In the years following the end of
World War II, there was a resurgence of anarchism (and, particularly,
anarcho-syndicalism) in Italy. On 19 September 1945, an anarchist
congress was held in Carrara, subsequently referred to as the
First Anarchist Congress, and the Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI) was officially established. In the early years of its existence, a fringe group within the FAI emerged, led by Pier Carlo Masini. It supported the idea of "a
libertarian party with anarchist theories and practices", meant to adapt to the new economic, political and social realities of
post-WW2 Italy, with an
internationalist outlook and focusing on an effective presence in
workplaces. Masini would go on to found the
Gruppi Anarchici di Azione Proletaria (Anarchist Groups of Proletarian Action) in 1951, an organization which aligned itself with a similar development within the
French anarchist movement, the
Federation Communiste Libertaire (Libertarian Communist Federation) led by
Georges Fontenis. During the
Eighth Anarchist Congress, held in Carrara in 1965, an "associative pact" was adopted, with new rules being imposed on FAI members, resulting in a disagreement that culminated in a group of members (led by
Pio Turroni and
Aurelio Chessa, among others) splitting from the FAI to form their own group, known as the ''Gruppi d'Iniziativa Anarchica
(Groups of Anarchist Initiative), critical of anarcho-syndicalism and favoring individualist anarchism. Another group would later split off from the FAI, known as the Gruppi Anarchici Federati'' (Federated Anarchist Groups). In 1985, the FAI created the
Archivio Storico della Federazione Anarchica Italiana (ASFAI), an
archive located in
Imola dedicated to the preservation of flags, letters, books,
propaganda and other documents pertaining to the history and origins of the
Italian anarchist movement. On the 23 December 2010, several news sources erroneously reported that the FAI had claimed responsibility for a series of mail bombs delivered to foreign embassies in
Rome. Other media outlets attributed the bombs to another group, the
insurrectionist Informal Anarchist Federation. , 2008. == See also ==