The key-note of Italy's summer were intensified fascist street actions from one end of the peninsula to the other, these provocations in turn supported by massive police repressions of leftwing groups and a clear neo-fascist swing within the Italian Government itself by one of the coalition members.
Reggio Calabria In mid-July the Christian Democrat Mayor of Reggio Calabria issued the call for a general strike in the city to protest against nearby Catanzaro's having been selected as the regional capital. According to the Mayor, the decision to bypass Reggio Calabria as the local government seat deprived thousands of city residents of administrative and office jobs that would ease the city's poverty. His call was immediately answered by massive street demonstrations that in short order turned into a general revolt. Spurring on the population were decades of exploitation by local mafia and land-owning forces that have made Reggio Calabria the fourth lowest area in annual incomes in Italy. The only recourse for the men of the region has been to migrate to the industrial cities of Milan and Turin, where the exploitation of fieldworkers turns into the exploitation of factory workers and the continued depression of Southern Italy becomes an indispensable source of cheap manpower.
There were several rubs to the Mayor's appeal, however. The first of these was that the Action Committee directing the revolt was totally made up of local fascist elements, supported by the Christian Democrats and the local andowners themselves. The second rub was that, apart from the designation of Catanzaro as the regional capital, this regional government also requires representation by parties to the left of the DC, thus undercutting the monopoly of the Christian Democrats on administrative offices. In short, what the Mayor and his mafia and fascist cronies were up to was to protect their own hold on Reggio Calabria and neighbouring areas through the tactic of sending their own exploited victims into the streets, where massive police reinforcements were ready with clubs and tear gas. For nine days in July, the battle raged on the strength of years of local discontent, with the Action Committee making sure that this anger went no further politically than the bloody clashes. All the time, the Mayor sat in his office, as in fact the national governRome.
After nine days, the police had their way an things quieted down. But this was only the eye of the fascist hurricane. A few days later, dynamite attacks were made against the railroad and public offices. When a couple of bombs were also ticketed for some local politicians, the lid blew off again and the people went back to the streets. This time, the cops went in with guns, leading to the killing of two persons. By the time the second truce had been called, most of the city lay in ruins, the Rome Government expressed its "concern" over the situation as well as its "solidarity" with the Mayor and the Mayor expressed his "impotence before this regrettable but understandable anger of my people". What remained to be seen was whether the Mayor and his henchmen would ever close their Pandora's box again, now that the workers of Reggio Calabria have contributed their blood as well as their sweat to the foot-tapping of the padron.
Ignis At the end of July, a goon squad of fascists fell on a workers' meeting at the Ignis plant near Trento. In an obvious attempt to break up strike the workers had been on for several days. the fascists came in with knives and chains and dropped four workers before they were routed. Two of the assailants were not so lucky, however, and they were grabbed by the workers and immediately put on a workers' trial, where they admitted the purpose of their attack in a nearby square to local residents. By way of a reply, the local cops moved in to arrest three workers and a student for "illegal public demonstrations. Porto Marghera The Porto Marghera industrial complex near Venice was the latest scene of police murder over the summer when the pigs shot down two workers attending a strike meeting. Dozens of other workers were seriously injured during the attack, caused by the alarm of the padroni at worker demands for salary increases and for an internal restructuring of the various plants in the zone.
Architecture The Architecture Faculty at the University of Rome was the scene of summer clashes between students and cops supported by right-wing teachers. The action was sparked off by a being an integral part of the class nature of Italian education. More particularly, the students pointed out, the field of architecture itself was one of the most sensitive areas for capitalist exploitation, as witness the constant building in Rome of high-rise houses for upper-income groups while 60,000 persons continued living in country to extract more superprofits from cardboard and rock structures on the edge of the city. This stand provoked the call to the cops, who were ordered to supervise the exams When the students and some professors refused this, the clashes erupted and the examinations were put off until an undefined date. Colletivo CR-Rome