The Reggio revolt occurred in

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria (; ), commonly and officially referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the List of cities in Italy, largest city in Calabria as well as the seat of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. As ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, from July 1970 to February 1971. The cause of the protests was a government decision to make

Catanzaro Catanzaro (; or ; ), also known as the "City of the two Seas" (), is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its province and the second most populated comune of the region, behind Reggio Calabr ...

, not Reggio, regional capital of

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

.Partridge, ''Italian politics today''
p. 50
/ref> The nomination of a regional capital was the result of a decentralization programme of the Italian government, under which 15 governmental regions were concretized and given their own administrative councils and a measure of local autonomy.
Time Magazine, Oct. 26, 1970

Background

Protest in Reggio Calabria exploded in July 1970 when the much smaller town of Catanzaro (with a population of 82,000 against 160,000 in Reggio) was chosen as the regional capital of Calabria. The people of Reggio blamed their rivals' success on "the Red Barons" in Rome, a group of influential centre-left Calabrian politicians from Cosenza and Catanzaro, including Deputy Prime Minister

Giacomo Mancini Giacomo Mancini (21 April 1916 – 8 April 2002) was an Italian politician and lawyer. He was the grandfather of the namesake politician Giacomo Mancini Jr. Biography He was son of Pietro Mancini, one of the founders of the Italian Socialist P ...

. On July 14, a general strike was called and five days of street fighting left one dead and several policemen injured.La brutta avventura di Reggio Calabria
La Repubblica, January 5, 2008 A force of 5,000 armed police and

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...

agents was moved into the area. The national government ordered state-owned

RAI TV (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

not to report on the insurrection. Nevertheless, the revolt steadily picked up steam and sympathy. Drawn out road and railway blockades damaged the entire country. Strikes, barricades and wrecked railway tracks forced trains from the north of Italy to halt two hours short of Reggio. Italy's main north-south highway, the ''

Autostrada del Sole The ''autostrade'' (; : ''autostrada'', ) are roads forming the Italian national system of motorways. The total length of the system is about , as of 30 July 2022. There are also 13 motorway spur routes, which extend for . Most of the Italian ...

'' (Highway of the Sun), was closed off. When the port of Reggio was blocked, hundreds of lorries and railroad freight cars were forced to remain on the other side of the

Straits of Messina The Strait of Messina (; ) is a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily ( Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria ( Punta Pezzo) in Southern Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north with the Ionian Sea to the south, wi ...

Neo-fascists taking over

The revolt was taken over by young

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...

s of the

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement (, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national conservatism. In 1972, the Itali ...

(''Movimento Sociale Italiano'', MSI) allegedly backed by the

'Ndrangheta The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...

, a

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

-type criminal organisation based in Calabria,Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 198Troops Are Sent Into Italian City
The New York Times, October 17, 1970
The Independent, 4 February 1996 the

De Stefano 'ndrina The De Stefano 'ndrina, or the De Stefano family or De Stefano-Tegano family, is one of the most powerful clans of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. The 'ndrina hailed from the Archi neighbourhood in Reggi ...

in particular.Paoli,
Broken bonds: Mafia and politics in Sicily
'

