Movement of 1977

The movement arose in conjunction with the crisis of the extra-parliamentary organizations that led to social struggles in the years after the 1968, together with the so-called mass university: after the 1969 school reform, also young people from proletarian families could attend a university, which, until then, had been a privilege held almost exclusively by students from more affluent classes.

After a decade of disputes in schools and in society, the rigor of the old revolutionary groups appeared inadequate and outdated. Indeed, the protests were also addressed at the political practice of those organizations from which the participants in the movement of '77 originated. Moreover, the feminist movement, which since the early '70s had had a very strong growth, was present in the movement with its instances of sexual liberation.^[2]

Another important aspect was the political action of Marco Pannella's Radical Party. Pannella, after the victory in the 1974 referendum for divorce, had greatly enlarged the ranks of his party, and concentrated their efforts on human rights, civil rights, pacifism and nonviolence. Among the Radical Party's goals was also a struggle against authoritarianism and repression, the gay liberation and the anti-prohibitionism of drugs. At that time, underground culture and counterculture newspapers, such as the magazine Re Nudo [it] (The Naked King) founded in 1969 in Milan by a group of activists, started being printed. These had organized two large pop rallies (named Youth Festival of the proletariat) in Parco Lambro, Milan, somewhat modeled on the Woodstock festival (1969).

The culture also passed through the so-called free radios, born after the liberalization of broadcasting in 1976. Internationally, in 1977 there came the "first wave" of punk subculture called "Punk 77", particularly relating to British scene (British Punk) and American (American punk). In this context a complex movement, libertarian and creative, was born where there were no leaders and where involvement and responsibility were closely personal, although a leading role in the struggles continued being played by the now dissolved Lotta Continua militants, and especially by the area of autonomy.

Some of the practices of struggle that characterized the movement were formalized during the 70s and tended to propose a model of direct action where change was to take place immediately, with the reappropriation of goods and areas claimed as a right. Occupation of vacant and / or abandoned houses, proletarian expropriations, one-sided reduction of bills and services in general (from cinema to catering operations), became the typical practices of the movement, which stood alongside the separate actions of extra-parliamentary left as militant anti-fascism.

The movement of '77 involved some marginalized sectors of society in large cities, such as those living in slums. The movement was committed to counter the circulation of heroin, through information campaigns and by fighting trafficking.

In 1977, the creative and peaceful wing of the movement and Autonomia Operaia, the extra-parliamentary leftist movement which advocated armed struggle in the streets instead, finally severed their ties to the Italian Communist Party (PCI), strongly contesting the policy of the historic compromise, and the perceived abandonment of the opposition to bourgeois power.

On February 17, 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 (members of Autonomia Operaia) and the CGIL's security service had a violent clash, that resulted in Lama being chased away. The event would become famous and remembered as The expulsion of Lama from La Sapienza university. The clash between the PCI and Autonomia made the more radical current within Autonomia stronger. The more moderate 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 (to raise the level of the conflict), in other words, to start using firearms.