The Palgrave Macmillan Negotiating Memories of Protest in Western Europe The Case of Italy Andrea Hajek Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies Series Editors: Andrew Hoskins and John Sutton International Advisory Board: Steven Brown, University of Leicester, UK, Mary Carruthers, New York University, USA, Paul Connerton, University of Cambridge, UK, Astrid Erll, University of Wuppertal, Germany, Robyn Fivush, Emory University, USA, Tilmann Habermas, University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Jeffrey Olick, University of Virginia, USA, Susannah Radstone, University of East London, UK, Ann Rigney, Utrecht University, Netherlands The nascent field of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to that of memory, from ‘what we know’ to ‘how we remember it’; changes in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to an intensification of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This groundbreaking series tackles questions such as: What is ‘memory’ under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination? Silke Arnold-de Simine MEDIATING MEMORY IN THE MUSEUM Empathy, Trauma, Nostalgia Aleida Assmann and Sebastian Conrad (editors) MEMORY IN A GLOBAL AGE Discourses, Practices and Trajectories Aleida Assmann and Linda Shortt (editors) MEMORY AND POLITICAL CHANGE Rebecca Bramall THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF AUSTERITY Past and Present in Austere Times Brian Conway COMMEMORATION AND BLOODY SUNDAY Pathways of Memory Richard Crownshaw THE AFTERLIFE OF HOLOCAUST MEMORY IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE AND CULTURE Irit Dekel MEDIATION AT THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL IN BERLIN Astrid Erll MEMORY IN CULTURE Anne Fuchs AFTER THE DRESDEN BOMBING Pathways of Memory 1945 to the Present Irial Glynn and J. Olaf Kleist (editors) HISTORY, MEMORY AND MIGRATION Perceptions of the Past and the Politics of Incorporation Yifat Gutman, Adam D. Brown and Amy Sodaro (editors) MEMORY AND THE FUTURE Transnational Politics, Ethics and Society Andrea Hajek NEGOTIATING MEMORIES OF PROTEST IN WESTERN EUROPE The Case of Italy Amy Holdsworth TELEVISION, MEMORY AND NOSTALGIA Jason James PRESERVATION AND NATIONAL BELONGING IN EASTERN GERMANY Heritage Fetishism and Redeeming Germanness Emily Keightley and Michael Pickering THE MNEMONIC IMAGINATION Remembering as Creative Practice Mikyoung Kim and Barry Schwartz (editors) NORTHEAST ASIA’S DIFFICULT PAST Essays in Collective Memory Amanda Lagerkvist MEDIA AND MEMORY IN NEW SHANGHAI Western Performances of Futures Past Philip Lee and Pradip Ninan Thomas (editors) PUBLIC MEMORY, PUBLIC MEDIA AND THE POLITICS OF JUSTICE Erica Lehrer, Cynthia E. Milton and Monica Eileen Patterson (editors) CURATING DIFFICULT KNOWLEDGE Violent Pasts in Public Places Motti Neiger, Oren Meyers and Eyal Zandberg (editors) ON MEDIA MEMORY Collective Memory in a New Media Age Anna Saunders and Debbie Pinfold (editors) REMEMBERING AND RETHINKING THE GDR Multiple Perspectives and Plural Authenticities V. Seidler REMEMBERING DIANA Cultural Memory and the Reinvention of Authority Evelyn B. Tribble and Nicholas Keene COGNITIVE ECOLOGIES AND THE HISTORY OF REMEMBERING Religion, Education and Memory in Early Modern England Forthcoming titles: Owain Jones and Joanne Garde-Hansen (editors) GEOGRAPHY AND MEMORY Exploring Identity, Place and Becoming Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–23851–0 (hardback) 978–0–230–23852–7 (paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Negotiating Memories of Protest in Western Europe The Case of Italy Andrea Hajek University of Warwick, UK © Andrea Hajek 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978–1–137–26377–3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-44275-1 ISBN 978-1-137-26378-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137263780 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. In memory of Franz and Francesco This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures viii Acknowledgements ix ListofAcronyms xi Introduction: Negotiating Memories of Protest 1 1 “Years of Lead”? Political Violence in Perspective 17 2 “Wonderful Years”? Myth, Nostalgia and Authority 35 3 The Trauma of 1977 54 4 Affective Labour: Between Mourning and Moral Duty 71 5 Seeking Consensus: Political Uses of the Past 97 6 Rebuilding Group Identities on the Far Left 124 7 Memory Sites: Negotiating Protest in Urban Space 148 Conclusion: Trapped in Private Spaces 172 Notes 177 Bibliography 197 Index 212 vii Figures 6.1 Graffiti depicting the riots in the Parisian banlieues,ina building occupied by Crash. Photo by Andrea Hajek 143 7.1 Proposed and realized memory sites in the historical centre of Bologna. 1 – Commemorative plaque in via Mascarella (1977); 2 – Proposed memory site in Piazza Verdi (1978 and 1981); 3 – Proposed memory site (1981–82); 4 – Proposed memory site (1988); 5 – Glass plate in via Mascarella (1990); 6 – Giardino Pier Francesco Lorusso (1993, see figure 7.2); 7 – University of Bologna; 8 – Piazza Maggiore (heart of the city centre) 150 7.2 Proposed and realized memory sites in and near the historical centre of Bologna. 1 – Commemorative plaque in via Mascarella (1977); 6 – Giardino Pier Francesco Lorusso (1993); 7 – University of Bologna. 151 7.3 The plaque commemorating Francesco Lorusso in via Mascarella, on 11 March 2008. Photo by Andrea Hajek 152 7.4 The glass plate in via Mascarella shortly after the death – during clashes with police – of Alexandros ‘Alexis’ Grigoropoulos in Athens, on 6 December 2008. The graffiti text reads: ‘Francesco and Alexis are alive!’ Photo by Andrea Hajek 157 7.5 The plaque commemorating Francesco Lorusso in the public garden – the Giardino Pierfrancesco Lorusso – dedicated to him in the 1990s. Photo by Andrea Hajek 162 7.6 The marble stone with poem by Roberto Roversi in the Giardino Pierfrancesco Lorusso, added in 1999. Photo by Andrea Hajek 164 7.7 Statue of Francesco Lorusso by Walter Benecchi (1977–1978). Photo by Andrea Hajek 169 7.8 Statue of Francesco Lorusso by Walter Benecchi (1977–1978). Photo by Andrea Hajek 170 viii Acknowledgements I have been reliant on many people in the gathering of material for my research on the events of 1977 in Bologna. I am indebted, first of all, to all my interviewees and mostly Mauro Collina, for provid- ing information and sharing their memories with me. I am grateful to Mauro Mattioli at the RAI Teche archive in Bologna, and the staff members of the Archivio Storico del Comune di Bologna, the Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, the Centro Documentazione Francesco Lorusso – Carlo Giuliani, the Emilia Romagna regional archive, the Istituto Gramsci and the Istituto Parri. Several people also provided advice or helped me find material, and the following were particularly helpful during the course of my archival research in Bologna: Isabella Cremonini (Topographical Office), Maria Laura Marescalchi (LANDIS), Cinzia Venturoli (CEDOST), Roberto Martorelli (City Council), Roberto Ravioli (Sala Borsa library) and Pier Paolo Zannoni (University of Bologna’s Historical Archive Centre). Many