Francesco Franco Francesco Franco (Reggio Calabria, March 28, 1930 – Reggio Calabria, November 16, 1991), also known as Ciccio Franco,National Italian Workers' Union (CISNAL) close to the neo-fascist movement became the informal leader of the rebel Action Committee and of the revolt. "Boia chi molla" (Death to him who gives up) was the right-wing rallying cry during the revolt.La Rivolta di Reggio Calabria
Archivio'900 Most of the Italian press labeled the demonstrators fascists and hooligans against the center‐left Government in Rome;
The New York Times, February 1, 1971 however, according to ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', the revolt cut across class barriers, quoting Reggio's mayor at the time, Pietro Battaglia, who declared that it was a "citizens' revolt". The 'Ndrangheta was ready to support the subversive forces. Party and union headquarters were bombed, as well as the cars of politicians accused of treason and shops because they did not join the strikes. In the period from July–September 1970, there were 19 days of general strikes, 32 road blocks, 12 bomb attacks, 14 occupations of the railway station and two of the post office, as well as the airport and the local TV station. The local prefecture was assaulted six times and the police headquarters four times; 426 people were charged with public order offences.Ginsborg, '' A History of Contemporary Italy: 1943-80''
pp. 156-57
/ref> By their own admission, many of the urban-guerilla style actions during the revolt were coordinated and led by members of National Vanguard.Ferraresi, ''Threats to Democracy''
p. 67
/ref> On 17 September 1970, Franco was arrested along with other leaders of the revolt on charges of incitement in a police sweep that targeted some 100 people. The news about the arrest provoked violent reactions, in particular in the dilapidated Sbarre suburb.
The New York Times, September 20, 1970 Two armories were stormed and about five hundred people attacked the police station.
The New York Times, September 18, 1970 At least 6,000 police men were deployed from many parts of Italy to try to stop the violence.
The New York Times, September 21, 1970 Franco was released on 23 December 1970. After three police officers were shot and wounded in October 1970, Prime Minister

Emilio Colombo Emilio Colombo (; 11 April 1920 – 24 June 2013) was an Italian politician. A member of the Christian Democracy party, he served as Prime Minister of Italy from August 1970 to February 1972. In 2003, he was appointed senator for life, a seat h ...

decided to tackle the conflict. Colombo warned that the Government would resort to force to restore order if necessary. Some 4,500 soldiers were sent to Reggio Calabria; it was the Italian Army's first assignment to crush civil disorder in 25 years. The decision on the location of Calabria's government was declared "provisional" and an assurance was given that the issue would be discussed in the Italian parliament for a final decision. Tensions subsided for a while, but new protests and violence broke out in January 1971 when the Parliament decided that the regional assembly had to designate the capital of Calabria.

Gioia Tauro train attack

On July 22, 1970, a train derailed near the

Gioia Tauro Gioia Tauro () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria (Italy), on the Tyrrhenian coast. It has an important port, situated along the route connecting Suez to Gibraltar, one of the busiest maritime corridors in ...

train station in Calabria, killing six people.Ward, David.''Contemporary Italian Narrative and 1970s Terrorism: Stranger than Fact''. Springer. 2017. Page 12 At the time, Italian authorities suspected that a bomb had caused the crash and sent troops to guard Calabrian railways.Dickie, John. ''Blood Brotherhoods: A History of Italy's Three Mafias''. PublicAffairs. 2014. page 405. In 1993, Giacomo Lauro, a former member of the

, said that he had supplied the explosives used in the bombing to people linked to the leaders of the revolt. In the 1990s, Judge Guido Salvini attributed the attack to National Vanguard.Cento Bull, Anna. ''Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation''. Bergahn Books. 2012. Page 39. "Avanguardia Nazionale, founded by Stefano Delle Chiaie in 1959, was not among the groups charged with the Piazza Fontana massacre in the recent retrial. However, its role in stragismo was reasserted in the sentenze-ordinanze produced by Judge Salvini with reference both to the bomb attacks carried out in Rome on 12 December 1969, which produced no victims, and to other massacres carried out in the South of Italy. The most important of these was a bomb attack carried out against the train Freccia del Sud at Gioia Tauro on 22 July 1970, which caused the death of six passengers ..." In February 2001, a court in Palmi, Calabria found that Vito Silverini, Vincenzo Caracciolo, and Giuseppe Scarcella (all deceased at the time) had planted the bomb.

