Autonomia Operaia

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, above all 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[1]

There was also an armed tendency known as autonomia armata (armed autonomy).[2]

People such as Oreste Scalzone, Franco Piperno, professor in Calabria University, Antonio Negri in Padova or Franco Berardi, aka Bifo, at Radio Alice were the movement's most well-known figures.[3] The movement became particularly active in March 1977, after the police in Bologna killed Francesco Lo Russo, a member of Lotta Continua. This event gave rise to a series of demonstrations in various parts of Italy. Bologna University and Rome La Sapienza University 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.

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, that 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 themselves in a minority. Some of the autonomi decided that the time had come to alzare il livello dello scontro (escalate of the conflict), in other words, to start using firearms.

• Autonomism
• Years of lead (Italy)
• Potere Operaio
• Lotta Continua
• Movement of 1977

• Storia di Autonomia (History of Autonomia), Tactical Media Crew website, 1978 (in Italian)
• Documenti politici (Political documents), Autonomia Operaia website (in Italian)
• Convegno di fondazione di Autonomia Operaia, Autonomia Operaia founding convention, 3-4 March 1973 (in Italian)
• Guerra, Nicola (2021). "Il linguaggio politico della sinistra e della destra extraparlamentari negli anni di piombo" [The political language of the extra-parliamentary left and right in the years of lead]. Italian Studies (in Italian). Taylor & Francis. 76 (4): 406–420. doi:10.1080/00751634.2021.1923172. Retrieved 15 February 2022.