ABSTRACT
Public life in Italy from 1965 to 1975 was characterized by waves of mass protest over the country’s prevailing economic, educational, social and political institutions. At one time or another literally millions of Italians took to the streets of the major cities or engaged in other types of direct action (e.g. seizing control of university buildings or industrial plants) in order to express their opposition to the status quo. University students wanted the educational system expanded and democratized. Workers wanted their pay adjusted to keep pace with inflation and a greater say in work-place decisions. Women demanded greater control over their own reproductive systems. Small shop-keepers wanted stronger protection against threats to their businesses posed by the expansion of supermarkets and department stores. Prison inmates complained of the conditions in which they were compelled to live while serving their sentences. Many citizens wanted the structure of government reformed to bear a stronger resemblance to the French Fifth Republic, while others proposed a radical decentralization of political power. Still others expressed a commitment to the cause of a complete revolution in the country’s socio-economic system. In short, Italy during the last half of the 1960s and the first years of the following decade went through an extraordinary cycle of protest.1
Dissatisfied with the existing political parties, particularly the large Italian Communist Party (PCI), the protest movements led to the formation of a number of “extra-parliamentary” left organizations. Among the most prominent of these revolutionary or would-be revolutionary groups were Worker Power (Potere Operaio), Continuous Struggle (Lotta Continua) Worker Vanguard (Avanguardia Operaio) and Manifesto.2 These and other formations almost always produced their own newspapers, journals and other publications to convey their ideas to members of Italy’s then large left-wing subculture.