End of the conflict

On 31 January 1971, four leaders of the rebel Action Committee were arrested on charges for instigating violence. Francesco Franco was able to escape arrest initially, but was arrested on 5 June 1971, after a scuffle at a neo-fascist party rally in Rome.Leader of Revolt Arrested in Italy
Associated Press, June 7, 1971 In February 1971, journalist

Oriana Fallaci Oriana Fallaci (; 29 June 1929 – 15 September 2006) was an Italian journalist and author. A member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for h ...

had been able to interview the fugitive Franco for ''

L'Europeo was a prominent Italian weekly news magazine launched on 4 November 1945, by the founder-editors Gianni Mazzocchi and Arrigo Benedetti. On 23 February 1971 armored cars entered the Sbarre neighbourhood, where a short-lived Central Sbarre Republic (''Repubblica di Sbarre Centrali'') had been proclaimed, and finally suppressed the revolt. According to official figures of the Italian Ministry of the Interior, there were 3 dead, and 190 policemen and 37 civilians wounded. Other sources mention 5 dead and hundreds of wounded. The so-called Colombo Package (named after then Prime minister

) offering to build the Fifth Steelwork Centre in Reggio including a railroad stump and the port in

, an investment of 3 billion lire which would create 10,000 jobs, softened the people of Reggio and helped to quell the revolt. The issue of Calabria's capital was resolved by a

Solomonic decision The Judgement of Solomon is a story from the Old Testament in which Solomon ruled between two women who both claimed to be the mother of a child. Solomon ordered the baby be cut in half, with each woman to receive one half. The first woman accept ...

: Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria became Calabria's joint regional capitals, Catanzaro as the seat of the regional administration and Reggio Calabria as the seat of the regional parliament.Vote for a Capital In South Italy Lost By Reggio Calabria
The New York Times, February 16, 1971 The revolt defies any attempt to schematic classification. Issues of employment (the capital meant safe jobs in an economically depressed city) and local pride intermingled; it was mainly a matter of identity. The revolt ended up by being taken over by neo-fascists
The New York Times, March 22, 1973 (relevant was also the role of the militant neo-fascist movement National Vanguard) and led to unexpected electoral fortunes for the Italian Social Movement at the Italian general election in May 1972, when Franco was elected senator. The neo-fascists benefitted, because the

Christian Democrats Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well a ...

were divided, while the city was one of its fiefdoms, and the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

(PCI) supported the suppression of the riots.

Aftermath

In October 1972, the main left wing labour unions led by the

Italian General Confederation of Labour The Italian General Confederation of Labour (, , CGIL ) is a national trade union centre in Italy. It was formed by an agreement between socialists, communists, and Christian democrats in the "Pact of Rome" of June 1944. In 1950, socialists and ...

organized a conference in Reggio to regain their influence. Twenty trains were chartered to bring workers from northern and central Italy. On one of the trains full of workers and trade unionists a bomb exploded leaving five injured. Two other bombs burst on the rails in the vicinity of Lamezia Terme, while other unexploded bombs were found along the same railway line. Despite the attacks, many did reach Reggio to attend the conference and street march. Franco was investigated for distributing leaflets hostile to the anti-fascist demonstration.Seduta di venerdì 2 febbraio 1973
Atti Parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, February 2, 1973 Subsequent judicial investigations of charges of provocation and terrorism ended with his acquittal. The steelworks was never built, but a conflict between different 'Ndrangheta groups over the spoils of public construction contracts to build a railroad stump, the steelwork center, and the port in

, led to the

First 'Ndrangheta war The First 'Ndrangheta war was an internal struggle in the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type criminal organisation in Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, t ...

.Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 115

References

Bibliography

* Ferraresi Franco (1996).
Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy after the War
', Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, * Ginsborg, Paul (1990).
A History of Contemporary Italy: 1943-80
', London: Penguin Books, * Paoli, Letizia (2003).
Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style
', New York: Oxford University Press

by Klaus Von Lampe)

by Alexandra V. Orlova) * Paoli, Letizia (2003). ''Broken bonds: Mafia and politics in Sicily'', in: Godson, Roy (ed.) (2004).
Menace to Society: Political-criminal Collaboration Around the World
', New Brunswick/London: Transaction Publishers, * Partridge, Hilary (1998).
Italian politics today
', Manchester: Manchester University Press, * Polimeni, Girolamo (1996)
La rivolta di Reggio Calabria del 1970: politica, istituzioni, protagonisti
Pellegrini Editore,

External links

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