The Italian protest movement was born during the
wave of protests in 1968, at the forefront of which were students, like at the University of California in Berkeley, and students and workers as in Paris in May 1968. In
Italy the 1968 student movement clashed violently with the police, and signalled the period known as "Years Of Lead" in Italy. Throughout the 1970s Italy was the theatre of terrorism and a climate of social and political upheaval. While the
Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse) were a
Marxist-Leninist terrorist group,
Autonomia was a loose association of Marxists and
anarchists. A figurehead was the philosopher
Antonio Negri, considered the theorist of the movement, later imprisoned for suspected links with the Red Brigades and accused of having a moral responsibility for the violence associated with the Autonomists. The apex of the movement took place in 1976 and 1977, and manifested itself with
urban guerrilla activity, and occupations of universities, high schools and factories. The Indiani Metropolitani were the so-called creative wing of the movement. Its adherents wore face-paint like the war-paint of
Native Americans and dressed like
hippies. The emphasis was on "stare insieme" (be together), spontaneity and the arts, especially music. The group was active in
Rome, during the occupation of the university
La Sapienza in 1977. The main tribù was led by two young performers also ideologist strongly attracted by american Beat Generation led by
Allen Ginsberg,
Mario Appignani (Crazy Horse "Cavallo Pazzo") and
Marco Erler (Red Cloud "Nuvola Rossa").The most famous episode of the period was the protest against a speech of left-wing union leader
Luciano Lama, which ended in a riot with Lama and his supporters chased away. The Minister of The Interior
Francesco Cossiga banned all demonstrations in Rome, but the ban was broken by the
Radical Party and their demonstration ended in serious clashes between Autonomists and police for a whole day on March 12 and a high school student,
Giorgiana Masi, was killed. In
Bologna, where the Autonomists had a stronghold, tanks occupied the city following the killing of
Francesco Lorusso by police which caused demonstrations and more guerrilla warfare by the Autonomists. The German Stadtindindianer were closely connected to the
Sponti scene in Germany, so
Daniel Cohn-Bendit's journal Pflasterstrand called itself "Zeitschrift für Stadtindianer', the
popular image of Native Americans in German-speaking countries applied as well to the leftist scene. == End of the movement ==