrorism led to further assassinations. On 20 May 1999, Massimo D'Antona, a consultant to the Ministry of Labour, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigades in Rome. On 19 March 2002, Marco Biagi, an academic and consultant to the Ministry of Labour, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigades in Bologna. On 2 March 2003, Emanuele Petri, a policeman, was assassinated by a group of Red Brigades terrorists near Castiglion Fiorentino. 2021 arrests In 2021, France arrested seven of the dozens of fugitive leftist militants who had been given French protection for decades. Among the arrested were Giorgio Pietrostefani, a founding member of the Lotta Continua group who was convicted of the murder of Milan police commissioner Luigi Calabresi. Others were Marina Petrella, Roberta Cappelli and Sergio Tornaghi, who had received life sentences for murders and kidnappings. ==Countries that granted participants asylum ==

France The Mitterrand doctrine, which was established in 1985 by then socialist French president François Mitterrand, stated that Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France and who were convicted of violent acts in Italy, excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead", would receive asylum and would not be subject to extradition to Italy. They would be integrated into French society. The act was announced on 21 April 1985, at the 65th Congress of the Human Rights League (''Ligue des droits de l'homme'', LDH), stating of Italian criminals who had given up their violent pasts and had fled to France would be protected from extradition to Italy: According to Reuters, the Italian guerillas numbered in the dozens. The French decision had a long term negative effect on French-Italian relations. Brazil Some Italian citizens accused of terrorist acts have found refuge in Brazil such as Cesare Battisti and other former members of the Armed Proletarians for Communism, a far-left militant and terrorist organization. Nicaragua Some Italian far-left activists found political asylum in Nicaragua, including Alessio Casimirri, who took part in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. Spain Some of the far-right activists, including Stefano Delle Chiaie and Junio Valerio Borghese, found refuge in Francoist Spain. Here a network of activists was established that facilitated the arrival of other far-right figures while simultaneously establishing clandestine businesses. == Impact on emigration from Italy ==

The Years of Lead were believed to have increased the rate of immigration to the United States from Italy. However, as the Years of Lead came to an end in the 1980s and political stability increased in Italy, the rate of immigration to the United States decreased. In the years 1992–2002, Italian immigration ranged nearly 2,500 people annually. == See also ==